Attention the Independent Artist
NOBODY CARES SHOW Jay and Dirty Bob Show
With multi-track recording programs like GarageBand, Pro Tools, and Logic becoming nearly ubiquitous amongst tech-savvy musicians, it’s easier than ever to take your own music all the way from first inspiration to finished audio file without leaving your room. But just because these high-powered tools are available, it doesn’t mean we all know how to use them well.
One big stumbling block that many up-and-comers encounter is learning to deal with virtual instruments (VIs) – the sampled pianos, guitars, drums, strings, and synths – that you can trigger from your keyboard, via a MIDI connection, and record internally in these programs.
Given that many such sounds often come standard with recording software, it can be tremendous fun to lay down a virtual drum groove, record a virtual bass line on top, add a virtual organ pad, and so on. Regardless of how cool your composition is, though, and how inspired your performance may be, the end result can still end up sounding mechanical and rather lifeless. But what’s to be done?
Making your virtual instruments breathe with the music, sound more realistic, and convey the true emotion of the song is a craft unto itself. To help you bring your own pre-packaged sounds to life – regardless of whether you’re using GarageBand or Pro Tools, Logic, or Digital Performer – here are some tips from the pros.
The following is excerpted from The Musician’s Guide to Recording, a free PDF full of great practical tips, advice, and wisdom on the recording process. Click HERE to download the complete guide for free.
NEIL FINN
“To some extent, a song either has it, or it doesn’t. If I can form an emotional connection with a piece of music, then it has worth and I’ll pursue it. If it just feels slight, or if I can admire it on the surface, but it doesn’t actually make me feel anything, then it’s gone.”
read more »
by Discmakers.com
The following is excerpted from The Musician’s Guide to Recording, a free PDF full of great practical tips, advice, and wisdom on the recording process. Click HERE to download the complete guide for free.
PAUL WESTERBERG
“When the title comes, it all falls into place, because the title sets the mood. For instance, ‘Mannequin Shop’ was a silly title that came from a People magazine article about plastic surgery. Once I decided I was going to write a disposable little pop song about something current and ridiculous, it just flowed. If I hadn’t come up with that idea, it would have been a laboring effort. But once you make up your mind that this is going to be a cute one, no two ways about it, you can go for it. Now, if it’s a rock and roll song, I’d say get your gut feeling out whatever it is. Even if you think, ‘Oh, I can’t say that,’ go ahead and say it. Spit it out, and if you’re going to be a fool, be a fool.”
The following is excerpted from The Musician’s Guide to Recording, a free PDF that is full of great practical tips, advice, and wisdom on the recording process. Click HERE to download the complete guide for free.
If you think you can teach someone to write a hit song, why not show them how to conjure elephants from Hershey bars while you’re at it? Hit songs are voodoo spells dressed up as songcraft. The real kick is that virtually anyone can invoke the basic incantation— all you need is a melody, some lyrics, and a few chords. But what turns those simple elements into a work that inspires massive consumer frenzy is beyond human comprehension. So why worry about it? As the wise old hunter used to warn in ’30s African safari films, “You could waste your life searching for the elephant’s graveyard.”
So rather than get lost in unsolved mysteries, let’s focus on the tangible structure of pop songwriting. Songwriting is, after all, a craft, and the basic components of that discipline can be readily examined.
To help you improve your songwriting chops, we’ve enlisted the aid of several well-known songwriters, most of whom have been lucky enough to strike that mystical connection with the public. Feel free to, ahem, “borrow” a few of their ideas to use as foundations for your own songs.
read more »
By Indy Fontaine #@ trackhustle.com
Do you need a manager? Are you seeking the right person to represent your skills as an artist, music producer, or songwriter? You feel like if you had the right manager you would go straight to the top, but how do you know who to choose? Here are a few traits of a good manager:
Britain’s chart-topping pop soul sensation Adele recently had to cancel her North American tour due to throat hemorrhaging. It’s serious enough that she’s now slated to go under the knife of a laryngeal surgeon. Yikes! Often, throat conditions are found in younger, more amateur singers as a result of strain and fatigue on the throat, and/or lack of formal training, but Adele’s condition shows that voice injury can even strike the pros.
So what could have Adele done differently to protect her Grammy-winning gullet? Well, her smoking addiction certainly doesn’t help. Neither does overuse. But aside from surgery, she shows no sign of slowing down. Hopefully she’ll be more cautious in protecting her voice and following her doctor’s advice moving forward.
read more »
By Daylle Deanna Schwartz
Indie artists often complain about not having the budget they’d like to market and promote their music. Nowadays, digital marketing offers a plethora of opportunities for marketing yourself and your music that doesn’t cost anything in dollars. But, it can be hard to know where to begin—and end. While much of it is good for those of you with small to no money budgets, there’s still a big expense for taking advantage of so many opportunities—TIME.
The good AND the bad news: the cost to break an independent act can be more in time than in dollars. It’s great to have free tools! But you could spend all of your waking hours going onto all the different social networking sites and other avenues of promotion and still not make a dent. With all the artists and labels vying for online attention, you must work to make your music stand out.
It’s important to brand your name online. The more people see it, the more curiosity can be generated, which leads to potential fans or clients checking you out. The more you respond to fans who write to you, the more loyal fans you’ll have. But so much of the efforts to find fans is one by one, which accounts for a lot of the time you need to put into it.
It’s not enough to just register on all the websites. While there’s unlimited space for everyone online, you can get lost in it all and not make any constructive progress. I know. I’m always getting links to sites I “should check out.” People email me both to my server and on the social networking sites. It gets overwhelming. Another day ends and I haven’t done any writing. So I must get tough with myself in order to function.
Time isn’t FREE when it costs you your sleep, your personal life and even your sanity. But you can take control of online activities to make the most of the best opportunities. Here are so DOs and DON’Ts for getting the most out of your online resources.
Image by OUCHcharley via Flickr
by evahillered @singingsongwritingstudio.com
It has been said that many authors write the same book over and over again, that they revolve around the same theme as they write. This is also often the case with songwriters. The biggest problem this causes, I think, is when you get tired of your own melodies and chord patterns that you once fell in love with, and that you lose your inspiration – the drive for writing – when you repeat the same stuff over and over again.
Here are a few things you can try to get new music ideas for your songs:
read more »
ATTN Mag
O Squared
Attn Correspondent