Here are my music resolutions for the coming year. 1. Play/sing every day. Even if it’s just a little, even if I’m otherwise busy. Playing and singing makes me happy, even if I don’t think it will. 2. Cover my friends – learn to play more songs by others; it’s good inspiration, and it’s fun – I need to play music not just for music career reasons, but to remember why I love it. And it’s good to introduce people to music they might not have heard but should have. 3. Write a song every month. Woody Guthrie’s resolutions in 1942 included writing a song every day. If he can try for that, I can try for one a month. It’s okay to write songs that aren’t brilliant; it might even be a necessary part of the process. 4. Participate in February Album Writing Month. Since I first heard of it, my Februaries have been unusually committed, but that’s not true this year, and I want to give it a shot. Even if many of the songs aren’t keepers, it’ll get me writing regularly. 5. Do something for music biz every day. It can be as simple as a blog post, or updating my website, but I need to get back in the habit of having music business be, well, habitual. I should, relatedly, do better at getting video taken and presented, and improve my website. All those would count in my “do something every day” plan. 6. Focus on publicity. One of the things I got from NERFA this year, when I couldn’t sing, is the how-tos, and importance, of publicity. This is the hardest thing for me to do – I’m not a natural salesperson, especially when the person I’m selling is me. But I need to just suck it up and do publicity for my shows – really turn people out. 7. Make the music room into a haven. I’ve started (and an Ikea delivery on Monday will hopefully take me much of the rest of the way there). Now that I don’t live alone, I need to have a place that’s mine for doing music stuff, and making that basement room into a place that is comfortable enough – and set up in the right way – to do that is an important step. 8. Blog regularly. I’d like to get on a schedule – posting at least twice a week. 9. Do stuff right away -- thank yous, inquiries, recording info/stats after shows. It’s easy at the beginning and gets harder later. 10. Prioritize music. Set aside music time (especially writing time) on a regular basis. Put it in my schedule and don’t cancel it for other meetings at school. Take on less academic stuff and don’t write a book this summer. I work too hard in my day job and I need to stop doing that (and also work more efficiently there, so that time I waste can be re-allocated to music.) Most importantly, though, recognize that everything is better when music, and songwriting, is a core part of my life.