Hi everyone… I’m pleased to announce here the publication of a guest-post for Ariel Hyatt’s ‘Music Success in Nine Weeks’ blog, about the re-launch of her blogging contest – check it out by clicking on the banner below!

… Also, I’ve just put up a new post on my Fearless Creativity blog, so feel free to check that out as well: Fearless Creativity; All In The Family…

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.
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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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I’m not sure if there’s any way to back this up, but my impression is that most people seem to think about balance as a state – either a person or thing is in a state of balance, or not.

I’d like to propose that balance is better thought of as a process.

I am not a tightrope walker by any stretch, but I’ve always been able to balance quite well on railings and so on. It has often struck me that in doing so, when it’s going well at least, I have the feeling of being constantly but slightly off-balance to one side or the other – but never too much so.

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Meet Mister Fear (perhaps you know him already?)

In this week’s issue, our hero finally meets his arch-nemesis face to face… and with astounding courage and lightning speed, leaps up and strips away the mask from his terrifying visage, revealing fear’s true face…