Glenn Allen

Definitely, look at Jamereo Artis' bass line on Bruno Mars' Locked Out of Heaven. Lot's of hammer-ons and very tasteful groove that serves the song perfectly. Kind of reminds me of something Sting would have done during the Police era.

Since some of us have to lay down all the parts for our own songs, I thought I'd share my latest video lesson. hope this helps some of you guitarist-turned bassists. Quite a few of my students are over 50, and their hands have taken some abuse over the years or just aren’t as nimble as they were when they were younger. Some of them aspire to play some dexterity-driven pieces, like Chet Atkin’s “Mister Sandman” and “Maybelle” or even some simpler finger style pieces like The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and “Blackbird.” These songs have a lot of quick chord changes, some of which require some stamina to play barre chords. Others want to switch from playing guitar to learning the bass, but they lack the hand strength. This exercise has helped my students with small, chubby, and weak hands build hand strength, speed, and stamina:

I'm a big fan of Slam Stewart. (solo starts at 1:47) He is an incredible jazz bass legend who sings his bass solos an octave higher, and he's also quite the entertainer.

All I can say with certainty is that SONAR meets my needs best. Period. Other programs fit other peoples' needs.. I have to say, I STILL fall back on the same Sonar 7 software I've had for years when I'm having issues with PT or I'm between purchased licenses. It's easy yet powerful.

As a student at Berklee and Berkleeonline, and my expereience working in recording studios, having my own home studio, and teaching/selling music production through a national retailer at one point, I've owned and used Sonar, Reason, various versions of Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic (even back when it was still available for use on PC), FL Studio, and even the freebies like Garage Band and Audacity. I will say that I use Pro Tools, and Garage Band more than anything. For quick slap together MIDI controller work, I fire up garage band. That said, I think Logic is great and if I didn't have so much money, gear, and education invested in PT, I'd still be using Logic. It took me a while to see beyond my PT bias, but after taking some training on Cubase, the world's industry standard (but not the industry standard in the US) it appears hands down the best out of the box bang for your buck. Too bad most studios don't use Cubase. That's why I still don't use the free copy I was given by a Steinberg/Yamaha rep.

More than someone to solicit your music, labels are looking to see how big your following is. More often than not, unless they sign you on for a writing/publishing contract where you contractually write songs for their catalog, or you are contracted for artist development, you need to establish yourself and create some of your own buzz. Your best bet is to start generating awareness on YouTube. Create a music video or performance that stands out among the millions. There's quite a bit of information about the pitfalls of pursuing a label as a means to a music career. We go into it in this thread: http://forums.songstuff.com/topic/39074-how-much-money-can-we-musicians-earn-online/

Playpianotoday.com has a great section on blues/boogie woogie that is easy to understand and helped me when I first started learning.

This sounds pretty good considering that you're using Audacity. What you're looking for is a little limiting/compression on the master track. At Berklee I took a course on production where we had several instruments at once and we cut different frequencies out of different instruments to stop them from conflicting and drowning each other out. once we did that, we could mix the volumes of each instrument much more easily. The bass sat much better in the mix without getting too loud. The only criticism I would make is that the hi-hat in your beats could use a little high-frequency dampening. Theirs a lot of upper highs, which is uncomfortable at high volumes. This is tough for most people to notice when mixing, especially if they've listened to too much loud music over their life - the ability to hear the top end of the highs goes first. My dad and I are both drummers, and one thing I've learned from him is to protect your hearing-he never wore ear plugs during gigs. Now when he listens to music, he has to boost the highs on his sound system to an uncomfortable level because he lost most of his hearing in the upper frequencies from years of drumming. Anyway, your music is well balanced and panned, but you should bring your vocals more to the front, you have a unique voice-I really like it. There's a few ways to do this, one way is to boost the 3-5khz frequencies around 3-6 decibels. See if this brings your voice up front in the mix just a little. the other is to cut those same frequencies from your synths by a few decibels.

As a midwesterner who has lived and worked as a musician in NYC, I can attest that you won't get the NYC music scene experience anywhere but NYC. There's nothing like it on so many levels. Buffalo is to NYC as MCDonald's is to Scottish cuisine. That said, it's not for everyone, it's hard and fast-paced. Musically, artfully, stylistically it's bleeding edge and thrives on youth. If you decide to Move there, check out Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's where all the music is happening.

I've always loved the forward and reverse slap solo on Paul Simon's Call Me Al and Flea's Bass solo in the breakdown of Aeroplane.

Good point Tom. Getting heard by a label doesn't equate to sales online either. Back to the original topic, like blogging, writing, painting, or any other content creation, there are taste makers and gatekeepers. Project2wo is onto something, maybe just not the right channel. You can boost your online sales with the right gatekeepers. Again this comes down to networking, and that is done differently online. It's a good idea to send your music to online reviewers and influential blogs that involve your musical style or tastes. Again, a (digital) press kit would be good to have, a website is also important, but don't expect that you can just send off your music and they will rave about you on their next post. Start out by contacting them and adding some value. Perhaps send them a link to a video they might like but haven't seen of an artist they have written about that they enjoy or an interesting cover they haven't heard. Compliment them on something specific that they wrote that influenced you to download the album or about a review that resonated with you on an emotional level, or find another sincere way to show that you know what they do, who they are, and what they are about. Don't ask them for anything the first time you contact them. They are busy, respect their time and keep it brief.

I should say that while we were still in college, Paul was courting the former NKOTB manager/lawyer by setting up a largely promoted gig with an audience made up mostly of friends and showcased his band at their first gig. They had rehearsed frequently for almost a year before finally playing a show, and they were very well polished. Paul eventually got signed by a small division of Sony. They ended up, like so many other young bands, in debt thanks to their advance, initially unable to recoup recording, promotion, and limo/food/hotel/touring expenses,incurred in the UK. The band broke up after the label "shelved" their debut album. When I joined his band, Paul and the Patients, we decided to avoid the labels and just perform like crazy all around Manhattan and build a name for the band. Before I left, we opened up for the RZA, which was weird and exciting. I should note that Paul is hands down the most talented singer and songwriter I know, I'd rate him on a level on par with my favorite famous musicians, which I know is a bold statement. That said, you've probably never heard of him or his bands the Merrickans, Paul and the Patients, Pitty Sing, or Adrienne Drake. I don't say this to deter you or take the wind out of your sails, but simply to make you think about reconsidering what success really means in music. When we're young, we think fame, getting signed, and having our songs on the radio is IT. There's so much more you can do with music, and just because we don't reach fame in our career, it doesn't mean we've failed or we aren't successful.

The simplest answer is that you are barking up the wrong tree. The old model of "getting discovered" or signed by a major label is pretty much dead, statistically improbable, and commonly considered a bad idea. For the sake of discussion, let's say it wasn't. To get your song heard, you can't simply mail a cd to a record label. You have to have a lawyer solicit it for you or know someone at the label who would do you a favor. You would also need a press kit, web presence, and a way to stand out against the flood of other cd's and press kits that the label receives. Furthermore, the label won't be interested in picking you up unless you have already established some notoriety in your market, generated a decent amount of sales from previous album releases, and have a significant mailing list and following. It is also pretty rare to get "discovered" at a gig. Labels don't send talent scouts out to venues to find the latest talent in the way the used to. The web has made this largely unnecessary. Competitions might be a good way to get some exposure, and they will certainly refine your performances over time if you take criticism to heart, but I have friends who have done them and it hasn't done anything for them. These same friends of mine are on indie labels, have their music on MTV shows and dramas like Grey's Anatomy, and a Target commercial, but this all came out of constant gigging, touring, writing, and -more importantly- networking. All of them made friends/got jobs with right people and worked harder than everyone around them. That is how my friend Jenny got to be tour manager of Bjork and Arcade Fire, My friend Noel's drummer is Arcade Fir's touring drummer, my friend Brian has record credits on albums from everyone from DMX to Annie Lennox and was nominated for a Grammy two years in a row, and my friend Paul has his music pre-loaded onto Zune MP3 players and his music videos were featured on MTV2. Paul is the one whose infectously catchy song "Blogspot" was featured in this ad, (which is a pity for me because I left the band - on good terms - to move to California shortly before the song was recorded). So if you're looking for success in the old sense of the word, play often, tour, build a following, make friends with other bands, engineers, etc. and consider moving to a larger market. My friends and I all met in Boston and moved to New York and LA

Thanks Bill, I did end up memorizing the 80 songs in time, but after 3 months of gigs I got dropped when the former bassist decided to come back to both bands (he left for a higher profile/paying band). I guess that's what got me thinking about all of this. After my last show with one of the bands, another musician come up to me and complimented me on my bass solo and some of my bass lines. When the band leader called and told me (lied) that he was shutting both bands down because he wasn't feeling it, I immediately felt my insecurities and doubts creep in. I had no warning, the band was getting tighter, the only feedback I had received from the band leader was to move around more on stage, so I started really using the stage and getting into it. We got along very well, and the other band members had complimented my playing on a few occasions. It came as a shock until a few days after the call I saw on FB that the bands were gigging with the original bassist. The original bassist was also a lead singer (I just sang harmonies) and had established a lot of the connections and booked many of the gigs. Despite knowing this, my mind tends to want to dwell on rejection.

Mike, that was excellent. It's the exact type of advice I give my students, such as utilize Guitar Pro (especially the looped speed trainer), practice in front of as many people (squirrels, birds , etc.) as you can, gain speed by practicing slow, practice with backing tracks, practice when you aren't practicing (I do this all the time), record yourself for yourself. There's not much to add.