Orrin

Hey, does anyone here have perfect pitch? I'm working on trying to learn it myself. So far all the courses I've found online are pretty sucky, so I'm trying it out myself. I build a quick program which makes example exercises, for example, making me guess which is the higher note from two or three notes or playing three notes together and trying to pick the middle one. But I'm not sure if this is the best way to begin learning. Does anyone have any pointers? I think it'd be a great skill to improve my music writing.

Some friends of mine used kickstarter to raise $2,000 to get their new album mastered. I did an interview with them to work out what they did right and what others trying to do the same thing in the future could learn from it. http://modernmuso.com/funding-the-next-album-through-kickstarter/ If you guys have any feedback about the article (how helpful it was etc), I'd love to hear it

Yeah, I get massive up and downs with song writing. It's frustrating coming to a block when I know I was able to do it not too long ago. I usually just try and persist through it and "force it" so to say. Like, I'll just continue to pick up the guitar for half an hour a day, even if I get nothing out of it. I'll try write some lyrics and piece together a song, even if I don't like the end result. After a while, the groove comes back.

I know this is an old thread but I was putting some thought into this the last little while so I just wanted to add my 2-cents from that experience. I wanted to keep mine as short as possible. Something which will hopefully be interesting enough to get people to listen. I don't think people need to know all the details, in fact I think it's probably better to leave it a little "mysterious"... especially since a lot of my listeners will know me personally too. I've got a couple of interviews online now which spread more details, so if people are genuinely curious for more, they can find it out anyway. Here's the bio: "Bohemian Hobo Acoustic Folk Rock from the deepest darkest suburbs of Sydney." I actually kinda wrote it as a bit of a joke but then it got run in some publications so now I'm happy with it sticking.

"It's not the world that's heavy. it's just the things that you save. So I'm drifting, drifting away." Pearl Jam - Drifting.

"It's not the world that's heavy, just the things that you save. So I'm drifting, drifting away" From the song Drifting by Ed Vedder with Pearl Jam I moved to Europe for 8 months last year with nothing but a week's worth of clothes, my laptop and my guitar. It was amazing to feel so light and free.

I agree with you. My focus is definitely not on getting signed. I think there are enough resources out there to make the independent route seem very attractive. I'm going to be trying my best to support myself independently (although music won't be my only potential source of income) and if a label wants to get involved with me, they are going to have to offer me something attractive. I think the signed option presents the chance of exploding on to the international scene because of the increased marketing power but those are the long, long odds. The unsigned route is probably slower and requires more diligence but all of that work is cumulative and has the potential to pay off in the long run.

A really nice story. I disagree that it's like "winning the lotto". He didn't just buy a ticket and cross his fingers, he put in a tonne of consistent hard work. To me, hoping to get signed is the lotto ticket option. He worked constantly and learnt all sorts of lessons and probably adjusted and tweaked his strategy as he went along as he started discovering what was working and what wasn't. He's definitely a talented musician and he's put in the hard yards to make sure that he's not squandering his ability. I find his story very inspirational.

That's the next challenge, I guess. Definitely time to start exploring the marketing side of things. If I can't get people to listen to my single, it's probably going to be difficult to get them to listen to my album. So starting with a single will be a good way to learn what works and what doesn't.

John, thanks so much for the advice. That's a really solid line of thought. I definitely hadn't considered things that way. Also, I think that by recording the songs individually I'll learn much more about the recording, mastering and releasing process and be able to improve with each one. It'd be a pity to put together an album which is marred with recording issues and then poorly distributed. Knocking out a couple of singles first will help me get the experience to eventually put together a much more polished album. Man I have so much to learn when it comes to the marketing and distribution side of things. Definitely going to be a great experience to start exploring this!

I'm getting ready to have my first proper recording session in a little over a week. I'm recording with a friend of mine who has a lot of equipment and is relatively experienced with music recording, although he's no professional. I play guitar and sing and I'll be putting a little bit of piano and drums in there too. I've been writing music for a little over a year now and I've built up a decent collection of songs which I think are suitable enough to record. I've got about 16 songs. Now... the question is, should I just go straight for recording an album or should I start with something a little shorter, an EP?

The three best, or perhaps just most memorable, pieces of singing advice I've been given were: - Breath deeply into the stomach. - Hold your shoulders back. - Make eye contact with the audience (obviously this one applies to performing!) They really struck a chord with me because they are so remarkably simple and they can make a dramatic difference in your performance. When I'm on stage I just can't focus on a whole list of technical techniques... I'm busy thinking about my lyrics and my guitar playing and there are definitely some nerves in there. Those three points are dead simple and I can easily apply them while balancing the other things. I hope you find that useful. Keep it up man!

Ahhhhh all the bloody time! I can often riff something together on the spot, although that often breaks the pattern in my head which can just lead to further problems... I really, really hate it when I'm really into a song and feeling the emotion from it and all is flowing smoothly... then I forget the lyrics and *poof* all that feeling just vanishes and I feel like a blubbering foooool.

I really dig Thom Yorke from Radiohead and Ed Vedder from Pearl Jam. More than anything I love the strength of the emotions they sing with. I can't help but feel that singing is a genuine release for them and I really love that. I also gotta agree with that fine gentleman before me, Matt Belamy is a mind-blowing singer... How he manages to sing like that while playing the stuff he plays on guitar or piano is a mystery to me!