Tish Oney's Music Blog

Why should artists journal? What could there possibly be to write about? I have noticed over the past couple of months that I personally journal more than I initially realized I did before I gave it serious thought. To give you a description, I have one journal that I write in like a diary, recording things I am learning, quotations I wish to remember, events that are significant, a daily list of things for which I am thankful, thoughts, feelings, patterns I notice in my life, goals, and other miscellany. Another (separate) journal I maintain on a daily basis is a business log of all the work I complete during the course of a day. This helps me keep track of important contacts, dates of possible future concerts, progress on any projects I am in the middle of, work done at home or away from home, errands run, strategic planning, commissions, songs or articles written, and so forth. Being a self-employed, entrepreneurial, performing artist, composer, and author, this log helps me both as...

I have recently given myself permission to read for pleasure again. This has been a long time coming. I have been elbow-deep in so many creative projects, with even more pressing things on my to-do list related to home maintenance, family obligations, and mundane tasks, that I had begun to view books as "time luxuries" I could not afford. On the contrary, it has been reiterated to me by multiple trusted sources that if I am to remain intellectually sharp and artistically inspired, I must not neglect the important personal growth that devotion to reading great authors' works affords. That said, in the past thirty days I have gleaned inspiration from books by Twyla Tharp, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Diane Ackerman, Sarah Palin, Eugenia Price and Edith Wharton, among others. Turning toward women whose ideas and/or language mastery enrich my experience has proven to bring a sense of well-being and balance back into a formerly crowded and stressed existence. These women have aptly...