Chris Hartzog » Songwriting-Recording Articles

New CD – The Musing Mana Song Project

chartzog — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:20:45 +0000

Hi friends,

I reached a new milestone recently. I have produced my first ever CD! All of my work on the Musing Mana Song Project has been compiled onto CD format and is now available to order directly from my web site. Instant Downloads! Take It! Share It! Remix It!

Dedication:

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Secret Project

chartzog — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:38:56 +0000

I’m working on a new secret project. No one is supposed to know about this. I still have a heck of a lot of work to do anyway. Here’s a photo you’re not supposed to see that will give you a hint on what this project will be called. Extra hint: You can find [...]

Musing Mana 14a – The Movie – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2)

chartzog — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:56:35 +0000

In my infinite desire to play around with new technology I ended up creating a MPEG4 video - The Movie – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2) of Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2). So, now here you go. This has to be one of my shortest blog posts ever. BTW, happy Labor Day.

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Musing Mana 14 – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2)

chartzog — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:46:39 +0000

Here is a new edition of Vaccai meets Trip Hop. I am now up to the 14th release in my Musing Mana song project: Musing Mana 14 – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2)

This version has more of a tribal feel and some minor key overtones. I even had to haul out my [...]

Musing Mana 13 – Always There Remix

chartzog — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:29:41 +0000

On Mothers Day 2008 I released Musing Mana 5, Always There for my mom. It’s one of the first songs I wrote, and arguably fairly cheesy, but hey, it was “for mom” so she had to like it.

That version was, believe it or not, and I suspect that you probably will believe it, [...]

Music Preview

chartzog — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:39:58 +0000

I am working on recording a new song I wrote called “Saving Grace” that has a blues/rock feel with Gospel lyrics. Two demo versions of it are available for listening below. Let me know if the links don’t work for you.

They are not mastered so you will probably have to adjust the EQ [...]

Shady Song Sharks

chartzog — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:05:54 +0000

Some day I might put up a few of the song shark, “just send us $200″ and you might get published record offers I have received. If this stuff was as good as they make it sound I wouldn’t need to work any more or try to sell any songs because I [...]

Blues-Rock

chartzog — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:02:49 +0000

It appears to be time to devote more effort to my Musing Mana Song Project. Sometimes I feel like the guy in the circus that runs around trying to keep all of the plates spinning balanced on the pool cues. Anyway, I have a musical idea for a song that is in blues-rock genre [...]

One Year Already?

chartzog — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:43:44 +0000

Hi everyone and Aloha!

I can hardly believe it has been a whole year since I became an on-line Troubadour and launched www.chrishartzog.net and the Kilika Music songwriting project, Musing Mana. Happy Birthday!

I have learned a lot and done a lot these past twelve months, which some of you have followed along via [...]

Tips For Musicians: The Lance Armstrong Method – Ch. 4 Positive Attitude

chartzog — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:36:33 +0000

This episode is on Chapter 4 – Success Factor 1: Positive Attitude.

What have I been doing with all of my time?! It has been months since I posted last on our Lance Armstrong book study. I hope you haven’t given up either and have been reading along. In case [...]

Lance Armstrong Book Study

chartzog — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:33:07 +0000

Just a note to let you know that I have not totally forgotten about our Lance Armstrong book study….I just fell off my bike temporarily! Anyway, dust off your books because I am finishing up anohter chapter and should have a new post on it soon. I hope you have all been reading along. [...]

Still Take 2

chartzog — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:47:07 +0000

I spent a little more “quality time” together with my friend Logic Pro this weekend and worked on the mix for Still, Still, Still and I have a new bounce that I am happier with. I replaced the MP3 that I released under Musing Mana so anyone who subscribed to the RSS and/or via [...]

What Am I Listening To? Jesse Fuller.

chartzog — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:30:16 +0000

Jesse Fuller

For a very long time I had thought about listening to Jesse Fuller, but I never got around to it. In case you haven’t heard of Jesse Fuller, he is probably best known for his song, “San Francisco Bay Blues”. It has been covered a number of times, and Eric Clapton performed [...]

5 Songwriting Tips On How To Choose Your Opening Line

chartzog — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:51:53 +0000

John Braheny is sure a helpful guy. John is the author of the book, The Craft And Business Of Songwriting John is also a major force behind and contributor to the helpful site TAXI.

I have begun to think about this issue of the fact that first impressions count and wondering how to capture [...]

Memo to Me: The 5 Minute Songwriting Class

chartzog — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:47:09 +0000

I am republishing the following article courtesy of Taxi.com “The World’s Leading Independent A&R Agency” because I have been slacking off on my own songwriting focus in recent months and I need my own pseudo kick in the butt. So, to begin the kicking, I present this timely article by Michael Anderson.

The [...]

Tips For Musicians On The Lance Armstrong Method – Chapter 3

chartzog — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:56:08 +0000

This episode is on Chapter 3 – Success Factors in Action! I hope you have all been reading along. In case you missed the previous episode, we are reading from the book, “How Lance Does It” by Brad Kearns“.

Some highlights from this chapter:

World class athletes have intense, relentless FOCUS on nothing less [...]

Huit Tour de France Victoires?

chartzog — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:11:19 +0000

Here is proof that I chose the right topic and book, “How Lance Does It” by Brad Kearns for our virtual book club study series on how to supercharge your songwriting and musical goal pursuits:

Lance Armstrong announced this week that after competing in a 100 mile, lung-searing race through the Rocky Mountains, that [...]

Tips For Musicians On The Lance Armstrong Method – Chapter 2

chartzog — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:07:41 +0000

It is now time to move on to chapter 2.

This is the third installment in the read-along-with-me series on how Lance Armstrong’s philosophy might apply to songwriting and music. We are only on chapter two even though this is the 3rd installment because the first covered the introduction.

I hope you have [...]

Avoiding the Dead Zone

chartzog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:13:53 +0000

As I was talking about the other day, my current recording project is a departure from the acoustic realm into more of a pop genre with synth, electric instruments, drums and more of a rock feel….So somehow I managed to stumble upon Seth Godin’s post today about “The Dead Zone of Slick” and I [...]