john

Most major labels have offices internationally. There are many factors which might have you relocating at least on a temporary basis. That just goes with being a musician. You could be recording at a studio miles from home, touring etc.

I would ask, on what basis do you say that you are “very talented”? If your friends don’t like your work.... you must have formed this opinion from something? Often that is something others say about us, not that we say about ourselves. You might have posted here for validation, or you might be genuinely curious and interested to learn as much as you can. Certainly self awareness is a key component of learning. To be able to learn you have to be able to confront the idea that you are very talented, be open to the notion that you might not be very talented , and be willing to listen and take comments on board. You may well discover that you are indeed very talented, but most discover they are not as talented as they thought. Luckily talent can be acquired, skills can be learned, as long as you are prepared to work.

Welcome Trevor Can you post up your lyrics? iCloud notes don’t share directly

A whole bunch of reasons, ranging from lack of confidence through lack of knowledge, lack of time, lack of process, lack of tools, lack of budget, lack of contacts and more

Hey Michael, welcome to Songstuff. Good to have you with us!

Nice intro! Welcome to the Songstuff family Michan.

Hey Madhav, welcome to the Songstuff family. I can’t remember if I welcomed you the first time! Lol

Hey Ben, welcome to the Songsruff family! Good to meet you

Knowing guitar chord voicing helps if you are looking for something reasonable, the notion of up and down strokes etc, but a lot is in the core sound and effects. There are a whole range of great guitar synth/sampler packs, but as I am a guitarist I am not best placed to guide you, and I don’t get a load of time in the studio just now. one of these guys should be able to help: @Steve Mueske @starise @Richard Tracey Steve is an awesome metal guitarist, but is also a very talented electronics musician. He also reviews VST synths for Songstuff. Starise (Tim) can can play a few instruments but I don’t know his experience level with guitar specifically. Richard can”t play guitar and I am pretty sure he experimented a lot trying to find a good solution to this.

The issue is probably the different ways we hear.... through the air (how we hear most things), and through the bone, which is responsible for some of what we hear of our own voice. Sound travels far faster along bone than it does through air. This is because in air (a gas) the particles are a lot further apart, than they are in bone and connecting tissue (solids). As a result sound in air is at one pitch while sound in bone is at a completely different pitch. So when we hear extrernally occurring noises they only come through our ear. When we hear our own voice, it is a mix of sound through the air and sound through the bone. There are other possible causes of flat pitches, but this sounds more like general pitch perception... but only applying to your voice. The issue specifically is if your brain’s pitch perception is dominated by through the bone sound, resulting in you paying too much attention to the incorrect vocal pitch. The solution is ear training, but one specific to treating poor pitch perception. You have probably seen singers doing this: cup your fingers behind your ear, holding the heel of your hand towards your mouth. Hold your hand a little out from your face. This will amplify the sound coming through the sir. While holding your hand like that try these: 1. Start with single pitches, in the middle of your range. Move up a semi tone at a time. Go back to mid range and work down a semi tine. 2. Try major scale doing this. 3. Record a simple scale on your guitar. Then record yourself singing along without using your hand. 4. Record yourself singing along with your hand in position 5 play them both back and notice the difference. keep practising. As time passes you can move the heel of your hand a little way away from your face (only if your with and without are sounding closer) Practice a bunch of scales Take some ear training. There is some software you can get that will help with a lot of measurement. Look up Mahesh on these boards. He’s a great vocalist and a singing teacher. Good luck I hope this helps

Similar to Randy (Just1L), I use them but don't enjoy it. Using it has normally been accompanied by counting, lots of counting, and that gets in the way of feel. Don't get me wrong, I use them when I have to, but it doesn't float my boat

I hope he plays, but I have my doubts. Maybe one off specials, but I think the tours are gone.

Come on you lot! Lol

Thanks for replying. Do you have a plan to evolve your strategy for upcoming releases? Hopefully this will break you out of marketing to friends and on to fans... talking of, once people are interested how do you reach out to them for future releases?

Hey Dave Gilmour is auctioning off his guitars to raise money for charity, 120 guitars, including black strat, serial number 0001: https://www.christies.com/features/David-Gilmour-legendary-Black-Strat-comes-to-auction-9637-3.aspx Any collectors with a lot of money burning a hole in their house? Cheers John

Hey Ed Welcome to the Songstuff family! Loads to do on site. If you need any help, just shout out Cheers John

That would be very, very unusual. I mean, I tend to think more guidelines than rules... but even when not sitting thinking "this is a rule or guideline ", because I don't focus that way, I am aware that I do conform to many norms. Mostly. Sure there are songs and instrumentals where I have gone wandering from the reservation, but largely I conform to norms. For example time signatures. I might not plan to be in a 4/4 or 2/4 etc. but what I write just conforms to the rules about time signatures. For that matter I also conform to tempo, in that I work with a regular beat. I conform to musicals temprament, using instruments tuned to standard tunings that use a traditional western scale. I tend to stick the key I am in, and change key deliberately, so that is another rule that I follow. The melodies I use stick to a key, and without planning it to be that way even the chord progressions I use are for the most part appropriate to that key. Hell even in chord structure I obey the rules. I don't just play random notes together in the hope it makes a pleasing chord. How many rules is that I have obeyed so far? Even if I use a sample loop created by someone else, or using a sequencer that obeys those rules, rules are obeyed. Then there are song sections. If I use a chorus, I just followed a whole set of rules, otherwise it is not a chorus. Same goes for a refrain. Or a bridge. In fact any sectional song. Hell, even if I do a through composed song I am applying rules. Perhaps not intentionally. Then of course if I use words, they are actual words, not random vocal sounds. They are structured to mean something. That's a lot of rules, intentional or not, that I follow. Do I use rhyme? Stay within a genre or even use anything genre based.... then there is instrumentation. Do I have a bass drum? A bass line? Damn more rules I follow without intending to do so. I could go on. My point is, even without consciously caring about rules/guides/conventions we follow them all the time, and yes they are important to us, even if we prefer not to acknowledge them. If we conform to a rule, deep down we care about it. If you use ANY of what I describe... you care about rules/guides/conventions. What you possibly don't care about is intentionally applying rules/guides/conventions. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't follow rules/guides/conventions, or who doesn't in reality care, but I have heard a lot of people say they don't. Of course, it is very possible to enjoy creatimg music while obeying rules/guides/conventions... because unless you are a very very rare creature... you absolutely demonstrate that is the case by saying your rule is to enjoy yourself! I don't say all that to be picky, or argue a silly point. I say it for you. Because in realising that you probably already obey a bunch of rules/guides/conventions, and do actually care about applying at least those rules, it can free you up to consider other rules/guides/conventions, using rules/guides/conventions more intentionally, and applying them when suitable to benefit you, is a plus. Making the creation process more intentional and less happy accident is liberating, and more fun, if anything. Not a problem for me either way, it is the way you think about what you do. In music, rules/guides/conventions are there to inform choice. Once embedded they inform choice often whether we want them to or not. Learning how to use them to your benefit only increases the pleasure. Just like learning how to play an instrument, or how to sing better, understanding rules/guides/conventions just improves what we do, the standard of the end result, the songs.

Boink.... missed in the mix I think @Mahesh @Roymega

To ensure that you are notified of posts etc, you will need to follow the club activity. Go to the Music marketing and Promotion club home page. Click on follow. There is a separate follow on the club forum and blog. Make sure you follow those too. Cheers John

Hi gang Ok, I've set up a marketing challenge. It's good to get used to storing your stats. Screenshotting is a reasonable way of keeping a note of wwhat is going on , so you can really see progress. When you grab your screenshot, also record the numbers and post them. It is useful to both have the raw figure improvement (I added 10 likes), and work out the percentage change (started with 100, so 10/100 x100 = +10% change note the + sign!). Some challenges will use percentage and others will be raw data, as metrics for improvement. If you don't have one, create a bit.ly account. Excellent for creating tracable links. Please, please, take a part in the challenge. EVen if you are working with an old song, it can tell you something about the responsiveness of your fans. Cheers John

welcome back Bri!

I post this as an incomplete, yet evolving, template that you can use to describe what you do to promote your music.... Please fill out details of what you do for each item. The more details, the better Play live regular gigs show case gigs launch party events live streams twitter / Periscope Facebook other fliers posters Gig listings local press coverage Full Music Videos Acoustic videos Live performance videos Fan club Mailing List Fan Club / Mailing List videos: Interview videos How to play/sing Newsletters Special Offers Your own website blog gallery posts video posts Social media promo YouTube channel Vimeo Facebook account Facebook artist page Twitter page LinkedIn page Regular Social “welcome” media posts (ie not crap spamming) Forum posts Press and media radio plays Local press reviews music press reviews music blogger reviews Youtube shows interviews Advertising Facebook ads Google ads Other I will add to the list when I can.

Hey, welcome to the Songstuff family Kajetan!

46 albums? Sheesh

Hi gang I can’t recommend this movie enough. Such a mind blowing story... about an artist from Michigan who recorded a couple of albums in the 60s, the albums bombed... but by a complete fluke his music became the anthem of the fight against apartheid in South Africa..... it it takes you through a whole range of emotions... more so if you are an artist, player or writer. At points you will feel hope, feel uplifted, and at times you will be angry, sympathetic, sad.... but it is a fascinating story! It’s a true story. I don’t want to ruin it.... just watch it if you can. Here’s a trailer: