{"id":1980,"date":"2016-03-25T23:16:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T23:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/music\/long-beach-songstress-wants-to-help-you-burn-your-creative-blocks\/"},"modified":"2016-03-25T23:16:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T23:16:04","slug":"long-beach-songstress-wants-to-help-you-burn-your-creative-blocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/music\/long-beach-songstress-wants-to-help-you-burn-your-creative-blocks","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Songstress Wants to Help You Burn Your Creative Blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-47537\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/R_Y_I_S.jpg\" alt=\"R Y I S\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo by Lindsey Ingram. Courtesy of Taylor Crawford.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Taylor Crawford was just 14 when she wrote her first song. Called\u00a0\u201cCaptivated,\u201d the Texas native admits today it was a cheesy song about feeling smitten by a boy, but it lit a fire under her. That summer, she wrote 10 more original tunes. At 18, with dozens more songs in tow, she packed up her bags and moved to California to pursue a career in music.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Today, Crawford is considered one of the most treasured singer-songwriters in Long Beach. A full-time musician, she launched a successful Kickstarter in 2014 and released an EP titled\u00a0<i>California<\/i>, in collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Mack Damon. New releases are due out soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the indie-folk songstress is undertaking a new project near and dear to her heart: beginning\u00a0Sunday, April 3, she is opening up her home in Alamitos Beach to host a series of intimate songwriting workshops for individuals of all levels. It will take place every other\u00a0Sunday\u00a0from\u00a0noon to 2:00PM until\u00a0May 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love what I do, and sharing it with others only breeds more passion,\u201d Crawford explained.\u00a0\u201cThe intention of hosting this workshop is not to prove my worthiness to others but only to share the tools and things I have learned that have kept me going and excited about creating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Le5SOxKvel4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" style=\"outline: 0; border: 0;\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>As a devout songwriter over the last eight years, Crawford is no stranger to the often crushing feeling of writer\u2019s block.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA writing block, to me, is really just incessant\u00a0overthinking,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201c\u2026My writing blocks are about surrendering and accepting where I\u2019m at. If you beat yourself up for not having any ideas, well, self-loathing is even more unproductive. I try to use that time I\u2019m feeling uninspired to turn over the soil in my brain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To benefit her personal songwriting process over the years, she has devised a series of exercises and methods to overcome the inevitable periods of writer\u2019s block. With the understanding that there are no rules to songwriting, she will share her personal experiences and lead the class in analyzing various types of songs and approaches to inspire new ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want to hold the space for others to dig deep and explore,\u201d\u00a0she said. &#8220;I understand how music serves me and have continued on this endless journey of my songs becoming of service to others as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of us are put into the \u2018I\u2019m not creative\u2019 box,\u201d she continued. \u201cI want this workshop to help people burn that box, or maybe make some obnoxious origami with it.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>For those interested in attending Taylor Crawford\u2019s workshop, contact her at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:taylorcrawfordmusic@gmail.com\">taylorcrawfordmusic@gmail.com<\/a>.\u00a0Space is limited, and suggested donation is $20 per session. For\u00a0more information on Crawford and her music,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/taylorcrawfordmusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>visit her on Facebook<\/i> <\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor Crawford was just 14 when she wrote her first song. Called\u00a0\u201cCaptivated,\u201d the Texas native admits today it was a cheesy song about feeling smitten by a boy, but it lit a fire under her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":67351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[938],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-on-the-beat","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}