When I was a kid, I was very regimented about the way that I practiced music.  I was break it up in to sections, and train my fingers to do endless scales and such.  And in those years sitting in my basement, I gave up a lot of my high school years.  Now that I am older and have been playing music for years, and briefly went to music school, and then dropped out of music school, been in bands, and played with lots of different people (no one famous), I feel that I was a little misguided back then.

Scales and practicing are definitely needed, but I was way too anal about it, and I feel a little too regimented.  And the net result was that when I went to music school I needed to unlearn stuff so as not to sound stiff.  I guess we got to remember that I grew up in the eighties when “shredding” was king.   Maybe I could have used my practice time as a kid better.  Continue Reading

There are probably a million ways to rehearse your band and your music for your gig.  Every musicians’ art is personal and emotional and presentable to the public in a very unique way.  In addition, what might play well in a town like New York City, might not play at all in another part of the country and under different music scenes and audiences.

I have been playing in the New York City scene for a decade or so, and I have noticed some issues to consider for this particular music scene and I feel that some bands could improve their chances of highlighting their art if they rehearsed in a way to consider some of the factors in playing a live show.  Here are some thoughts on the preparing for the gig.  Please post comments below if there are other strategies that you have encountered.

THE MUSIC

The main event.  People come out to hear your music, so be sure that the music is rehearsed and tight.  Be sure that the accents in the music are together and that the music has dynamics.  Or if it doesn’t have dynamics, Continue Reading

Ba Rock Obama Fundraiser in Greenpoint NYC

A few weeks ago, my band AM, played this fundraiser for Barack Obama’s campaign. It was basically a hipster neighborhood event in Williamsburg/Greenpoint in NYC where they got a bunch of bars together to host a bunch of indie bands. One ticket got you a bracelet that allowed you to go to any bar that was hosting this thing and see all the music that was being made. It was called Ba-Rock Brooklyn.

So, it was pretty cool to meet all the bands there that night, and to my surprise (since I am a pessimist when it comes to people showing up at shows), there were a lot of people out that night and everyone raised $2500 for Barack. Not bad for a neighborhood thing.

I realized that part of the success of these kinds of nights is the “Music scene” aspect of it all. It works better to ask your audience to go to an event where they will be able to hear lots of different musics than just hear your band. So, the draw is “Come see a night of local indie music”, rather than “Come see my band”. A slightly different Continue Reading

Steps

Setting up a network is fast and easy.  Figuring out which features make sense for you, and moving or linking to any other content you have on the web, might take a while but is something you can do in phases and complete over time.  Here’s what to do:

1. Go to Ning.com and choose a name for your network, probably just your band’s name or your name.
2. Sign up for an account — you’ll use this login for when you make changes or want to make more social networks for your other projects.
3. Describe your network, add a tagline, keywords, etc.  Make the network public so that anyone can join and they don’t need an invite.  (You wouldn’t be that snobby

Continue Reading

When you make and share music you are creating a community. It may be a big audience at a show, or a small group of friends blasting your tunes in the high school parking lot. In collecting an audience you are often bringing together people who have more in common then just an appreciation for your art, like the way they dress or the other music they listen to.

The promise behind Social Networking on the web is that it allows people to parallel   what goes on in “Meatspace” in virtual form. Ning.com is a site that helps your fans    connect with each other and keep up with your artistic endeavors.

Overview

Ning makes it super simple to create and customize a brand new social network. It allows you to go beyond the simple profile that the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world allow. Your fans can even create groups within your Continue Reading