March, 2005 I started with a new chapter in my musical career. I enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston for a master certificate in songwriting. Since there is a possibility to do the studies with Berkleemusic online, it’s a first rate chance for us Europeans learning at the No. 1 school for contemporary music without leaving ‘home sweet home’. I’m now in the 9th and final  semester and often it’s hard to combine all my regular work with all the new stuff. The studies are oriented towards daily practice and assignments and communication with my classmates and professors.
It isn’t done on the side. Sometimes I spend many hours a day with learning, practicing and writing. But it is an extraordinary experience to learn all the techniques of professional songwriting. This studies gave me the trust in writing and I’m sure to learn from the best.
 

Andrea Stolpe, Nashville, USA
Pat Pattison, Boston, USA
Shane Adams, Nashville, USA
Jimmy Kachulis, Boston, USA
Erik Hawkins, Los Angeles, USA
Daniel Karns, USA

Rainer Kotzian, Salzburg, Austria
Dominic Holmes, Durban, Sourh Africa
Eduardo Arturo Moya Jiménez, Mexico
Antoine Scicluna, Fgura, Malta
Mark Styles, New York, USA

https://www.ascap.com/contactASCAP.html
http://www.lyricist.com/
http://instrumentmusic.com/
http://members.aol.com/chordmaps
http://www.songwritersdirectory.com/
http://www.songwritersresourcenetwork.com/
http://www.drumgrooves.com/songwriters.htm
http://www.nashvillemuse.com/
http://www.craftofsongwriting.com/articles.htm
http://singer-songwriter.com/
http://www.songwriters.org/
http://www.tunesmith.net/
http://www.songramp.com/
http://www.copyright.gov/

advice for songwriters:
by Sara Hickman

it is better to write down whatever your brain shares with you and let it flow. you can go back later and edit. do not edit while you are flowing.

keep a journal. write letters to everyone you know, in your mind, on paper, on chalk on the sidewalk.

read everything. listen to all kinds of music. draw on napkins in restaurants and stuff the notes into your many pockets. find them later and make up stories, songs, or stuff them back into your pockets for later.

never feel you have to be better than or equal to or as good as. just be yourself. that is the beauty.

no one else can be who you are, feel what you feel, say what you say. even if you think it has been said, YOU haven't expressed it in your own way, and no one else can express "it" like you can, so don't be afraid to add your voice to the chorus.

glorify yourself in the fact that what you create is adding to the world, not subtracting.

what you are writing is wondrous. thank you for sharing yourself, even if only with yourself.