john

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Ryan.

It sounds like blend of a few things including pitch perception but more acutely it sounds like pitch retention, ie your ability to retain pitch and simple concentration. Attention to detail has to figure in there somewhere too. Things you can do to help... 1. standard interval training (which pitch is higher etc) 2. standard interval training but gradually increasing the time between the training notes 3. standard interval training but decreasing the length of time the notes are held 4. standard interval training increasing time beteen notes and decreasing note duration 5. play a note, sing the note leave 10 seconds and then sing the pitch and confirm by playing the note. once you can repeatedly do that successfully then increase time before singing the pitch back. Do all of the above at low, mid and high pitches. *important* practice all in a quiet environment with your eyes closed! keep them closed to allow you to more easily focus on sound. you might find it useful to lightly curl fingers of one hand behind ear with th heel of that hand towards your mouth. allow a gap a couple of fingers deep btween face and hand. This is also great when working on technique for harmonies. I would also recommend practicing singing all the time with eyes closed in the short term and withot playiing an instrument. Sing along with recordings. record these sessions an review to see how what was recorded matches up with your perception of your singing. Lastly I woul direct you to look at "mindfulness meditation". It is now being used for treating a range of mental health issues, but fundamentally it helps you develop and control your "locus of focus" ie exactly what your attention is focused on and your ability to move your attention about. you can find scripts and cd/dvd for mindfulness on the internet.

1. the basic concepts are the same though the detail differs. 2. individual technique and platforms don't exist in isolation. The key to any successful plan is timing and coordination. There are a lot of comparable tasks fulfilling more or less the same function. If you grasp concepts then the exact media used is just a detail. If you get the concepts then adapting to new media trends becomes much easier to do successfully. Creating a buzz includes all the same key elements it ever did. One worthwhile point is that both work best when used together (new and old media, old school and new. It also ties in strongly with leveraging your effort. Some are fairly obvious... publicity shots, promo videos etc can be use on and offline, but you should tie in live appearances, interviews, launch parties etc so you can use them both online and off. Looling at a simple local gig... there are pre-gig activites and post gig activities. At your gig you directl add people to your mailing list using laptops, cell phones and tablet pcs, you tweet during the gig encouraging people at the gig to upload and share their pics of the event on your facebook page, you upload vids of live performed songs to your youtube channel after each song and live on stage you make mention of tweets, FB posts and Youtube comments... maybe offer a free T-shirt to an audience member who is particularly active blah blah. That's just scratching the surface at one event, ie not pre or post but during. The key to building buzz oldschool or new is interactivity... and this is where your street team online and offline come into their own, supporting you the band. (most indie bands that have street teams view them as pre-gig assets but they are so much more. like most creative tools and media, the actual tool and knowing about the need for the media for promo only scratch at the surface. Knowing how to use them is essential, amd must of the difficult part of all that is simply being a student of human nature and taking an interest in basic psychology. I am on my cell typing this. I will write up some more when I get back to a pute.

Welcome to Songstuff Flame

I also don't have a problem with members showcasing other artistic achievements, for example artwork, poetry etc but I as it is a music site I don't think we should create a dedicated category for them.

I think I prefer a publicly accessible member showcase, non brand related videos etc I would think the Showcase board itself would take care of miscellaneous member showcases, so we have Member Showcase (Public) Promo Videos Single, EP and Album Releases We then have a choice... I think it would be good to have this area as "the best", ie, not someone sitting down with their guitar, recorded with their phone and phone mic, or web cam. Not an audio equivalent either. It would mean moderators and or special "editor" style members monitoring quality. Items not making the grade would be shifted to the musician's lounge, or the critique boards. Setting a standard can be a good thing. From experience if we want a "best of", self-approved posting will result in a lot of the amateur content I mention above. I don't think that helps members really trying to improve, or the site, if that sort of post is not kept to appropriate areas. My two cents.

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Kayla

Funnily enough we used to have a showcase board lol Ok, I think we can handle that