On Songwriting Community

Songwriting — like fishing, painting, riding a horse or falling down a flight of stairs — is primarily a solo experience.

Sure, people can and do get together all the time to fish or write songs or talk philosophy.

And it’s rare to see a plein air painter standing in a field with a canvas panel and portable easel, struggling to capture the fleeting light before it changes, without sighting another one or two kindred souls wrestling with the same challenge somewhere in the tall grass nearby.

But even when others are all around, the craft itself is primarily a solo deal. For songwriters and painters and all manner of artistic people, the essence of the art is fundamentally connected to the creative impulse, understanding and ability of the individual.

So it’s really nice when an opportunity comes along to talk about the wonder and the nuance and the craziness of it all with another human being who actually has some idea of what you’re talking about.

The common thread of a common interest thus forms the basis for building connections and friendships, AKA “community.”

To that end, the technology world has spawned all manner of user groups. In neighborhoods, book clubs and dinner parties abound and, in cyberspace, there are online communities forming around just about any topic you can think of.

So I recently set up a community site as a companion to the On Songwriting blog to provide a social networking space for folks who want to join the conversation, share insights, exchange ideas and get to know others who share a common interest in writing, recording and/or performing original music.

The site is built on the Ning social media platform which, according to Ning, gives “everyone the freedom to create their own social network for anything.”

The URL for the On Songwriting community website is http://onsongwriting.ning.com/

Check it out — and please join the community if you’re so inclined.

The world clearly doesn’t need another My Space-Facebook-LinkedIn-Plaxo clone, but this site has the modest potential to simply revolve around a single topic and connect individuals who share songwriting as an interest (or obsession… or passtime… or reason for exisiting… or just plain fun… )

What happens next? I have no idea… and that’s the beauty of the whole concept: the community decides!

Bookmark or subscribe: onsongwriting.ning.com

See you there!

Tagged as: singer/songwriter, songwriting ideas, songwriting tips