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Found 7 results

  1. Everyone usually knows their strengths, but how many recognize their limitations? How many people go anywhere without helping someone else other than themselves? I know my limitations because I have a lot of them. I am not so much a creative person as I am a good problem solver. This is because I was trained to solve problems in one way or another. Usually this was either formal university training or being mentored by a professional who knew what they were doing. I generally write in the first person about myself and my experiences because it is an easy way to explain things in an easy understandable manner. This is not complicated academic theory. Everything, every thing, I have ever had success with involved helping someone else to achieve what they wanted. This is very simple but very important. I was trained to be a lead guitarist by older musicians because I knew a little bit about it whereas they knew a lot. I deliberately looked for a working band upon leaving college. I never wanted to form another act like The Beatles. This is because I had a realistic goal. It was not becoming rich and famous but to travel, to have an adventure, and not work a day job. Music was ONE of the ways I achieved my goal. Being a backup player for someone else helped them and gave me a job at the same time. You probably have noticed the word “Adventure” occurs quite often in my writing. This is because all I ever wanted was to have a different lifestyle and I did achieve what I set out to do. I retired 5 years ago at 65 comfortably, not wealthy, but secure. I was happy doing what I did. I play guitar, keyboards, bass, and added drums only last year after taking Sheila E’s online course. I have known many technically better guitarists and can only barely play piano at a professional level. I sing only well enough to do one or two songs to give the lead vocalist a break during a show. However I can do one thing extremely well. I can pick up a Les Paul, then lay down a very simple, but powerful, lead guitar line revolving around the melody of a song which elicits a good response from an audience. This is what I was trained to do by older more experienced musicians. I can support a vocalist with concise playing, step forward to lay down a strong, simple, solo then step back again to support the vocalist. That’s it. I know my place. I achieved my goal by supporting someone else. I am not a good songwriter, that was never my goal. However I know how to make someone else’s song work really well. This is not because I am brilliantly creative but it is a skill I learned playing live with better musicians and being university trained in Record Production at UCLA. I know how to make an average song sound good and a good song sound great. I did not invent the wheel, this was something I was taught how to do. My primary skill in a studio is TALKING. That is correct, not playing but talking about what to do with the song. I have worked on many more studio songs than I have ever actually played on myself. This is because I was taught in the traditional manner of production recording at a university in 1992. What many people do now is different than the traditional method. The METHOD I was TAUGHT is acting as a cog in a wheel. This means listening to a song, then acting as an intermediary between the artist, the band, and the engineer. Sometimes the artist and the band were the same but usually not. My skill is to act as an arranger and musical director who knows how to tell an engineer what to do. I have never worked with a name act or someone with a big budget. I never cared. I was happy to let someone else have the glory. I just wanted to work and go home knowing I did a good job for what I was paid. There is a whole lot less pressure to produce some unknown’s debut than to having whomever the employer is expecting to have a hit record. I also hope my dedication to doing a good job helped at least one of these artists. Knowing your limitations works in your favor. Having a small success is better than having no success at all. Few people become music stars, but many people make money with music. Music was only one of the avenues I used to reach my goal although they all were in sync with my original goal as part of a system. Everything I have ever done is because I was trained to do it by someone else, learned from them, and then did it. This is a very simple concept. I added power to my package by being eager to help other people to succeed. I know my limitations and built upon my real strength. That strength is not Music. It is I am an eager learner and can see the bigger picture. Trying to achieve anything on your own, concentrating only on what you already know, being focused only on yourself, people usually go nowhere. Learning, then doing, then cooperating with others to achieve THEIR goal works really well.
  2. THE MUSIC BUSINESS Professional Music Is A Business. If you do not wish your Music to involve dealing with money then why would you ever choose this as a career move? Pablo Picasso was a great artist. He was also a great businessman. So was Salvador Dali. Business and art have lain side by side since the beginning of civilization. Michelangelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel because of a burning desire to be creative. This was a job. Ludwig von Beethoven wrote his 9th Symphony to poke his thumb in the eye of the Catholic Church because of their presumptuous arrogance irritating his patrons at the Austrian Court. This is the reason for the pagan imagery. He was a businessman. He had a publisher. I learned these things in a university Fine Arts Music History course. No matter how much you may dislike it everything you will ever be involved with will revolve around someone making money. If you are good at Music and want to pursue it other than as a hobby bite the bullet. At some point, if you have a successful business as an artist and a performer, you will most likely need: An attorney A booking agent A costumer A manager An office A publicist A publisher A record label A recording distributor A recording studio A road crew A security staff There are probably more but this is just off the top of my head. You should have gotten the point. You will not have to deal with all of them personally but they will be there. They will all have to be paid somehow whether it is directly by you or it is from your Music earning them money. They will not work simply because they like you. Form a business and open a business bank account to write off your expenses. I formed my LLC directly with the State of Maryland using their online form for a filing fee of $100. I average around $800 monthly in ordinary expenses which comes directly off my gross income as business related. Most of my activities can be written off as education, research, all of my musical instruments, their upkeep, and accessories along with software subscriptions, memberships, my web domains (5), my web hosting. The list is endless. I have $9,500.00 in business expenses to declare from last year which includes the studio in my home which formerly was only a bedroom. There is no more bed, only a desk, computer, amplifiers, keyboard, work table, and an accessories cabinet. I will have at least that much this year as I already have around $2,500.00 worth at the end of the first quarter. This includes no travel or lodging expenses as I have not left home. This is an international music forum with a 20 year history. If I wanted, this Blog could become a business activity and the time written off as a publicity expense. I could base the rate on previous tax returns and back the claim with a union scale chart. Thank you and good evening ladies and gentlemen! Encore
  3. Goals and Systems We will assume you have read Part One. If not, it would probably be a good idea to click on that link and do so. Now you have completed the first three steps. You have confirmed by other people’s reactions you really do have talent. You realize what you are going to give up in time, money, and aggravation. You know how you can possibly fit in. Now we are going to move along to Goals and Systems. Goals are important but it is the System you use which will get you there. The first part of setting your Goal is WHY? Why do this at all? You already know there are a lot of possible down sides. Is this a need, a want, or both? What made you choose this avenue? Is this a romantic fantasy? Do you want an audience? Is this a step toward a larger Goal? Is this a compulsion? Do you want the money, the attention, the satisfaction of doing it? I fell into doing this. My Goal was to get out of Dodge, have an adventure, and not work a day job. I hated where I grew up, I wanted more than a dull routine, and I didn’t like the idea of being told or expected to do something which profited someone else more than it profited me. Music was ONE of the ways I accomplished this Goal. It was not the only way. So for me it was only one step toward a larger Goal of becoming financially independent. This was an avenue. It was not the destination. I was a Musician who used that Skill to make money. I did this in order to become financially comfortable along with owning an event production company, a commercial web development company, and being a free lance graphic artist. This is creating multiple income streams. This is a System. This is why I was never interested in stardom. Fame was never my Goal and I never considered myself to be musically exceptional enough. I am good, I am NOT Jeff Beck. This is having Realistic Expectations.* I have been in a band which might have had a shot at fame if not for other circumstances, but even if it had it would still just have been a step toward my real Goal. I started playing music in Jr. High (Middle) School band. I got kicked out because of my inability to sight read. This is hilarious when put together with the fact I ended up as a Bandleader/Producer in a studio. (Irony never sleeps) This shows that for every rule there is an exception or an extenuating circumstance. I was able to do this because: I could read music, just not quickly or well. I was taught The Nashville Numbers System by older musicians. Popular Music is extremely simple. This meant I could read something, quickly memorize it, then play it back from memory. You could not do this with Classical Music. I moved on to playing Acoustic Guitar and then Electric Guitar in my bedroom. I fooled around and copied records as most do. I have never been good at chording a guitar BUT I was very good at playing single notes and had a naturally good ear for Melody. Melody is a very important concept as it is the one of the two bases of most songs which sell. A chord progression has little to do with it. A chord progression only supports the Melody. Most people attempting to write songs get this backwards because they write on an acoustic guitar not on a piano. They start with a chord pattern then try to put words (Lyrics) around it and then find a Melody. The BEST songwriters I have known start with a Melody or a Beat. A Beat is a rhythmic pulsation. There are many extremely successful one chord songs. Google it. Because I could play single notes well I concentrated upon this area and became a good Soloist and Lead Guitarist. Find out what you do best then target that area. I obviously can play chords and have to do so but that is not my strength. Build upon your strengths. You can shore up the wall later. This is a part of a System. In college I started playing in bands, none of which were very good. Although this was where I discovered I had talent. People liked to hear me play and were impressed. THEY thought I was good before I ever considered it anything other than having a good time. This was the encouragement needed to go further and deeper. I was actually in twin BFA programs in Theater, one in Writing, the other in Stagecraft. These led toward forming the event production company and what you are reading now. This company was another avenue toward my Goal. None of these things were the Goal in and of themselves. The Goal was being my own man and not working for the man. None of the bands I played with in college were serious. After leaving there I decided to find people who were serious and find a working band who would hire me. I became someone else’s follower and learned from them what to do. This is part of a System. One of the most important things they taught me was to be as simple as possible and not to overplay. Your friends may think this is cool but if you overplay at an audition for a professional band it will be the last time you will ever see them unless it is from the audience. Now, what is your Goal and what will be your System for doing it? I can tell you what I did and show you things you can do. I cannot tell you what you should do as only you can find your own path. ****** Know who you are talking to and where their perspective will be from. When your friends, your relatives, or your co-workers tell you how good you are, take as a complement. When people who are professionals start talking about your career it is time to listen. They have better things to do with their time than to talk to you for no reason. These people know what they are talking about and mean what they say. Part Three
  4. What do you want from life? I knew what I wanted from an early age. I wanted an adventure! The first time I ever ran away from home I was six years old. It wasn’t the last either but I finally made it through high school and left for college. I grew up in a cow patty of an oil field town in west Texas by the name of Sweetwater. It was a place where people got drunk on the weekend and got into fistfights for fun. It did not take me long to realize this was no way to live while I was watching Leave It To Beaver on TV and watching surf movies shot in LA at the movie theater. Ironically the name Sweetwater came from it originally being a land scam which most of west Texas was. People from the east coast were lured there by false advertising buying land they had never seen in the early 20th century. The water actually came from Bitter Creek which was alkaline in content which made the town’s next biggest industry two sheetrock plants. The third was a SAC base outside town, Avenger Field, which, during WWII, had been one of the delivery points for aircraft being in almost the exact middle of the country east to west. This meant many of the fistfights were between the airmen and the locals. This was a horrible place to raise children and even today is plagued by drug abuse, violent behavior, and alcoholism. But I digress… The majority of people wander through their lives like cattle (another Texas reference 😁). The biggest losers I have ever met were not those who died broke but those who had a dream they never followed. These people were unhappy, frustrated, and malcontent no matter how much wealth or status they did or didn’t accumulate. Their situation was worse than the drug addicts I have known which would be several, at least most of the druggies were happy. The saddest part is that this all happened because something else was always more important than what they actually wanted to do. Show me an unhappy person and I will show you an excuse. I am rambling again… If you want your life to be just like everyone else, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The corporations of the world should be indebted to you even if they aren’t and you are expendable. If you want to make a hobby of Music that is certainly preferable to being a gun enthusiast in my book. Kudos on that choice! If you want to have a career, it is going to require several things. The first is a realistic assessment of what you have to offer. I mean a really hard, cold look. Most people who believe they have talent don’t. If people say ”That’s nice” when you play rather than “Wow” that is a good indicator. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU CANNOT IMPROVE. So if you are in that situation polish what you are doing. If the reaction does not improve you probably didn’t either. After several cycles be happy with your hobby if your audience reaction does not get any better OR try a different audience. It might be THEM if you are playing for the same people. Someone else may fall in love with you. The second thing is evaluate what you are willing to give up because it will be a lot. It will be a lot of time, a lot of money, working with people you may wish you had never met, along with a lot of rejection and bitter disappointments on many different levels. If you are a delicate flower and envision working with everything you ever wanted in a friend or coworker this is not for you. Although there are some areas where you can work cloistered in solitude. It will just not be in a stage act. Sounds fun and exciting, huh? This is the definition of glamour, the illusion of beauty where there is none. This is a hard, hard way of life. It is too hard for the average person. It is great if you succeed but remember also that Success does not always mean stardom. There is a lot of money to be made in Music if the general public never knows who you are. Lots of Music people labor in ignominy but it is generally lower paying if you are not in one of the unions which also give you more benefits such as having a pension plan and residual payments for your work. It may also take a long, long time. I used to drink at the bar with and watch Stevie Ray Vaughn with Double Trouble playing at Shakey’s Pizza on Guadalupe in Austin. Talking with any of them was no more unusual than talking to the bar tender. Stevie had been recording for years and was becoming well known among musicians but he could not draw a crowd. This changed when someone who was more interested in musicianship and already had a crowd booked him, The Montreux Jazz Festival. He had been recording over a decade at this time and actually was booed at the festival. BUT after the show he met David Bowie. This was the fabled “lucky break” which almost NEVER happens. Stevie later got pissed and quit Bowie’s tour because he was only being paid union scale rather than a cut of the show although he was playing before thousands who would have never seen him if not for that tour. This put him in the public eye through being on the tour and playing on Let’s Dance which was an enormous hit. This broke down the wall. He came back to Texas famous. My wife Adrienne, who I did not know at this time, was friends with David Bowie from long before this and speaks very highly of him as a person as well as an artist. She thinks this was a temper tantrum over a perceived slight and unrealistic expectations. Current union tour scale is $275 per day of the tour plus $100 for a rehearsal, all expenses paid, plus $35 per diem on a playing day or $75 on an off day. This is $1,925 a week with every expense paid plus whatever the per diem is and for rehearsals. The third point is decide where you fit. What do you do best? It might be songwriting. There is a lot of money in it IF your song is a big seller by you or someone else. If not, you will most likely not see a dime. If you are in a publisher’s writing stable you do not get paid unless you sell a song. Zip, zero, nothing… Do you sing? Is that singing good enough to put before an audience? Anyone can sing, the question is how well? Plus you will be front and center, can you be entertaining? If you sing very well but are shy there is still good money to be made by joining SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists singing on records, commercials, and for films and TV. Do you play an instrument? Do you play it well? If so, do you have any sophistication and taste in the way you play music? If no, you are a potential Metal player. If yes, there are a world of options. If you want to make it strictly on your ability to play an instrument, if you are an American or a Canadian, pony up the $300 a year to join AFM, the American Federation of Musicians. It is loaded with benefits even if you never play a studio session. There are insurance programs for you, your family, and your instruments. There are loan programs, travel discounts, and many other perks. There is a NO PLAY list of abusers, crooks, and cheats. Many artist tours will not hire you unless you belong to AFM. If you are not serious enough to spend $300 on your career, you are a bad joke at this level unless you are the artist. Cut, take, end of commercial… As long as we are on the subject, session players get a bad rap, although I have never played with one who wasn’t a union pro so that could make a difference. The guy who owns the studio down the street is most likely using scabs not paying for union musicians. In the US or Canada unless you are paying everyone at least $144 an hour and twice that for the band leader plus 14.09% in benefits they are not union. If you are working doing music for a business and you are not union yourself if they bring in “session players” they will not be union either. What you will find with union musicians is they are as good as they are directed to be. If you have a meandering direction so will they. If you are weak and bland they will be following your lead. I have a friend in LA whose players are out of control. He is lost which means so are they. However these same people played for Curtis Mayfield, Luther Vandross, and George Benson as well as several others on hit albums. This is because there was a shot caller running the show. Someone has to drive the car, it will not drive itself. Famous Session Players If you want to be the artist, not a band, but THE artist. You had better be multi-talented. Most singer songwriters never go anywhere because they cannot hit all the bases. They play Writers Nights for donations and restaurants. This is usually is because they are not entertaining. Their songs are not good enough to keep peoples attention or they are not good enough as a performer or they do not understand the difference between a set and a show. Amateurs play a collection of songs which is called a set. Professionals play an order of songs which is called a show. Thus the term Show Business. Part Two
  5. Just what you want to be, you will be in the end This is a line from The Moody Blues song Nights In White Satin. The song has charted time and time again for the last 50 years by different artists. This is not about the band or the song. This is about the inherent truth contained in this line. You are what you believe yourself to be. If you believe yourself to be someone you will become that person. You cannot create talent but you can create opportunity. You can create dignity. You can create respect. None of these things will happen if you believe yourself to be the victim of your circumstances. All my life I have watched people fail because someone else controlled their destiny. I have seen some really talented people become beat down, screwed up, and broke because someone in the “system” they envisioned told them they could not do something or it won’t sell or some other reason. I have known people who have become drug addicts and alcoholics because of this. I have known people who committed suicide with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a .357 in the other. One of my closest friends did this, someone who watched our wedding gifts while my wife and I went on our honeymoon, someone who was married to my wife’s best friend. There Is No System. For everyone who tells you No there will be most likely someone who will tell you Yes. Willie Nelson wrote hit after hit after hit in 1960s Nashville recorded by other people. He could never get support for himself as an artist because the established hierarchy did not think he fit. He spent every dime of his royalties promoting his own small tours. In 1970 he left Nashville and moved to a ranch in Bandera outside Austin. As fate so had it he played a free political fundraiser for Democratic candidates in Zilker Park for a bunch of hippies from the University of Texas. He played those hits. They could not believe he had written the songs they had heard for most of their lives. Word spread like wildfire. Austin was an important place in their world. A bunch of hippies at a free gig catapulted Willie Nelson to being a successful, well known artist. This was the beginning of Outlaw Country music. Someone who had been shunned by the Nashville establishment became bigger than any star they had seen since Hank Williams. Never take No as an answer, go to someone else. Carry yourself with grace and dignity. Sooner or later you will find the respect you deserve. I am a person, I’m not a number, I am a person, not a digital excuse. I am a person, I’m not a number, I am a person with a name. I am the voice of reason, crying to be heard. Listen to me, listen to the wisdom of my words. No one else can tell you how to realize your dreams. No one else can tell you what the secret really means Lorraine King, Tim Hamill, & Dave Parsons
  6. Stephen Foster was a mediocre songwriter but he became the most famous of the 19th century. Why? According to first hand accounts he apparently shoved a copy of his sheet music into the hands of everyone he met. What he lacked in artistic finesse he counter balanced by being a marketing genius. Do you consider music as something beyond a hobby and would like to produce income from it? If so think about your business model. Have you invested time, money, and effort which did not involve Music as Art? Registered LLC or incorporated Business bank account Copyrighted registrations with the Library of Congress Agent Publicist Attorney Investors BMI or ASCAP membership American Federation of Musicians membership Distribution of recordings through Distrokid or CDBaby Professional website with links to online retailers What are you doing to make your dream a career? UPDATE: I seem to have created some confusion by using the term Publicist rather than PR (Personal Representation) Agent. A Publicist gets you promoted any way they can. They work for you as one of your team of representatives. This is different from a Publisher who distributes your songs for sale to other artists. A Publicist sells YOU as an artist. A Publisher sells your SONGS.
  7. Paulettea

    Success ?

    Busy..busy... A world that is spinning, Busy...busy..... We're not grinning our heads are spinning. People are stressing..need rest... Reaching for the top in your job, Hard slog not a jog, we need to be filled with zest. Busy..busy... A world that is spinning, Busy...busy..... We're not grinning our heads are spinning. Relationships skimpy like a bikini top, Holding on tight. The time will come, I tell myself, I'll sit in the sun...drinking gin and rum, Play with my kids; romance my wife, Do things with my friends; enjoy life. Busy..busy... A world that is spinning, Busy...busy..... We're not grinning our heads are spinning. The reality is on my way to the top, My wife got a life, The kid's thought I was a boarder, My friends forgot who I was. Busy..busy... A world that is spinning, Busy...busy..... We're not grinning our heads are spinning. I found myself lost, My life was in fact a bread crust... stale.... crumbling. Busy..busy... A world that is spinning, Busy...busy..... We're not grinning our heads are spinning.
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