Have you ever been working on a medium or larger project (an album, a concert, a piece of theatre, a novel) where you didn’t have at least one moment where it felt incredibly difficult on some level?

I love a good gimmick. I really do. But the gimmick has to add to the artistic expression for that real amplification of effort to occur, right? I’m talking about gimmicks of all kinds.

Imagine me putting on my best Don LaFontaine movie trailer voice-over voice: In a world where music flows like cheap wine from every speaker connected to the internet, one artist rises above.

Wanna play a fun musicianship-building game real quick? Today’s fun listening experiment comes from golden lotus studio’s own Donovan Dorrance. Take it away, Donovan!

I want to invite you to a celebration. A birth of sorts. Siena Friend was in the first course we ever offered at goldenlotusstudio.com more than 2 years ago and she’s been an integral part of our community ever since.

If you’ve read a handful of our blog posts or attended a few gls classes, you’ve probably already heard me talk on the topic of “keeping the process weird.” But if you haven’t, I want to share one of my favorite quotes on the subject from one of my personal heroes:

Now is a time unlike any other in our lifetimes. The time is extreme and it’s hard and there is so much pain. And it is vibrating with potential.

“don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take.” – David Whyte

And then a little whisper would come into my ear reminding me how much I loved music and that I had a hunch that there was some kind of a higher purpose

Sometimes, we surprise ourselves. And if you’re in the Song Club, you know that I do most of the exercises along with the participants, and one of my own answers to