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THE EVERYDAY
SONGWRITER
How To Write 365 Songs This Year Using Evernote
Nate Fancher
Everyday Songwriter Copyright 2014 by Nate Fancher (NF Media)
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Introduction
Hey there Songwriter! This short book is intended to be a primer for
your creative, songwriting muscle. With this songwriting method youll
have the tool youve needed to finally become a prolific songwriter. This
specific method, I call it my Evernote Songwriting Method (or ESM for short),
helps me write hundreds of songs every year. If you get bitten by the
Evernote bug, youll be halfway there. The other part is just doing the work
of a songwriter every day. If these become realities for you, then you will
be a songwriting factory, cranking out more songs than you ever thought
possible - and not burning out along the way. Youll become fiercely
organized, never lose any of your precious ideas, and theyll effortlessly be
in one place.
But this is about more than being geekishly1 organized. It puts you on
the path to becoming a great songwriter. You may have several reasons
you want to write great songs. Perhaps you dream about hearing your
songs being sung by others. Or maybe you want to open your mailbox and
see those amazing royalty checks support you and your family.
But even if you just wanted to be a better songwriter for your own self
expression, the key is the same: Writing a lot. When it comes to creative
work, quantity begets quality. My unique method of using Evernote will

help you accomplish that. I think the Evernote guys would be happy to
know that their software is being used for more than simply record
keeping. With this method, it can actually help creative people be more
creative; thats what this little book is all about.
Before I go any further though, you need to know that this is not a
manual for how to get the most out of Evernote itself. In the few parts
where I get technical with the software, were barely skimming the surface
when it comes to what this amazing application can do. This is not meant
to be an exhaustive deep-dive in how to use every last feature in
Evernote (for that I highly recommend Evernote Essentials by Brett Kelly).
So what can you expect in The Everyday Songwriter? Ill discuss some
important principles in the creative process related to inspiration and
perspiration; and Ill give you the reasons I believe Evernote is the best tool
available for keeping your process stress-free and insanely organized.
In Chapter 1, youll hear my sad songwriting story and what I learned
from it. Youll also hear how I discovered the power of Evernote, after a
dreadfully long season of writers block, writing five songs in just one
morning. Since then Ive written over 100 songs - this year alone.
After that, in Chapter 2, well dive into how to setup the system in
Evernote so that you can begin using it before you even finish this book.
Next, well look at the important relationship between inspiration and
perspiration and how they dance together beautifully using this method.
In Chapters 4 through 6, Ill cover the details involved in my ESM .
Youll learn how to be a songwriter who can write songs in the normal
hustle and bustle of life. I call this songwriting on the fly (Chapter 4 - My
ESM Part 1). Well cover getting your songwriting sessions on the calendar
in Chapter 5 (My ESM Part 2), and in Chapter 6 (My ESM Part 3), well talk
about the third and final step of the method - how to get organized, plan
for future recordings, and even use Evernote as a CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) tool for connecting and networking with other
writers, publishers and artists.
Finally, in Chapter 7, Ill leave you with some final thoughts and next
steps for your songwriting pursuits. Sound exciting?
I first need to let you know how all this started. As we kick things off,
Im going to give you a peak into my sad songwriting life before I
discovered this powerful method. No worries though, it has a happy
ending!
Ready?
Nate Fancher
2014
CHAPTER ONE
My Story And What I Learned From It
Ill never forget the day I wrote my first song. I was 12 years old, sitting
at the piano, playing a very simple chord progression in the key of C. I
started taking piano lessons four years earlier, against my will of course,
but Im glad Mom forced me to keep going. Somewhere along the way I
started to enjoy it. And at this particular moment as a 12 year old, those
piano skills seemed more important than ever. It was a rough year as a
public-schooled church kid. Peer pressure was cranking up in my young
life, and there was only one way I could express what was going on
internally.
Songwriting.
To express myself in that way was an amazing moment. The feeling of
creating something out of nothing from a place of inspiration became
addictive. Ever since that day I have been a lover of the songwriting craft.
But there was a problem. I didnt have a songwriting system, process,
or plan. I just sat down to write when I was inspired to. I wrote all of my
songs this way until I was in my late 20s when a serious case of writers
block showed up. Up until that point I had written close to a hundred
songs, all songs that I considered pretty decent (I didnt count anything
that I considered to be of lesser quality and uninspiring). I would typically
not pursue finishing a song unless I thought it was going to be great.
But life got busier. I ended up getting married, had kids,
responsibilities began increasing, and time became harder to find. I ended
up only writing two or three new songs a year. Honestly? They werent
even that good.
I wouldnt have admitted it then, but inside I was questioning whether
or not I was a true songwriter. Inspiration wasnt hitting me the way it
used to when I had more free time and a fresh love for making music. The
truth is I lost my passion for it. The inspiration had dried up.
Looking back, I dont think the primary reason was writers block. I
believe it was more simple than that:
I didnt have a system for staying inspired.
That Friday Morning
So fast forward a few years (with very few songs). I remember when I
had my big aha moment. It was the most productive day in my life as a
songwriter, more productive than any other day Id ever had - even when I
was in the honeymoon season of writing songs.
It was a Friday and I had the whole morning to myself. I felt this urge
to try and do some writing. Little did I know I was about to discover a
whole new approach to songwriting (and creativity in general). But before I
share with you what happened, lets look at what lead up to that morning.
Just a few weeks earlier, I got my first smart phone and discovered an
app called Evernote. I started using it to be a digital dictation device, and
began capturing musical hooks that entered my mind. Before, ideas had
always popped in my head - when in the car, when taking a walk, when
working around the house. But when life got busy, I just stopped paying
attention. If only I had left room for inspiration, with a way to record it, I
might have been more inspired after all.
My first impression of Evernote wasnt one of amazement (when I first
got the app I only knew of the iOS version), but I still used it and began
capturing little snippets of melody and lyric ideas. I began feeling the hope
of possibly coming out of my dry songwriting spell. Im sure Steve Jobs
would be happy to know that the iPhone played a role for helping me
break through, but I think it was more to do with the ease of capturing
inspiration that was already there.
After I captured several sparks of inspiration over the course of a few
weeks with my new phone, I realized I should probably schedule a time to
actually sit down and work on my ideas. I planned to sit down on a Friday
morning, and little did I know what was about to happen.
With my phone, my guitar, my journal, and my computer - it was all
still a little disorganized - I had my first songwriting session in a very long
time. For whatever reason, I didnt know that Evernote was primarily a
desktop application until that morning. Once I discovered that, my session
completely changed. All of my little snippets, melody phrases, and lyrical
ideas were right there in front of me on my computer.
It was in that moment that I saw the value and power of Evernote:
Working on the same thing across different devices and everything
being stored in the cloud.
In that morning alone, just from a few ideas I had recorded days earlier,
I started and finished 5 songs!
What took place showed me that I had been approaching songwriting
the wrong way. I used to always beat myself up, working really hard to
schedule times for being creative. Inevitably, because I was dry of
inspiration, they would never happen. I had no source for my creativity.
No ideas to prime the pump. Before, when I would sit down to write, I
would try to do everything at once: Be inspired, look for a great hook, craft
and edit lyrics, etc. Sometimes it might work, but many times it would not.
As a result, as I have already said, I would only write two or three songs a
year.
Capturing And Crafting
I learned a very valuable lesson in all this. I needed to make a bigger
distinction between ideation and craftsmanship; between inspiration and
perspiration. When it came to being inspired, I just needed to allow space
for it happen and capture it along the way. The key was to leave quiet
space in my normal daily activities - to listen to my musical mind.
Certainly there were days that had fewer ideas than others, but, over time,
the habit of capturing every idea began to add up.
The crafting part came when I scheduled a time to work on the
moments of inspiration that had already happened. Separating ideation from
craftsmanship is what freed me up to start and finish those five songs. I
was able to dive right into inspirational moments without having to wait
for something to hit me. They had hit me days before!
This is almost painfully simple. Songwriters need to do two things in
their creative lives:
1. Capture inspiration whenever it shows up.
2. Plan a time to capitalize on that inspiration.
Its like the relationship between sails and wind. Wind blows where it
wants, but when it blows youd better have your sails up!
That Friday morning when I sat down to write I didnt have to work
anything up. The inspiration was already there waiting for me to craft it.
The sails were already up and the boat was sailing.
Why Evernote?
So why choose Evernote? Why not just a simple digital recorder?
First of all, I love digital recorders. I use one to record my podcasts.
They sound great and can be a wonderful investment for your creativity,
but would you actually carry a digital recorder with you everywhere you
went? Do you really need one more thing to stick in your pocket? Of course
not, the smartphone has taken the world by storm for this very reason.
Well then Nate, why cant I just use my voice memo app on my
smartphone?
The answer is simple:
Evernote stores all of your ideas in the cloud.
If you were to drop your iPhone in the ocean, or worse in the toilet,
your previous voice memos would be gone. Unless you backed them up,
you would have lost those ideas forever. But thats still not where the
power of this approach lies.
You Need An Organized Songwriting Funnel
The main reason you need Evernote is to supercharge your songwriting
process. Not only will you have a smooth transition from ideas to reality,
from ideation to craftsmanship, youll also have a robust organizational
system for tagging and archiving every song you write. When the time
comes to sit down and exercise the discipline to work on your ideas, youll
have the original spark of inspiration in the same file. Ideas, lyrics and even
other audio snippets can all be located in one easy-to-fine note within
Evernote.
Since using this method, Ive written 50 times the number of songs I
used to write! By capturing inspiration when it comes, and scheduling
writing sessions as Im able, I now have a stress-free songwriting system
that allows me to write more songs without ever experiencing writers
block.
This is something Ive written a lot about at my blog. Seeing other
songwriters take my method and use it in their own songwriting has been
amazing for me to observe. Just listen to a few of their testimonies from
their own songwriting processes:

I used to have an audio file recorder on my phone, for melody ideas, a songwriting
notebook next to my bed, some files on my PC, and a drawer full of napkin
scribbles. Now, with Nates Evernote Songwriting Method (ESM) I can keep
everything in one place, and keep it organized. Song ideas don't get lost in the
shuffle anymore, and songs that used to get forgotten are getting finished! This
method has been the single most important tool that I have found as a songwriter
because it has me writing more than ever!
-James Simmons (Singer/Songwriter)
Whether at a stop light, in a meeting, or making breakfast your Evernote

Songwriting Method has been SO great to keep the ball rolling on ideas that come
at any moment. Thanks for such a simple system - its been a great tool in the
developing of my songs!
-Jason Gangwish (Worship Leader/Songwriter)
Just wanted to let you know that your suggestion to use Evernote for songwriting
is the second best piece of advice I've received on songwriting. The first place piece
of advice is when my guitar teacher told me that all my half written songs are
useless and I needed to finish the songs! I have written 10 songs since I got
Evernote in May this year, and recorded over 60 more ideas.
-DeannaWrigley (Singer/Songwriter)
My favorite part is knowing that all of my song ideas are in one place. Mostly
because I don't have to think, "That line I wrote a month ago might work well in
this song, but I don't know where it is, because it's right there in Evernote!
-Kaitlin Geddis (Singer/Songwriter)
The internet has provided musicians so many tools to aid in the songwriting
process. But its still hard to know where to start. Nate has given us as songwriters
a practical blueprint for organizing and developing songs.The practical approach
ESM takes to songwriting has enabled us to continue to create music, while living
in different parts of the country. Its amazing that we can keep an organized
library of ideas, and track the progress of a song as it develops. We could not
collaborate the same without it.
-Zach Janicello (Songwriter and member of the band Great Awakening)
Your Turn
Isnt that awesome? Hearing these stories totally inspires me. It tells me
that people need systems to harness inspiration, get organized, and stay
disciplined.
So what Im offering you in this book is a simple step-by-step crash
course in how to use what I call my Evernote Songwriting Method (or ESM)
to build a songwriting funnel. Its a funnel because you will see your songs
moving through a sequential process from idea to complete. As a
result, you will write more songs, have an organized system, and in the
end youll be a better songwriter!
Dont forget: Quantity begets quality.
Before moving on to the next chapter you have a simple homework
assignment. If you havent already downloaded Evernote, go to
Evernote.com and get the free app. Make sure you also get the mobile app.
This is crucial for capturing moments of inspiration. In the next chapter

well get Evernote set up the correct way so that you can be writing songs
before you even finish this book!

CHAPTER TWO
Setting Up Your Songwriting Funnel
Have you heard this old Chinese proverb?
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
I love this. Its saying that action is the only way forward. Being a doer,
and not an over-thinker, is vital in your songwriting. Dont delay in getting
started. Go to Evernote.com, download the software and follow the
instructions laid out for you in this chapter. Doing this before you finish
the book gets you started and used to the software. Dont wait to get going.
In this chapter, were going to look at a step-by-step guide to setting
Evernote up for the method that I lay out in chapters 4 -6. You can use this
book as a reference throughout your process, but you need to begin
capturing ideas as soon as possible.
As I said in the introduction, Evernote is a powerful software
application that organizes everything in one place, however you would

like. I personally use Evernote for much more than just my songwriting. I
use it for record keeping, storing pictures and other media files, I forward
very important emails to it (which Ill cover later in this book), I clip web
pages from my browser, I record voice memos for important reminders, I
scan business cards, I collaborate in shared notebooks with others, and
much more. In the words of Evernote, it is my external brain for never
forgetting anything, ever again. Not only can you use this in your
songwriting, you can use this for peace-of-mind across the board. My desk
has never been cleaner. Paper work? Whats that?! Because of this awesome
application, I am more organized than many medical practices will ever be.
But back to songwriting.
In this chapter well talk about installing Evernote, creating your first
notebook, and creating the necessary tags for your songwriting funnel.
This is exciting!
Setting Up The Funnel
Installing Evernote is simple, just go to Evernote.com and sign up.
There youll setup your free account, and youll have the directions there to
install it on your computer.
I said in the introduction that this is not a how-to-use-Evernote book.
Keep in mind Im giving you a 30,000 foot view of the software. Using my
ESM doesnt require you to become an Evernote expert. So if youre not a
technical person, this is good news for you! But a little explanation of how
Evernote is structured will be helpful.
There are four main ways that Evernote keeps you organized:
Stacks
Notebooks
Notes
Tags
Stacks are collections of notebooks. Notebooks are collections of notes.
Notes are where all your files, sound clips, photos, memories, (pretty
much all the data) live. Notes are where you will capture ideas for your
songs, and work on them until theyre complete.

Tags are different than the others because they arent containers. Tags
are labels that you can attach to different notes across all of your different
notebooks (if you had several), making it easier for you to sift through
different things, or collect different notes under one category together. For
example, the first tag in the songwriting funnel is the tag SongIdea. If
you were to filter this tag in a search, you would only see the songs related
to this tag (more on this in chapter 5).
The mobile app is quite simple. For iPhone users, go to the app store
and simply search Evernote and install it for free. If youre an Android user
you can go to Google Play and install the app directly from there.
Once youve downloaded the software, the first step is to create your
notebook. Call it whatever you like. I call it Songwriters Notebook
because its the notebook strictly for my songwriting. Obviously in this
book well only be talking about that notebook. On the desktop version, by
clicking on Notebooks in the far left sidebar (the one that is the darkest
gray) youll see some options for quick navigation around Evernote. Click
and drag your Songwriters Notebook over to the Shortcuts section in
the top left sidebar for quick access to your notebook.
Next, we need to create your tags. On the desktop version, by going to
tags on the left side bar, you will see the option to create a new tag. From
there create the following 8 tags:
1. SongIdea
2. SongStarted
3. SongInProcess
4. SongInReview
5. SongCompleted
6. SongRecorded
7. Networking
8. Development
You can see why I call it a funnel. When working with the first 6 tags,
youll see your songs move in a progression from its inception all the way
to its recorded version (whether its a demo or a final recording on an
album). Ill be going over these tags in the last three chapters.
Next, youll need to create the following notes (Ill cover these notes in
detail in chapter 6):
1. Master Song List

2. Annual Songwriting Goals
HOW TO CREATE A NOTE:
There are a few different ways on the desktop version to create a new note.
Here are the two easiest. Although its pretty darn easy to figure out.
(1) Key commands are amazing and you should be in the practice of using
them if you arent already. The fastest way in Evernote to create a new note is to
use the key command. (Apple: command + n; Windows: ctrl + n)
(2) You could also look for the tab at the top of the app with a large plus sign
next to it. Make sure the notebook selected is your Songwriters Notebook. This
is where the new note will live. You will now have a blank note ready to be worked
in.
On your mobile app, youll see a few icons at the top of the screen which are all
shortcuts to create specific kinds of notes. Text, camera, photos, reminders, and
lists. Each of these technically create a new note for you.
Your funnel is setup! Now it just needs to be used. Before I go into the
details of the method itself, we need to talk about the relationship between
inspiration and perspiration, why its where most songwriters stall out,
and how this method can help keep the two balanced beautifully.
Understanding the principles that I lay out in the next chapter are
foundational for this ESM to really work correctly. Its time to talk about
the beautiful dance between inspiration and perspiration.

CHAPTER THREE
The Dance Of Inspiration And Perspiration
Inspiration is what gets you started. It is the fuel for your funnel, and it
needs to be distinct from perspiration. But inspiration doesnt just show up
whenever you want it to. Though I believe inspiration is everywhere, it is
still waiting to be discovered. This means you have to be paying attention. I
think that lifes many problems can be solved, by the way, from simply
paying attention.
As I shared in my story, I lost inspiration for two reasons. Firstly I
wasnt paying attention. Life began to get busy with more family
responsibilities and things on my to-do list. A full plate makes it
challenging to keep your creative antennas up.
But secondly, even if I had been paying attention, I didnt have a
sustainable way to capture the inspiration when it showed up.2 These two
things - paying attention to inspiration and capturing it - are what Ill
specifically look at in the next chapter (songwriting on the fly), but its
important to know that inspiration is easier to find than you might think.
Inspiration is paramount for any creative endeavor. It is what gets you
started, and, as I will argue in a second, it is what keeps you going. Many
songwriters and creative people stall out simply because the inspiration
starts to wane.
Perspiration is equally as important as inspiration. Though inspiration
gets you started, perspiration is what helps you follow through and cross
the finish line. Without it, you will only be left with unfinished ideas.
But there is this well-known tension between inspiration and
perspiration. You might remember the old Thomas Edison saying:
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Of course this is all about the importance of hard work and how ideas
on their own are cheap. As Ive said, without it you cant cross the finish
line. I do believe, however, that if misunderstood, it can be a very
unhelpful saying.
Before you write me off, I firmly believe that Thomas Edison was a
genius. It is not my aim to undermine a great American thinker and
inventor. But I only affirm the saying when were making the point he was
intending to make: To hold up the immovable ideal of hard work and
execution.
But heres the common hurdle for many creative people.
They have an amazing idea, and to be faithful to the wisdom of Edison,
they either work themselves into the ground (quite literally for some), or
just quit altogether. Many cant seem to consistently have the discipline
that is needed to see their ideas become realities.
Why is this? Artists know that to make something great, hard work is
necessary; but at the same time, hard work in and of itself, without any
idea of purpose, without any sense of calling, without any inner motivation
moving you forward, will simply lead to one place:
Burn out.
Mr. Perspiration Coach
One reason so many creative people give up is that they have perspired
in all their creative endeavors until they wore themselves too thin. Sadly,
they end up with no inspiration driving them and they lose their love for
what they were once so passionate about.
Allow me to introduce you to someone you may already know. Meet
Mr. Perspiration Songwriting Coach.
Hes the guy who says you have to commit to sit down every single day
and write songs for an hour - no days off. Perhaps youve heard him say
these very words:
If you want to see any fruit in your songwriting, just be more disciplined.
Youll get there someday.
When it comes to the subject of discipline (especially in religion), this

kind of thinking is everywhere: Just lay the thought of any pleasure aside and
simply make the sacrifice.
You need to stop listening to that line of thinking. You need to fire Mr.
Perspiration Songwriting Coach.
Everyone knows the best coaches are inspirational. They bring out the
best in the ones they coach. Of course they challenge. Of course they push.
But its all rooted in something. What is it rooted in?
Inspiration!
Or to use another word, purpose. Its the reward of discipline that
inspires the one going through the discipline. No pain, no what?
Gain.
Let the thoughts of whatever gain you see on the other side of your
perspiration become inspiring matches for your fire. You wont have a very
good fire without first having flame. Think of a car. It might sound silly,
but does a car run on 1% fuel and 99% everything else?
Heres my point if I havent been clear already:
You need both. You need 100% inspiration and 100% perspiration. Its
true that without hard work, your ideas will remain ideas. On the same
token, with little-to-no inspiration, your hard work will just drive you off a
cliff.
Thats not very inspiring.

I can hear someone saying, this is a little idealistic, Nate. How can
someone possibly be 100% inspired all the time?
Thats a good question. My answer might surprise you.
Youre not going to be inspired all the time.
But youre not going to be writing songs all the time either. Youre not
going to be sitting at a desk constantly crafting, hunkering down and
tweaking your songs, unless of course youre following Mr. Perspiration
Coach. Hopefully Ive already covered why thats a bad idea.
So what do you do then?
You learn how to get really good at capturing and storing moments of
inspiration whenever they come. If you can do this, youre all set. You can
then chill out, knowing that when its time to do the hard work, youll have
prerecorded moments of inspiration waiting on you. Youll have 100%
inspiration right in front of you every time you sit down to put execution
to your creative ideas. That, my friend, is what this Evernote method for
songwriting is all about.
What Im Not Saying
What Im not saying is that you shouldnt be disciplined. In fact, for this
to work, you have to get good at keeping a schedule (more on this in
Chapter 5 - Part 2 of my ESM).

What I am saying is that there is a lovely dance between inspiration and
perspiration. Both are equally important, but it all starts with inspiration.
Im trying to set you free from the pressure of Mr. Perspiration Coach. He
wants you to just pull yourself up by your boot straps, and make yourself
write every day. The ironic thing is that you wont have as many songs in
the end, because you wont keep writing by sheer discipline alone. If you
follow the ideas set forth in this book, you will have the ability to write
every day. But at that point youll be working from a place of consistent
motivation and an inspiring purpose.
We dont start there though.
You need to develop the good habit of capturing inspiration and
storing it. Once you do that without thinking, youll be able to leverage
discipline - with inspiration right there alongside you.
Author and blogger Jeff Goins said the following and its stuck with me
ever since I first heard it:
When it comes to writing, the wrong thing to do is obsess over coming up
with the perfect idea, like if something comes to you while youre in the shower, or
going for a jog and having to rush back to the keyboard to capture the idea.
I have a very laid back approach to how I write. I dont really believe in strokes
of genius. I believe that genius meets me every time I sit down to write, but
sometimes genius is really smart and sometimes hes just getting a passing grade;
and thats okay. Every day that I show up to write and words come out is a
successful day. They dont have to be the most eloquent they just have to be
written.3
What a novel thought! How many times have you been lying in bed in
the middle of the night when a musical idea hits you and you feel this
pressure to get up and go grunt it out? Its happened a lot with me, but
most of the time I would just lay there and fall back asleep. What was the
result? A lost song forever. An idea never to return.
The smart songwriter, in this case, would simply record themselves
humming or speaking into a recorder, and then go back to sleep. But the
problem still isnt solved. The song isnt written yet. You might sleep better
knowing that the idea is stored and secure, but its still just an idea.
People fall off the horse on either side - inspiration or perspiration. Like
me, inspiration people tend to have hundreds of little unfinished ideas
scattered between their journals and their notebooks; audio files on their
computer or their phone or an old digital recorder. They need perspiration.
They need the discipline to sit down and work with their ideas. I think
most beginning songwriters are in this category.
The other category perspiration is filled with people who tend to
work the same song to death for years, only to have a handful of songs to
show for it. They also tend to wrestle more with writers block. They show
up consistently to write, but they have a shortage of great ideas, and less
songs as a result.
The Dance
Have you ever seen an amazing dancer at a ballet? Think about the
amount of hard work and discipline they endure, all while practicing the
balance of performing with grace and ease. They seem to do it so
effortlessly.
Thats what we need. To make it over the long haul of our songwriting
lives, we need to learn the dance of inspiration and perspiration. We need
an equal amount of passion in both areas.
My Evernote Songwriting Method holds this tension in place by allowing
you to capture ideas on the fly (inspiration), and by giving you a one-stop-
shop for editing and working on the song (perspiration). These two things
work together as you begin working on prerecorded moments of
inspiration, so that youre not showing up cold to your moments of
perspiration.
Instead, you have ideas right in front of you from moments when you
were on fire. Have you had those moments? Moments of amazing
inspiration when you knew that you were called to this? Why not learn to
capture them and leverage them when its time to do the hard work?
Im sure that you can relate to these two categories. You probably know
immediately which one you fall into - whether the inspiration category or
the perspiration category. This is a common problem. I get a ton of emails
from songwriters who struggle with either one of these two issues, heres
what a few said.
Bryce wrestled with writers block: If there's one thing I struggle with in my
music making, it would have to be writer's block. Whenever I can't think of
something to write, it gets me frustrated, which of course doesn't help, and
eventually I'll just give up..."
And Kaitlin, before using my ESM, said,for me, the thing I struggle with is
finishing the song. When Isitto write a songI'll only come up with one line that
just ends up sitting there and never gets used."
And hip-hop artist Chris: If there's one thing I struggle with most, it's
probably forcing myself to sit down and write lyrics in the studio. I usually find
myself writing down lyrics randomly throughout the day, but when it comes to a
studio session, it always takes longer."
Jeremiah said, I wrestle with writing a second verse.I tend to get the basics
down (verse, chorus, bridge) but usually never go back to add another verse
(though I always intend to)."
As you can see, we all go through these two tensions. Thankfully this
method is designed to fix that. You now have a system where inspiration
and perspiration can dance beautifully together.
In the next chapter, were going to talk about the first step of my
Evernote Songwriting Method, which is capturing all your ideas, no matter

when they hit you, using the mobile version of Evernote.
Lets do it.
CHAPTER FOUR
My ESM Part 1 - Songwriting On The Fly
Inspiration is everywhere; you just have to capture it. With the
Evernote mobile app, you could technically capture every moment of
inspiration you come across. This is the wonderful convenience of the
mobile era we find ourselves in. Most people dont go biking with their
computer or their guitar, but they might have their smart phone on their
arm.
Its like having the ability to bottle up inspiration anywhere you go. But
to say it again, in order for this to happen you have to be paying attention.
Your musical mind must be allowed to roam freely without other noise
hindering it. View your commute to work as a songwriting session. Pay
attention to the musical or lyrical ideas that want to interrupt your
thoughts, and then be ready to capture them.
Its important to build up this songwriting on the fly muscle because
it will give you a growing archive of little song seedlings. Though we
hate to admit it, dry times are sure to come; when they do, youll need a
reservoir of inspiration to draw from. If you dont have that deep well your
dry season will quickly turn into writers block. And when writers block
comes, theres a negative feedback loop that begins to happen - a vicious
cycle of writers block that feeds on itself, lasting for weeks, months, and
possibly even years.
What Im going to share in this chapter is how to capture an idea in
Evernote. Ill define what I call inspiration triggers, and how Evernote
easily supports these triggers in a single note with audio, images and
text.
Effortless Capturing
Lets suppose youre driving to the grocery store to do a little shopping.
You intentionally keep your music (or whatever it is you regularly listen to
while driving) off, so that you leave yourself open to musical ideas.
Perhaps you begin singing to yourself, and you get a little melody.
Suddenly an idea pops into your head. As soon as it strikes you, you get
out your phone, pull up the Evernote app, and quickly and effortlessly
capture your idea in a new note. In the new note, you select the audio
recording feature, and then you sing (or hum) the idea into your phone as
it records.
You name it and tag it, and youre done. (with this part anyway)
After that, you simply go about your business, trying not to hit a car
while in the parking lot at the supermarket. There may be a hundred more
ideas that come to you throughout that same day. Inspiration and ideas are
everywhere, you just need to pay attention and capture them.
How about a camping trip? Lets say you go to one of the most
beautiful places in the country, Yosemite National Park. While camping in
the beautiful Yosemite Valley, from Tunnel View, youre overwhelmed
with inspiration in what lies before you. You may not have a melody or a
musical idea, but you begin to be so inspired that the only thing you can do
is take pictures (a very modern human tendency). So you begin to take
pictures with your phone and you upload these pictures into a new note.
While doing some hiking later in the day, all of a sudden youre struck
with a lyrical idea, something similar to John Mayers lyrics in the song
3x5 where he says,
Today, skies are painted colors of a cowboy clich and strange how clouds that
look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyway.4
After jotting down your idea - and even though Mayers song is all
about taking in the moment and not getting out your camera - you take
some more pictures and add them to the same note. Now you have the
seedling version of a potentially amazing song. Youve just bottled up a
little inspiration at Yosemite National Park.
Inspiration Triggers
Lets look a little deeper at capturing ideas in the Evernote mobile app.
If you havent set up your default notebook to be your Songwriters
Notebook youll want to do that. Every time you open up your mobile
device and add a quick note, it will automatically put it in the default
notebook. If it gets put into another notebook, no worries, you can always
change it afterwards. But if you set up your default notebook to be your
Songwriters Notebook, you wont have to think about it every time you
add a new note.
To make your default notebook your Songwriters Notebook, go to
system preferences in the menu, and under the general tab, select the
notebook you want from the drop down menu. On the mobile app, go to
your settings, select general, and look for notebooks. From there you
can select your default notebook.
In the Evernote mobile app near the top of the screen, youll see a few
options. If you have a melody (or anything you want to record audibly),
just select the icon that says text, then look for the little microphone icon
above the keyboard. It will begin recording automatically as soon as you
select it. You can also select the camera icon to take a picture, or upload
older shots from your phones photo library by selecting the icon that says
photos.
This part is important. Record anything and everything that is connected
to your initial idea. Think back to the Yosemite example where you take
pictures from a particular leg of your hiking trip, and you upload them to
the same note that had your lyric or melody idea. This way when youre
working on that song in the future, youll see these amazing memories that
you experienced. Photos can definitely help trigger descriptive lyrical
ideas. You could even try recording a voice memo of yourself sharing your
thoughts about that moment. You can do any or all of these things - all
within one note.
Once youre done capturing your inspiring moment or idea, you
simply name the note and tag it.
You can name it whatever you want, depending on what your idea is.
You might give it a potential song title, which is obviously helpful if your
idea is the main lyrical hook of the song. Or you could simply name it
according to the date and the time. Naming it is up to you, but tagging it is
the most important.
Tag it with the tag SongIdea. To add the tag, select the info button
(i icon) above the note field, and type in the tag name where it says add
tag. If its already there, Evernote will recognize it and you can just
confirm that you want it.
Your song isnt technically started yet. Remember, as important as it is,
its still just an idea. I dont technically count it as a new song until I sit
down to start working on it (more on this in the next chapter).
Boom. Now its ready to be opened up and used as kindling at a
scheduled writing time in the future.
Inspiration begets perspiration. You now have a variety of little
seedlings ready to be planted and nurtured into real songs! Youve done
the important first step in my Evernote Songwriting Method.
Now you can effortlessly move into the perspiration phase of

songwriting without losing a drop of inspiration. Step two of my ESM is
using Evernote in your scheduled songwriting sessions. Thats where were
headed next.
CHAPTER FIVE
My ESM Part 2 - The Writing Session
If you have an attic in your house youll know exactly what I mean
about the word clutter. Too often we throw stuff up in our attic just to get
it out of the way. Over the years things begin to build up, and then the
inevitable moment takes place when we have to look for something we
need; but we have to dig through a lot of junk first before we find it.
When you first start in anything creative your brain is like an attic that
has never been cleaned out. Clutter is piling up over the years within you,
and now its time to do the hard work. Its time to purge. In order to start
getting back to a place of peace and sanity, the attic needs to be cleared of
all the junk first. Once youve done that you begin to get somewhere. But
purging doesnt only happen once. You have to stay on top of it.
Clear The Clutter
So how does this tie in to my ESM? Evernote helps me stay organized
and uncluttered in my songwriting. It provides me with a regularly
occurring, stress-free songwriting session every week where Im not
frantically having to sort through a bunch of clutter in the attic of my brain
(if not a disheveled box of journals, CDs, thumb drives, and scraps of
paper). I have an efficiently organized funnel that my songs are constantly
moving through. I just sit down and quickly find exactly what I need in
that moment.
It also keeps me from staying on one song for too long. I simply try to
finish what I can, ignore whats going nowhere, and work on having more
songs in the finished category with the tag SongComplete.
Remember: quantity will bring quality. As soon as you have 10 songs,
write 10 more. This isnt something youre going to stop doing, right? You
got into this because youre passionate about writing songs. If your desire
is to be a prolific songwriter, the best is yet to come for you. The best songs
in you are yet to be written, but in order to get there you have to get
disciplined and clear the clutter. Clearing the clutter requires having
regularly scheduled songwriting sessions on your calendar.

Schedule It!
Scheduling time to work on songs within Evernote is what gets you
consistent in your songwriting. Without this step, youll only have ideas.
Ideas in themselves are not songs. If you didnt do this, your moments of
inspiration are all for not. Remember, theyre not technically songs yet. If
you stopped at the first step of my ESM, you may have a bigger library of
ideas than ever, but theyll only be ideas.
This is where perspiration kicks in and has to take place, but its not
perspiration without inspiration. Dont forget that! But heres the great
news:
The inspiration piece has already happened!
When you captured and recorded those initial ideas into Evernote, you
bottled inspiration. Now, as you sit down to get into the business of
hunkering down over lyric and melody, you wont have to start from
scratch. You wont even have to bring any ideas. Theyll be right there
waiting on you!
But heres the question. How often should you write? How many
songwriting sessions should be on your calendar? If youre feeling
overwhelmed in this area of making time to write, I have good news for
you. If youre not in the habit of writing regularly (writing regularly yet I
should say), you should start with only one scheduled appointment with
you and Evernote each week.
I cant help you with what time is best. Only you can determine that.
The one thing I would say is this: Whatever day and time you choose, stick
to it. Have you ever had someone consistently cancel a recurring
appointment on you before? I have. Its no fun. After a while you get the
feeling that they dont care all that much. It may sound weird to say it like
this, but treat yourself the way you would want others to treat you - dont
stand yourself up!
Ill actually touch more on this issue of time management after we dive
in to the specifics of my ESM part 2. Now lets get back to talking about
Evernote, and how it will look in your scheduled songwriting sessions.
The Evernote Writing Session
So heres the step-by-step process for having a great writing session in
Evernote.
On the desktop (or laptop)
Go to your shortcuts on the left-hand side bar (the dark gray side bar)
and select Songwriters Notebook. To the immediate right, youll see a
light gray column where all your notes are lined up. Above that you
should see a little icon that looks like a tag, click on that and you can now
filter all of your notes according to their tags.
Click on the tag SongIdea and youll see only the notes in your
notebook with that tag. Now youre narrowing down your focus on what
you want to work on. If its your first time sitting down with step 2 of my
ESM (and youve already been doing the songwriting on the fly part),
youre going to see every note under this tag because this is where the
funnel starts.
Choose the idea you want to work on. Once you choose your idea,
youll see the entire note in Evernotes powerful text editor. This isnt your
typical word processor. In addition to everything youd expect in a regular
text editor, youll also see all those inspiration triggers. Youll see your
melody ideas (and any other audio files), along with any pictures you
might have taken. Everything that is associated with that initial idea that
you put into this note will be in one place.
So now you simply get to work. Bust out your rhyme dictionary, or
your thesaurus (or whatever else you might use in your songwriting
process) and begin working your song down your songwriting funnel.
As you work, you can continue adding other files to the same note with
improving versions of your song as it develops. You can also re-record
your song at the end of your session each time, giving you the ability to
look back over time and see how your song is developing. You might even
have additional inspiration triggers in these sessions themselves, like web
clippings from research youve done online on a particular subject. Id say
anything that comes to your mind during this session should be recorded.
Even if you have a to-do list for the things that you want to accomplish
before your next session, you could create a list right within this note using
Evernotes checkbox feature. Dont forget, Evernote is like your external
brain. It can remember anything and everything for you, so whatever
comes to mind, record it!
Once youre done you should at least retag your song to SongStarted.
Theres no reason you shouldnt at least do that. Even if its just one more
line, you technically started writing the song. In addition to SongStarted
there are four other tags. If youve already setup your funnel, like I
suggested in chapter 2, you should have them already in Evernote. They
are SongInProcess, SongInReview, SongCompleted and
SongRecorded.
Lets take a second and talk more about each of those.
The Funnel Tags
A song in process is beyond started and is definitely in process.
Once you begin to feel like the song is close to being done, tag it with
SongInReview. A song in review doesnt have to be there for very

long. This is when you may want to just sit on a song for a while and get
feedback from others. Its so important to bring in other people to get input
on your songs, and so youre tagging these songs with in review.
Perhaps youre unsure about it, and all it needs are the ears of a few
respected listeners giving you some valuable input.
I remember a time when I thought a song was done and I ran it by
some songwriters I know. They challenged me to rethink the bridge, and
my song went from SongInReview back to SongInProcess. It stayed
there until I was confident that I had a better bridge. Once a good bridge
showed up, it was ready to be tagged SongCompleted.
A song completed is obviously a song that cant be improved. Its
done and youre confident with it! It just needs to be tagged as a completed
song. SongRecorded, obviously, is a finished song that is demoed or
recorded professionally. Youll likely have songs that have both tags
SongCompleted and SongRecorded.
(You can have multiple tags on a single note. However, in this particular
songwriting funnel process, Id encourage you to stick to one tag per note at a
time, with the exception of the completed and/or recorded versions.)
Now you have a song that is no longer an idea. Youre invested now.
Its the start of a new song that will soon be finished, so at least tag it with
the SongStarted tag, and just keep writing. Your ideas are all in one
place. Theyre not going anywhere. Thats the beautiful thing about
Evernote. By scheduling recurring songwriting sessions to craft your ideas,
youll be creating an awesome new habit, and youll see your songs really
pick up. Over time, each tag will show more songs moving down your
songwriting funnel.
The tablet (or mobile) way
You can do this with the mobile version too. Go to your notebook, find
the idea you want to work on, and work and edit right from your mobile
device. This can work great on an iPad.
I do have a word of caution though about using your smart phone in
step 2. Sitting down to work versus being out and about is an important
distinction to make. Dont forget, this is the perspiration phase. When
making art there are times to be out in big spaces. When youre in big
spaces you tend to think big, you tend to have great ideas, you tend to be
more open to inspiration, but there are also very important times to hunker
down and do the work in smaller spaces. Dont worry, Im not saying you
should be in a cold, cramped, corporate cubicle office with florescent lights.
Think about a warm and inviting space in your home, or a studio of some
kind. You need to be in a place to allow your brain to do the hard work of a
crafting songsmith. So being in a comfortable place where you can focus
with your instrument, your computer, and whatever other tools - like your
thesaurus or your rhyming dictionary - is probably going to be your best

bet. In this case, youll want to use the desktop version or your tablet.
The Web version of Evernote
The Web version, if you happen to be on a different computer, can
work in the same ways. You basically login at Evernote.com with your
email and your password and you can do everything from there, as well.
There are some limitations to this, however. Its not as powerful as the
application on your computer, but you can still get things done. This is less
likely to happen. Im sure most people in cases like this would just use
their phone, their tablet , or their laptop. I suggest that!
(Note: At the time of this writing it doesnt seem to be as easy to filter by tags
in the web app version.)

A Word On Discipline
I want to wrap up this chapter by coming back to the subject of your
schedule. I have a problem with the words time management. I find it
unhelpful. No matter who are, we all have the same amount of time. It just
comes down to how we budget our priorities. Maybe it should just be
called priority management instead.
At the end of the day, we all do the things that we find either the most
valuable, or the most pleasurable (for better or for worse). As I said in the
last chapter, we discipline ourselves for the reward on the other side. Its
not like we enjoy beating ourselves up right?
Whats a songwriting reward that comes to your mind? Is it writing
more and better songs? Is it building a career as a published songwriter? Is
it simply to have a richer experience of self expression? Songwriting has
many more benefits than just those three.
Why do you want to go through the discipline to grow as a songwriter?
No matter what your answer is, you need to make a commitment to
yourself. Without a commitment to develop and improve, you will not be
as effective in reaching the reward as you could be.
In his book Great by Choice, Jim Collins talks about a valuable principle
called The 20 Mile March. Its been pretty impactful for me in my own life.
Heres an excerpt from an interview where Jim Collins was speaking about
it.
The idea [of the 20 Mile March] is that you have a lower threshold and then
you have an upper limit. You must hit the targets you set for yourself no matter
what. You dont go too far on any day, month or quarter. When we looked at
Amendson, the fascinating part is that he had literally a 15-mile march target. He
was going to go 15 miles every day toward the South Pole. He built a system
around that.
On the good days he held back. He didnt go the distance he could have gone.
He just stopped in the early afternoon and rested. On the very difficult days he
made maybe five, six, seven miles, but nevertheless. He traveled on those days
where Scott and the other team would sit in their tents. Both of them had a very
interesting approach. Underlying that is what can only be described as fanatic
discipline. Amendson was extraordinary in his discipline, preparing his whole life
for this particular moment. That really stands out among the leaders that we have
studied.
A little work done on a consistent basis, regardless of conditions, does
far more in the end than one-off chunks of hard work here or there. In the
life of an artist you must be thinking marathon and not sprint. So
becoming an everyday songwriter simply means having an attainable goal
that you can reach with some kind of regularity. For some it may be
thinking of ideas on your commute every day. For others it might mean
taking 10 to 15 minutes, opening up your Evernote songwriters
notebook and keeping things in front of you each day. You might have the
flexibility and the inspiration to set a bigger daily goal, but make it realistic.
As I said, my suggestion is start with a weekly goal.
The heart of the 20 Mile March principle is simple: keep moving. Some
level of consistency, doing no more and no less, will seriously transform
your present circumstances. By doing the same thing over and over, youre
practicing your process, and getting better each step of the way.
Whatever your 20 Mile March is, its imperative that you put it on the
calendar. Like I said, youre scheduling a meeting with yourself. Dont
allow interruptions; make it just as if you were meeting with another
person.
If you utilize this tool and follow these steps, youll be well on your
way to establishing a songwriting funnel that actually produces songs.
Now its time to get a birds-eye view of what a system like this can mean
for planning your next recording, connecting with other songwriters, and
staying organized with your catalogue.
Its time to begin planning for your future as a songwriter.

CHAPTER SIX
My ESM Part 3 - Your Songwriting Future
Writing songs as an end in itself is fine for some people, but theres
nothing like the moment when you see other people engaging with a song
you wrote. Writing songs for your own self expression is fine, but Ive yet
to meet a songwriter who would complain if their song got noticed and
began to spread. Even if its just between a few people, music is meant to
be shared. Songs are meant to be sung. Singing together is a community
activity that goes back for thousands of years.
You need some kind of plan for getting in on this ancient reality. What
are you going to do with your songs? Maybe youre an artist and you want
to begin recording them and releasing them on albums or EPs. Maybe you
want to start pitching them for other artists to sing and record, or maybe
you simply want to put them on a short demo and give them to all of your
family members for Christmas. There isnt a right or wrong when it comes
to your songwriting purpose, but whatever it is, you will need a plan.
Thats what the 3rd and final step in my ESM is all about. Using
Evernote to pull out of the day-to-day process and get a bigger picture of
your songwriting is crucial for your momentum as a writer. Well be
looking at the things to do after youve been using the first two steps of this
method for a few weeks or so. This last step helps you track your progress,
think through things like album releases, stay on top of important
networking relationships, and continue your own development as a
songwriter and musician. Probably the most satisfying part of this step is
seeing visible proof of your prolificacy as a songwriter - right within
Evernote.
This step only works though when youve been doing steps 1 and 2 on
a consistent basis. You could have upwards of 20 songs in just a matter of
weeks, depending on how much youre writing. As you continue writing-
on-the-fly and showing up to your regularly scheduled songwriting
sessions, youll see the visible fruit of your labor. Whats the fruit? Songs!
Youll start to see a growing list of songs in process.
Looking back over this year alone, I have completed nearly 100 songs,
with many more ideas waiting to be finished. But since my time is
primarily given to coaching artists and songwriters, my own music has
taken a back burner. If I were to use it more, I would get more songs. Its
really that simple. The more you put in, the more youll get out. In other
words, you could end up with 365 songs each year if you put in the work!
By taking a little time outside of your writing sessions to look over all
the work youve done, youll begin seeing the big picture and thinking
more like a visionary.
Youre not just an artist or a songwriter - youre a visionary.
The final stage of my ESM (which is now your ESM by the way), is to
look at the other tags and notes you created in Chapter 2.
If you havent already, be sure to create the following notes and
additional tags to the ones youve already been using:
1. Master Song List (note)
2. Annual Songwriting Goals (note)
3. Networking (tag)
Master Song List
The Master Song List note is exactly what it sounds like. It is all about
giving you a growing list of titles to look through when youre planning
different projects. This is great if youre looking at recording a new album
for example.
By double clicking on this note in the desktop version of Evernote
(select the note from the list of notes to the right of the far left side bar), the
app will open up the note in a new window of its own. This makes it easy
to browse through Evernote while simultaneously working in your
Master Song List note. Now, go back to your main Evernote window and
filter your notes by the tag SongComplete. Go through and copy and
paste the titles vertically into your master song list (the note opened in the
other window).
If you want you could get more detailed with categories next to each
title (like the key of the song, tempo, etc). If you dont have a title yet for
your song thats okay, just pick something. You can always change it later.
Dont take any songs out of this list. Youll have every song youve ever
written here in this note. Once the list starts to get really long (which is an
awesome problem to have!) you could make new master lists according to
years or other categories. But start with a master song list and continue
adding songs from the SongCompleted tag.
Annual Songwriting Goals
Remember those nifty little checkboxes that I talked about in the last
chapter? Evernote allows you to create reminders and to-do lists as well. I
suggest you make your Annual Songwriting Goals note a bucket list
with a specific number of songs youre looking to write within the year, for
example. You could also have goals as far as connecting with other writers
or development milestones, or planning for songwriting retreats and
conferences, or specifics about how you want to grow as a songwriter this
year. Use this note and take time to really think through your songwriting
goals.
You could also create specific notes with to-do lists for particular
projects, like a new EP or upcoming album to be recorded, all drawing
from your Master Song List note. Setting goals is the only way to move
forward and get things accomplished. And your goals should be
S.M.A.R.T. goals by the way. If you havent heard of that, thats goals that
are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Evernote As A CRM
Lets look at this networking idea for a moment. One thing I love about
Evernote is that you can use it as a kind of CRM tool. CRM stands for
customer relationship management. Its the system you use to keep track of
your connections, customers, clients and relationships with people in
business. So for our purposes, this would be networking with other
songwriters, publishers and artists.
In Evernote you have your own unique Evernote email address that
allows you to forward email to your Evernote notebooks, making them
new notes in their own right. You can even choose the notebook, give it a
tag, and schedule a reminder, right from the subject line of your email. This
way when you open up Evernote, things are right where they should be.
Whatever is in the message youre forwarding will be in Evernote the exact
same way too (links, pictures, files, etc.).
To find your Evernote email address, go to your account information
and look for an email address that looks kind of like this:
username@m.evernote.com. (This is not a real address!)

On most devices youll find it by clicking on your username and then
account info. Dont forget to save this email address in your email
contacts.
If youre using Windows simply click on tools > account info
> and your email address will appear next to email notes to.
If youre on a Mac, click on your username and select account
info and your email address will appear below email notes to.
For iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, tap your username to access
your account settings (or look for settings at the top of the
screen), scroll down and select general > Evernote email
address.
For Android tap the Evernote menu, select settings and scroll
down until you see Evernote Email Address.
This is where the tag networking comes in. Each email you forward
to your Evernote address can be tagged within the subject line of your
email. By simply using the hashtag symbol before the name of your tag,
Evernote recognizes the tag, and labels it for you. Make sure you type this
at the end of the subject line of your email. Example: Email Subject
#networking.
You could even set a reminder for yourself from your email too. Lets
say you get contacted by a fellow songwriter about a co-write that you
scheduled for next week. You can forward the email to your Evernote
songwriters notebook with the tags #networking and #co-writing (tags
must already be created in Evernote for it to recognize it). At the end of
that tag you set the reminder by using an exclamation point and the date
when you want to be reminded. Just type the numeric year, month, and
day separated by slashes.
Example: !2014/12/25
One last note on email. If youre using another notebook as your
default notebook, make sure you designate songwriting related emails to
your Songwriters Notebook by adding the @ symbol just before
songwriters notebook. Example: @songwriters notebook
So heres an example of what everything looks like together.
Fwd To: username@m.evernote.com.

Subject: Subject @songwriters notebook #networking !2014/12/25
Now you have an easy way to create your own CRM right within
Evernote. Easily keep on top of your communication with other

songwriters, publishers, artists, or whoever else youd like to connect with
in the music business, all in one place. You could keep a detailed log of
information for each contact in a single note over time. Personally I find
that I stay more organized when Im not living out of my email inbox.
Evernote helps with this. Pretty awesome.

A Quick Recap
Lets do a quick recap of this last step of my Evernote Songwriting
Method. Its been a technical one!
1. Use your songwriting funnel to get a vision for completing songs,
planning projects, and connecting with other writers, publishers and
artists.
2. Create the following notes and tags:
Master Song List note (from notes with the tag SongCompleted)
Annual Songwriting Goals note (one that you review periodically with
S.M.A.R.T. goals)
Networking tag
3. Add your Evernote email address to your email contacts so you can
forward important emails to your songwriters notebook.
I realize this last step was a bit technical. But, believe it or not, we
barely covered the tip of the iceberg with how powerful Evernote is. I
couldve geeked out a whole lot more! But heres the big idea: You can use
Evernote to completely organize your songwriting enterprise, from your

creative funnel to your future planning, to even your CRM system. You can
do it all in one place! As we wrap up this book, our next and final chapter
is all about next steps. Where will you go from here? Lets fine out, shall
we?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Now What? (Next Steps)
You might be wondering about the last tag I had you create. Ive saved
the Development tag for the very end.
If you want your songs to have impact, you will need a value system
that always includes ongoing development as a songwriter. My ESM is
fantastic for keeping you from going stagnant, guarding you from writers
block, and keeping you peacefully organized. But without an ongoing
investment in your own development as a songwriter, youre not going to
get very far.
As Ive said, if all you do is use this to write a ton of songs for your own
enjoyment, thats perfectly fine. If thats you then you can still apply this
system to your songwriting, and become very prolific. But I have a hunch
that if youre reading this, you want to write songs that other people want
to listen to and sing. Songs that other people will enjoy when they drive in
their car, go for a run, or just need to clear their head from a long and
stressful day. By making the choice to put on your music and listen to it,
they are saying that only your song can give them what they need in that
moment. Songs like that are the songs that change the world. Those kind of
songs are the songs that have impact.
Though its true that quantity begets quality, thats only half of the
equation. You still need to give yourself to study the craft of songwriting.
You still need to get around other great writers. You still need to learn
from the hit-makers of our time. This means that adding ongoing education
to your own songwriting disciplines will require a lot of hours. But it will
be worth it!
In his great book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000
hour rule. His research concluded that it takes about that many hours of
practice to achieve mastery in any given area of work. The 10,000 hour rule
can be broken down to four hours a day, for seven years!
Dont let this statistic dishearten you. The main idea here is that
practice is what matters. The great news is that by doing step 2 of my ESM,
youll develop by the sheer fact of sitting down and disciplining yourself to
write. Whats great about this Evernote songwriting method is that you
have practice already built into it (step 2).
But the other side of all this - the ongoing development side - is just as
important. So take that Development tag, and use it in as many ways as
you can think of. When you come across helpful things on the subject of
songwriting, save it to Evernote and tag it under a growing collection of

resources that you can refer back to.
With that in mind, I want to wrap up this book with five next steps that
you can take with you as you go crush it with this ESM. It means so much
that you stuck with me up to this point. Some studies show that only 38%
of people actual finish books that they start.
Youre almost there.

5 Steps For What To Do Next
1. Learn where youre the most inspired.
Everyone is different when it comes to being inspired. Everyone is built
in different ways, and gets excited about different things. Learn where and
how you get the most inspired so that you have more great ideas to bottle
up for your funnel. As I said in an earlier example, try turning off the
music in your car instead of listening to other peoples music. Try going for
a long morning walk, just listening and waiting for a melody or lyrical idea
to hit you. Do you sing in the shower? If so, this is great because new
melodies often come from just singing! If you do get an idea in the shower,
hold onto it until you can dry off! Also try to schedule your writing
sessions at times when you are at peak performance in your day. When is
that for you?
2. Learn the art of writing and rewriting when you sit down for the
perspiration part in step two.
Keep tweaking and editing. Take your time, but be brutal. Cut out
verses. Add new ones. Write 10 extra verses in a song that will in the end
only have two or three verses. This way you have the very best verses you
can have in your song. The art of craftsmanship and editing is a vital part
in your songwriting process and development.
3. Dont over think your songwriting.
Although I say you should tweak and edit your song, working hard at
the craft, dont over think your songwriting. Push your song down the
funnel. Push the song down your assembly line in your process. Im not
saying go against your gut. This is a fine balance that you want to get right.
Dont try to finish it so quickly that youre uncomfortable with its process.
Youre in control of the speed at which the song is developing, but at the
same time dont over think it.
The reality is this: Done is better than perfect, because perfect is never
done. Songwriting and music is a very subjective thing so just ship your
songs. Dont hold on to your songs too tightly. There will always be more
songs to write, especially when using this system.
4. Give yourself to learning more about the craft of songwriting.
We didnt touch on the actual process and craft of songwriting itself .
When I say the songwriting craft, I simply mean understanding prosody,
song forms, syllabic rhythm, melody, lyrics, and the like. This book is all
about your system. Its all about the framework for keeping you organized
and disciplined in your songwriting process. You still need to write great
songs. You still need to learn the art of songwriting. So read all the books
you can on songwriting.
Check out this post at my blog called The 5 Best Books on
Songwriting (natefancher.com/best-books-on-songwriting). You should
start with Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison and Jack Perricones book
Melody in Songwriting; Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs. These are
two great places to start from the list of books provided in my blog post.
I also encourage you to get a mentor. When you get stuck (and it will
happen), youll need help. So get a coach. When this happens, head over to
http://theindependentmusician.com for more information on how you can
be in a new community of growing independent musicians and
songwriters. Thats my coaching site for folks like yourself. When you want
to level up in your songwriting head over there and let me know.
5. Send me your feedback.
Lastly, I want to hear from you. Please use this method and let me
know how it works for you. Shoot an email to hello@natefancher.com with
Everyday Songwriter in the subject line. Id love to hear your story.
Thank you so much for reading this book. As with any book you read,
transformation requires action taking. Dont just read, but do. Go and get at
it. Go and write a song.

1
Yes, I know this isnt a word. But lets be honest. Musicians who are organized are
definitely geeks.
2
I used to frantically call my wifes phone, telling her to hangup so that I could call her
back and leave a voicemail with my idea. That got old for her after a while!
3
Quoted from a video in Jeffs online course and community Tribe Writers.
4
John Mayer in his song 3x5 on his first album Room For Squares. Great record.

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How To Write 365 Songs This Year Using Evernote

Everyday Songwriter Copyright 2014 by Nate Fancher (NF Media)

Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or

Printed and produced in the United States of America.

Hey there Songwriter! This short book is intended to be a primer for

your creative, songwriting muscle. With this songwriting method youll

work, quantity begets quality. My unique method of using Evernote will

creative; thats what this little book is all about.

to be an exhaustive deep-dive in how to use every last feature in

Evernote (for that I highly recommend Evernote Essentials by Brett Kelly).

important principles in the creative process related to inspiration and

available for keeping your process stress-free and insanely organized.

In Chapter 1, youll hear my sad songwriting story and what I learned

Next, well look at the important relationship between inspiration and

In Chapters 4 through 6, Ill cover the details involved in my ESM .

for future recordings, and even use Evernote as a CRM (Customer

Relationship Management) tool for connecting and networking with other

writers, publishers and artists.

steps for your songwriting pursuits. Sound exciting?

Im going to give you a peak into my sad songwriting life before I

discovered this powerful method. No worries though, it has a happy

at the piano, playing a very simple chord progression in the key of C. I

public-schooled church kid. Peer pressure was cranking up in my young

To express myself in that way was an amazing moment. The feeling of

creating something out of nothing from a place of inspiration became

But there was a problem. I didnt have a songwriting system, process,

that I considered to be of lesser quality and uninspiring). I would typically

not pursue finishing a song unless I thought it was going to be great.

But life got busier. I ended up getting married, had kids,

responsibilities began increasing, and time became harder to find. I ended

even that good.

I wouldnt have admitted it then, but inside I was questioning whether

or not I was a true songwriter. Inspiration wasnt hitting me the way it

believe it was more simple than that:

I didnt have a system for staying inspired.

That Friday Morning

was in the honeymoon season of writing songs.

whole new approach to songwriting (and creativity in general). But before I

app called Evernote. I started using it to be a digital dictation device, and

might have been more inspired after all.

My first impression of Evernote wasnt one of amazement (when I first

of possibly coming out of my dry songwriting spell. Im sure Steve Jobs

inspiration that was already there.

After I captured several sparks of inspiration over the course of a few

weeks with my new phone, I realized I should probably schedule a time to

morning, and little did I know what was about to happen.

With my phone, my guitar, my journal, and my computer - it was all

still a little disorganized - I had my first songwriting session in a very long

desktop application until that morning. Once I discovered that, my session

completely changed. All of my little snippets, melody phrases, and lyrical

ideas were right there in front of me on my computer.

Working on the same thing across different devices and everything

being stored in the cloud.

I started and finished 5 songs!

What took place showed me that I had been approaching songwriting

schedule times for being creative. Inevitably, because I was dry of

inspiration, they would never happen. I had no source for my creativity.

Capturing And Crafting

I learned a very valuable lesson in all this. I needed to make a bigger

distinction between ideation and craftsmanship; between inspiration and

perspiration. When it came to being inspired, I just needed to allow space