tindle

Just given your start up blog a little boost..posted on Twitter.. ;-) regards, tindle..

I don't have time to go into all the advantages of using Twitter, so I'm going to be very brief. Chris Brogan is one of the most influential people on the internet, writing mostly, and, often, very profoundly, on internet marketing, with particular reference to marketing via social media websites and social networking. He writes on other things, but mostly, that's what he does. I'll come back to Chris in a moment. Now, you may not know what social media and social networking is, as such, but I'm pretty sure you do know about Myspace.com. Myspace.com is an enormously successful social media website, in that it presents Media, (audio, video, photography, art, blogs, etc), by placing them in an interactive environment, within a social framework. That is to say, individuals can use Myspace.com to present their creative work, in whatever form it takes, on their own homepage, their mini website, if you like, where it can be accessed, for entertainment and information, by others. The 'others' can be, simply, members of the public, or other Myspace.com users, 'Artists', let's say, who also have their Myspace.com homepage, where they present their work. This is where the social interaction comes in. Myspace.com is set up in such a way that users can listen, read or view the work of others, comment on what they see or hear, and form relationships, 'friendships' through the site, in much the same way as Songstuff.com allows us to do, right here. This is an extremely powerful way to 'sell' and publicise your brand, if you go about things in the right way. I reiterate, Myspace.com is a social media and social networking website...so now you know what social media is. Before the concept of social media was born, Artists like you and I placed our product and a little blurb about ourselves on a page on a website, somewhere on the internet, and passively waited for someone to come along and see it. Usually, that didn't happen much, because it all depended, more or less, on chance, and a little advertising or publicity, which most of us couldn't afford. When social networking came along, that changed, because we were able to interact with other people, through the likes of Myspace.com, and go out and seek our audience. When we found them, put them on our 'friend lists' and so on, formed relationships with them, and got on their lists, other people, their friends, could also discover us..it worked both ways..they helped us, we helped them, because our friends could discover our Artist friends, in the same way.. People like to know about people, and like to know about the folks whose music they like, like to feel closer to the Artist, and often, the Artists other fans, too..briefly, social media websites allow that to happen. Now. Chris Brogan again. Chris Brogan is nobody's fool, he knows his stuff, he's a very shrewd and clever guy, he does internet marketing stuff, and he's way more famous than you and I. Chris Brogan is on Twitter, (and he's on my friends list). I learn a tremendous amount from Mr. Brogan; I could ask him anything, (though I rarely do), knowing he'll try to help, but that's not my point. My point is that Chris Brogan, for all his knowledge, talent and reputation, thinks Twitter is worthwhile, if you have a brand to promote. Chris promotes his brand on Twitter, very successfully, and he is only one of very many quite famous people who do. Now, Twitter, like many, many things in life, only gives you back something worthwhile, when you put something worthwhile in. "Got up. Had breakfast. Got dressed. Went to work. Again." That statement doesn't cut it as something worthwhile! We all say that sort of thing, now and then, but just like Myspace.com, Twitter is about friends and conversation. Short, sweet and meaningfull conversation, in 140 characters. Between that conversation, in that conversation, you qietly promote your brand..and your personality, (just as important), a link to your blog, to your Myspace, your website, your new release, your pictures, whatever you like. When I drop a link into Twitter, all my online friends there read what I say, and some click the link, so my message gets across to them..that can, in my case, be up to 436 people, people I've made friends with, over a few months. Some of those people are quite influential in internet terms..they tell their friends, and so on..and my list will get bigger.. Now, there are dozens of social media websites.. Twitter, Plurk, Youtube, flickr, Hi5, Beebo, Friendfeed, loads of them... Twitter is a really useful way of referring folks to your content there.. Like: 'The new album is out... CD.baby.com/inzanecountry/fairytale ...let me know what you think? You could buy it for your Mom ;-)' Some people will smile and click that link.. You have to have an internet presence, these days. A myspace, a website, a blog..they are a minimum. Social media websites are a great way to promote yourself, your brand, your product. Twitter is only one of them. Like all of them, it's as good as you care to make it.. If Brogan thinks it has a value, has a point, trust me, it has..but you have to make it work for you. An example: tonight, I posted a picture on Twitpic, just for fun, and dropped a link in Twitter, I said: There's a Teddybear in my garden: http://twitpic.com/3gmb I wonder how many of you reading this post will click it now? I know how many clicks it got when I posted it, and I've made a note of the figure. In a couple of days, I'll check again and tell you, right here, how many more it got, after this post. Maybe that will tell us something.. Regards, tindle..

I've been using Twitter for some time, and I can highly reccomend it. However there are a couple of basic rules to get the best out of it, rules which apply pretty much to all social networking sites.. 1) Use an Avatar, not just the Twitter, (or whatever), default one. This might be a picture of you, your band, your album cover, your band logo, your instrument, your car/house, whatever. You can change your background picture and your avatar at will, so use them to advantage, and ring the changes, with an eye to marketing yourself, if that's what you want to do. The Avatar and homepage background image make you a person, not just a few lines of text. See, people like people..not personalityless bots.. 2) Sure, promote yourself, but not continually, or you'll just tick people off. Drop a link or two into your timeline, but not dozens, and not in every session..that's regarded as spam, just like e-mail spam, and it turns people off. ...make yourself generally interesting, talk about your music, but talk about other stuff too. If you are short of conversation, talk about other people's music. If you are interesting, folks want to know more about you, and then you can drop what you are really about, your all encompassing passion, into the mix. Social networks are just like real life places, so converse just like you might in the pub, and don't be a me, me, me, person..take an interest in others, build relationships..get a few friends and their friends will follow you too..but only if you are interesting, witty, or funny, or something.. 3) Reply to messages, and comments. Let people know you are listening and interested in them, and that you know how to behave well in company, because that is where you are, in company. Be good mannered and polite. Just like in the pub. 4) Join conversations, without butting in.. 'read your comment, John, I agree..' 'Don't mean to butt in, but..' that sort of thing.. There's more to it than that, but that there's a pointer or two.. What I do, is just be me..I don't think of it as promotion, just something else I do on the net to be social, and, just like in the pub, the conversation that ensues lets what else you do in your life come through.. So, yes, I'm on Twitter.. Twitter link: http://twitter.com/tindle (copy and paste it into your browser address bar) By all means, look me up and follow me.. tindle

Thanks for the note, Mike..you do get a lot of time wasters on forums, so I posted that note, carefully worded, so as not to cause offence, ('cos none intended); thing is, I'm an older guy, and I don't have time to waste, but, that said, I am prepared to spend time helping anyone who thinks they need it.. You did just what I hoped you would, and posted the note, which was very nice of you, so thank you again... so, reassurred, soon as I can, I'll make some more observations, ok? Take care, tindle

I'm suspending any further contributions from me to this thread..I may be being grossly unfair, and if so, I'll apologise and continue where I left off, but I have the uncomfortable feeling that the person who instigated the thread is not reading the responses. I have more important things to do than talk to myself. If he wants to know what I think about the rest of his questions, he'll need to tell me so.. Cheers, George

2. I stare at a blank piece of staff paper and I almost feel like screaming due to the fact that I cannot write the hundreds of musical ideas that flourish in my head. What do I do? Ok, back again.. Everyone is different, some folks can write to order, as it were, sit down and put a song together.. Some have to wait until the muse takes them, and when it does, grab a piece of paper and write. Some tinker with an instrument, 'doodle' a bit, and come up with something they find interesting to develop. We are all different. Some of us get an idea, once in a while, some 'a dozen a day'. Most of us have good periods and not so prolific periods. Whatever an individual's writing pattern, few of us ever get to bring to fruition every idea we ever came up with, and that's probably not such a bad thing, because most of them were probably not as brilliant as they seemed, at the time, anyway. So, don't worry if you can't get to 'record' (in whatever way), all of your ideas. The good one's often persist, won't go away until they are finished, quite often surfacing, in a modified form, at a later time. Some might well be good ideas, but fade away and never see the light of day, as a finished work. That's just how it is, sometime's, and you just have to accept the reality of every day human existence. That's a writers lot. If you, literally, have 'hundreds of ideas', then, in all probability, only a few will be any good, unless you are truly exceptional, and you will discard most of them, in any case, in due time. So don't let it worry you, because the few really good ideas you do have will suffice to get you started. Don't forget, you don't have to have a full elephant sandwich at every sitting, you can eat it, bit by bit, over time. So, these good ideas? You don't have to write things down, every time, to save the musical ideas..most writers write fragments of melodies and words, and piece them together into a whole, over time. Only rarely, if ever, will complete pieces come together, as a complete and coherent whole. Paul Mc.Cartney claims 'Yesterday' came to him in that way, but I doubt if that's literally true. So, you make notes. You write down what you can, and you record, in some tangible way, what you can't. I literally record ideas, by playing them in rough on my Guitar, or Keyboard, straight into my PC, and I save them on the hard disk, trying to make sure I capture the salient mood and melodic and harmonic structure, and then work on them, when I can. You could, alternatively, hum, sing, or play the tune into a tape recorder, hard disk recorder, whatever, and save it that way.. you have to make use of whatever resources you possess or can quickly aquire. Rome wasn't built in a day, a cliche, but so true, so, my advice is, accept your limitations, do what you have to do, for now, to get those ideas out of your head and into the world. Meanwhile, take the plethora of advice you see here, right here, on this website, and get started on your more formal musical education, so you can write some notes on a stave, and understand, later, what you meant, when you need to make the music come alive, out in the air.. George, or, er, tindle, or er, whatever..

Hey Lazz..thanks for thinking of me with that last.. I'm up to my neck with stuff at the moment, so I haven't quite got sorted on a few odds and ends, like that one..it's a good idea, though, and I will do it.. actually, I'll do it now!

Everything I write, in my music, in my blogs, even on Twitter, is a form of therapy for me, and/or, sometimes, for someone else. Sometime's it's heavy, sometimes it's not, but, it's pretty much all a form of therapy..

I don't disagree with anything that's been added to this thread, it's all pretty good stuff, and it ought to get you thinking, and, thinking a little for yourself, with the benefit of good advice, from wise and experienced people, is no bad thing at all. Reading the original post, I had the sense of someone quite confused, a little overwhelmed, by the scale of the perceived difficulties. My feeling is, when trying to overcome what looks like a daunting series of disadvantages, it's important to realise that though, maybe, you can't change reality all at once, there is always something you can do to get the ball rolling, which makes you feel better, and will probably teach you something about how to resolve your problem, as well as making a contribution to it's solution. Now, good as my intentions are, life has intervened, and I'm going to have to leave any further contribution I might make for a couple of days. It's ten past eleven at night, I've just got back from an unexpected late shift at work, and face a five thirty a.m. start tomorrow, followed by a gig tomorrow night..the best laid plans, and all that. I'll keep my committment to help, if slightly delayed, on Saturday evening. See you then. regards, George..

I promised to write a preply a day until I answer your questions.. starting with question one.. 1. When someone wants to write a song, how and from who/what do they learn theory, musical notation elements, musical writing elements, etc? If you have something to say, musically, you will want to get it out of your mind and into the world. You could wait, if you are patient enough, until you are accomplished in music theory, able to sight read and write musical notation, orchestrate and arrange music. You could then write it all down and produce a manuscript... but that would take quite some time, and a good deal of effort on your part. Laudable though all that might be, it simply isn't essential, and, in any case, you would probably find that your beautifully prepared manuscript would be all but worthless to your fellow or potential band members, because the reality is that most people playing in bands are not that proficient in musical theory or sight reading of notation. That isn't to say that you should not learn those skills over time, and apply them; Arguably, if want to be a music professional, those skills are very valuable in the right quarters, so worth learning. Most of us either make some sort of demonstration or 'demo' recording, using a simple tape recorder, or record to the hard disk of a PC. Since you appear on this forum, you clearly have a PC, or access to one, so, initially, that might be your best bet. Either play or sing or hum the melody of your composition into a microphone, and record the result, and produce a tape or CD to play back to other people or to use as a basis to develop your work. That gets you started as a 'writer'. For most popular music forms, the musical elements are not that complicated, so formal tuition in music theory, though helpful, is really rather over the top. I suggest you start writing, and don't worry, too much, about everything being formally correct. 'If it sounds good, it is good', is a good rule to follow..especially when you remember that popular musicians break the formal rules of composition regularly. All that said, who do you learn from? By listening to anyone whose music you like, talking to anyone you know who plays an instrument. Go to local gigs and talk to musicians, who are gnerally very friendly and helpful about the things you want to know..read the articles on this forum, look at other websites for information, go to your local library, read the relevant books..go to your local schools and ask to talk to the music teachers, ask at your local colleges what courses you might take. Look through the hundreds of instructional videos on the web, and the instructional websites for your chosen instruments.. There is no unique 'Bible for a musician/composer' you can purchase, that tells you everything you need to know. Being a musician is about getting stuck in and doing it, not sitting around waiting for a perfect education to drop into your lap. Being a writer/composer is about being creative, and getting the tunes and words out in the open air, so they can breathe. Don't wait for perfect conditions, they will never come. You need to pick the best out of the things you find, to help you. Since you are unique, no one can really tell you what the best books to buy are.. you need to do your own research, find the things you need. It's hard work, being a writer... If you really insist on a formal education, find out about full time College and University courses, raise the funds and go..but, I would say the real answer to your first question is simply, this.. the person you will learn the most from is... YOU. The thing you will learn the most from is... DOING IT George Bolam

If you have a lot to do and learn, your first important lesson is to accept that you will not do and learn it all at once. It takes time to achieve something worthwhile. Nobody became a great musician/composer overnight, not even the highly exceptional Mozart. So, don't try to eat the elephant at one sitting. Try to sort out, in your mind, what your priorities are, because the creative process is a very personal one, and is pretty much different for everyone; everyone brings something different to the process, including some things they already have. The trick is to progress as far as you can, with what you have right now, and add the rest as time goes by, because some of the skills and attributes you will need take time to develop to a point where they are useful, and can make a contribution to your effectiveness. Creativity is not a process you can 'force' like so much rhubarb... You have raised a lot of points with your questions, too many to handle all at once, for me, at any rate. So look in here, every day, and I'll try to cover each of your questions, one a day, until we're done.. Meanwhile, take a few minutes to consider what I've said so far. You are young, (nothing wrong with that), and if you are anything like I was, at your age, you'll be impatient, but impatience doesn't get many of us very far, when it comes to doing anything really worthwhile.. better to take time, and get it right.. more tomorrow.. Regards, George Bolam

Jackson Browne, John Prine..

Hi Folks, What do we know, collectively, about Statue Records? (California, someplace). They have offered me a distribution contract, and I'm debating whether to take it up. Of course, I'm aware that I'm probably just cannon fodder, along with all/any of the others they've recently approached, but the agreement seems, on the face of it, risk and cost free. I wondered if anyone else knew anything about these people, before I delve any deeper myself. Regards, George.