This one’s non-essential viewing; only for those who’re curious.
This being the first video post on The Halted Clock, I’ll give a brief oral history of the site and share my experience with writing songs and teaching songwriting. Future posts will be less conversational and more directly relevant to your songwriting, so I hope you’ll stick around for the next one.
Halted Clock Episode #001 from Nicholas Tozier on Vimeo.
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About Nicholas Tozier
Today’s video was brought to you by the reflexive utterances “um” and “ya know”.
I’m watching this video through the tinfoil in my teeth!
The reason my video are so jerky is that I edit all the ums and ahs out.
I don’t know if it’s the streaming or what but the audio on both your vids doesn’t sync up with the visuals…
I don’t have the means to do that kind of editing… guess it’s time to dig out my public speaking textbook.
Yeah, the a/v sync is weird on these videos. Hopefully I’ll be able to fix the problem for future vids. :/
There’s hard in “Kyrgyzstan” )
Great video.
Hey, thanks! Practicing my pronunciation over here.
KyrGyzstan. Got it. Thanks, Mona!
Yay, a vlog! So cute! You made me laugh out loud a few times. Looking forward to more videos! You’re gonna play us your summer song once you get it written, right?
Yes, I will! And until then I’ll be hiding under my desk. I’m too pale to blush.
Thanks, Linda.
haha umm…what type of camera are you using?
Some kind of webcam that likes to put my mouth and my voice out of alignment, as you can see. I think it’s a Microsoft LifeCam or something like that. I may have fixed it, though–I’ll test it out again soon.
i’ve been looking at loads on your site the last few weeks and i love it. looking forward to more, i have recommended you to several people already and on your pointer i’m awaiting delivery of pat pattison’s book “writing better lyrics.” Lots of great articles on your site. i have been in the songwriting game for years and have performed and taught it but i have been unable to give myself a dose of my own medicine pretty much for years now, just this n that here and there, hardly anything and so frustratingly so. So i have been looking for keys to unlock the block and you have got some sound advice here. thank you I am a new regular. btw i’m in London, innit?.
Hey, thanks so much for the recommendation//s! That makes my day.
Pattison’s /Writing Better Lyrics /will definitely not disappoint. The first few chapters especially are brilliant. It’s probably the most literate and thorough songwriting text out there.
I know where you’re coming from about tasting your own medicine. I ran into a similar problem about a year ago; I was teaching songwriting and blogging about songwriting and ultimately not writing many songs. I was really more of a scholar of songwriting than a songwriter at that point. So I know how you feel. I guess sometimes it’s a bit like exercising or eating more spinach–we all know we should, and we can all give that good advice, but how many of us actually make the salad and jump on the treadmill? Not many, here in America.
Anyway, it’s the same deal with songwriting.
I’ve never been to London but I will definitely have to see that city before I die. NYC is not far away and I haven’t even been /that /far! I’m a laggard.
Thanks so much for your comment. Please do write in again and let me know what you think of that Pattison book.