A Familiar Storyline
It's been said that there are really only a few plots. Almost every story fits into one of about seven categories like "rags to riches",...
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Merrill Crissey
- Feb 4
- 4 min
Playing to Your Strengths and Finding Your Voice
As a young composer, I struggled to the point of nearly abandoning music writing altogether because of the fear that I had nothing to...
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Merrill Crissey
- Jan 23
- 3 min
What Does Artificial Intelligence Mean for Artists?
Last week someone sent me a site showcasing music developed by A.I. It was truly awful and the singing sounded like a drunk guy doing...
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Merrill Crissey
- Nov 24, 2022
- 2 min
"Öland" not "Orlando"
My latest single does not contain a typo. While I do live in Orlando, my upcoming short piano piece is not about the tourist destination...
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Merrill Crissey
- Oct 17, 2020
- 2 min
"Southern" by Johan Eckman & Per Gustavsson
Johan Eckman aka "Sleepy Songs" is a composer based out of Malmö, Sweden. As the moniker suggests, he specializes in relaxing and...
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Merrill Crissey
- Oct 16, 2020
- 1 min
"Consolation"
Consolation is a word we use after someone has experienced a loss. We can console one another with comforting words. We can console...
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Merrill Crissey
- Aug 11, 2020
- 2 min
5 Composition Tips You Can Use Now
1 - Don't try to sound like someone else. It's inevitable that everyone's music will resemble someone else's. We are all influenced by...
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Merrill Crissey
- Jun 18, 2020
- 4 min
Three Causes of Writer's Block and How to Beat Them
I've written before about overcoming writer's block. My favorite piece of advice on the subject is to "just keep writing." But what...
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Merrill Crissey
- May 26, 2020
- 3 min
A Composer's Quest for the Sublime
In my last post, I mentioned the author C.S. Lewis. In his autobiographical work Surprised by Joy he talks about an experience he had...
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Merrill Crissey
- May 6, 2020
- 3 min
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
When I was growing up there were a couple of movies that would air on TV about once every year. One was The Sound of Music and the other...
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Merrill Crissey
- Feb 11, 2020
- 4 min
Crafting the Perfect Song
There are nearly as many ways to compose as there are composers. Sometimes I write by just noodling around the piano until something...
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Merrill Crissey
- Jan 6, 2020
- 3 min
Japonica: the Liner Notes
I remember wading through a sea of people in Namba train station still dazed from the ridiculously long flight across the Pacific. I met...
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Merrill Crissey
- Dec 2, 2019
- 4 min
10 Things You Can Do in 2020 to Level Up as a Musician
With a new year coming up soon I figured I would get a head start on my resolutions. These are ideas that I have either benefited from...
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Merrill Crissey
- Nov 7, 2019
- 2 min
Arashiyama
One of the most popular tourist spots in Kyoto, Japan is Arashiyama. It means "storm mountain" in Japanese, but whenever I've gone there...
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Merrill Crissey
- Oct 21, 2019
- 1 min
Sunrise on a New World
If you've ever started a new venture, if you've ever moved to the big city, if you've ever begun a new life you'll understand how I felt....
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Merrill Crissey
- Sep 24, 2019
- 4 min
How Much Money Can You Make on Spotify?
I sometimes wonder if I will ever get to the point where I can do music full time? If I only ever made money on Spotify the answer is......
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Merrill Crissey
- Aug 21, 2019
- 3 min
One Weird Trick to Break Through Writer's Block
You've probably seen the hashtags or reddit threads where people post their "shower thoughts." Many of them are quite funny, but there...
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Merrill Crissey
- Aug 14, 2019
- 4 min
Try Classical Music Again (Now with 70% Less Mozart!)
When it comes to most-listened-to musical genres pop music is still king. But the music we now refer to as "classical" was actually sort...
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Merrill Crissey
- Aug 8, 2019
- 3 min
Will It Be Awesome?
Several years ago, I had a very humorous boss who used to always ask us the same few questions. This would come at times when you were...
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Merrill Crissey
- Aug 1, 2019
- 3 min
Japan and Music: Two of the Finest Things I've Ever found
In the fall of 2001, just a month after the attacks of 9/11, I boarded a plane bound for Osaka, Japan. It would be the first of many...
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