Corey Stewart

“Shadows” was written after the breakup of a pretty messy relationship, a relationship which was characterized by me having to walk on eggshells for most of it. In the song I try to conceptualize the feelings of nervousness and anxiety I was going through at the time...

This song by Australian band The Church is a great example of what can happen when a bolt of “divine” inspiration comes your way...

The Songwriting Society Of Australia (SSA) is holding its Top 10 Songwriting Contest at the moment. From what I can see there are no genre categories to speak of so all songs submitted regardless of genre will be judged on its merits in one group...

A few days ago SCALA (Songwriters, Composers & Lyricists Association) launched its 16th Annual FOOM (Festival Of Original Music) Song Competition for 2009. This competition has been running every year since 1993...

Jeff Oxenford, in his songwriting blog recently wrote a post called “Songwriting: You’ve Got The Song, Now What?” in which he discusses some points to look out for when you’ve “finished” a song...

A couple of days ago I decided to take down the Songwriting Zen Forum. The reasons for closing it down are twofold: First of all, I didn’t have the time to devote to it anymore...

The last originals band I put together was a funk/groove outfit called Orangutang back in 2004 (hence the name of my business Orangutang Music)...

I know, I know. Some of you are thinking “…when is that Corey Stewart guy gonna put up more of his songs?” Well, I’ve been going through my songwriting archives and old demo recordings and I’ve found some songs to put up on Songwriting Zen. This is the first of many...

Songwriting association SCALA (Songwriters, Composers & Lyricists Association) have been running something called the “Join Us” songwriting sessions since March 2004 in which I’ve had the pleasure of hosting a few times...

If there ever was a movie that makes me want to pick up my guitar and play it to an inch of its life it would be “Once”. If there ever was a song that makes me want to do the same thing it would be “Falling Slowly”. I fell in love this song the first time I ever heard it...

Hi everybody, I just wanted to let you all know that the 29th Australian Songwriting Contest 2009 run by the Australian Songwriters Association (ASA) is in full swing. Entries for this songwriting competition (the longest running in Australia) close April 30th...

Well, it’s been a little over a year since I started Songwriting Zen (on February 29th, 2008) and I must say I’m very proud of my songwriting blog. It’s given me a forum to share with you my thoughts and feelings about the wonderful craft of writing songs...

I know it’s been a while but my new FREE eReport, the long awaited “11 More Ways To Eliminate (Song) Writers Block FOREVER!” is finally here for you to download and share with others. Talk about hot off the virtual press and ready to be devoured by songwriters everywhere...

I love songwriting articles, I love writing them and I love reading and learning from them. There’s so much free songwriting information around that you’d have a huge songwriting resource if you somehow bundled it all together...

Sometimes writing songs is a linear experience. You come across a possible song title that jumps out at you and after writing the first line of the first verse, a first draft is suddenly completed from start to finish. Sometimes writing songs is a puzzle solving exercise...

Last Tuesday I had all of my hair cut off after almost 3 years of having long hair. Before After...

Seeing that it’s Valentines Day today I wanted to share with you a song that I think should be the benchmark of all love songs...

I stumbled across this old video of Jools Holland interviewing Sting (circa early 80’s) today and it gives a brilliant insight into the way that Sting gathers, processes and demos his songwriting ideas before introducing it to the rest of the Police band members Even though the video primarily...

Now that FAWM (February Album Writing Month - 14 songs in 28 days) has officially started it’s really important to find ways to make time to develop your songwriting ideas into completed songs...

Here is the last article in the “Songwriting Tips” series by Ken Hill. I have found this series to be very, very useful in improving my songwriting process and for future blog post ideas...

“You can’t wait for inspiration...

Today I rediscovered the third installment of the series of songwriting tips by New Age composer Ken Hill called “Songwriting Tips Part 3 - Writers Block”. It proved a bit of a challenge to find as well as another article called “Songwriting Techniques” which I’ll post very soon...

Just wanted to let you know how things were going with the changing of my work/creative space. After getting my home office/music room set up the way I wanted, my next step is to reformat both my admin and audio computers...

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic new year. I’m excited about 2009 and I hope the new year is behaving itself for you so far. As mentioned last year in my post “My Plans For 2009″ I moved my external office back home again...

I wanted to give you a final thought before I sign off for the year about writing and writers block. It comes from a post on one of the songwriting blogs I subscribe to and read regularly called “The Shy Singer/Songwriter” by Canadian songwriter Vikki Flawith...

As promised yesterday, here are “19 More Songwriting Tips” by Ken Hill...

Type in “Songwriting Tips” into Google and you’re bound to come across a document called “21 Songwriting Tips” posted on various websites such as Music Biz Academy and Indie-Music.Com. I don’t know when the original article was published but it’s been around for a while...

Here is another wonderful article from Orlando of www.songwriteradvisor.com fame called “Great Songwriting Resources Are Yours For the Taking.” It’s about how you can best use the free songwriting information found online to create your own comprehensive songwriting resource...

I’m using the month of December to review what I’ve done in 2008 and start planning for 2009. I do this every year and I always get a little excited at this time because I love the thought of starting a new year with a clear slate...

One of the main things I achieved in 2008 was co-ordinating the Sing Out Songwriting Project. It was a monumental task and one which nearly drove me over the edge...