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Help in the Music Business
By kevin | July 1, 2009
I’ve just discovered something that I WISH had been around ten years ago!
Getting started in the music business is hard enough as it is - firstly you’ve got to become brilliant on your instrument and get yourself into a great band or ensemble.
Then you’ve got the challenge of getting gigs and making yourself a success as a business.
It doesn’t matter what style of music you are into:
In order to succeed as a musician you’ve got to think like a business person.
Some might consider that statement as “selling your soul” and that music is about expression and art.. but those musicians are the ones that are likely to be poor tonight.
You know the old joke don’t you….
Q. “What’s the first thing a professional musician says to you at work?”
A. “Would you like fries with that”
Of course, thats only a joke… but deep inside we know that we deserve more money and success from our music than we have achieved so far.
Now.. how to succeed in business.
You need access to the best tools, the best resources and the experience of hundreds of other musicians.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it!
I’ve just discovered the Music Business Entrepreneurs Package - which is the most complete package of business tools for musicians I’ve found.
It contains:
The Record Label Business plan
A step by step guide for starting your own record label - how to write a business plan that will show financiers and banks that you mean business!
Music Business Contracts & Entertainment Agreements
Every Contract you’ll ever need. Never get burned again by doing a gig without the proper contractual agreement in place!
The Musicians Upload Directory
Having a great song is just the start. Knowing where to upload it so that it gets heard is another thing! This list will give you an awesome starting point to get your music out there
Samples, Background Music and Sound Effects
If you’re recording, producing, composing, or doing anything with music all these samples and resources will be invaluable! Don’t miss the chance to grab this all together!
A highlighted promotional listing in the music industry links directory
Get noticed by the industry in this directory of music industry resources. No matter where in the world you are you’ll put your listing in front of the best people in the industry.
To get more details simply check out the Music Business Entrepreneurs Pack today
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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Save yourself hundreds of hours writing out drum exercisescheck out Kevins solution for teachers. It includes over 150 pages of handouts you can print as many times as you need!
Click here to check it out »
Guest Post - Concepts Ends Results
By kevin | June 5, 2009
Today I’ve got a guest contribution for you - an interesting article on the benefits of teaching reading in drum lessons. I agree with david’s philosophy.. how about you? Leave a comment on the end of the article.
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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Which Glockenspiels are best for Elementary Schools?
By kevin | January 1, 2009
Here is an interesting question I received via email this afternoon:
“I have a question for an expert. I am a elementary music teacher looking to purchase a good set of glockenspiels for my K-3 classroom. I have talked to two different store experts and received two different perspectives about what is the best product out there. One of them says that the Studio 49 2000 series is the best that ever was with excellent tuning of the bars including the overtone sequence. He says Sonor has been trying to catch up with Studio 49 (which in the past has stolen the competition hands down by creating a better product) and seemed to imply that Sonor did not tune their instruments as well although he didn’t see overly knowledgeable about their newest product because it is so new. The other store seems to be pushing Sonor’s newest soprano and alto glocks–GAM and GSM–with the wider bars and handy storage of the extra bars. She says that Sonor also has excellent tuning but doesn’t seem to know quite as much about tuning. I am confused. I want to buy something really good that will last. I don’t know any experts to ask and I found your website. Do you know anything about these instruments or have an idea about where I might get some good unbiased information?”
Thanks for your question – I think its very relevant topic for discussion on this blog.
I don’t really have personal first hand knowledge with the instruments you are talking about, but I’ll try my best to give some help. I’d be grateful for anyone else who does have experience with these instruments leaving their comments on this post.
The first thing that struck me when I read your question was:
“What a lot of baloney is talked by sales people!”
I hear stories like this all the time from students who go to one store and get one story, and then go to a different store and get a completely different story about what suppliers are doing and the supposed “strengths” and “weaknesses” of different brands against each other.
Firstly its important to realize that each shop usually has agreements in place with wholesalers that require (or at least encourage financially) that supplier to promote one brand over another. Its even possible that certain stores cannot even get supplied with particular brands. I’ve certainly heard of this happening with Drum Kits and Pianos – and it may be the same with mallet percussion. Therefore the salespeople are just doing their job – trying to convince you that purchasing their product ahead of the other store’s product is the right thing to do.
The issue with tuning makes me laugh – its clearly one of the areas that salespeople like to pretend that one brand is going to be better than another because its something that all music teachers are sensitive to of course!
Glockenspiels are very high pitched instruments, so even on concert quality instruments rarely ever are a great many overtones tuned, and certainly not in these classroom style instruments. On the lower notes they sometimes tune the first harmonic, but really most of them just have the Fundamental tuned. Think about it…… at the pitch of a glockenspiel most of the harmonics are so far above audible range that it is really insignificant anyway if they are going to tune harmonics.
Therefore does it really matter?… With tuning you should be able to use your ears to determine if the fundamentals have been tuned well, and that really is all that matters. Let’s leave harmonics for another discussion where they are more relevant!
Play a scale, see if it sounds tuneful, and then if you want to test it take a chromatic tuner along and make sure that each bar is tuned well, and that should be all you need in this area. I’ve never really known any brands of glockenspiel to have any tuning issues.
I’m not going to say that the thicker wider bars are not necessarily better, as they may be, as I can’t personally test these instruments side by side. Bar wideness and thickness is also not really a big issue – metal bars will last for years anyway… and thicker wider bars are not going to do much other than make the instrument heavier to lift!
The only thing you can really trust is common sense. You need to ask yourself these two questions:
1) What is important in the instruments that I want to buy?
2) Which instruments give me the features I need at the best price?
If you can answer these questions about any instrument purchase for a school you’ll be on the right track, and you can go to the store knowing exactly what you want, or just ring around the suppliers in your home town until you get the best prices.
If I was to purchase glockenspiels for K-3 classroom use my importance criteria would be:
1) Will this instrument LAST in a school?
2) Is this instrument going to be easy to manage and use for the students?
3) Is this instrument going to be too LOUD in the hands of a class of K-3 students?
Making the instrument LAST is the critical thing. How many times have you been into a music classroom with instruments where notes have fallen off, where the rubber mounting posts have broken or been removed or where design flaws in the instrument have rendered it useless after a while? These things happen all the time, and its very important to get it right if you’re going to be investing in an entire class set of instruments.
What would I do in this situation?
I would test them all for myself. If possible BUY one of each of the brands, and then try it for an entire year before committing to a classroom set. That’s really the only way that you can know for sure which instrument is going to be the most useful and practical for you and your teaching situation.
If that’s not possible, because you need the entire class set now what I would do is at least borrow the two instruments from each respective store (they should let you do this), Take them into your classroom, put them side by side and then think about how they will be used in your music classes. How easily do they fit into your storage shelves? How easily will they be carried? What parts look weak and might easily break? How do they sound when played by a young student?
Anyway, that is my thoughts on this topic – if you’d like to add to this discussion feel free to add a comment on this post
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Topics: Classroom Percussion, Glockenspiel, Mallet Percussion, Tuned Percussion, Xylophone | 1 Comment »
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Ideas to help with sight reading for percussion
By kevin | December 6, 2008
This is in response to a question I had recently from a parent who was helping their daughter prepare for a high school band audition on percussion. This is just a few ideas to help anyone in this situation.
Firstly, what is sight reading?
Sight reading is the ability to perform a passage of music from the written notes without having a chance to practice it. It is commonly a part of auditions at all levels, wether it be for high school band or professional orchestra, and it is also commonly part of grade examinations for most instruments.
Usually what happens is that the examiner or band director will put the sheet of music in front of the applicant, and ask him or her to play it.
On percussion in Band auditions usually sight reading is required on both Tuned Percussion (commonly bells) and Untuned percussion (often snare drum).
Sight reading on Bells (or any tuned percussion instrument) is quite a bit more challenging than Untuned Percussion, because of having to read the pitches and the rhythms.
Tips to help make sight reading easier:
1) Regular Practice
You can make sight reading part of your regular practice routine by sightreading anything and everything you can get your hands on. If you’ve got old tutor books for flute, clarinet or other instruments at a basic level these make excellent sight reading practice material for bells.
2) Take your time before you start
Remember that although it is “sight reading” and you can’t practice it first, you can discipline yourself to run through a “mental checklist” before you play that will help you to get it right. This is perhaps the most important thing about getting sight reading correct, and not doing this is commonly where students fall down with sight reading.
Before you start, you need to run through the following things in your mind:
- What’s the Key signature?
- What’s the Time Signature?
- How fast does it go?
- What note does it start on?
- What’s the dynamics? (volume)
- sing through the first few bars in your head.
Although the examiners and audition panel are waiting for you to play, give yourself those few seconds that it takes to run through that list in your head - they won’t mind waiting a few seconds, and it can make the difference between a pass and a fail.
3) Notice all the elements and play musically
Remember that sight reading is still music, and you need to perform it like music to get the best result from the audition. Take notice all all the elements - the tempo (speed) and the dynamics are very important to make it sound musical.
4) Stay Calm & don’t stress about it!
Sight Reading is usually not a major part of most auditions or exams - it is just something which is done to test your level of experience playing and reading music. The band director or audition panel will be looking at your overall musicianship and not necessarily whether you can sight read a particular passage. If you make a complete mess of it, don’t worry! You probably did better than you think you did!
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Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Gift for a Percussionist
By kevin | November 16, 2008
A Special offer from the Fun Music Company
Do you know someone who was given, or bought in a strange moment of weakness a Djembe, pair of bongos or congas, but has never got around to having lessons?
Possibly everyone knows someone like that - I know I do!
Thats why we’ve put together a very special offer from the Fun Music Company this holiday season on our Djembe Secrets and Percussion Secrets training programs, from percussion pro Tim Irrgang.
Tim’s programs are quite unique, because he has a really relaxed teaching style, which allows you to absorb the information at your own pace.
What we are doing this holiday season is offering a package of BOTH the Djembe Secrets AND the Percussion secrets online training programs, at a heavily reduced price.
We’re also mailing out laminated online access cards, so that you can give the gift of percussion tuition on Christmas day.
If you think about it this form of tuition is even better than DVDs - as your gift recipient can access it anywhere, and at any time, and can quickly find the information they need.
So click here to check out the special offer »
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Topics: Conga Drums, Djembe, Hand Drumming | 1 Comment »
Learn Percussion Online
By kevin | October 30, 2008
My good friend and colleague Tim Irrgang and I have just put the finishing touches on a new course..
And it has nothing to do with drums
Drum Kit that is! (0r Drum Set if you prefer)
It does have everything to do with Percussion
You see, Tim is a brilliant Hand Percussionist - He is highly in demand in our home town for his Conga and Percussion skills, and he works more than any other percussionist I know!
I approached Tim earlier this year about creating a new course based around learning the basics on congas and hand percussion instruments.
During the filming of this course I even learned a few things that I had no idea about!
For Instance -
- Did you know how many different ways there are to play a cabasa? - And its not just the ways you might think!
- Do you know how to mic a shaker in the studio, so that you get the sound effectively from both sides?
- Do you know how to get that awesome slap tone on the congas, and what about those different types of slaps?
Plus, Tim goes into great detail on the congas, and shows you about all the little extra sounds that are really effective if you can pull them off every time. Here’s a little example video:
Tim is an awesome percussionist, and an incredibly knowledgeable guy. He’s also really easy going, and has a great manner in front of the camera.
If you have time I’d really love to hear your feedback on this idea - Let me know what else we could include with it, and how it could be more useful for you, for music teachers, friends and students.
so if you want to learn the conga drums and a wide variety of hand percussion, simply visit percussionsecrets.com
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Topics: Announcements, Bongo Drums, Conga Drums, Hand Drumming, Latin Percussion | 7 Comments »
Popular Songs on Marimba
By kevin | October 10, 2008
I’ve just found a new band on YouTube - a couple of girls from San Diego, CA called Stacey and Julie - and they are doing some great stuff adapting popular songs to the Marimba.
They have some great arrangements, and their choice of music is really easy to listen to and entertaining - well done Stacey and Julie!
You can check out Stacy and Julies Myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/julieandstacy
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Topics: Mallet Percussion, Marimba, Percussion Ensemble | 2 Comments »
New Release - Instant Print Music Lessons
By kevin | September 30, 2008
I know todays post is not strictly about percussion - however I’ve got exciting news to share with you.
You see, this week We’ve been putting the finishing touches on a brand new website that has been “in the pipeline” in my company - the Fun Music Company, for over a year.
Its called Instant Print Music Lessons - worksheets for theory instruction and they are a series of printable worksheets that you can print out to use with music classes or for private instruction.
What if you could go to your computer when it was time for that dreaded theory lesson, find something suitable and print out 30 copies then are there?
That is the dream that we have at the Fun Music Company. We want to empower music teachers with loads of resources that are Fun and Educational, that fit it with virtually any curriculum, and that can be done with little or no preparation, so that they can be given to substitute teachers straight away as well.
Module Ones Worksheets for Music Instruction feature five different approaches to a similar theme - and like all the modules contains a fun music trivia element which inspires and motivates the students
In Module Two we use Music Worksheets to learn about Musical Symbols through three fun styles of worksheet called “Musical Symbol Code Breakers”
Module Three is all about helping Students Learn Musical Terms, with a new and FUN approach. This is not just “match up the meaning with the name”… but something different! Check it out!
Lastly Module Four is helping children learn about musical instruments through a fun series of worksheets featuring all the common (and some not so common) musical instruments in all genres of music.
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Topics: Announcements, Music Education, Music Games | No Comments »
Where to get Concert Tickets for your favourite drummers and bands
By kevin | August 21, 2008
This Article is particularly for UK Drummers and Musicians, but I hope everyone around the world will appreciate what this site is trying to do.
Do you know where you can get Concert Tickets at the best possible prices?
If you’re anything like me you just go to your local ticket agency to try and find out who is selling tickets to the concert you have heard is coming to town. If you don’t have a number to call you might have to make one or two phone calls to even get to the right agency, and then you’ll have to find out what tickets are available, and their prices.
What if you’ve heard that your favourite band are coming to your local area, and you don’t know what agency has the tickets?
What if you’ve got a difficult to buy for friend or family member having a birthday, and you’ve had the idea that you’d like to get some concert tickets for them.. but you don’t know what is available?
If you happen to live in the UK – then I have good news for you!
I’ve discovered a site called Viagogo (Don’t worry it has nothing to do with Viagra!) – and at this site you can get Tickets to all the major shows – they match buyers up with Ticket agencies for particular events.
So if you’re looking for Stereophonics Tickets, Simply Red Tickets or even Barry Manilow Tickets then you’ll be able to find them at this site.
If you’re in the UK – Bookmark this page NOW – as its really useful so you can know what is coming up, and how to get tickets to the shows at the best possible prices.
Viagogo has tickets to all the Major Pop and Rock concerts like Bryan Adams, Madonna, George Michael, Nickelback, Simply Red and Status Quo, not to mention the big names in the Indie scene as well – bands like Coldplay, REM, The Killers and More.
Not only can you buy tickets at Viagogo – it also supplies a secure online marketplace for you to sell or trade your tickets to major events.
As well as concert tickets, you can also get tickets to Major Sporting Events, such as the 2009 Ashes Cricket Series, Wimbledon Tennis and Formula One.
So for UK visitors this site offers amazing number of tickets to major events. For international audience you can sell tickets through this website to your event, but I couldn’t find too many international events listed.
So make an effort to get out and see your favourite bands and drummers LIVE – Ask yourself the brutal truth – when did you last go and see a concert or gig? Was it this year? Was it last year or even a few years ago. Go and see music live as it should be heard – its definitely worth it!
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Topics: Site Reviews | No Comments »
youtube drumming competition - win a drum set and accellerate your drumming career
By kevin | July 30, 2008
I’ve just discovered a brand new contest, where you can win a trip to Hollywood
This is one just for US Drummers, so living in Australia I can’t enter this personally - but if it was here its certainly something I’d be into.
If you do live in the US - all you need to do is head down to your local Music Store (one that is a Dixon dealer) and record a short video of yourself playing a brand new Dixon Demon Drum Kit.
The public will vote to decide the top 6 entries to be submitted to an A&R panel in Hollywood who will declare a Grand Prize winner. The Grand Prize winner will win a 3-day/2-night trip for two to Hollywood, CA and perform with studio musicians live in front of an A&R panel at a major recording studio! The performance will be filmed and featured on the A&R Channel on television! The winner will also get to talk music and drums with the execs. Five other talented, inspiring drummers will get free gear from Dixon.
All entries must be completed and submitted by 11:59:59 p.m. ET on September 27, 2008 to be eligible for public voting and the final judging.
In addition, Dixon will present the Grand Prize winner with a Dixon Outlaw Series 7-piece drum set and a full complement of hardware (ARV: $10,000). The five runner-ups will each receive a Dixon snare drum (ARV: $300). Be sure to check out the full contest rules so your video is submitted properly and gets posted for voting.
The best thing about this is that its not a mainstream type competition - Anyone can do it, and it could be a fantastic break for you to get kick started in your drumming career.
For more information check out the video below or contact www.dixondrums.net
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Topics: Announcements, Drum Kit, Drum Set, Drum Technique | No Comments »