Week 4 of the Music Success in Nine Weeks course covers social networking. It’s the longest and meatiest chapter so far, not surprisingly as this topic has in a short time become an absolutely essential component of marketing – not just music, of course, but just about anything – and it is growing in importance daily. Ariel covers several of the major networks in some detail, offering strategies and tactics and some specific resources for getting more out of each.

The course also links to some introductory videos at Commoncraft.com, which do a great job of introducing the basic concepts and the major platforms in clear, straightforward presentations. It would be both difficult and pointless to try to do it better than they have, which is presumably why Ariel has linked to them, and so I will follow her lead. If you don’t know what I’m on about, go there.

Instead, I’ll give my spin on what social networking means to a musician who wants to get some value out of it without getting lost in what is, frankly, a bit of a jungle. I’ll preface this by revealing that I am actually quite new to the whole phenomenon, having dismissed and avoided it until quite recently. Oh well – better late than never, and I’m learning fast… Read the rest of this entry »

I spend a lot of time with my little boy. He’s pretty great, and everyone tells us he’s their favorite toddler (obviously he’s ours), but I’m pretty sure he’s exactly as special as every other almost-three-year old, which is to say amazingly, unimaginably special. I figure he probably does much the same stuff they all do. Which is to say, he plays. And I play with him, as often as I can between the dishes and the laundry and such. I also watch… and learn.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom I’ve distilled from observing (usually in jealous awe) his effortless, totally un-self-conscious creative play. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Darius Baužys

As per previous ‘contest entry’ posts, this one focuses on my progress through a specific chapter of the ‘Music Success in Nine Weeks’ book. I’m a little behind schedule, for various reasons – I’m not a very linear person, for starters – but definitely making progress. Progress is good.

So. Chapter 3 is about web optimization. Now, I suspect my internet presence is a bit more complex than that of most musicians… partly because I am attracted to complexity (some might say I have ‘complexity issues’…), which is something I am trying to work on in terms of presentation… but also because I have a lot of albums and a number of ongoing projects to present.

Furthermore, I’ve been doing this online music thing for a long time. I’m not saying that this makes me any better at it than anyone else, or that I have been doing it particularly effectively – quite the contrary in fact, which is one reason I’ve undertaken this course.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ok let’s have another go at this. I’ve announced this now in a few other places, but for anyone who might have missed it:

‘Symmetricity‘, my online novel-with-a-soundtrack, has now fully and completely launched and Chapter 1 is live and ready for your reading / listening / viewing pleasure. Click the picture at left to check it out!

Symmetricity is a love letter to the piano and to the city of Berlin. It’s about music, and creativity, and family, and the way the brain works, and the nature of self and reality. It combines mystery, magic realism and metafiction, along with music that intersects the story itself.

Symmetricity has been in development for over 5 years. It is being released online in four formats: downloadable PDF, online flash ebook, audio podcast and videoblog.

Enjoy… and have a fascinating day! Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Matt McGee

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I used to pitch in little league baseball. I wasn’t a great pitcher. Pete Byers, our first call, was a great pitcher. I was the reliever. Normally I played third base; I was a pretty good third baseman. Third base is all about the turnaround – like the guy on first, you have to be able to catch anything in your general vicinity, but then you have to turn it around FAST and accurate to make the double-play.

Pitching is different. Pitching is psychological. Pitching is about speed and control, yes, but it’s also about confounding expectations – faking the batter out. You have to be as fast and accurate as a laser, yes, you have to know exactly where you want to put the ball and be able to nail it every time, like a Zen archer… but you also have to give it a twist, change it up, do something just a little unexpected.

The second chapter of Music Success in Nine Weeks (here we go) is about crafting the perfect pitch, and although we are talking about marketing here, a subject into which I claim no special insight, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that the lessons of the baseball mound might very well apply.
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