Between the Music

I've Moved!

2009-05-27T14:43:00.005-04:00

Thank you for following my blog here at Between The Music. Ever since starting this blog, I started thinking about incorporating it into my website, and I've finally taken that step. The writing that I have been doing here will now take place directly at the new and improved:

http://www.cameronmizell.com

If you'd like to continue following my posts, you may update your RSS feed or subscribe by email with these links:

Thanks again for your continuous support and comments thus far. See you at the new website!

Seth Godin - Eternal September

2009-05-21T12:05:00.002-04:00

I don't normally repost other people's blogs in their entirety, but I like this recent Seth Godin post too much to not share it:

Eternal September

Our story so far...
Back in the 1960s, TV shows took great pains to catch you up on what had happened so far. Batman spent a minute or so recapping last week's story. So did The Fugitive. The thought was that while most people had seen the show just seven days ago, what about the people who missed it?
Fifteen years ago, someone coined the term, Eternal September. Because each September sees an entire crop of freshman showing up at college, you need to assume that you have to start teaching protocols all over again. Once a year, it's a whole new audience, and they need to learn the ropes.
The Internet has been stuck in September ever since. Every day, new people show up at your blog, on Facebook, everywhere. Every day it's a whole new crop that need to figure out what RSS is and how to subscribe. Every day there are people who spam their address book because it feels like a fine thing to do, then learn their lesson and never do it again. There are new people who need to learn the proper etiquette for interacting on your site. Can you imagine if the real world worked this way? If people walking into your store had never been to a store before? If drivers on the highway had never driven on a highway before?
It's going to be a long time before the medium stabilizes enough for the newbies to catch up, so the only alternative is to accept that it's always September.

Last week I listened to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass for the first time. I've been exploring more of the individual Beatles' solo albums recently, along with a couple friends that I work with about once a week. It just goes to show that, even for the Beatles, there are people out there that will hear your music for the first time more than 30 years after you made it. There's an endless supply of fans out there.

Collaboration

2009-05-07T09:25:00.000-04:00

Over the past year, I've been working with more people on different projects. In all cases, there is no boss. No deadlines other than what we set for ourselves. No standards other than what everyone involved agrees is best. Nothing is done until everyone says it's done.

Writing music is generally a very private activity. The ideas that form in your head usually marinate in there for a while, and you play with different possibilities each time you pick up your instrument or whenever you find yourself alone to think. By the time anyone else hears your new tune, you've probably spent 100+ hours on it. At least, that's how it usually works with me.

When collaborating, new ideas are immediately judged by whoever you're working with. You have to trust those people enough to be seen artistically naked. Either somebody likes your idea and starts to work with it, or your idea simply gets ignored. There's little room for ego, and a lot of room to take risks. The worst that can happen is your craziest idea just gets ignored.

Everyone I've worked with has a different style. Some people are meticulous with every note--it might work, but is it the best choice? Others work from their gut--if it feels right, it's right (and if it needs to change later, that's OK). Others come to the table knowing what they want and it's my job to first give them that, then start throwing curve balls until they realize what they really want is something else. Each approach is excellent as long as it's not closed off to new ideas.

I've learned a lot while collaborating with my friends. My ear has gotten better (ideas are usually spoken on the instrument, not by yelling out a chord). I've gotten a glimpse of how everyone else writes, and it helps get me out of jams while writing alone.

If you need to expand your creative palette, work with a friend.

Practicing

2009-04-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

This past week I've been practicing at least twice as much as my usual average. This is for a number of reasons: 1) I'm trying to learn more music. 2) Recordings of a couple recent gigs really kicked my butt. 3) And I'm just trying to force a dedicated practice schedule into my routine.

The last few days I've been working on some new concepts. Ideas that keep popping in my head while performing, but I'm never able to execute them (see #2 above). The first three days of working on these concepts was like pulling teeth. My own teeth. The patterns were somewhat awkward to play on guitar, there are countless variations that confuse my brain and my fingers, and it has to be played really fast to sound right. It's just supposed to be a flurry of notes--something I hardly do when I improvise but want to have in my bag for the right moments. I stopped and asked myself everyday, "Is this worth it? Will it even sound good?"

This morning it all just clicked, at least after priming the pump a little. I could throw it into the right spots during a solo and it sounds great, exactly how I've been hearing it in my head.

The lesson here is an old one. Don't give up. I talked about it with my buddy Dave today, and he described practicing music as a set of stairs, not a ramp. It's a series of walls and plateaus. You bang your head against a wall for a while and then one morning, if you've stuck to it long enough, you'll get up to the next plateau.

If you're a beginner, you face the same obstacles as somebody that's played for 20 years. We're just in different places along an endless staircase. Whether your victory is finally getting that bar chord to sound right or you've finally mastered your melodic minor modes, we can all relate to each other. Keep putting in the hours.

Head Down, Plowing Through

2009-04-22T20:23:00.005-04:00

I've started another recording project, this time with vocalist Erika Lloyd, who fronts an indie rock band called Little Grey Girlfriend. We're doing a set of cover songs. While we haven't scheduled a formal release date, I think we're on pace to finish recording by the end of May, so it may be available by early July.

Erika and I met in Bloomington, Indiana. We were in the same music theory class at IU. She also lived down the street from me, just off campus. We got to be pretty good friends, and then she moved to NYC shortly and me. Her boyfriend also happens to be Brad Whiteley, who plays in my trio and appears on a couple of my albums. It sometimes makes me feel old to think about having "couple friends," but Brad and Erika are definitely one of Jill and my best couple friends. It's nice to have such talented friends, and even nicer to be able to work with them.

So far we've tracked for six songs:

"Creep" by Radiohead
"Heart of Glass" by Blondie
"Hey" by The Pixies
"Nobody Home" by Pink Floyd
"One Caress" by Depeche Mode
"The Fool On The Hill" by The Beatles

On deck we have:

"Everything Means Nothing To Me" by Elliot Smith
"Faith" by George Michael
"Soul Love" by David Bowie
"Alabama Song" by The Doors
"Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" by Stevie Wonder
"All I Want" by Joni Mitchell
"Cherry Coloured Funk" by Cocteau Twins

Once we get into the mixing phase I'll start posting the works in progress for preview. But so far things are sounding pretty good and we're having a great time in the process.

Twitter CD Giveaway, Spring Cleaning

2009-04-09T06:22:00.002-04:00

The other day I woke up and looked at my cat sitting on top of a stack of six unopened boxes of CDs. She climbs up there first by hopping on a bench, then stepping on a stack of four unopened boxes of CDs before reaching the summit. These boxes have been sitting there for nearly two years, long enough to blend into the background and become cat furniture. There's almost 1,000 CDs in those boxes.

The nice thing is I actually got rid of just as many. I ordered 2,000 digipaks of Life Is Loud back in 2007 with the thought that a few hundred could go to press, radio, booking, and any other promotional purpose a good looking, physical package might give you an edge. I mailed a ton of freebies, and sold hundreds of others.

Initially, I wanted to sell these myself--taking orders through PayPal or accepting checks by mail. I made many trips to the post office, and in Brooklyn that gets old really quick. I started sending traffic to my album's page on CD Baby, but believe it or not, I've only sold a measly 46 through them. That's not their fault though, it's simply a matter of less demand for CDs by the time I started sending traffic that direction.

Nearly two years after it's release, Life Is Loud sells about 7 albums a week, mostly digital downloads. That's not a lot, but if you look at the facts, it's still pretty damn good. I'm not really doing much to directly promote that album. I play mostly new music at gigs, which are less frequent because I'm getting ready to record a new album. Most of my efforts online are simply to raise awareness of me, Cameron Mizell, the guitarist. The musician. And oh yeah, and I have some albums over here you might be interested in checking out.

So how can I get rid of a few CDs and get people to notice me? I have a bunch of people following me on Twitter, I wonder how many of them would like one?

I've been using Twitter since last summer. I don't use it to promote or sell anything. Actually, that's a lie. If you know me--if you've been reading this blog or my articles at MusicianWages.com or even following me on Twitter--you know I can't help but try to use the internet to bring people to my music. But it's really a form of pre-selling. I might get into that another time, but not now.

The point is, I've got a fairly sizeable group of people that I interact with on Twitter. I like them, and they put up with me pretty well. The next step was to engage them in a way that would:

1) Teach me something about them.
2) Help them learn something about me.
3) Get rid of some of those CDs.

My solution? Trivia!

Every day at noon I ask a question about anything I find interesting. The first person to answer correctly gets a free CD. So far one question was about Bootsy and Catfish Collins, another about Take Five being the first jazz single to be a million seller. Finding out who knows the answer helps me learn a little more about them. And the point is never to stump everyone, rather to just get them to play the game. While the first correct answer is technically the winner, if somebody answers correctly every day but never gets their answer in first, I'll probably send them a CD just for playing.

After asking some general questions that tell me about you (mostly, are you interested in the same things as me?), I can ask questions that tell you about me. Since any of these questions can be answered by doing an internet search, why not create questions that will ultimately drive people to my website looking for the answers?

This will only work if people care to play. If you use Twitter to constantly bombard people with information about what you do professionally or try to push your product on them, everything you say is just noise.

Chris Brogan recently wrote an article that you might have already read: Promoting Without Being That Guy. His article gave me the final nudge I needed to actually try this trivia promotion. I had been afraid that it would come off too pushy, or as a blatant marketing scheme. But in his article, Brogan lists '10 Ways to Build Relationships Before You Ask for Anything' and I realized I'd been building these relationships for many months.

Lucky for me, it's worked so far this week. I've had some fun coming up with questions and conversing with the people that come up with the answers. I've even had some nice notes from people that aren't playing but are definitely noticing, and they love the idea. I only planned on doing it through Friday, but I may bring it back in a couple weeks. Maybe somebody else will pick up the idea and give me a chance to help them clean out their apartment.

New Article @ MusicianWages.com

2009-03-23T09:18:00.000-04:00

I'm writing a series of articles on the self-released album over at MusicianWages.com. Today we posted an article titled The Self-Released Album 101: The Basics. If you're planning to release your first album yourself, I recommend reading this. I'm trying to dump everything I know from my own experiences releasing about 200 albums, from my own self-released titles to large budget albums for the Verve Music Group.

Irony, and the Small World of Jazz

2009-03-17T11:10:00.002-04:00

Almost a year ago, Life Is Loud was placed in the "New Releases" section on the iTunes jazz page. This section displays eight albums at a time on the home page, and then you can click over to the next eight, etc., for four pages of albums. As new albums are added, the older titles slide down the ladder until they fall off the last page.

Life Is Loud sold fairly well for a self-released album, reaching #31 on the iTunes jazz chart. Around that time it was added to a new feature they stuck in the middle of the jazz page, called "Major Releases." It's been there ever since, but as you can see in the picture above, it's about to get bumped.

The word "Major" can mean several things, but in the music business it typically means having to do with one of the major labels. I worked at a major label, but my album was released on my own. In fact, if you browse this small corner of the iTunes Store, most of the albums in the jazz Major Release section are not on a major label.

There are only two types of jazz I really see being released on major labels now:

1) Crossover Jazz/Vocal. These are releases that are perhaps made by artists that can play jazz, but the music on their albums is a watered down version of what they can really do. Diana Krall, who's new album was just released by my former collegues at Verve, is a great example of this. The woman can play some great jazz piano, but how long has it been since we heard anything that really turned our heads (as far as jazz musicians are concerned). There are plenty of male crooners that fall into this category as well.

Typically, if people use the word "jazzy" to describe your music, it's just another way of saying the music is "jazz-like" which is another way of saying "not quite jazz."

2) Jazz Legends. Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins... these guys can release albums on major labels because they are iconic figures among the jazz populace. People still take note when they release albums, even if their albums don't make much money for the label (though they can also make plenty of money for the label because of the relatively low marketing budgets associated with these albums).

Of course, for every jazz icon that releases an album on a major label there are many more that go the independent route. Similar to what we saw with Radiohead and Trent Reznor, these are artists that have well established reputations and large followings, so they're going to sell records even if it means fans have to go to their garage sale to buy them.

There are exceptions to both these rules, of course, but the majority of cutting edge jazz is being released on small labels or entirely independently. Jazz has been a niche genre ever since the '50s when big bands (of the swing/dance variety) started to decline in popularity and the rock'n'roll generation started listening to, well, rock'n'roll.

I'm not trying to blog a music history lesson, I'm just trying to make the point that in terms of market share, jazz has long had a small but dedicated fan base. And it gets divided even amongst the fans to even smaller sub-genres. I'm sure there are plenty jazz police who would never consider my music to be jazz. That's ok though, because there are plenty of people who like it, at least enough to sustain a dozen or so album sales every week.

Jazz used to be a bad word, but I think the current shift in music consumerism is going to change that. It turns out people are willing to listen to almost anything online, try new kinds of music and form their own opinion. Genres have always been labels given to music to help record stores organize their bins, but stores like CD Baby have been expanding their genre and sub-genre listing to help people explore very specific types of music. To most people, music is just music. Everyone is influenced by everything else, and artists shove all their influences into their heads for a while in hopes of making some kind of music that's completely unique and recognizable.

So perhaps the word "Major" will start to take on new meanings in places like the iTunes jazz page. Instead of having something to do with an album's means of release, it'll be more about the impact of the music.

Another kind of grind.

2009-03-11T10:29:00.004-04:00

This is a busy week for me, perhaps the busiest since quitting my day job last May. I have a handful of gigs and rehearsals, but I also have some writing to do and a lot of office work. I need to come up with an organized system to track my income and expenses, rather than just jotting it down and putting receipts in a folder to sort out at tax time next year. I'm also still catching up on emails after being out of town last week.

Perhaps I'm just feeling reflective this morning, but I'm beginning to settle into the routine of not really having a routine. I try to practice guitar consistently, and I make time to write music every week, but it all must remain flexible to work around whatever else comes up. I don't think there's a way to create formal structure around a freelancer's lifestyle, and I'm perfectly happy with that. I feel very comfortable in this new role.

Now I just need to keep building revenue streams so I can keep it this way!

Small Town Love

2009-03-10T12:09:00.001-04:00

Here's a video from the set Lauren and I played on the Cayamo Cruise last week after she won the open mic contest.

"I'm the guy with the Tele and hat."

2009-03-08T18:03:00.008-04:00

That's basically what I ended up telling people on the Cayamo cruise last week when asked what I do.

"I'm the guy with the Telecaster, snap shirt and hat off to the side of the cute girl singing and playing guitar."

The Cayamo cruise is essentially a singer/songwriter oriented music festival that floats around the Caribbean. There were six headliners and many more "side-stage" acts playing all day throughout different rooms of the ship.

My wife and I went this year, along with Lauren, who was also on board with her family. As many of you probably know, Lauren Zettler (pictured above) is the cute girl singing and playing guitar, next to whom you'll find me with my Tele and hat. On this cruise, many of the female singer/songwriters had a sideman that fit that description, and so it was the easiest way to describe my occupation.

While we took this trip as a vacation, it was definitely much more. We saw performances by Lyle Lovett, Patty Griffin, John Hiatt, The Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin, and Brandi Carlile as headliners, and caught shows by Kathleen Edwards, Tift Merritt, David Ryan Harris, Jim Bianco, Marc Broussard, Girlyman, Edie Carey, Ken Block, Over The Rhine, and more at various times during the trip. And because you're on a cruise ship, you run into the artists all the time. Lyle Lovett was all over the place, talking with people in the buffet while holding his tray of food. It's all just part of the experience. I could say good things about every performer, but to keep this to one post I'll just hit some of my favorites.

The Indigo Girls have the kind of career any of us should want. I don't care if you don't like their music, you can't deny that they're a couple of talented women. They write great music that stays true to their brand, and a huge fan base that seemed to dominate the ship. Every show they played brought people to their feet, even in a theater on a moving boat designed for sitting.

Kathleen Edwards was the first show I saw in the designated listening room. We walked in just after her set started to find her on stage with an acoustic guitar and a guy with a telecaster and snap shirt off to her side. Lauren looked at me and said, "That looks familiar." The guy with the tele was Colin Cripps, who ended up being my favorite sideman on the boat. Very tasty playing and added some really nice textures to Kathleen's music. Jill and I talked to them briefly after their set, and they were both very nice people. I think it's because they're from Canada, a country that seems to produce happy musicians.

Tift Merritt. If more female singer/songwriters performed like the incredibly talented, dynamic Tift Merritt, guys with Teles and hats would be out of a gig. She simply exudes a positive energy on stage, but plays as if she's holding it all back, ready to explode at any minute. Her songwriting was elegantly simple, and her dynamics and musicality more than covered for her lack of sidemen. Frankly, if I had that sideman gig, I'd probably lay out most of the time and just let her work her magic. She was on the same flight as us back to NYC, and I told her how much I enjoyed her set on the cruise while we were waiting for our bags. She was extremely friendly, as was her boyfriend Zeke, which sort of seals the deal for her newest fan.

David Ryan Harris was unknown to me prior to the cruise, but I won't soon forget his performance. We first saw him during the Indigo Girls set, when they invited him onto the stage and let him do a song all by his lonesome. During his own set at a couple days later, it was clear that whatever it is that makes some people's music so captivating, he's got it. He plays with the patience of an old soul, and you can tell his roots run deep. He's as much of a blues musician as an acoustic singer/songwriter, a great guitar player, and superb singer. At times, he reminded me of Maxwell, and then he threw in a Maxwell quote towards the end of his set.

Finally, I've got to give props to my boss, Lauren, who won an open mic contest which meant we got to play a set the following day. She gets props not because I was surprised to win, but because she pulled it all off with a head cold that was wearing down her voice. It takes a lot of energy to sing in the presence of your favorite musicians even without a cold.

The funny thing about this vacation though, was that I was excited to get home. It wasn't like I was getting away from an office or some 9-5 that's been stressing me out. I love what I do, the music on the boat inspired me to do it better, and now I'm looking forward to a week of gigs and rehearsals.

This is going to be a good year.

House Concert

2009-02-08T09:02:00.002-05:00

Lauren and I played a show last night at the Black Sheep Ranch in Clinton, CT, hosted by Andrew and Suzanne Wallach. Also playing that night was Sarah Blacker from Cambridge, MA.

I'll be honest with you, I had no idea what to expect. But coming away from the show, I have a whole new respect for well organized house concerts. There were about 30 people there, all for the single purpose of listening to the music. Because it's still cold out, we played in the living room, so it was very cozy. I actually sat on the edge of the couch while I played, so it was a lot like playing at home minus the flannel pants. We go back in July to play outside, where they say there are sometimes 50+ people filling their backyard.

Lauren sold some of her CDs, a lot of people were interested in both performers upcoming releases, signed their mailing lists, etc. Some of the guys there even noticed some of the nerdy music stuff I do when I accompany Lauren, something that doesn't usually happen. It's always kind of fun to geek out with somebody about the lack of well placed voice leading in a guitar accompaniment.

If you know of similar house concert series around you, or you live close to the Black Sheep Ranch, I suggest checking them out.

Music Mileage

2009-02-03T09:27:00.003-05:00

I spent a great deal of last weekend writing an article for MusicianWages.com. It felt like it was sucking the life out of me because the whole time I was trying to find the right words, I felt like I should have been playing guitar. The article is really just about getting to work. Tackling those things that seem impossible, or finally doing the small, simple tasks that you put off just because they take time.

I used to be a competitive distance runner, and sometimes getting up at 5 to get an extra few miles in before class seemed like a waste of energy, but no matter how bad I felt on the run, I knew I was getting better than the guys that were sleeping in. It's not always about running faster than the competition, it's about running more. As long as you're putting in the miles, you'll see results.

Lauren Zettler's new EP

2009-01-27T19:54:00.002-05:00

I've been working a new EP with Lauren Zettler. You can pre-order it from her here. We're in the home stretch. It's been a very cool, laid back process. The recordings should reflect the vibe of the sessions, which means they'll be good.

This will be the fourth DIY recording I've finished in the last 18 months, and the first with vocals (though I did the Follow Through album in 2001, and recorded Matt's vocals last summer). It's impossible to compare any of them to each other, but I always feel like the most recent is the best.

So head over to Lauren's MySpace page, listen to some of her new tracks, and order the EP. It's going to be goo.

Live recording coming soon

2009-01-27T18:06:00.002-05:00

The sound guy recorded our show last night. Rose Live Music is a relatively small club, but mostly in that it’s narrow, and the stage faces across the width of the room. In other words, there’s a space to walk past the front of the stage, then a row of tables along the wall with chairs facing away from the stage and a booth style bench on the other side, looking in.

The close quarters makes you keep your volume down. For a funk band, lower volume is actually a good thing. There’s a deeper groove when you don’t hit the drums as hard, and a lot more dynamic space to build to a frenzy whenever necessary. This played in our favor, and along with an agreement to PLAY LESS, it could have been one of our best performances.

The sound engineer needs to bounce down the recording at his studio, but I have my fingers crossed it comes out nicely, because I really feel that musically, it was a step in the right direction for our group.

Play less.

2009-01-23T19:04:00.002-05:00

That's what I'm telling myself from now on. I've written before about playing rests, but I've been falling off the wagon. The other night I had a great conversation with a friend that plays some great tenor saxophone about this very thing. We talked about how Miles and Dave Liebman would just lay out for 4 or 8 bars at a time and just let the rhythm section play.

My trio has a show this Monday at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg. I intend to record it and hopefully share some of the tracks with all of you. We'll see if I'm able to execute.

Speaking of the trio, I've nearly finished the new tune and will finish blogging about that process soon. It's coming together pretty nicely.

What's Going On?

2008-12-30T10:06:00.004-05:00

As I sit here listening to Marvin Gaye, I figured it'd be a good time to sum up some of the recent activities of this freelancer. The frequency of my blog posts has dropped considerably these last two months, but that's actually a sign of being busy, not a lack of things to discuss.

For starters, you probably know I've been working on a website with my friend Dave Hahn. I've been trying to brainstorm new articles for that site as well as find more guest writers to share their stories as musicians.

I've also been recording with Lauren Zettler, a process that has influenced a few posts here. We're shooting to have an EP done by the end of January.

And of course I'm writing a lot of music. Not only for my new album, but also for Collective Pursuit and some songs that seem to be just for the hell of it, not really sure where they'll end up. This song is still in the works although I haven't done much work on it since I started traveling for the holidays.

Speaking of Collective Pursuit, I've been arranging some of the tunes from Life Is Loud for the larger ensemble. Currently I'm working on "Chester Bustamante." When I first came to NYC, I was re-arranging music for an octet to be played by a trio, but now I get to go the other direction. I'm finding this process a whole lot easier.

You can also find me on some other social networking sites like Twitter and now Tumblr. Twitter is where I'll post some short, random thoughts or links I find interesting. Tumblr is something I'm still trying to figure out, but for the time being I'm posting an mp3 everyday. Each track is something I've worked on. It ranges from Life Is Loud to the hip hop band I played in back in college.

Finally, the holidays are a good way to stay busy. My wife and I spent a week in St. Louis with our families and friends, and are now in San Antonio visiting her dad. It's amazing to see how things change with time. We're still close to many of our high school friends (in fact, my wife and I started dating 11 years ago, while we were in high school). These are people that really feel like extended family, in that you start moving in different directions and maybe don't have that much in common after a while, but you still love each other and enjoy hanging out together. These are the people that inspire and encourage me to keep doing all this. I'll probably reflect more on 2008 later, but for now, let's just say it's been a tumultuous year and I'm looking forward to smoother sailing in 2009.

Thanks for reading.

Recording, Releasing, and Performing Cover Songs

2008-12-29T23:04:00.002-05:00

Here's a recent article I wrote on using cover songs as a means to connect with your audience and help boost your sales.

My Hidden Funk Band Agenda

2008-12-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with Collective Pursuit for about 6 months now have a secret agenda to turn it into my new funk band. That's not to say it will replace my trio, but I'm starting to do more writing for the larger ensemble along with arranging many of my trio tunes for the group.

When I was in Indiana, I had a similar group which recorded in 2004. Those recordings make up most of my first album. I've pulled out several of those tunes and updated them for the group so far. The rest of the tunes on that album are with my old trio, which at the time was guitar/bass/drums. Those were more straight ahead jazz tunes.

I love the energy of a larger funk band, with poppin' horns and a deep bass groove. But upon moving to NYC, my plans of reforming the funk band met with the daunting reality of organizing the group (many props to Katie Chauvot for organizing and running Collective Pursuit for doing just that). So I ended up putting a trio together and for the love of funk, re-arranged some of my charts for the trio.

Then I got around to writing strictly for the trio, and that's how Life Is Loud was born. I've grown to love playing jazz/funk in my trio. There's fewer lines of communication and therefore fewer boundaries while improvising. When the tune abandons the ink, it's generally a sign things are taking off, not crashing because half the band is lost.

But after writing some funky new jams with James Brown inspired horn lines for Collective Pursuit, I remember why I went to all that trouble to organize the funk band in Indiana. I have definite plans to release a new trio album in 2009, but who knows, maybe I'll be adding a straight up funk record to the agenda as well.

To find out when Collective Pursuit is playing, check my calendar.

"Untitled" Progress report

2008-12-16T00:32:00.002-05:00

It was a busy weekend, with gigs Friday and Sunday and a Christmas party on Saturday. Not to say I wasn't writing, but I wasn't writing for this tune. In fact, I came out of the weekend with three more ideas: a funk tune for Collective Pursuit, another possible trio tune, and something else that would work in a singer/songwriter context. Who knows when I'll complete those ideas, but I'm hoping to do a good bit of composing and arranging over the holidays.

The point of writing tonight is just to point out that this is part of the creative process. It's probably similar for a lot of people. It's impossible to just work on one idea at a time. If I narrowed my focus to just this one tune, I'd miss out on some potentially great ideas. Balancing all of these, along with whatever other work I may be doing, is the real challenge. Multi-tasking is one thing, but multi-composing can really max out your mental capacity, at least for half your brain.

"Untitled" - New Song in Progress

2008-12-12T00:32:00.000-05:00

Last night a new idea came to me. I'm never sure where these ideas come from, but it's probably a combination of the music I listen to all the time mixed together, combined with my constant revisiting of the material I've already written for the new album. It all gets mixed together and the ideas come to me while I'm in the shower.

The idea last night, like most of these ideas, hits me as a complete tune. Sort of like instant improvisation, where I just hear the whole band playing the chart and everything locking together, including the solos. It's similar to having a song stuck in your head, but it's a song you've never heard, or at least don't think you've heard. The trick is to hone in on the heart of the tune and replay it in my head for a while. As soon as I wash the shampoo out of my hair, I run to my notepad and jot down the idea.

Sometimes the heart of the tune is the guitar part, melody, a certain riff, whatever. This time it was the drum part, with a little bit of a bass line mixed in. I wrote this down before I went to bed:

And another beat:

This is pretty common for me. I get two ideas, one usually a response to the other. The first beat is the "A" section. I'll probably start this tune with just drums playing that beat to set up the groove. I'm generally pretty liberal about the hi-hat part, and this tune is no exception. Quarter notes feel right for the time being, but as we break it in, I'll let Kenneth do whatever he wants.

The beat is without a doubt influenced by Clyde Stubblefield and the beat to James Brown's "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" which I've transcribed before. In JB's tune, the hits are on 2 & 3, similar to my "A" section. I moved the hits up to 1 & 2 for the "B" section. However, the tempo is brighter and I often shift my back beat off beat 4 of the first measure of a two bar phrase. I mean, let's face it. That's just funky. I also feel it moves the music forward through anticipation. Similarly, the 16th notes on beat 4 of the second measure in the "A" section (that's a mouthful) will create a lot of energy. Or noise. We'll see.

Today I got up and played the beat a few times on my imaginary drum set. The bass line, which will probably be initially doubled by the guitar, started coming back to me. I didn't write it out the night before because it simply wasn't sticking with me. This morning, the idea morphed slightly. I manipulated it a little more to create a more interesting (yet subtle) chord progression as well. Here's the bass line for the "A" section:

There would be a C-7 on the first bar, Ab-6 on bar one "and" of 4, and E9(#11)/G# on beat 3 of the second measure. That just changes the colors slightly. I chose these chords in part to tie into another song that'll be on the album. It moves from an Ab minor sound to the E lydian dominant sound. I will be working some other thematic material from some of my other new tunes as well. That's all part of tying this album together as a complete thought.

Tomorrow I'll spend a little time developing the melody for the "A" section and maybe figure out what I want to happen over the "B" section as well.

If you're not yet bored out of your mind, I'd just like to add that when the next Coldplay album comes out, please listen closely for any of these motifs! I need to retire somehow...

Making of a New Album

2008-12-11T16:33:00.007-05:00

I've been writing the music for my new album for a while now (this is for the jazz/funk organ trio), but it happens in spurts. First two tunes, then three more, and now I feel another rush of creativity coming on. This time, I'm going to walk through my process of composing music for my trio. I have no idea how this will work out. I could end up scrapping the idea before it's done. Either way, you'll get to see me nitpick every rhythm and note and be happy you don't live with me while I work through the creative process.

My next album is, for lack of a better term, a concept album. Life Is Loud was a reflection of my move to New York City, and while I approached each tune with the same frame of mind, I didn't fully understand what I was writing until halfway through. Also, I wrote several of those tunes for a guitar/bass/drums trio instead of guitar/organ/drums. So I wasn't using the instrumentation to it's full potential.

The new album is a reflection of my roots and influences. I grew up in St. Louis, which is a river town. Culturally, it's similar to other Midwest towns like New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and many smaller towns along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. A lot of great American music was born, developed, or flourished in this part of the country. Many influential writers and artists come from these towns. I'm also reflecting on the influences from my childhood, from the years I spent tap dancing (thank you Mom), to the books I read (thank you Parkway North English department), to the music I listened to (thank you... Metallica?).

I'm hoping this album will help me define my voice as a guitarist and composer. The actual tunes themselves, as they appear on the page, are only the beginning. They are really just outlines or guides for the band to explore. Brad Whiteley and Kenneth Salters have a pretty big role in the way things will ultimately turn out. I write for them, and take their feedback on every tune.

So here we go! Shall we see what happens?

Unknowning Fans as Unknowning Publicist

2008-12-08T08:19:00.002-05:00

I'm going to try an experiment.

It dawned on me the other night that the press mailings I did when Life Is Loud was released were incredibly ineffective. The first mailing of about 40 CDs, sent to very specific writers who write about my kind of band/music/guitar playing produced a handful of reviews and pretty much zilch increase in sales or internet traffic. More importantly, the whole point of these mailings was to spread the word about the album, not to the writers, but to the potential fans out there. Hello? You out there?

So here's my experiment. Writers, you're fired. Not that you cared in the first place. Instead, I'm going to see if I can find a dozen or so regular people out there that would like my music, and ask if I can send them a copy for free. In exchange, I just want to know what they think.

If I'm able to look at somebody's internet presence (Facebook, MySpace, blog, Twitter, Last.fm, etc.) and determine that they would probably like my music, I'm betting that they would be more likely to spread the word on their own. I'm not asking them to blog about the music, but if they write a blog, chances are good they just might do it (what else do we blog about?).

I'm not looking for friends who blog, I'm looking for bloggers that don't know me who fit the M.O. of a Cameron Mizell fan.

I mentioned this to a couple friends, and they didn't quite get it. "Shouldn't we be doing this anyway?" Well, kind of. But I'm looking for people kind of like me. If John Scofield personally sent me his next album and wanted my opinion (ahem), I would not only tell him, but I'd share the experience with friends. Not that I'm Sco, but if somebody hadn't heard of me and all of a sudden I wanted to send them my CD, I bet they'd want to figure out who I am, and what's wrong with me.

All I have to lose is a few CDs that would otherwise end up in the abyss of journalists' desks.

What can we learn from Christmas music?

2008-12-01T06:18:00.001-05:00

As soon as the dishes are cleared from Thanksgiving, many people cue up the Christmas music. Maybe there's a nap somewhere in between.

My wife is one of those people that loves Christmas music, because of the nostalgic feelings that surround the most wonderful time of the year. To envoke nostalgia, you usually want to hear the same music you heard growing up, or at least the music you've heard in the past that is tied to those happy feelings. Therefore, we end up listening to the same few albums over and over again.

I tend to look for variety. I have no problem with Christmas music, but I like hearing new ideas, new songs, and avoid too much repetition. That's not to say I don't have my favorites. I could sing every lick Vince Guaraldi plays on A Charlie Brown Christmas just like I know Kind Of Blue like the back of my hand. But because I'm a musician, I probably process the music differently than my wife (although she has a strong background in music herself).

Christmas music is the gold mine of specialty music for both of these reasons. Bing Crosby's classic White Christmas will sell for eternity, passed generation to generation through nostalgia. But at the same time, there will be ridiculous amounts of new Christmas music being recorded and released, and it will sell because there are people who want to hear something different.

To successfully capture some of that nostalgia, new Christmas music needs to become a part of somebody's tradition. That's not something you can market. But it is something that can grow with time through a persistent presence every holiday season.

This has never been easier than with today's technology. When we play music around our apartment, it's usually off one of our computers. I have a Christmas playlist that holds all the music we like to listen to, both Jill's classic favorites and the slightly more obscure titles I like to hear for variety. Set it to shuffle and we're all happy.

The rest of the year, there's plenty of other music to listen to. Plenty new releases to explore. Can we learn anything from the trends around the holiday?

I think so. The music people listen to around Christmas is usually serving a purpose. Nostalgia is one. Atmosphere is another. Participation (caroling) is another. The music becomes tradition. It represents a moment in time.

What can your music represent? What might people do listening to your music? What kind of tradition might your music play an important (or relatively minor) role? Can it be embraced as part of an existing tradition because it adds variety to the status quo?

Congratulations Ben and Ann!

2008-11-29T13:11:00.004-05:00

My cousin, Ben, got married yesterday. I wasn't able to attend because my wife and I couldn't make it back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year. But my brother, an excellent photographer, took pictures at their wedding. Here's one shot of the bride he posted on his blog.

Ben is a Marine, and will be headed to the Middle East soon (part of the reason the wedding was the day after Thanksgiving). That kind of make missing the wedding a little more disappointing, but I'm sure I'll see them soon and can offer my congratulations in person.

Sequence

2008-11-26T18:04:00.003-05:00

Today I've been listening to some music that I recently added to my iTunes library. Conveniently, all I have to do is click on the Recently Added smart playlist and hit play. But after a few tracks I realized the albums were playing in reverse order, because the last tracks are imported more recently. A couple of the albums were compilations of blues musicians. These are typically sequenced in chronological order, so I found myself hearing the newest cuts first, and then moved back in time to earlier material. I don't think I've ever listened in this manner, and it grabbed my attention.

While many pop oriented artists are starting to release digital singles and EPs in place of full albums, I find myself scratching my head a little. Is the idea to only offer the good songs and do away with the filler tracks? Do you still play the filler tracks live? Sure, nobody wants to be forced to buy filler material to get the good songs, but I've got a great solution: Don't write it. If you write a bunch of great music, package it together as an album, and sell it for a decent price, your fans will feel like they're getting a deal when they buy 14 songs on iTunes for $9.99.

One of the albums I listened to today, in reverse order was Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. You'd fight an uphill battle to say that album has filler tracks. They're not all hits, but they're all very good.

I think full albums with a well thought out sequence are absolutely still valid today. The problem is not the buying patterns of consumers, but the artistic vacuum known as the bottom line. We know CD sales plummetted in part because they were overpriced and full of crappy music. But what made the sales surge in the first place, for this and every format?

Not well constructed business plans. Not brilliant marketing people. Not innovations in distribution or production.

I'm pretty sure it was simply a matter of good music.

Blog: A Musician's Journey

2008-11-25T11:42:00.002-05:00

Christopher Lars Carlson is smart. I stumbled across his blog this morning and liked everything he's written. He thinks the way I try to think (not sure if that's a compliment), and his approach is kind of similar to mine.

If you've ever found anything interesting in my blog, you'll find much more at his:

A Musician's Journey

Happy reading.

Textures, Pt. 2

2008-11-24T06:33:00.001-05:00

Last week I started writing about using textures to take your playing to a new level of musicality. For starters, we should always look for the inner voices in a piece of music, and then adjust tone and timbre through slight adjustments to our playing techniques.

That first part is very important because it's about using what you have before relying on effects or other equipment to manipulate your sound. For most of us, money is going to limit what kind of equipment we'll have, so we may never have exactly what we think we need to get a certain texture. But even for those with huge bankrolls, there will be plenty of instances where you can't bring along all your gear. Therefore, it's always important to learn how to find the simplest solutions first, and build from there.

Now that we all know how to use the Force for good, let's talk about some of the stuff money can buy.

I'm a guitarist; my people are known for our smoke and mirrors tactics usually associated with effects. But many guitarists' signature sound is due in part to their gear, so it's worth investigating. Let's review the basics:

Acoustic guitars are made from different tonewoods and come in different body types or shapes. Knowledgeable salespeople usually match a guitarists playing style to certain types of wood and body styles because it balances out their sound. But if you're a well balanced player that can manipulate the sound with your fingers or pick, it's usually worth shopping for guitars with different tonewoods and shapes that will expand your sonic possibilities.

Electric guitars capture sound with pickups. The two basic pickup options are single coil (found on Fender Stratocasters or Telecasters) and humbuckers (found on Gibson Les Pauls and SGs). Popular opinion describes single coil pickups as having a bright, clean tone while humbuckers have a fat, warm tone.

Secondary to the pickups, wood and body type can also change the sound of an electric guitar. Archtops and hollow bodied guitars allow the top to vibrate, similar to an acoustic guitar, but with humbucking pickups. These produce a woody, warmer tone usually used by jazz or blues guitarists. Different types of wood can affect sustain and ultimately tone.

Look at some pictures of classic rock bands like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones and you'll see a variety of guitars on stage. Before digital effects became widely popular, using different guitars created all the tonal textures they needed.

If you can't afford a new guitar, sometimes a cheap, used guitar that's been beat up a bit can give you a unique sound. I have a few in my collection, and while I don't use them live, they've been very handy in recording situations.

Next, you've got amplifiers. Most people are going to tell you tube amps are the way to go. Frankly, the only time you can argue against that is when a solid state amp can do well enough to save yourself the trouble of dragging a tube amp to the gig. I recently spent a good amount of money on a Class A tube amp, and while I don't understand all the technology behind it, I do understand the wide range of tones I can create. In general, I'd recommend a simple but well built tube amp over any digital amp simulator. Nothing tops the genuine tube sound, and if you put a decent EQ between your guitar and amp, you can mimic most classic amp sounds.

Everything other than your technique, guitar, and amp is just details. But textures are often created in the details.

I've always considered myself a guitar-to-amp guy, but I ended up with a decent collection of effects pedals. My favorite effect is the vibrato on my amp, not pictured below, but here's a rundown of what you see on my pedalboard: Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah, Electro-Harmonix Mini QTron envelope filter, ProCo Turbo Rat distortion, Boss Giga-Delay (with an FS-5U pedal I use to tap tempos), Boss Flanger, Boss EQ, Ernie Ball Volume.
I can create more sounds than I'll ever use with this rig, and when I use it, I use it sparingly. In most live situations, I'll change my tone by switching channels on my amp, changing pickups, adjusting my tone and volume knobs, and picking closer to the bridge or neck. But with my trio, I often take it a step further using my pedal board. The wah-wah and envelope filter pedals allow me to quickly sweep a wider EQ range. The distortion and flanger color the tone. I usually only use the EQ pedal when I'm dealing with a house amp. The giga-delay lets me program four different pre-sets. I'll use some light delay during some solos, and then I've got some wacky settings for taking things out. Psychadelic jazz doesn't happen without some enablers.

The trick is to know when to use these options. Django Reinhardt made legendary music without any of these effects. Jimi Hendrix practically played effects like they were an instrument all their own. Yet if you took everything away from Hendrix, he still sounded like Hendrix. Jazz guitarists Pat Metheny and John Scofield both have very distinct tones on electric guitar. Yet both have recorded acoustic albums, and their playing is immediately recognizable. In fact, every great artist has at some point recorded or performed acoustically and maintained their unique sound.

The point is to use your textures to suplement musicality, not replace it all together. Learn how to manipulate your sound organically first, and then introduce some other effects to alter your tone even greater. Used tastefully and with a strong musical purpose, textures will add new depth to your songs.

Textures, Pt. 1

2008-11-17T07:09:00.000-05:00

My latest kick in writing or playing music has been experimenting with textures. This actually isn't a new thing, but I'm spending more time at home, on my own, trying to figure out ways to play the same passage differently.

For starters, a song needs to be good. If your tune is lame in it's most naked form, it's going to be lame no matter what smoke and mirrors you apply. My yard stick is my wife. If I write a tune for my trio and have been honing the melody for a while, and then hear her humming it later that night, mission accomplished.

The next step is adding texture. How can I make the "A" section sound different from the "B" section? Do I need a bridge or vamp to add more interest? Who plays the melody? Is it doubled? Is everybody playing?

Since my trio is basically an electric jazz ensemble, many of our textures happen on the spot, but I try to write some of it into the music. I think one of the problems a lot of people have with jazz music is that it kind of sounds the same to them start to finish. The same instruments and sounds and feel basically the whole time. It's really easy for someone like me to forget about this perspective because my ear picks up on the other things happening. Specifically, what the soloist is doing.

When it comes to the other music I make, very specific textures play a larger role. Take, for example, a chord progression of G to D. Repeat. Ad nauseum. There are many great songs written with these exact two chords. Lyrics and melody definitely create interest, but what can you do to pull it away from the Kumbaya-fireside-I-learned-this-song-from-online-tabs sound?

A lot.

First, take stock of how the song is performed. Most of the time I'm playing with somebody else who can play guitar and sing. I can play a variety of instruments, sometimes at the same time. At least in theory, it's physically possible. I've got some practicing to do.

But I always start with what I do best, the guitar. I start with playing inner voices on the guitar. Then it's a matter of rhythm and attack. Fingers or pick? Strum or pluck simultaneously?

Next comes tone. Acoustic or electric guitar? There are many ways to change your tone before using various effects pedals, so I do whatever I can with a straight, clean tone (the fewer effects I use, the less I have to drag to the gig!). Right and left hand position make a huge difference here.

With your left hand (or whichever you use on the fretboard) the further up the neck you voice a chord, the shorter the string becomes. I call this choking up, like a baseball player. But if your other guitar player is playing in a lower position on the neck, choking up will create a distinctive tone and prevent the music from getting too muddy.

Your right hand has even more control. Pick close to the bridge and the tone gets "tinny" while the picking close to or even over the frets produces a "warmer" tone. You can also change your angle of attack by flat picking or using the edge of the pick for a smoother release. I try to maintain my fingernails on my right hand, which has come in handy many time. If I shape them right, it's like having five guitar picks. Each has it's own tonal character as well, just because they grow differently. This is where some classical chops come in handy, even though I rarely play classical music.

I'll expand further on effects and other instruments I've found helpful in future posts. For now, just playing with an acoustic guitar should keep you busy!

Does your artist name make a difference?

2008-11-14T06:43:00.001-05:00

Flipping through my iTunes library today, I noticed that most of my 6,376 tracks are by artists whose names are in the first half of the alphabet.

This could be quickly filed as a useless statistic, except I don't think I favor that end of the alphabet. For all the Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen I have, I've got more Stan Getz. I've got a lot of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix, but I also have plenty of The Meters, Miles Davis, and Radiohead. (And it's worth noting that for people, iTunes organizes by FIRST name, where a store organizes by LAST name.)

The difference is in the bands with an album or less in my collection. Those are the groups I wanted to try out. Buy a little, see if I like it, maybe buy some more later.

The music in my library comes from four sources, more or less in this order by quantity:

1) A few hundred CDs that I bought in an actual store, which I keep in some of those big folders.
2) Music that I bought online, mostly as downloads, a few from Amazon or CD Baby.
3) Music from friends, either by ripping their CDs or mp3s they send me.
4) CDs I got while working at Verve, either for free or at an employee discount.

Believe it or not, I never did any massive free downloading. I just never wanted all that junk on my computer. And despite all the free music I got from work, and the huge options I have amongst my friends music, it makes up a pretty small fraction of the music on my computer.

So I have to wonder whether or not there's some reason for this? Am I (are we?) conditioned to start at the beginning and work our way back? If we find something we like by the time we get to the J's, do we buy it before getting to the Z's? Is there a disadvantage? Does the internet help or hurt the issue?

Tonight @ Europa Night Club

2008-11-13T08:53:00.002-05:00

Tonight my trio will perform at Europa Night Club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's a night of groove focused jazz/funk/jam music organized by yours truly. I could use as much support as possible, so please come on out!

Cameron Mizell Trio @ Europa Night Club
9pm - 10:30pm
Featuring Brad Whiteley on keyboards and Kenneth Salters on drums

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Lyrics

2008-11-10T07:47:00.001-05:00

I can write melodies.
I can write harmonies.
I can write chord progressions.
I can write rhythm.
I can arrange all this together and turn it into a song.
But damnit, I'm having a tough time writing lyrics.

I also can't sing very well, but I've been ok with that. The only part of college I couldn't get a good grade in, no matter how hard I tried, was the singing part of my aural skills and music theory classes. I can hear my voice on the wrong pitch, and just can't get it to the right one, unless it's within about four notes just below middle C, depending on how long I've been awake that day.

Never singing sort of eliminated the need to write words, so I've gotten along quite well without that skill for the last 20 years I've been playing guitar.

Now I'm going to start writing lyrics. I'm writing music with a friend, and we need to both bring ideas to the music. In order to veto his lyrics, I need my own ideas. Plus, I just want to be able to do it. Do I really need a reason?

I doubt I'll ever be a poet like Dylan or Mitchell, or a storyteller like Springsteen, but I've heard enough Kiss to know lyrical content doesn't have to necessarily be very deep.

My biggest problem, I think, has been the first line. When I listen to any song I like, the first few words are always perfect. How does one do that?

I'm curious, how do different songwriters get their inspiration for lyrics? If you're a lyricist, what do YOU do?

And if you're in the same boat as me, this might help with that first line.

Turn your music into money.

2008-11-06T21:09:00.003-05:00

There are many ways to make money as a musician, and we're trying to learn how different musicians are doing this over at MusicianWages.com. Yeah, yeah, I've been plugging that site a lot, but I think it's a pretty cool project, so go check it out already.

Today I spent a good part of my day writing an article about making money from original music. I think that's the one thing nearly every musician would love to do, yet it's usually the most difficult. But I've managed to have some success, at least I've built a steady stream of income that in turn funds future releases, new equipment, and even helps pay some bills.

If you're interested, here's the link to Creating Income with Your Original Music.

Let me know what you think.

And don't forget to vote.

And you thought election season was over!

2008-11-06T00:08:00.003-05:00

I need your help. For the first time in my life, I'm a part of a music related contest, and it's one of those annoying types where anyone can vote once a day until the deadline. In other words, a popularity contest. Luckily, the public can't tell I have anything to do with the song (unless you find the bonus link to the "making-of" video).

I recorded a song with Lauren Zettler (who's mug shot is easier on the eyes than mine) and she entered it into a contest. It was picked as one of the Top 10 Finalists by a bunch of really important people and now it's up to the masses to decide who's song is best, and the winner gets to go on a cruise to perform this song along with a handful of popular and influential singer/songwriters. This is a big opportunity for Lauren, and by association, a big one for me too.

Enough chat.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!!

You will have to register. I know, it's a pain in the ass. But once you're registered, you can vote once a day through November 23.

My wife would get to come along, so that multiplies the karma you receive from your deeds.

Thanks!

Home Recording Tips, Learned the Hard Way

2008-11-03T08:55:00.006-05:00

1) Save often.

2) Make sure you're comfortably in front of the mic and can reach the mouse/keyboard. Slightly repositioning yourself to set up punch-ins can noticeably change your tone.

3) Tell your wife when you are about to hit record.

4) Take time to pet your cat before you start, so they don't come asking for attention mid-take.

5) Save often.

6) If patience is a virtue, be the Pope.

7) Give yourself some breaks, and try not to obsess.

8) At a certain point, it's not going to get better, you're only wasting time.

9) Play less.

10) When layering several guitars, find a distinct tone for each based on it's role in the song. The same tone on top of itself just gets muddy.

11) Save often.

12) Learn how to use your equipment, inside and out.

13) When all else fails, reboot.

14) Learn the part, then press record. Doesn't work as well the other way around.

15) Sometimes, it just doesn't sound good. Chalk it up as a learning experience.

16) Try to figure out what time your neighbors get home from work (if you live in an apartment).

17) Save often.

18) Getting the part right is always easier than editing pieces together.

19) Before you say, "I can fix that." and move on to the next part, make sure you can actually fix it.

20) Learn to use what you have. You'll never have the ideal equipment, but many times the best results come unexpectedly by not being able to do what you think you need to do.

New Website: MusicianWages.com

2008-11-01T23:30:00.003-04:00

For the last two months, Dave Hahn and I have been working on a new website:

MusicianWages.com: The Website for Working Musicians

The website is built around the simple idea that musicians can learn the most from their peers' success stories, as well as lessons from others' mistakes. We're promoting a community atmosphere as well as an informative resources for those interested in making a living as a musician. So far, we've received some fantastic articles by some of our friends who make a living on a variety of different gigs:

Guitarist Gary Melvin contributed an article about being a professional sideman. Currently, Gary is playing guitar and touring with Frankie Valli and stays busy promoting his first solo album, "Spare Time".

Singer/songwriter Lauren Zettler wrote about her decision to quit her job and follow her true passion as a musician. Lauren is performing regularly in NYC supporting her EP, "Call Me Out" as well writing and recording for her next.

Percussionist David Jolley shares his story of becoming a professional musician (you'll laugh, you'll cry, maybe even tip that one guy on the subway platform). Dave is presently the resident percussionist for the Prather Entertainment Group.

Along with this there are many articles by Dave and a growing number by yours truly. We've also got some great stuff in the pipeline from others, and as those articles become available I will probably add some links on this blog.

So if you're a musician, please stop by, visit the forum and let us know what you think. Feel free to suggest an article, or ask questions. If we don't know the answers, I bet we can find somebody that does.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Europa Night Club

2008-10-30T04:29:00.001-04:00

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're part of a night of performance art where bands and painters will collaborate to create a larger experience. If you're in NYC, come to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to and be a part of the event:

Collective Pursuit @ Europa Night Club
11:30pm - 12:30am
Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Bobby Avey (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

To do list.

2008-10-29T07:10:00.000-04:00

When I started this blog, I intended to write something every day to keep me focused on whatever I was actually doing to build this little business of being a musician. It's been a great exercise. I typically sit here and just think through my fingers, organize my thoughts, and then put them into action. If anyone reads it, that's an added bonus (Hi, Mom).

If I haven't had anything interesting to say recently it's because I have so MUCH interesting things to say, or at least things I think are interesting and frankly my dear don't give a damn if you do or not. Some of the articles/posts in the pipeline:

-Metadata! What's that? I'll tell you, and why I think it's important. Who am I kidding... I'll link to the Wikipedia page and then tell you why I think it's important for musicians.

-Gigs! No, not computer memory, but the things musicians do that supposedly makes them all their money while everyone downloads their music for free. Which brings me to our next topic...

-Free! Again, my thoughts about giving away music, but this time why the idea of rampant downloading frustrates the hell out of the people that actually invest their creative energy, time, and money into the music, aka artists. I'm one of them, yet I'm indifferent about the downloading and I'll tell you why.

-Music Entrepreneurship! I was asked what I thought about a Masters degree that would essentially prepare students to do more or less what I do. It's a really interesting concept. How do you make this successful? I don't know, but I'll write down my thoughts.

And a few still shaping up in my head. Many of these will be posted at the new website Dave Hahn and I started:

http://www.musicianwages.com

If you haven't checked it out, please do. There are a lot of posts there so far, and a forum for discussions amongst musicians. If you have a question, ask it in the forum. Dave, myself, or one of the other great musicians that are contributing to the site will try to answer it, or find someone that can.

Blogging is just my side gig, though. The real reason I haven't been writing much recently is because I've been BUSY. And it's great. I'm writing a lot of music, practicing a lot, and continually working on some recording or another. Outside of my trio, I've been playing two other gigs:

Collective Pursuit. An 8 piece modern jazz group playing music composed by all members, under the leadership of trumpeter KT Chauvot. Loaded with talent, the band has really started to come together after getting some gigs under our collective belt. This gig definitely keeps my reading, arranging, and jazz chops in shape. We recorded three songs for a demo, and have been recording some of the shows as well. Check the MySpace page every now and then for more music.

Lauren Zettler. I'm not really a huge fan of the term "singer/songwriter" because it's so vague, but it's a good place to start when talking about Lauren's music. She's a fantastic singer and her writing gets better with every song. It's folk/pop/rock/alt-country/grunge/alternative/klezmer/reggae at it's best. Hopefully that make you curious enough to go listen to some of her music. I've played several shows and have been recording with her, something that will be released in the next couple months. I practice the "less is more" approach to playing her music, which is something every instrumentalist needs to do. Whatever the song needs, I try to do. This sometimes means playing mandolin or even harmonica, and sometimes NOT playing (what?!?). Lucky for Lauren, I'm a fantastic dancer and bust out the Hammer whenever I have more than 8 bars of rest.

I'm also starting a band with my good friend Eric Clay, formerly of Team Tomato. Eric and I started our first band in junior high, sold it three years later for $64 million, and are doing this start up for the same reasons. Actually, that's not true, but how cool would that be? Anyway, we've been writing music and will hopefully record some of it in the next couple months. This is a straight up rock band--the kind my wife was embarrased to tell her mom about. Her end of that conversation went something like, "Oh yeah, Eric has moved up here. Yeah, he's living with his girlfriend. Him and Cam are uh, writing some music together, and uh, you know, playing guitar." Just say we're starting a band! Although, it does kind of sound like something you do in junior high. My band phase. There are a couple people still waiting for me to get out of that one.

All the while I'm also trying to find time to finish another album of cover songs with my friend and singer Matt Ketteman. Matt has recorded all his vocal tracks, and now it's up to me to make the music sound good. I find myself being such a perfectionist that I usually get fed up with my results after adding a few parts and moving onto another project. I can't pinpoint what the problem is exactly, but this would probably be easier if I wasn't trying to do it alone. Matt, take a vacation. Come hang out with me for a week so you can press record, stop, undo, record, stop, undo, etc.

As I'm working on this stuff, my cat will be taking my calls. She's more likely to answer if you call between 4:27 and 6:51 in the morning, when she's usually knocking things off my bookshelf. The rest of the time, she's catching up on her sleep or taking a lunch break.

The excuse didn't work in college, either.

2008-10-27T10:27:00.003-04:00

Keeping Up.

2008-10-27T02:51:00.002-04:00

I've never been much of a tech freak or computer nerd or what-have-you, but I am pretty particular about certain things and like my HTML code nice and tidy.

Tonight I was putting together a web page for somebody. I taught myself web design about 5 years ago with a couple books. My first website looked awful, and the following two were a little better. The last time I redesigned my site was in the summer of 2007, just after my latest CD came out. Back then, it was still somewhat important to have your own website. Now that's just icing on the cake if you have a profile for every social networking site out there. I think they keep a running count of those things on a clock in Times Square. It's around 10 trillion now. What's that? Oh right, that's the national debt. Both are about as hopeless. I've digressed.

I need to redesign my site sometime soon, but it feels like I need to learn how to do it all over again. How are you supposed to keep up if you only do it once every 18 months? I've considered hiring somebody to do it for me, but then I hear nightmares about unresponsive web designers.

Oh well. I'm starting a rock band with my friend Eric. At least I get to make a new MySpace page.

Twitter

2008-10-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

There are at least 4,397 social networking blog websites for us to choose from, and for those of you out there doing the whole independent musician thing, you realize that you're only cool if you have profiles on at least 1,000 of them. Bonus points if actually log into them all once a month.

My approach has been to focus on one at a time and see what happens. I set up a Twitter account on August 11 after reading some press about how various companies are using it for customer service and bands are able to... etc. Enough for me to check it out.

The first thing I noticed was that many of my friends were already on Twitter, but most had stopped using it. Next I noticed that I'm long winded, because Twitter is a mini blog, and you can only post 140 characters and spaces or less. That's hard for us Mizells.

Other problems... how often do you Tweet? Should new Tweets have anything to do with previous Twits? Is it lame if you only Tweet once a day?

In any case, I have found some interesting information thanks to Twitter. Plus the search function allows you to track queries that might be relevant to you. I'm following terms as varied as "Cameron Mizell" and "cameronmizell" and "Cameron Mizell is awesome." So far the RSS feed is empty, but I haven't given up all hope!

In all seriousness, I'm trying this out for a while to see what happens. This is the only way to figure out what sites work best for me. Ultimately, I'm just trying to reach a few more people that might enjoy my music.

Follow me at Twitter!

Quest for a Decent Lunch

2008-10-21T19:56:00.002-04:00

A New York Experience:

This afternoon I was hanging out with a friend, working on some music we've been writing together and cleaning up in the backyard of his new apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. After a while we set out for some lunch.

My friend wanted to go to a spot where they made this sandwich called the Vegan Temptress. He talked about it as we walked the 6 or 7 blocks to the place. My mouth was watering. When we got there, the place was being used to shoot a movie, with Jason Schwartzman sitting in the window. We stood across the street staring while we tried to decide where to go eat, when the director turned around and gave some dude the stink eye while pointing at us, and we were quickly asked to leave.

Then we wandered around looking for a Mexican restaurant he wanted to go to, but of course couldn't remember where it was because he's only been living in Brooklyn for about a month. When we finally found it, it turned out it was closed on Tuesdays. Only closed on Tuesdays.

We ended up at a spot around the corner. Another Mexican restaurant, but they were playing jazz. I knew it was a Verve album because I recognized Herb Ellis' guitar, Lester Young's tenor sax, Buddy Rich's drums, Oscar Peterson's piano, which of course meant Ray Brown was on bass. But I couldn't pin point the trumpet player and asked the waiter. It was Harry "Sweets" Edison. Don't you hate it when that happens?

What I Learned at My Record Label Job

2008-10-21T07:11:00.001-04:00

There's a new website in the works, and it'll be the future home for my blog. I've been working on an in depth article about what I took from working at a record label. It's pretty long, so I might not be writing too much more on 'Between the Music' this week.

What I Learned at My Record Label Job

After you're done, take a sneak peak at the site. If you're a musician, you can participate in the forum or even contribute an article yourself, simple read this post by Dave Hahn, my cohort and the true evil genius behind this adventure.

Record Labels

2008-10-20T07:25:00.003-04:00

I used to work at a record label, and loved the job. Almost as much as I love making my own music for a job.

There is a lot of trash talked about record labels, and I read a lot of independent artists regurgitating the same complaints over and over. But I feel like most of this contempt is towards the huge corporations that own the labels. It's really the system that's the pain in everyone's ass, not the labels.

Record labels have to operate a business, just like I'm trying to do with my music. Labels have to hit quarterly numbers to satisfy their corporate owners, or else heads roll. Every ethical problem people have with labels screwing over artists is rooted in money and could probably be traced to somebody trying to keep their job. On the contrary, my short term goals are best achieved when I focus on the greater long term goal. Money is an issue, but I'm trying to make a career, not just a weekly paycheck.

One thing I learned when I worked at the label was that most artists need this. It's nearly impossible for one person to work a record the way five professionals specializing in production, sales, marketing, promotion and publicity can. Then there's the internet--a good new media person can coordinate multiple websites, social networks, and blogs from a single feed. Trying to do all that alone eats up all the time for everything else. Forget making the actual music.

Perhaps one reason so many unsigned artists complain so much is lack of understanding mixed with jealousy. They want to be signed, otherwise I don't know why they are complaining. I don't want to be signed, which is why I view this objectively. My opinion is based on some first hand experience and education, not what I hear other people say, and definitely not what I read in music business books that are practically obsolete by the time they are published.

It's also worth noting that a lot of artists know what they're doing when they sign a deal. Most of the artists on this label were pretty smart, as were their managers. I didn't work in the legal department, and I never saw any deal memos, but here's how I came to understand things:

Artists usually try to get the largest advance they can, because recouping costs and making royalties is a long way off, if it happens at all. All those pie charts you see where the artist get $0.00009 of every CD sold don't account for the $50k advance. Rather, once the artists' cut pays back the advance and agreed portion of the rest of the budget, royalties begin to flow (or trickle). If an artist can continue to sell enough records to release something every few years, they can make an advance on each record. Factor in the money from various other revenue streams and they're doing alright.

The real problem is that it's really, really hard to break a new artist. It's an investment and costs a whole lot of money that you hope to make back on the second or third record. The terrain is so rocky today that who knows what's going to be happening five years down the road when the third record is released. Meanwhile the labels have to pay their employees, and that adds up even in smaller companies. So decisions have to be made to cover the bottom line.

The way I see it, I would love to have my former colleagues working my albums, but there's just no way my music will generate the amount of revenue needed to support that effort. I also don't want to forfeit ownership of my recordings. And my general rule of thumb is that if you want to work with me and get a cut of my revenue, then you have to be able to triple what I'm making now so I feel justified in giving you a percentage.

Someday, somebody is going to figure out how to restore some balance. Maybe I'll come up with it on this blog.

Getting over the hump

2008-10-19T19:04:00.002-04:00

You know how the first gig with a new band is always exciting? By the next gig the excitement is worn off and everything that's going wrong is pretty obvious. Then a few gigs later, everything clicks and the music just happens, you take the little risks to make the music better, even if it means there may be a little mistake, but the feeling is all there.

That happened at the gig last night. We got passed that invisible hump. Sure, I have a list of things I need to work on, but now that we have our cake recipe figured out, the rest is just the icing.

Lauren Zettler tonight @ Rockwood Music Hall

2008-10-18T07:32:00.007-04:00

Tonight I will be performing with Lauren Zettler, a very talented singer/songwriter I've had the pleasure of working with for the last several months. She has an EP available on iTunes, a free download of a show we played in LA, and more studio material coming soon. If you're in NYC, come down to the Lower East Side and check it out:

Lauren Zettler @ Rockwood Music Hall
7pm - 8pm

Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street (between Houston & Stanton)
New York, NY 10002

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

I beg to differ...

2008-10-17T06:22:00.003-04:00

Whoever said there are no stupid questions what just trying to be clever when somebody was scared to ask one.

You should never be scared to ask questions, but you should try to find the answer first. If you're asking a question out of laziness, then it's a stupid question. I'm generalizing a little, but I have a point.

Nobody can fill your brain with knowledge except you.

When I think back to my guitar lessons, the weeks I asked fewer questions were the weeks I learned the most. If I showed up prepared, we'd go over the material and then I'd get exercises to help further round out my playing, based on what I'd just demonstrated to my teacher.

On the other hand, when I wasn't prepared I'd fill the time by asking questions like, "How do you voice this chord with the third on top?" If I actually took 10 minutes to think about it over the week, I could have come up with plenty of solutions, but I was lazy or more often just used the excuse that I was busy. Deep down, I knew I was being lazy.

When you do ask questions, I've found the best questions to ask are always those that stress the you and not the do.

How do you do ____?

If the question is about finding specific, personal approaches to something like music, the answer is always more fulfilling.

Fan Mail Gets Dear John Letter

2008-10-15T06:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I read a short news story about Ringo Starr posting a video on his website asking fans to not send any fan mail or "objects to be signed" after October 20th. It will be tossed. The 68 year old has too much to do.

I can only imagine. Even if he didn't, the guy is allowed some peace and quiet (and love), right? He's almost as old as John McCain for Pete's sake. He's almost as old as the phrase "for Pete's sake."

Of course he comes from an entirely different generation. The Beatles were like nothing we've seen before or since. The way they interacted with fans in the early days probably set the tone for modern super star bands having so many restrictions and security surrounding their shows, or any public appearance. It comes as no surprise that Ringo would still be getting loads of fan snail mail. It also doesn't surprise me that he answers it, and now that he's made the decision that he can't do it anymore, he has some feeling of guilt so he posted that video.

But bands today interact with fans differently. Blogs, websites, videos, contests (by the way, all of these things exist on ringtostarr.com), all give the fans some extras to go along with the music. It's all about the experience, but today it's all about instant experience.

I wonder what will happen 40 years from now when a band decides they don't have the time or energy to do these extras? How will the next generation interact with their favorite bands?

Songwriting Diagnostics

2008-10-14T07:56:00.000-04:00

There are two things I've been doing a lot lately: Writing music and watching House reruns.

When I'm composing, I tend to get in this zone and write a lot of material in long spurts. I've never been able to successfully schedule too many writing sessions. Similarly, I've never been able to successfully watch a TV series. Something about committing every Tuesday night at 8 to the TV has never been appealing. Instead, my wife and I wait until it hits Netflix or some other network picks up the reruns and does a couple marathon sessions.

One thing I like about House is that every case is a puzzle. Sometimes the diagnosis is a rare disease, but often it's something fairly common presenting itself in an uncommon or unexpected way.

Sometimes when I'm writing music, I run into a problem. The song just isn't working right. Kind of like it's sick. Sometimes, the tune is just no good, but usually I'm just approaching it wrong.

House approaches each patient with a certain lack of trust. He assumes anything is possible.

That's a good way to approach a song. Don't trust convention. Don't assume the obvious harmonic or melodic solution, but don't rule it out just to be exciting. Follow your gut but use your head.

Don't Overestimate Free, Part 2

2008-10-13T08:06:00.000-04:00

Earlier I talked a little bit about why free doesn't work. One thing that might not have been clear is that it's not that free never works, and by 'works' I mean helps a musician maintain a career playing music, it's just that it's not as easy as a lot of people think it is. My point, in my typical long-winded fashion, is that simply making all your music available for free is not going to give anybody any incentive to take it. You must position it so that it's relevant and valuable. Otherwise it feels more like picking discarded CDs out of a dumpster.

Hugely popular artists seem to do well despite, or arguably because of, widespread free downloads of their music. In this past year, Coldplay, Lil' Wayne, Usher, and Metallica all sold over 500,000 CDs in the week following the release of their latest albums even though people could get their hands on the albums for free before the release date.

For guys and gals like me--independent, developing, or niche musicians--it's entirely different. I doubt anybody is scouring the internet looking for free music by Cameron Mizell. In fact, here's a link to a track for you to download. On the house. If you're reading this, you're probably a lot more interested in hearing it than someone that randomly finds it because you're connecting it to a person, or at least the person you imagine me to be based on what you can find out on the internet (hint: there's more than one Cameron Mizell on the internet... I'm the one with the hat and glasses).

More importantly, I actually make most of the money from the sales of my music, and it's what helps keep me on my feet. I currently use CD Baby to distribute my music to digital retailers. When you pay $.99 for a track on iTunes, I get $.64, and likewise $6.37 per $9.99 album. Those are good margins. Granted, I'm not selling boatloads of music, but it always does sell. I'm currently generating income from seven albums on iTunes. Some of these are with other people, so I'm splitting that profit. Even so, it's a nice steadily growing revenue stream.

This isn't to say I don't offer some free music here and there. Every time I finish an album I make two or three tracks available for free across a few different websites. I choose sites where people that listen to my kind of music hang out. I also don't mind if people burn my CD for their friends, or email MP3s. Just don't act like you're helping me. If you've gotten this far, you know that each sale actually makes a difference to my bottom line. Plus I'm not selling that much music, and I still need to buy groceries and pay rent. Not to mention, freelance musicians, like most small business owners in America, can't afford health care (cough, cough).

It's very possible that a day will come where I give away all my music. Revenue streams shift or dry up. But as the industry changes and trends for buying music shifts, independent musicians like myself have the flexibility to quickly adjust.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Lucky Cat

2008-10-12T07:30:00.001-04:00

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're playing some of my music as well. If you're in NYC, come to Billyburg, Brooklyn to check it out:

Collective Pursuit @ Lucky Cat
8pm - 10pm
No cover! Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Assaf Glizner (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Lucky Cat
245 Grand Street (between Driggs and Roebling)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Globalized Fan Base

2008-10-10T08:02:00.000-04:00

How do you build a fan base when the hundreds or even thousands of people listening to your music are spread out across the world?

Have you ever seen that "Demand it!" widget on MySpace? Whenver I see this on a band's page that might have 10,000 'friends' and rack up a ton of plays, I usually see small tallies of people in many, many areas. This would make for a 150 date U.S. tour with an average draw of what, five people per gig? Even if there's a $20 cover and everyone buys two t-shirts and multiple copies of all of your CDs, you can't afford it!

This is something I've been trying to figure out. I don't really have the answer, but here's how I see the situation:

By looking at a site like Last.fm, there are about 900 people that listen to my music with about 3,600 plays recorded. On Last.fm, listeners are added up when either somebody with the Last.fm software listens to one of my songs on their computer or somebody streams my song on the Last.fm site. Whether a person listens to only one of my songs once, or plays all my music repeatedly, they still only count as one listener. Let's assume about half of these people stumbled across my music unintentionally, heard one track, but probably won't be repeated listeners. I can't consider them fans. That leaves about 450 listeners with maybe 3,000 plays, which is less than 7 plays per listener. There's a lot of room for error, so I'll just assume 100 of these people are actually fans. Sounds kind of bleak, but then again, do you use Last.fm? Most people don't, so it's a pretty narrow poll.

What's more important is that most people that use Last.fm live outside the U.S., and the vast majority of my music sales are to people in this country. Plus I only really perform in New York City, so the fact there are 100 people around the world that are into my music is actually pretty cool. Really, the fact over 900 people have heard my music around the world is pretty cool. If I factor in all the music I've sold, I'm comfortable saying that worldwide, there's probably 1,000 people that are fans of my music. Probably more depending on how widely available my music is on P2P sites.

One reason the internet and all these social network sites are so great is that it allows me to interact with my fans in Chicago, Portland, Madison, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, not to mention London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo... should I go on? Even if there's just one person in Lynchburg, VA that bought my album, they have the same access to me as anyone else, with the exception of seeing live shows. Hopefully my new digital camcorder and YouTube will help change that.

It's difficult to nurture both the local scene, where I book and promote gigs, and also the global scene. I've sold more music in New York than any other single city, but it still makes up less than 10% of the total sales. So I can't ignore the bigger picture. It's just difficult to find the balance.

Octoberfest

2008-10-09T16:48:00.004-04:00

My wife just brought home some Sam Adams Octoberfest, possibly my favorite of their seasonal brews. Now that my hometown brewery (I'm from St. Louis) has been bought out by Martians, I think, my loyalties have fully switched.

Anyway, it's going to be a nice night in this corner of Brooklyn.

Don't Overestimate Free

2008-10-09T07:24:00.000-04:00

There's a lot of hype about just giving your music away for free.

"Think of the exposure! So many more people will hear it and buy your concert tickets and t-shirts! They'll all want to buy your albums in the future!"

But this is false. It works well in theory, seems to make sense, so it gets all that hype. Using a completely unfounded statistic based on zero research other than what I've been reading by music industry theorists, I've concluded that 99.9% of those that hype the "Power of Free" are not musicians trying to break through obscurity.

Everyone can think of a time they turned down something free. Why'd you do it?

- Free doesn't work because there's no such thing as free. First, people assume you want something in return. Even if you don't, your music will occupy space on their shelf or hard drive. They have to invest the time and effort to listen to your music. And more often then not, people don't want free things because they have to figure out how to get rid of it if they don't like it. Even throwing it in the trash seems like a chore. People on the street wouldn't take the samplers because they would have to carry them around all night knowing they'd probably just throw it in the trash later.

Sure, people have huge appetites for music. My iTunes folder has 6,267 tracks--which is apparently 21.4 days worth of music. But there's a Public Enemy track on here that hasn't been played since December of 2006! Do I even like that song? If I'm not listening to some of the music I paid for, give me a good reason to listen to yours!

Along similar lines, people who might scoff at the size of my collection are likely people that just horde music (or they're trying to compensate for some other insecurity). There are people who will take anything and everything that's free, but that doesn't mean they're going to be your fan or even listen to your music. And it's highly unlikely that they'll buy anything from you, music, merch, or otherwise.

- Free doesn't work as a solution to massive distribution and exposure because it is too random and not focused on a particular group of people. Specifically, it's not focused on the people that would like your music. Giving away your music to 100 random people does not mean any of those people will like it, or even listen to it. But if you use a piece of criteria to find 100 more specific people, your music ends up in the hands of someone that might actually listen to it. My favorite piece of criteria is a similar but better known artist. You like the Meters? Then studies show you'll like my music! Which takes us to the next point...

- Free doesn't work without a trusted reference helping your target audience feel comfortable taking candy from strangers. Why do you think grocery stores use ladies that remind us of our grandmothers to hand out free samples? Because we won't suspect the poison. Similarly, this is why tracking "twinsumers" online is so helpful. The whole "listeners also bought" idea gives us a since of trust and direction as we browse online.

People need to feel their time, space and energy is worth your free music. Free suggests no value, and that's unattractive. That's one reason I think people are still buying music. But there are alternatives to creating value other than money. You can give away music in exchange for another product or service. You can ask for email addresses. You could even ask for people to spread the word. In fact, somebody needs to create a widget that gives away free music after the user forwards a note to 10 friends recommending that they check out your music. That idea's on the house, but let me know when you figure it out.

Placing some value on your music is key. It helps the right people find your music and let's them do something they're comfortable with in exchange. Sometimes it's give you money, but sometimes it's something entirely different.

The Heat is On

2008-10-08T08:53:00.001-04:00

Remember that Glenn Frey song? It was the theme for the St. Louis Cardinals in the late '80s when I was growing up, so it's forever associated with Ozzie Smith and Willie Mcgee. Now that I live in New York City, the only time that song comes to mind is when it starts getting cool and my building turns on the heat. An event accompanied by a lot of hissing and some banging of metal pipes as the adjust to the steam running through them. If you haven't heard this before, it sounds like somebody banging wrenches against metal pipes in your bathroom at 5am. The heat, not the Glenn Frey song.

With heat comes dry air, which is the nemesis of wood instruments like guitars. The steam sucks the moisture out of your apartment while the cold outside sucks the moisture out of the as well. Here are a few tips I've picked up to help keep your guitar safe during the dry season.

-Keep the guitar away from the windows and radiators! These are usually in the same place, so that's easy enough.

-Room humidifier! Get something to throw moisture back into the air. Use distilled water if you're keeping it by your guitars, as the minerals in tap water can gradually seep into the wood or undo the glue.

-Instrument humidifiers! I have one for every guitar with a soundhole. There are several types, and they all work well, just make sure they stay moist but not too wet.

-Put it in the case. If you're not going to be playing it, or when you travel for the holidays, your case is a good barrier to humidity. The trick is to get some moisture inside. The poor man's humidifier is a wet sponge in a disposable tupperware type of container with a few holes punched in the top. A ziploc bag will actually work alright too. Lay this under the headstock in the case, and leave the case flat so there's no spilling.

-Pay attention. If your acoustic guitar is buzzing more than usual, or there's a noticable dip in the top around the bridge, it's drying up. Get some humidity on that baby to prevent any warping.

Book 'em, Cam. Oh.

2008-10-07T08:02:00.000-04:00

I book my own gigs, and it's a pain in the ass. There's just a lot of back and forth (somebody play a whole tone scale right here)...

Me to Club/Booker: "Hi, I'm Cameron Mizell, blah blah blah, can we play a show."
Club/Booker to me: "I have these 736 slots open over the next 5 weeks."

Me to band, after checking their websites to rule out any nights I know they've got other gigs: "Can you guys play any of these dates."
Band to me, sometime over the course of a few days to a week: "I can do this day or this day, etc."
Me to band: "Ok, pencil in this date, I'll confirm within 24 hours."

Me to Club/Booker: "Hi, me again. We'll take this night."
Club/Booker to me: "Sorry, that night is booked."

Me to band: "How about this one other night...."

...and so it goes until we can find an agreeable date or the venue shuts down. For my next gig though, I got the whole night and was told I could have any other bands play, but the goal is to get 80 people through the door. That's tough, but doable. Doeable. Possible.

My plan was to organize a night of funky jazz, psychedelic fusion, progressive, trippy, crazy groove oriented music. To play that music you've got to be pretty laid back, right? Well, not necessarily. The back and forth is still a pain in the ass. The club has no backline (no "house" drums or amps) so I'm trying to get everyone to contribute a little so we can have quicker turnaround time between bands. That's not happening so much, but luckily there's a DJ for between sets.

I'm really happy with the groups that are going to be playing. It should be noted that the music is going to be great. I wouldn't settle for less. But this hasn't been easy. To top it off, I need to motivate everyone involved to do some promotion because, well, I'm not a promoter.

I'm hoping to learn from this experience so I never have to do it again... UNLESS it turns out to be a huge success. So if you're in NYC on November 13, come out to Club Europa!

Recommended Jazz Albums for New Listeners

2008-10-06T00:17:00.000-04:00

It's hard to remember a time I didn't listen to jazz. Maybe it was because of what I was listening to, I don't know... but my point is, the music is simply a part of who I am. That's not to say I don't listen to many other kinds of music. People are always referring to bands or songs I don't know, but I still think I've got a fairly eclectic taste. In fact, I think most everyone has eclectic tastes. Given access to a wide variety of music, they'll listen. But for some reason the genre of jazz is hit or miss for most people. Why is that?

My theory is simply that jazz, as a genre, is about as eclectic within itself as one can get. There are so many subgenres it's hard to know what's out there. Plus, most people's exposure to jazz is limited to the commercial, crossover, or nostalgic subgenres. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that type of jazz, but it often carries that lowest common demoninator of taste found in any popular music.

Smooth jazz is possibly the most commonly heard form of jazz, though it's arguably not even jazz and is now often called "Adult Urban Contemporary" or something like that. Some popular artists include Dave Koz, Kenny G, and Chris Botti. I've heard a lot of smooth jazz in my time, but it's not really my cup of tea, so I'm not a good person to make any recommendations.

Another oft-heard style is crossover vocal jazz. This is the stuff that sets the atmosphere for wine and cheese parties in the suburbs (that's a gross over simplification). Norah Jones' first album is a great example, along with Diana Krall's entire catalog. There's also a handful of crooners, like Michael Buble or, well, Michael Buble. This style is pretty self explanatory and easy accessible.

Finally, there's the nostalgic styles you'll hear in a jazz documentary. This includes anything from early jazz like Louis Armstrong to big band like Benny Goodman, and bebop like Charlie Parker. This is where I think things start to really get interesting. Following various progressions stemming from these artists lead you to a wealth of music.

So here is a list of some of my favorites, in no particular order. I purposefully avoided popular titles and anything that would be considered a must have, such as Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue because I'm going to assume someone else has already told you to go buy it.

I should note that Kind Of Blue was one of my first jazz albums, and I started my collection exploring albums by each of the sidemen on that album. That's a great way to go once you find something you like.

Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (1961)

Looking for some great straight ahead jazz? This is it. If I could choose the music that plays as I die, it would be the title track from this album. Specifically, during Coltrane's solo. You see, 'Trane wasn't in Miles' band when this was recorded. Hank Mobley was holding down the tenor sax chair at the time. So the album starts out as one would expect, playing through the melody and solos as a quintent, then restating the melody. But after Miles' plays a shortened statement of the melody, an old, familiar voice is heard. Coltrane proceeds to play an out of this world solo. Very brief by his standards, but it leaves me floored every time.

John Scofield (w/ Medeski Martin & Wood) - A Go Go (1996)

If you want something with a little more edge to it, try out this album. Sco is one of those immediately recognizable jazz guitarists who could do no wrong by me. This album, with MMW, is all about the groove. But what I love so much is that it's NOT SMOOTH. Most artists that play jazz over a funk groove end up sounding too smooth for my taste. I want something organic, and this album delivers. I often use it as a yardstick to make sure my songs don't cross that line.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964)

Pretty much considered his masterpiece, this album was more than just music--it was 'Trane's tribute/prayer to the God. Not necessarily the God of Christianity, but more of the supreme being or creator. Honestly, it doesn't matter that much, you need to experience this music start to finish, repeatedly. I've heard it dozens of times and continue to find inspiration.

Herbie Hancock - Man-Child (1975)

Looking for some true jazz/funk? Herbie Hancock and his Headhunters group released several albums, the most popular being Head Hunters in '73, but this one is my favorite. I have yet to hear another group convincingly play in this style as well as this band.

Bill Frisell - Good Dog Happy Man (1999)

This album is a mash up of jazz, Americana, folk, and blues, often called Neo-Americana. It's difficult to describe because no one makes music like guitarist Bill Frisell. He has definitely been a huge influence of mine as of late, and this album introduced me to his playing.

The Quintet (Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Ray Brown, Max Roach) - Jazz At Massey Hall (1953)

One of the greatest bebop recordings of all time, played by the cats that invented the style and consequently reinvented jazz. Perhaps one of the reasons it's such an outstanding performance is the slight tension on the bandstand--Charlie Parker and Dizzy were late because they had to find a saxophone for Bird, who had pawned his off for drug money. The rhythm section performed a set as a trio before being joined by the horns.

Brad Mehldau - Largo (2002)

Largo is a great album for those turned off by the notion of traditional jazz. Mehldau is openly influenced by a wide variety of music, including the Beatles and Radiohead, and covers songs by both groups here. I sort of think of Mehldau's groups as the indie rock band in jazz. You never know exactly what he's going to do, but it's always hip and bound to set some new precedent.

Dexter Gordon - Our Man In Paris (1963)

Another immediately recognizable voice in jazz, Gordon was simply one of the greatest stylists of all time. This album swings HARD from start to finish, and every line Gordon plays on his sax is played like that is it. The master has spoken. One of the great lessons I learned from this album--playing time. Listen to how he starts most of his solos by sitting on one note and just swinging it. Try it, it's not as easy as it sounds!

Magic Pencil

2008-10-05T01:44:00.004-04:00

I have two pencils that are exactly the same.

Except they're not. I use one of them to write, or at least write down all my initial ideas. The pencil with all the good ideas had been missing for a week or so up until last Wednesday, when I found it and went on a writing tear.

I now have four solid pieces written for my next trio album, and a handful of ideas that will likely bloom into more tunes. I also wrote a couple other songs, but I'm not quite sure what I'll do with those yet.

Productive creativity feels good.

Dear Cubs fans...

2008-10-05T01:39:00.001-04:00

Saved you a seat here in the off season.

Shared thoughts on embracing Long Tail content

2008-10-03T08:51:00.004-04:00

Here's an interesting report from Digital Music News publisher Paul Resnikoff in Los Angeles. If you didn't understand what I was talking about here, maybe this will help confuse you more.

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Second Life Lessons: Underestimate Niche at Your Peril

(10/2/08) September roiled the recording industry, and tightening consumer wallets could spell a vicious fourth quarter. That is part of a bigger, multi-year slide for major labels, a downward spiral driven by a tanking CD.

But not everyone is getting the doom-and-gloom memo, including EMI Music senior vice president of Digital Strategy Cory Ondrejka. During a late-day keynote at Digital Music Forum West in Hollywood, Second Life cofounder Ondrejka offered a snappy, smart, and optimistic outlook for the beleaguered label. Tossing words and phrases like collaborative filtering, community formation, entrepreneurship, and crowdsourcing, the incoming brain focused on niche audiences, microtargeting, and rapid responses to consumer needs. "Underestimate niche at your peril," Ondrejka urged.

But the coveted niche exists within a very, very large potential audience. "We basically have access to half of the earth," Ondrejka said, pointing to collective internet and mobile penetration rates that easily surpass three billion (1.2 billion internet users, 3.2 billion mobile users). "We have billions of fans, and zero marginal costs."

If Ondrejka at times seemed like a digital dreamer, he also realistically pointed to a business model and cost structure that has been focused on big hits, big artists, and super-sized marketing campaigns. But Ondrejka also placed emphasis on Long Tail theories throughout, and was clearly motivated to energize more focused audiences. "Those artists way out on the curve are valuable, and this can be scary in a hit-driven world," Ondrejka said. "The top of the curve is dropping faster than the market as a whole. That is the curve flattening out, this is the Long Tail that Chris Anderson talks about. The niche actually monetizes better, and if you doubt that, you should probably go check out eBay, or Google, or Second Life for that matter."

Of course, label revenues are clearly declining, though Ondrejka pointed to massive increases in music consumption, across both free and paid channels. "This is actually a really great time, in some ways this is the best time ever to be in music," Ondrejka said.

Ondrejka was recruited by Douglas Merrill, an ex-Googler and EMI newbie who shares a similar digital brilliance and optimism. The combination is certainly refreshing, though largely incongruent with technophobic strategies like file-sharing lawsuits and arduous licensing approaches. Those touchy topics were left untouched, though the broader question is whether Merrill and Ondrejka can quickly solve an urgent monetization riddle.

Using iMixes to Effectively Promote Your Music: Part 3

2008-10-01T06:48:00.008-04:00

UPDATE (10/26/08):

This article has move to another website: MusicianWages.com

I am a regular contributor to that site and will continue to post relevant articles there. It is a great resource for musicians. If that's you, check it out!

Using iMixes to Effectively Promote Your Music: Part 2

2008-09-30T06:18:00.008-04:00

Using iMixes to Effectively Promote Your Music: Part 1

2008-09-29T06:27:00.012-04:00

If there's one small piece of advice I can give other musicians in regards to promoting their music, this is it. This is the one thing I've done that has generated more money, reached more fans, and helped me target other types of promotions, all with no cost other than a little thought and time. And that one thing is create iMixes in the iTunes Music Store.

UPDATE (10/26/08):

This article has move to another website: MusicianWages.com

I am a regular contributor to that site and will continue to post relevant articles there. It is a great resource for musicians. If that's you, check it out!

Playing Rests

2008-09-26T07:08:00.001-04:00

In jazz folklore there's a fable-esque story where John Coltrane comes off stage after playing one of his legendary long 'sheets of sound' solos during a set with Miles Davis' band, and tells his boss something like, "I just don't know how to end my solos." Miles response: "Try taking the horn out of your mouth."

We're not all blessed with the endless ideas and technical mastery of Coltrane, but this is good advice for everyone. I remember a guitar teacher once forcing me to allow a bar of rest every four bars in my solo. It was hard, because letting go and knowing how to end your phrase before you begin takes concentration. But with this exercise, my improvisation grew by leaps and bounds.

Playing rests typically means NOT PLAYING. But for guitarists or pianists, it can also mean comping for yourself between phrases. Listen to Wes Montgomery. He is almost constantly playing, yet he throws repetitive riff-like chord patterns between phrases, as if a big band horn section is playing backgrounds to his solo. Or listen to Bill Evans play solo piano. He might play a long line with his right hand, but as soon as he ends his phrase, his left hand drops in for a chord or two before the next line begins.

Here are just a few exercises you can do to get better at playing rests:

1) Transcribe. Along with learning how to play over chord changes, learn when to not play.

2) Trade fours. Get with a buddy and play call and response. A great way to limit your phrases to smaller chunks of music.

3) Record yourself. Nearly every time I hear a live recording of myself, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Man, I need to play less!" It's a lifelong quest to find the right balance.

The Musician's Economy

2008-09-24T06:30:00.002-04:00

Last night I had dinner with a few fellow musicians and one thing that came up was the economy. As people that basically create entertainment for others, a poor economy generally means fewer people will spend money on our goods. The first thing my wife and I cut back on when money is tight is our nightlife, and also how much we spend on things like new CDs or downloads (I have to admit, most of the music I buy now is downloaded from iTunes or Amazon).

Then I remembered that most people download music for free, stream it from the internet, or look for free forms of entertainment like concerts at the park. Plus music is a great temporary escape from reality. So maybe this is a good opportunity to connect with some new people that need an escape. Give them something to feel good about now, for free. That connection will outlast the recession.

360 Deals

2008-09-23T07:26:00.001-04:00

One of the problems record companies are facing is that their piece of the pie is shrinking as people spend less money acquiring music. There's still a decent amount of money being made in the music industry, but it's spread across different mediums like merchandise, touring, publishing, and recorded music. In response, some lawyers somewhere thought it would be great for one company if they had control of all aspects of an artists career.

Well wait, control is a harsh word, maybe we should just say they want to exploit... oh, that's not much better. How about if we say they wanted to capitalize on the bigger picture?

Truth is no matter how you spell it out, these 360 deals as they're calling them, don't make a lot of sense. They DO make sense when you have an enormously famous artist and can coordinate the release of a new record with a world tour, new line of clothing, collectible lunch boxes, and a video game starring the band.

But the other 99% of the artists out there already have a 360 deal, they just control it themselves. The trick is to learn how to exploit all of our assets in a coordinated fashion. One of the biggest problems is that independent artists have so much to do, they have to choose what gets done. Most of the time the wrong choices are made. Adding friends on MySpace or making tour posters might not be the best use of time, rather it's most convenient or just seems like the right thing to do because every band does it, right?

Every musician's biggest asset is their body of work. So the first thing we have to do is make it better, bigger, and easier to access. That's the piece of the pie fans really care about. It's the part that is actually useful. It's the music that connects you to other people and makes them want to buy a t-shirt or come to more shows and tell their friends to do the same.

It makes a lot more sense for more artists to keep as much control as possible, which is to say control what you know, and get trustworthy people that will work with you to manage the rest. Find some investors to back your next record, not a company looking to own everything you do. Find a good manager. Find some people that know how to handle sales and marketing. But make sure all these people are passionate about your music and believe in you.

Trouble with Mottos

2008-09-22T06:30:00.001-04:00

If you've ever seen Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby then you know where this first motto comes from. Will Farrell's character is a race car driver that lives by the motto below, which was spouted off by his deadbeat dad after he got kicked out of school for giving some advice during career day. At least, he lived by this motto until after his dad gets kicked out of Applebee's years later and confesses to being stoned when he gave that advice.Of course, that's just a fictional character in a comedy about a reckless race car driver with two first names. Nobody would ever really adopt that as their mantra, right? Ever been to Texas?

What's slightly more frightening is the picture below. This is from the bulletin board at the University at North Texas, where I studied jazz as an undergrad. This was the board that posted everyone's ensemble placement. It was a very competitive school, and the point was to prepare us for the real world, at least as far as the quality of our playing. While I believe the intentions were meant to keep us focused and weed out the people that weren't willing to put in the work, "Every Day is an Audition" couldn't be further from the truth once you're in the real world.

The world is full of talented musicians that are better than me or you. It's also full of not very talented musicians that are simply bright people with interesting things to express and use music as their platform. More importantly, it's full of a wide range of people with different tastes and large appetites for music.

At North Texas, the goal was to be in the One O'Clock jazz band. That ensemble is arguably one of the best college jazz bands in the world. Without a doubt, they blew me away every time I saw them perform or even rehearse. But after college, where are they? Many of the guys I knew in that band aren't even playing jazz now. If they're still doing music, they've exchanged their horns for a guitar and started doing the singer/songwriter thing. Why is that? What changed?

Well, it turns out the real world, for musicians at least, is more about survival and less about competition. It's much easier to get by if you're getting along with other musicians and bands, and using the leverage of the greater community to build a sustainable music scene. The key to a great music scene is variety.

Think about your favorite bands for a minute. What do you like about each? I love Ella Fitzgerald because she can sing. Her voice is a whole other class of instrument. Nobody can touch Ella's voice. I also love Nina Simone. Her voice is haunting. Not always in tune, but it hypnotizes the listener. I love Bob Dylan too, but it's because of the imperfections in his voice and what he's singing, not whether or not he's in tune. But I'm not going to go buy all of Ella's albums and none of the others. I want to listen to all of it, and as much as I possibly can.

Similarly, as a band leader, I have a list of musicians I've worked with. When I have a gig that calls for a trumpet player, I don't simply think about the last time I heard all the trumpet players in my list, I'm considering each player's strengths, personality, and who else is on the gig. I want everyone to function well as a band. We don't all have to be best friends, but can't we all just get along?

Finally, on a personal level, I've realized the key to artistic development is not to try and outdo the next guy, but instead just do what I do best. I'm not John Scofield or Pat Metheny or Grant Green or Wes Montgomery. I'll never play like those guys because I don't have their brain. I haven't had the same experiences as them, and I hear music differently. What I love about them is their individuality. The most important lessons I take away from studying a great musician's playing are the characteristics that make them unique. Then I reflect on my own approach to music, and strive to strengthen my own individuality.

Anyone who has had to follow up a great performance can understand where I'm coming from. There's nothing quite as nerve racking as watching from the wing as your predecessor brings the house down, figuratively speaking of course. The best approach is to take a deep breath, take the stage and play for yourself. You'll never be as good at being the last guy as the last guy was at being himself.

Life isn't a competition, every day is not an audition. Instead of trying to be better than everyone else, just focus on being better than yourself and success will usually find you, or at least you'll get calls for more gigs. Mottos help simplify life and motivate you from time to time, but they can also act as blinders, distracting you from developing your individuality.

Metallica

2008-09-18T12:52:00.003-04:00

I'm not ashamed to admit that I basically learned my way around the guitar thanks to Metallica. I learned every song from their 1983 debut, Kill 'em All, through their fifth, the self-titled black album released 1991, plus some of the other miscellaneous debris recorded during that period.

Then around 1992 I read Kirk Hammet's article in some guitar mag, I think his column was called The Sound And The Fury. Anyway, he wrote about phrasing, a term that, when used musically, really has no place in the heavy metal lexicon. But he wasn't talking about heavy metal, he was talking about jazz. Miles and Coltrane to be exact. His article prompted me to buy a Miles and Coltrane CD, then I was hooked. I sold all my Metallica CDs, along with a bunch others I mostly regret selling off today, and the rest is history in the making.

In the '90s, Metallica released a few albums. I bought Load in 1996, and lost interest. I didn't even pay attention to their next couple albums. But they just released their ninth, called Death Magnetic. This one sounds a lot more like their earlier releases, so out of nostalgia, I bought it.

If you used to be a fan, check it out. It's hilarious. They're back to doing everything that made me love them as an adolescent. Long songs with long intros built on riff after riff after glorious wall-to-wall-Marshall-stack riff. Then there's harmonized lead guitar lines, shredding solos, and dark, dark lyrics. I can't really take these men seriously anymore, especially that goofus Lars, but nobody makes this kind of music better than them. Thank you Rick Rubin for giving us our Metallica back.

The author circa 1996(?). I was past my Metallica stage, but hadn't taken down the posters in my bedroom. Note the other sophisticated post-modern decor, accented by the empty Gatorade bottle and Successories (to compliment my road race t-shirt) on the desk and bulletin board full of empty guitar string packs. I used Dean Markley strings back then, but am a dedicated D'Addario customer now. Hey D'Addario, how about an endorsement?

When to sign a deal

2008-09-17T10:16:00.001-04:00

Here's the question you should ask yourself before entering any deal:

What does this person/company stand to gain from doing business with me?

If the answer is your sign up fee, your subscription fee, or anything else that has to do with money directly out of your pocket, walk away. However, if the answer has something to do with revenue from your future success, then you're headed in the right direction. If they make more money because you're making more money, there's some motivation there for both parties.

As a musician, my main concerns should be practicing, writing, performorming, and recording. But I also maintain my website, book and promote my own gigs, mail out my own CDs, promote my recordings, and generally just try to stay on top of all the potential marketing opportunities that might come my way. There are thousands out there just like me. It's hard work.

Eventually I'll need to hire somebody to do some of these non-music making related tasks. I don't want to book my own shows forever. I also can't really talk up my new CD to other people. It's good for an artist to be passionate about what they created, but eventually it needs validation from some other authority, and championed by appropriate fans or tastemakers.

I'm always on the lookout for a deal, but I'm in no rush. If you want to own my music, you're out. If you can't speak passionately about my music, you're out. If you can't triple one of my streams of revenue, because I know you want a piece of it, you're out. If you want my money up front, and don't have plans to work with me a year from now, or for a significant period after my album is released, I'll pass. Thanks, but no thanks.

One step back.

2008-09-16T23:27:00.000-04:00

Everyday I try to look back at what I did that was productive. Did I practice enough? Did I get some good stuff recorded? Did I write a new song or finish an arrangement? Then there's the non-creative activities like booking gigs, sending out a few press CDs, researching some other sort of opportunity, etc. Some of this work pays off immediately, but most is slowly adding to a greater revenue stream that will flow continuously for a long time. Ultimately that's the goal.

Unfortunately, after my interface kept crashing making my mix session take much longer than necessary and then watching the video from the last gig but not happy enough with anything to justify uploading anything to YouTube, I feel a bit deflated.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Basic set up for fretted instruments

2008-09-16T01:49:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you end up with a cheap guitar that sounds pretty good but the intonation is rough on your ears and the action makes your fingers bleed. If it's not worth the cost of a set up, you might be able to make some adjustments yourself and make it a decent axe to keep around the house. I haven't done this on a guitar, but I've done work on my mandolin and ukulele, so if you average out the strings, it's the same basic principle. Before you get in over your head, do a little extra research, especially if you're inexperienced at adjusting the truss rod or handling small files or sharp blades.

1) Make sure the neck is straight. Put a capo on the first fret and push down the string on the last fret. There should be a tiny amount of space between the 8th fret and string. If there's nothing, loosen your truss rod. Too much, tighten it. Adjust it in quarter turns, and very slowly.

2) Adjust the bridge or saddle. In most cases, your bridge or saddle (the white piece on the bridge of an acoustic guitar), is going to be too high. There should be slightly more distance between the strings and frets as you move up the neck to allow for more vibration on the string, but too much will cause intonation problems. If it's an acoustic with one of those white plastic saddles, you can simply pop it out to file or sand the bottom side to lower it, or if it needs more height put something underneath it.

3) File out the slots on the nut. On almost every new instrument, especially cheap ones, the nut will need some work. Your strings should be very close to the first fret, otherwise you'll have intonation problems. The string vibration has a smaller amplitude here and is less likely the buzz. Professional guitar techs will have appropriate files for this job, but a set of these is almost as expensive as any instrument I'd have the nerve to work on so I use an exacto knife, nail file, and patience. Go very slowly and retest the string often. If you take out too much you'll need a new nut, or else figure out a way to carefully add a little glue in the slot.

4) Adjust the intonation. This can mean several things. Classical guitars, ukuleles, and many acoustics won't allow for much adjustment. But if your instrument has a movable bridge or individual adjustable saddles (as on most electrics), you can tweak the intonation. First put some fresh strings on and tune up. Then check the note at the 12th fret. It should be exactly in tune. If it's flat, move the saddle closer to the fretboard. If it's sharp, go the other way. Again, small movements do the trick.

If you have any problems, consult a professional before ruining your instrument. But if you have patience and enjoy doing this kind of work, I encourage you to try. I always smile when somebody picks up my $250 mandolin and comments on how nice it feels and I can tell them I set it up myself!

Shopping for your first guitar.

2008-09-15T12:09:00.000-04:00

Buying your first guitar, or your child's first guitar, is a tricky process. You don't want to spend a lot of money, and you have no idea what you're looking for. But with guitars, you usually get what you pay for, and a cheap instrument can be a literal pain to play and sound awful. Those two things will take all the fun out of learning the guitar, and before long the instrument will end up in the attic. However, it is possible to find a good starter instrument without spending a lot of money, and there are things you can do to make it easier to play and have a better sound.

All of these tips rely on a guitar that's in tune. At any guitar store, a salesperson should be able to help get you started with a few instruments and should tune them all before handing them over. But in the real world, you have to ask. Don't be shy. Just because you're not buying a $4,000 instrument today doesn't mean you won't someday.

If you're unfamiliar with the different parts of the instrument, refer to the Wikipedia article on the guitar. Learn these basic parts: Headstock, neck, body, frets, fretboard/fingerboard, nut, bridge, and saddle.

Get a trusted brand. Yamaha, Epiphone, Fender, and a handful of others make good beginner guitars. Generally speaking, if you can find guitars with the same brand for $1000 or so, their inexpensive counterparts are usually made with very similar specs, just cheaper wood and labor.

Consider nylon strings. I put nylon strings on many of my beginner students guitars. They are easier on the fingers. Classical guitars will have nylon strings, but they also have a wider neck and flat fingerboard, which can be harder for little hands. Instead, when you find a guitar you like ask the salesperson if they can put a set of nylon strings on a guitar with steel strings. (The answer is "yes," and if they ask why your answer is "because it's for a beginner.")

Don't be too stingy. If you spend too little, which is $100-$300, the instrument is probably going to be a beast to play, which means you'll either give up or outgrow it and need a better one sooner than later. If money is really an issue, decide on a couple guitars you like and then look for some used instruments. It's always cheaper buying straight from a musician, just be sure to look over it closely for any damage such as warping.

Look for a straight neck. The neck has to be perfectly aligned if you want this thing to have a chance at playing well. When you hold the body of the guitar, point the headstock away from you and look down the edge of the neck. There should be a very, very slight concave curve. The frets should be level, and the strings should be parallel with the edges of the fretboard.

Check for buzzing. Play each fret on each string as well as each open string. If you're a novice player, get somebody at the store to do it for you. If you hear buzzing, the neck needs adjustments to play properly. That could cost more money.

Check the intonation. This is hard to do if you're not a guitar player, but here's what I do before I consider even playing a guitar in a store. Once the instrument is in tune, play a harmonic on the 12th fret. Then push the string down on the 12th fret and play it again. The pitch should match exactly. On cheap guitars, they'll never be exact, but you it should be very close.

Does it resonate? Guitars produce a lot of overtones, which is an important characteristic of a well balanced instrument. Play the 9th fret on the G string, or 3rd string (third highest in pitch, which is the third closest to the floor if it's on your lap properly). Let it ring for a couple seconds and then let up to deaden that string. You should still hear the note. These are overtones ringing on the bottom two and highest string. The stronger the overtones, the more resonant the guitar.

Take care of your new instrument. Once you get it home, be sure to treat it right. Wood instruments respond to temperature and humidity. Don't expose it to any extremes for long periods. If your home dries out during the winter, keep it by a humidifier or use an instrument humidifier. Change the strings when they get dirty to keep a healthy amount of tension on the neck and just so it sounds better when you play it.

Inexpensive instruments don't have to be pieces of junk. With a little knowledge, you can find a guitar that will promote good practice habits and get you on your way to making great music!

The Recommendations Game

2008-09-13T09:52:00.000-04:00

Word of mouth has always been the most invaluable form of marketing. In fact it's so invaluable, you can't buy it. People have a way of seeing through paid actors or manufactured buzz for what it is, traditional marketing. But with the internet, websites can generate recommendations based on consumer buying habits, which are basically the same as word of mouth (if not better, since somebody actually spent money).

Amazon is great at this. I get regular emails recommending new products or books based on what I've bought in the past. In fact, when I log in, they even tell me what I searched for last and what other people who did the same search also looked at and ultimately bought. This makes it so easy to look past the hype that I feel like my online shopping experience is quick and painless.

iTunes and a whole list of other online music destinations are also good at this game, and it's a great benefit to lesser known independent musicians like myself. More people listen and by more music online, the more likely my music will be recommended to the right crowd. On iTunes, people that buy music by Grant Green, Soulive, John Scofield, Greyboy All-Stars, Global Noize, Robert Walter, etc. will be pointed in the direction of my music via iTunes' "listeners also bought" section and the new Genuis sidebar. My tracks will get streamed on Last.fm thanks to user tags or listening habits that match up similar artists. I love it.

So how does one get the ball rolling? How do you get people that don't know who you are to find your music in the first place so it those connections to similar, better known artists are established? Simple. Playlists.

The Power of Playlists

2008-09-12T09:52:00.000-04:00

I was drafting this blog before iTunes 8 became available, but now it just makes my point more relevant.

Remember when you'd make tapes off the radio? Sit around, wait for your favorite song, and hit record? If you really wanted the first note, you'd hit record before you even heard the song and stop and rewind when it was something else. Then you prayed the DJ wouldn't start talking over the last chorus. Maybe I'm dating myself a little. I'm only 27, but talking about tapes seems ancient. I don't even have a cassette player anymore.

That was the first time I'd make custom playlists. Then I'd make tapes for my car when I started driving. I made tapes to listen while running. Now we have iPods, so I make playlists for commuting on the subway, running, Saturday mornings, reading, Monday mornings, rainy days, doing dishes, long walks on the beach, lists of songs to practice, songs to learn, songs I haven't listened to in a long time, my favorite tenor saxophone solos, favorite jazz rhythm sections, funky bass lines...

Today, playlists take virtually unmanageable digital catalogs and organize them by usefulness. Music is now so readily available that we need help knowing what to listen to, even in our own collections.

Enter websites like Last.fm, Pandora, Playlist.com, etc. that let either let users create custom playlists or create them for you based on recommendations (a subject I'll address later). iTunes has allowed users to post iMixes to the store since 2004 and now create them for you with this new Genius button.

When done right, playlists are very powerful tools to get your music to the masses. But doing it right is the trick, and I see a lot of indie artists making some pretty misguided playlists. Here are some considerations

- Make playlists you actually like. If you wouldn't want to listen to it, why would anyone else?

- Don't throw all your music into the playlist. Unless it's a Best Of playlist, which sort of defeats the purpose here, use about the same number of songs for every artist in the list.

- Use artists/songs that are either similar to your music or fit the mood of the playlist. Jack Johnson would not work with my trio's music, unless I was creating a playlist for a backyard barbeque and used one of my laid back tracks. But going to far out of your genre could encourage negative feedback.

- Include some obscure tracks. As more and more back catalog gets digitized, it's possible to find a lot of rare cuts online. Use these to your advantage. Especially if it's an underrated cut that you love, people with similar tastes are going to love that you found it for them.

- Own up to what you're doing and don't be shady. People aren't dumb. After they see your music in a bunch of playlists with their favorite artists, they'll put that together with the fact they've never heard of you and figure you're making the playlists. As long as you're making good playlists though, this is a good thing! I've received emails from people that truly enjoyed my playlists, discovered not only my music but some of the other lesser known artists I love. These folks have always bought my CD, told their friends, etc. Musical tastes truly connect people.

Most importantly:

- Don't think like a marketer, think like a fan. Better yet, just be a fan.

Time to redesign the website.

2008-09-11T11:01:00.000-04:00

My website has had three versions. The first was essentially a learning experience, and we'll pretend it never happened. Next I learned about nesting tables to organize the layout, and I used elements from my first album in the design. I kind of liked that version. A year ago, just after Life Is Loud came out, I changed the design to use elements from that album. It still uses nested tables and much of the layout is the same as the previous version. It feels like it's time to do a complete overhaul.

Musician's websites need a few basic functions. Let people hear your music, and point them in the direction to buy it. Tell them where you're playing. Give them an idea of who you are. Give them a way to contact you and join your email list.

A great example of this is Gary Jules' website. It doesn't use Flash. A lot of bands think you need a flash site to be cool. I like great Flash sites, but I hate waiting for things to load. The biggest risk you face using Flash is getting too caught up in everything it can do and creating a site that looks fancy but either lacks the basic functions you need to connect with fans, or has so much going on it's hard to find the info you want.

An advantage to Flash is creating an interactive experience, though you don't need Flash to do it. Interactive is good for bands and big personalities. People want to explore and get to know the band. I think interactive is bad for individuals that offer more than just the music performance experience. For example, I have my trio, but I'm also involved in other projects. I would also like people to know that I do arranging, composition, and studio work. Turning my website into an interactive maze would cause me to miss a bunch of opportunities.

Having your own website isn't what it used to be. Social networking has created a variety of experiences that have become status quo. Bands' MySpace pages all work the same way for the most part. There are a wide variety of blogging sites now, so you don't need more than a basic news/update feed on your website. Instead of incorporating video into your website, just link to your YouTube channel.

Since people spend less time on artist websites, you want to make sure the message is delivered at a glance, whatever that message may be. I need to tweak that message on my site and will hopefully have some time to do that before the end of the year. Any suggestions? What's your favorite artist website? Please let me know!

Tomorrow @ Club Groove in NYC

2008-09-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

Cameron Mizell Trio featuring Brad Whiteley (keys) and Kenneth Salters (drums):

Wednesday, September 10th, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Club Groove
125 MacDougal (at W. 3rd)
New York, NY 10012

Reinventing the Wheel

2008-09-09T11:15:00.000-04:00

While watching TV with my wife the other day, one of those razor commercials came on. You know what I'm talking about... now with five blades! I'm convinced that in my lifetime we'll see a ten blade razor that vibrates and has a mini vacuum pulling the hairs up off your face. My wife commented, "Instead of just reinventing the wheel, why don't they invest in something different?"

My favorite shave is with my straight edge, which I sharpen on a leather strop. I get the razor so sharp that if you hold a piece of hair between two fingers and let it hang straight down, you can cut the hair by simply passing the blade through it. Gravity creates all the tension you need. You can't beat a blade that sharp. Of course, if you know me, you know I don't shave very often. So on the occasion I need a good shave, I enjoy the ritual of carefully sharpening the blade, getting a warm shave lather on my face, slowly shaving, cleaning the blade, and putting it all away. Disposable razors offer speed and convenience. That's a different audience, with a different need.

My wife had a point. It's really not about how many blades you have, but it's the most obvious way to improve the product. After a certain point it's not going to made a bit of difference.

Think about how this applies to the music industry. Is it really worth the effort trying to get radio play anymore? Is it even worth making physical formats? Will it make sense to keep trying to sell music a few years down the road? The answers are different for everybody, depending on what kind of music you make and who makes up your audience, but maybe it's time to try something totally different.

Deep linking to MP3s

2008-09-08T10:05:00.001-04:00

The top referrer to my website is not MySpace, Facebook, this blog, or even Google, but Baidu MP3, a Chinese search engine known for deep linking to MP3s. In other words, it's good at finding the location of music files hosted anywhere on the internet so you can download them. For free.

If anyone know how to read some HTML code, they can find music online. My MP3s are somewhat hidden online, but they're not impossible to find. Likewise there will always be MySpace hacks enabling people to grab music directly off the MySpace server. Actually, you don't even need a hack for that if you can get creative. My belief is that if you are creative enough, or digging through code to find MP3s is your thing, go for it. You earned it. Just don't think you're tricking anybody.

When it comes to something like Baidu, I'm not sure deep linking to music files is the best thing for online music. Eventually, less of the great content will be available for complete previews online, and that's what we all love about the internet. You can find ANYTHING.

Of course, I don't think I'm blowing up in China (yet). Most of these hits likely come from somebody searching for one of the songs I've covered, and the person searching probably isn't looking for my version. But none the less, the end up at my website. While they might not understand English, it would be pretty cool if my music became popular enough that I might one day be crusing through China Town here in NYC and find a bootleg album or better yet, an obscure, nonsensical reference on a t-shirt.

(If you're having trouble reading that, it says, "One of the hostages being Taliban had two message interview late last night.")

And to be sure this blog is now banned in China, let me add: Free the Tibetan people from cultural genocide!

Emulating Other Instruments

2008-09-06T20:04:00.005-04:00

In a college improv class, the professor played us sound clips of various musicians' tone minus the attack. Turns out if you cut off the initial attack, it's difficult to tell what instrument your listening to. Great artists tend to have less attack and a stronger tone, which makes their sound more pleasing to our ears. Their distinctive sound comes from the nuances in their vibrato, timing, and general feel. These are things that can't really be taught. The best way to learn them are through transcribing. Internalizing other's solos gives you the experience of knowing what you're going to play and perhaps more importantly, how you're going to play it, before you do.

The best way to develop your own sound is by transcribing other instruments (this goes for great vocalists as well). I find that when I transcribe other guitarists, I'm comparing my sound to theirs. I'm trying to figure out how they got that sound, what kind of guitar they're playing, what fingering they're using to play that difficult passage. But when I spent some time transcribing tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, I was focusing on his feel. If you're familiar with Dexter Gordon, you know that he was known for his extremely laid back phrasing. He would play deep in the pocket, and then finish off the phrase laying way behind the beat. One of the greatest lessons I took from these transcriptions was how he started solos. Often times he'd sit on one note, and just play rhythm and tone. Turns out time and tone are the most important characteristics of a great solo. In other words, playing the right notes don't really matter if they don't feel right or sound good.

Think about your favorite musicians. What is it about them that you love?

You Can't Notate Feeling

2008-09-06T19:48:00.005-04:00

Create an Email List with Google Docs

2008-09-05T18:50:00.018-04:00

**Update 10/9/08** Google has updated their software to make this process easier. I updated this guide and eliminated several steps no longer needed.

-----------------------

Google Docs has a great function that can help you build an email list. I found out about this when Lauren Zettler asked if I could help her create something like this (and she sent me a link to another example... in other words, this isn't my idea, I'm just trying to spread the good word). Lauren recorded a gig we played at the Hotel Cafe in LA and wanted to offer it as a free download. When you have something like this to give away, it's a great opportunity to build your email list. Click on the cover image for her free download, and you can see how this works from the end users' perspective.

Log in to Google Docs (you'll need a Google password, which will be the same as a Gmail or YouTube login) and select New > Form in the upper left corner.

Start adding your questions to your form. Play around for a bit so you can figure out how your different options will look. It's easy to edit by redoing the last few steps.

Once you're done, save the link at the bottom of the window. Use this to direct people to your form.

Before you close that window, choose More actions > edit confirmation. Make this say whatever you'd like, but it should ideally be an instructions for the next step, such as a link to your free download.

Good luck!

Reading Music for Guitar

2008-09-05T09:08:00.003-04:00

Despite the fact everyone and their dad plays one, the guitar is not an easy instrument. Thanks to the Guitar Hero video game, there was a brief boom in the guitar lesson market. Yet once all those people realized steel strings hurt your fingers more than plastic buttons, and hitting the correct string or two is a lot harder than flicking a light switch, those of us that try to maintain a few students had to go back to drinking PBR instead of those delicious microbrews.

One of the biggest challenges for most guitarists is reading music. Many great guitarists don't read music. They just don't have to. Either they have great ears or play in the type of bands where it's not needed. There are also many that do read music, and exploit that skill to get a lot of work.

Learning to read music seems like a chore. There is tons of great music that can be played without reading a single note, and thanks to more intuitive notation methods like guitar tab, it can even appear cumbersome.

Even if you can read notes on a treble clef, you can play the same note on several strings. This gets confusing, especially if you're trying to articulate a passage properly. When a guitarist comes across an E in the top space on the staff, they can play the open top string or, working the way down the lower strings, get the same pitch on the 5th, 9th, 14th, and 19th frets. Each has a different sound and can influence your next move. It's confusing and causes a lot of guitarists to freeze up or get delayed when sight reading music.

My own excuse for being a poor sight reader is that I rarely see properly notated guitar music any more. Most people don't know how to write for guitar. The other night I played a gig where I had a few guitar charts, most with the notes written in the wrong octave (note to arrangers: the guitar sounds an octave lower than written, so if you want to hear middle C, write the C in the staff), and with a lot of cluster chords without a chord symbol notated above. Most of the time I was reading over the piano player's shoulder, looking at a bass line and then a few bars later back to my music stand trying to double the lead trumpet part. The next day I'll be working with somebody using a capo, and while they're telling me it's a C chord, in my head I'm transposing up a minor third to Eb to compensate for that capo on the third fret. When somebody finally puts actual guitar music in front of me I never know what I'm going to play.

However, I strongly encourage guitarists to learn to read. Being able to read and notate music properly is the best way to communicate with great musicians. There are more gigs for guitarists that can read. Even if you don't gig, there is a wealth of music to learn that been arranged and notated for guitar. Combined with a great ear, you'll find yourself not only being a better guitarist, but a much better musician.

Thoughts on Leaky Music

2008-09-04T09:15:00.001-04:00

There's been a lot of talk lately about unfinished music leaking across the internet, and I think the conversation started up again after some of the Guns 'N' Roses tracks from Chinese Democracy (their new album) got loose. At first I thought, "Who cares?" But after seeing some reaction, I began to think about it more, and from the artists perspective as well as the fans.

Let's start from the fans' perspective. If you really love a band, chances are you want to know what goes into making their music. Where do they get those ideas? What would it be like to hang out with them? What are they like in the studio? Hearing unfinished music gives you a piece of that. It's like the bonus features on a DVD that have outtakes or commentary. You get to humanize the artist. It's pretty cool, right?

From an artist's perspective, I would love to share the process with you, but within context of my vision. You have to understand that making music is HARD. When I practice, I'm either messing up a lot going really, really slow 99% of the time before I get things right. I also write or play a lot of bad ideas to get them out of my head before I get to the good ideas. I don't want you to hear this stuff, at least not without my consent. So let me show you that I can get it right and then I'll reveal the painful part. Then I know you understand the context, and no matter who hears me messing up, I know they have probably heard me getting it right. This is why outtakes are shown at the end of movies. They're funny because you know the actors eventually said their lines correctly.

Technology plays a big part of this discussion. Advances in recording techniques can fix about anything. Because of this, the quality of talent has dropped. Clearly, if an artist can't really sing or play like the finished product, I would expect them to freak out if the public hears it. On the other hand, it is pretty amazing to hear an unfinished vocal track of somebody that can actually sing. I heard an unedited David Lee Roth track, vocal only with a little bleed from the headphones, and I had new respect for the man. Even more so, listen to someone like Etta James. You think they had to auto-tune her vocals?

In general, recording is a lot less romantic today than it used to be. Music used to get picked up by a microphone and hit the tape pretty close to how it would sound on the record. But today stuff gets recorded very, very raw. Where studios used to use the acoustics of a room to capture natural reverb, today it is a lot easier to record very dry and add reverb later, by running the track through analog or digital processors. Almost every instrument can sound awful in a rough mix. It's very easy for people to perceive ugly sound for lack of talent. Even the best A&R guys can have trouble hearing talent through a poor mix.

Ultimately, this should be an artistic decision. The public does not have a right to hear whatever they want. Many fans believe they have this right because of the transparency of the internet. People, including many artists, share a lot of themselves on blogs, social network sites, YouTube, and personal websites. In fact, doing just that is a GREAT way for artists to reach more fans. I know several people who do this successfully. But at the end of the day, they have artistic control over what is released because they know context is key.

File Under Jazz

2008-09-03T10:00:00.007-04:00

Years ago I was asked to write an article explaining jazz to the novice listener. Below is the result, formerly posted on an e-zine, then on my website before I decided to scrap that section. Enjoy, and please add your thoughts and perspectives as comments:

WHAT IS JAZZ?
The largest hurdle for this discussion is to define jazz. To classify any genre of music, certain common qualities must be present. What qualities do we find in jazz? Improvisation and syncopated rhythm seem like obvious answers. Some definitions characterize jazz as having polyphonic ensembles (several instruments playing in harmony) and “deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre” (Merriam-Webster). But the umbrella of jazz now covers many different kinds of music with virtually nothing in common except the jazz section of a record store. Listen to any Glen Miller greatest hits album followed by Miles Davis’ On the Corner. Miller, a popular big band leader in the 1930s and 1940s, wrote some of the most memorable big band charts from the Swing Era, including “In the Mood.” On the other hand, Miles Davis, known as one of the most influential and experimental musicians of the 20th Century, recorded On the Corner in 1972 when his musical influences included Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, and James Brown. These two albums, if not for the two artists themselves, differ in a myriad of ways but are still filed under jazz. There is an explanation for this, both in the way the music is played and its history.

A PROCESS NOT A STYLE
Pianist Bill Evans said it best when he described jazz as no longer being a style but a process. In other words, it is a way to play and treat existing music. For example, Cole Porter wrote many great American songs in the 1920s and 1930s such as Night and Day, What is this Thing Called Love, and All of You. These were popular songs of the day, many from Broadway musicals. In the 1940s and 1950s, jazz musicians began playing the tunes in jam sessions, using only the chorus and repeating them over and over again taking turns improvising the melody. (Today, these tunes are part of the standard jazz repertoire.) This process has been part of black music ever since slaves were brought to America, when spirituals were sung in plantation fields. The words might have been taken from the Bible, but the way they were sung came from the African traditions of call and response, vocal style, tone quality, and pitch flexibility. As blacks moved north and into urban areas, they kept these aesthetics and applied them to other types of music. In rural areas black musicians had little access to instruments, but in the cities they could play pianos, saxophones, trumpets, and other white or European instruments and played those using rhythms and tonal qualities from African music. For instance, boogie woogie was a blues based piano style popular from roughly 1920 through 1945. Jazz historian LeRoi Jones wrote about the piano in Blues People as “one of the last instruments to be mastered by Negro performers” and boogie woogie “succeeded in creating a piano music that was within the emotional tradition of Negro Music” (90). And unlike European classical traditions, this music making process has no formal rules. The only rule is to make music that gets your foot tapping, makes you cry, or evoke some kind of emotional response from the audience. This is the essence of jazz, and as far as the listener is concerned, the only quality that matters.

HISTORY OF A PROCESS
If jazz is more easily explained as a process to make music as opposed to a defined style of music, then we have to understand how the process differed through history. Then we can justify the Glen Miller and Miles Davis albums being filed under the same category.

Early jazz, prior to 1928, was a spin off of the New Orleans style brass bands, now known as Dixieland. These bands played tunes from ragtime, the blues, military and religious music, and the popular tunes of the day. In the 1920s trumpeter Louis Armstrong emerged as the first great soloist and entertainer in jazz. He was the first to play with a modern swing feel.

During the Swing Era (1935-1945) big band jazz and popular music were one and the same. From big bands, smaller groups formed consisting of one or two horn players and a rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums). With a smaller band more emphasis was put on the soloist and musicians could improvise longer. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie’s small group began playing bebop in the 1940s and removed jazz from the mainstream. Bebop musicians considered their music to be art, not entertainment. The music was still based on popular tunes, but the melodies were rewritten and played at faster tempos.

The 1950s saw the beginning of cool jazz, modal jazz and hard-bop. One style of jazz did not stop when a newer one began, they all existed together. The 1960s saw free jazz, post bop, latin jazz and the bossa nova craze, plus the beginnings of jazz-rock fusion that persisted through the 1970s. Also during this time, contemporary or smooth jazz gained popularity, mixing easy listening and R&B with jazz improvisation. Many artists played many different styles as they developed. Miles Davis, for example, began playing at a young age in big bands around St. Louis, then played bebop with Charlie Parker in New York, created the cool school, pioneered modal jazz, led some of the greatest post bop groups, recorded the first major fusion album (Bitches Brew in 1969), and played pop jazz in the 1980s. His last album, released after his death in 1991, was a collaboration with rapper Easy Mo Dee. In many ways, Miles Davis’ career outlines the history and process of jazz from the 40s to the 90s.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Jazz intimidates a lot of people because it appears so complex. Yet it is not an exclusive club reserved for intellectuals and beatniks. Jazz is a language, an unspoken line of communication between the musicians and the audience. It is an active process that requires the listener’s participation. If you avoid listening to jazz because you think it is all the same, I beg you to reconsider. There are many styles of music called jazz, and there is at least one everybody likes. Once you stop trying to define it and really listen, you will realize that nothing I have written in this essay is required to enjoy jazz; the music will speak for itself.

The New Singles World

2008-09-02T10:04:00.004-04:00

We're not talking about the dating scene.

One of the major reasons Napster and subsequent file sharing services became so popular is that they allowed people to cherry pick hit singles. If you think about it, that is probably the root of file sharing. Give me just what I want and not the other baggage (now this is starting to sound like dating). Up to roughly 1999, you had to buy an $18 CD to get the one song you really wanted. So file sharing was never solely about getting that song for free, it was just about not spending all of your beer money to get that one song. If it had been easier to buy that song for $.99, or even half that, I bet a substantial amount of tracks would have been sold. It would still be eclipsed by the free downloads on P2P's, but a lot of people will pay a little for some convenience. I'm one of those people. Enter iTunes.

iTunes is a huge force in music retail. I believe it makes up about 30% of total US music revenues, and according to at least one source, is the top music retailer in the US. One reason is the deep catalog and long tail economics of selling less of more. From personal experience, I can report over 80% of my revenue from music sales is from iTunes, with the rest being physical albums and all the other digital service providers.

Ok, I've said nothing new so far, so let me get to my point.

There are still holdouts at iTunes, perhaps the most notable being The Beatles. Here's a Wall Street Journal article that does a decent job discussing "why" bands do this. In short, these artists want to stick to selling their music in the album format and avoid letting people choose one or two tracks. Even so, their music is easily found across torrent and P2P services for free.

Holding out seems like a noble thing to do and all, but come on guys, you're missing the point. For starters, your real fans are still going to buy the whole album. While your tracks will still be traded freely on the internet, you might pick up a few sales from people willing to pay for the convenience of iTunes.

More importantly, there's the artistic debate. The artist wants you to buy the whole album and listen to it start to finish, in order. Well, here's where it gets tricky. I see albums in three categories.

First, there will always be pop acts that play the singles game, and those singles usually get released on an album with eight or nine "filler" tracks. Filler, in this case, means phoned in pieces of crap that should be an embarrassment to all those involved. These are usually the kinds of acts major labels got in the habit of using to support themselves. Once there was an option to avoid the filler, the focus was shifted back to the single. Only today you can exploit it with with mobile products, videos, etc.

At the other end of the spectrum there's the concept album. The first band that comes to mind is Pink Floyd. Sure, they had some great songs, but in the context of the whole album, holy shit, it was a whole new experience. Why would you want to miss out on it? Fact is, most people don't. Go look at The Wall on iTunes. It's $24.99. Originally released as a double LP, it's now just 26 tracks (you can tell it's on two CDs because it's numbered 1-13 twice). A bunch of the tracks are under two minutes, and there are maybe just two or three songs people would actually listen to outside of the whole album. Yet the "filler" tracks here are functional pieces to a larger concept, and to get the whole picture you gotta buy the whole thing. If you look at that graph in the WSJ article, you'll see that people are buying as many Pink Floyd albums as they are digital tracks.

Finally, somewhere between the pop acts and the concept albums are simply great albums. The Beatles would be a great example here. So many of their albums are loaded with songs you want, you just buy the whole thing. One of my favorite albums by an independent musician is The Hill by Mike Stocksdale (you can get it for free on his site but I STRONGLY encourage you to go buy it and support this guy). Mike just wrote a bunch of great, tasty songs. A few of these could be singles, but quite frankly, you're missing out if you don't get the whole thing and listen start to finish.

The bottom line is either your album is either good start to finish or it's not. Not selling your tracks as singles makes no sense to me. Your fans are allowed an opinion, and in today's climate they expect to be able to buy a track or two first before deciding your new masterpiece is worth their time and attention to listen start to finish. Look, I understand that many tracks are Album Only on a variety of services based on length (see any jazz album), licensing (see any soundtrack), and occasionally publishing (which makes little sense to me), but those are not artistic decisions. If you think your album so great that it MUST be listened to start to finish, which ought to be the way we all make albums anyhow, then throw it out there and let the fans figure it out. Everybody wins.

Craziest gig, ever.

2008-09-01T00:17:00.003-04:00

Summer of 2002. The last summer I spent in my parents house in St. Louis. I was working as a waiter and trying to find gigs wherever possible. With the amount of running around I was doing, I figured a cell phone would help people reach me for gigs, and within 24 hours of activating my first cell phone, while shooting pool and drinking beer at a friend's house, I got the call.

Me: Hello?
Unidentified Voice (w/ heavy Italian accent): You play guitar?
Me: Uh, yeah?
UV: You know some jazz chords?
Me: Yeah?
UV: You gotta suit?
Me: Yeah, who is this?
UV: How long will it take you to get to the Hill? You gotta car?

The Hill is the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Sort of like Little Italy in New York, but less touristy and in my opinion, a lot more authentic, so probably more like Arthur Ave. in the Bronx.

Me: Maybe an hour and a half. Wait, who is this?
UV: It's [not named to protect myself], I'm a jazz singer that sounds like Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean... you know, I'm a jazz singer. Meet me at [unnamed restaurant] in an hour. I need a guitar player. I've got all the music.

And so I asked a couple more questions to make sure I'd get paid, got something that resembled directions, and went home to get my suit. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

While sitting in traffic headed downtown, he called back to tell me that he and the sax player were running late (Ok, now I know there's a sax player), and he needs me to cover for them until they get there. In 2002 I could play about three competent chord melody solos on guitar. At least, there were three I felt comfortable performing. So I crossed my fingers that they weren't running that late.

When I got to the restaurant, a rough looking man in a suit named Guy showed me where to set up. "Where's [the singer]?" he asked. "Oh, he'll be here soon. Traffic. I'm going to play some solo guitar in the meantime." Gulp.

Nearly an hour later, they showed up. It was just the two of them. That meant I was the entire rhythm section, and would be playing plenty of chord soloing whenever the saxophonist laid out. After setting up the small P.A., a binder of music was thrown in front of me. Opening it up, I didn't recognize a single song. These weren't jazz standards, these were Italian songs. Half of them were written for mandolin! I was a goner.

The scariest moment in my life happened a few tunes later, when he called Mi Amore. Finally, something I sort of knew! Before I had a chance to look it over, he was counting off the tune. And by counting off, I mean he was doing some weird foot stomping, fist swinging motion while singing what I imagine was some sort of trombone part from the arrangment stuck in his head, "Bah, Bah-Dah, BOP!" As soon as I started playing my best boom-chick-chick waltz pattern, he got right in my face and while playing air mandolin, starting singing some high notes, wanting me to play that, doing some tremelo picking, at the same time. I don't remember the next couple minutes, but things seemed to settle in place. But then it all fell apart. The key changed or something, but not in my music. Wait, where's the final barline? Where's the rest of this lyric? I'm missing a page!

And that's how I fucked up Mi Amore in front of an all Italian audience in the most Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. I was pretty sure my car was going to blow up when I turned it on.

Yet ironically, Guy and everyone else loved my solo playing at the beginning that they forgave me, and just teased me about it afterwards. Plus, once we did get to the jazz standards, I more than made up for it. Literally, I played like my life was on the line. After the gig, which went until the last customer left a little after midnight, the chef made an amazing pasta dish for the three of us. The owner broke out a few bottles of vino and we kicked back, smoked cigars, had some lemon dolce, and shot the shit until about 4 am. My car started without incident and I felt successful.

Tendinitis

2008-08-31T15:31:00.003-04:00

After electrocution, tendinitis, or tendonitis, is the worst thing that can happen to a guitarist. Electrocution is almost out of your hands (no pun intended) thanks to the unpredictable poor wiring situations in any given venue. I've only been shocked badly once, and it resulted in soreness and swelling in both my hands, wrists and arms. Now I bring my own surge protector and unplug it the way you're not supposed to... by yanking on the cord about two feet from the plug.

Tendinitis is your own fault. I started feeling soreness in my left hand back in college, when I'd practice upwards of eight hours a day and did a lot of instant messaging with my long distance girlfriend, usually with a guitar in hand while I waited for the response. In the long run it all worked out. I got a lot better at guitar and married that girlfriend. But that soreness comes back every now and again. This week was the first time I felt it in about 4 years, likely from playing a lot of mandolin. Those tiny frets can be tricky.

The best way to prevent tendinitis is to warm up properly, so now I've dedicated the first hour of my day to running a series of exercises and then some free improvising to a metrenome. The goal is relaxation. Tension is the enemy. Relax the right hand, and the left hand follows. There are a number of methods aimed at preventing these sorts of injuries, but the basic message is to relax, find the most comfortable position for playing, and follow the path of least resistance.

The only campaign ad you need.

2008-08-30T22:52:00.000-04:00

Silly Politics

2008-08-30T19:39:00.003-04:00

I didn't even know Alaska needed a governor. Last I heard, vampires took over. I liked McCain in 2000, when he seemed different than the other Republicans, but now I'm not so sure and this latest move has me wondering whether he's getting bad advice or made the most genius move ever in political history of all time. Ever.

Fact is, I'm going to vote for Obama. The most important issue to me is health care. Health is a basic human right, and this is one instance where I wish even Libertarians understood that the market shouldn't control the cost, quality and availability of health care. For a country built on the American Dream, where the entrepreneurial spirit is supposed to be encouraged, one would think an affordable, comprehensive health care plan would exist for small business owners. Instead, we have a system of survival of the richest. And look, for those of you that say universal health insurance would equal long waiting times and poorer quality of care, maybe you should hold your elected officials accountable to do their freaking jobs. Stop telling us it's too hard or complicated and figure it out. We're not idiots.

After health care, I'd like the earth to be preserved so we all have the option of enjoying our health outdoors. After the environment, I think civil liberties needs some work, especially for women and minorities. The best way to do that might be to not allow white men to vote for a few years. Give everyone else a chance to catch up. As a white man, I won't mind. Just don't take away my universal health insurance and clean, renewable energy.

Recording, recording, recording

2008-08-29T14:35:00.004-04:00

I've been doing a lot of this lately. Using a MacBook, Lexicon Omega interface, Cubase LE software, an Audio-Technica AT2020 mic, and a little creativity, I've figured out a few ways to make some great sounding recordings. It's been primarily acoustic, so mic placement is crucial. Beyond that, if you have decent sounding instruments you can get a very true sound.

I've also been using GarageBand to lay down the basic ideas behind a new song I'm writing. This has been really, really helpful as I keep working on different projects. I often forget the exact feel that was in my head when I first got the idea, and you can't really notate it quickly. But now I just record it and forget about it until I need it again.

Many of these recordings are for projects with bigger pictures. I'm working on a album with Matt Ketteman. I'm recording some new material with Lauren Zettler. And I'm almost perpetually recording some sort of project with a couple guys that we hope to use for licensing opportunities, as well as just sell it on iTunes.

Speaking of licensing, I've started uploading some of this music to YouLicense.com, which will help people or companies that need music for film or TV find my music. We'll see if this yields any results, but quite frankly, anything is better than what I make now from licenses.

MySpace

2008-08-27T19:49:00.006-04:00

I've been convinced of this for a long time, and I'm definitely not the first person to say it, but the MySpace community is not going to buy your album. The social networking site is a decent place to spread the word about your band, maybe gain a few new fans, and the band profiles have definitely become a familiar status quo to booking agents, club owners, record labels, and the general music loving public. When I want to hear a song by a band, I usually find myself going to MySpace before the band's own website. How fucked up is that? But at least I know the band is only going to put forth a select six songs. A nice little sampler before I move onto their site.

But back to sales. Do people wasting their time surfing MySpace actually decide to buy music? If you send a personal message to all of your friends telling them about your new album, how many do you think will buy it? My estimation is about 1%. One person for every hundred you write will buy it. And that's if your friends list consists of people that might actually care about your music, not other bands padding their friend count or those sexy vixens that update their status every 40 seconds so they show up in your friend updates.

MySpace is an easy method of stalling. When you don't know what else to do for your album, you start adding friends or leaving comments. But sit back and take stock of what you're getting back, and you might find that it's better to invest your time doing something else. Like blogging...

Physical Formats: Doing it Right

2008-08-26T16:35:00.006-04:00

If you're going to the expense of manufacturing CDs, vinyl, tapes, memory cards, download cards, anything tangible that will either be sold or given away, make it look good. Even if you're doing a very simple package, like a CD with a two sided front insert, it is still worth your time and energy to make it professional. Here are some things to consider:

Cost:
Create a budget. Cost is clearly an issue for most independent artists. I understand that, I'm in the same boat. But since we know that we're more likely to sell digital albums, we can do a lower run of physical product and save a little money. Don't try to do too much yourself to cut corners if it's not going to look how you want it to look. Don't let the upsell of cheaper per unit convince you to order 2,000 jewel cases when when what you really want is a digipak with a die-cut. Maybe you can only order 500 of this packaging and it eats up any room for decent profit. But your digital sales can offset the cost, and it's always a bad idea to let profit margin affect artistic decisions, especially your own.

Package Copy:
Before you begin envisioning the artwork, start thinking about the words that go into the package. This is called the 'copy,' or specifically 'package copy.' I'm a fan of consolidating things to have as few words as is necessary. For example, list the musician credits in one place, unless every track has a different combination, in which case it's good to list them track by track. And many people are starting to leave copy out of their package and putting it all on their website. But whatever you decide to include in the package, figure out your lyrics, thank you's, legal lines, track list, writer credits, liner notes, and all else before design begins. Then separate them out in each area or component of the package. What needs to be on the cover? What about the back? How about the disc? Finally, proofread. Ask somebody to help you with this. It's a lot easier to catch typos now rather than once it's in some fancy, tiny font in the artwork. Plus it will save you time and money once it goes to design, which brings us to the next part.

Get a Designer:
Or at least consult a few. Unless you've designed CD artwork for many, many other musicians, you don't have enough experience to do this properly. I've seen many talented graphic designers try to put together a CD package and fail. They don't don't consider all the realities of printed components. Printing has some physical limitations with paper types, ink, screening, etc. that a web designer won't know. There are also some cool tricks a good print designer will know to really make your package stand out. The best CD artwork I've ever seen are designed from the perspective of the customer--as you open it up and turn the pages, the story of the music unfolds before you. A good, experienced designer is worth the expense (and will probably work with you on your budget). You didn't cut corners to make the music sound right, why not make it look right?

*The biggest pitfall I see with inexperienced designers happens on the disc label. The disc surface is a tricky place to print. Most manufactures print a three color disc, NOT the four color CMYK used for the paper. Gradients don't usually print smoothly, meaning most photographs do not look right. Therefore it is important you and your designer understand the process your manufacturer uses so you can translate your design to the disc label.

Create Dummies:
Your final CD artwork will not be viewed on a flat piece of paper or on a computer screen. Print it out, cut it out, fold it up, put it in a jewel case, and flip through it like you just tore off the shrink wrap. This is a great way to catch mistakes.

Manufacturing:
The manufacturer is the critical end of the line for your CD. This is where it your design is printed and will either pop off the shelf or blend in with everything else. There are many, many places to manufacture CDs. To find the best one for you, do some research online and ask other indies where their CD was made. Decide what kind of package is right for you and figure out who does it the best for your budget. "Green" packaging is becoming more popular, and there are some very cool package designs that don't use any plastic (other than the CD itself). These open up new design possibilities and will stand out at a store or on your merch table. Get samples from several companies to see different finishes, paper stock, and package options. Look closely at the black areas--do they have a greenish tint? There are a number of factors that will alter the way your final print turns out. Ask questions about how they gang up jobs on the line. Grouping multiple jobs on one press is a common paper-saving practice, but it can slightly alter the colors on your print. Bottom line, allow plenty of time to find the right manufacturer.

Don't Go it Alone:
Most importantly, don't let your ego as a creative individual get in the way. We're creative people, we express ourselves through music, and we might even be talented visual artists, painters, illustrators, web designers, or whatever else helps pay the bills. But if you don't have experience designing CDs, it's going to show. Take your time getting the package copy together. Put together a budget. Research manufacturing companies and ask them a lot of questions. Get the help of a professional so you can be happy with your final product. After all, you'll probably have a few boxes sitting around the house for a while.

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Before I close, I need to give a lot of credit here to the folks I used to work with at Verve Records creative department. Hollis King, the art director, is easily one of the best in the business. Every day I went to work it was like going to school. The three designers that worked there every day, Kazumi, Philip, and Sachico, all had different approaches to their designs. It was a blast looking at a round of comps with everyone and narrowing down the choices. And then all the artists and managers that we worked with, plus the sales, marketing, and executives' feedback exposed me to all the perspectives one could imagine when putting the pieces together of a new CD.

Physical Formats: General Thoughts

2008-08-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

When I signed up my first album through CD Baby in 2004, they were just beginning to distribute to digital service providers. Even though selling digital formats was very new and basically untested, it seemed like a great opportunity for independent artists. Manufacturing physical copies is expensive, and nobody sells as many as they order (see the unopened boxes of CDs in my closet. And bedroom, and I think there's one at my parents house). And since we're all used to barely selling anything, why not barely sell any downloads too? CD Baby even explained how you could create a digital only album to sell through them but warned that 90% of album sales are via physical formats, so do you really want to pass up those sales? Over a couple years though, it became clear that indie artists generally sell much more music digitally. It's a combination of having a greater reach through the internet and the shifting trend of people buying more music as downloads. I also believe that the type of person that goes exploring for good music by relatively unknown artists is the same type of forward thinking individual that would consume music in digital formats (such as the a la carte or subscription services that were starting to pop up at the time). Fast forward to today, and many popular acts sell more than 30% of their total sales via digital formats, and iTunes is arguably the largest music retailer in the US.

But despite the growing digital trend, there is still a lack of credibility surrounding a digital only release, or perhaps it just doesn't have the same amount of respect as something critics or customers or radio progammers that want to hold a tangible CD, even though they will likely rip it to their computer and transfer it to their MP3 player with the rest of their collection. It's also harder to sell downloads directly at a show, when the crowd is high on your music and their wallets are open (in theory). Even so, indie artists are highly unlikely to get a decent physical distribution deal to sell any meaningful amount of product through mainstream, national retail. In the end, how many physical CDs will you actually sell? Does that make it worth the cost to produce them?

I say it depends heavily on the act and their audience. Clearly a younger crowd probably cares less about a CD and just wants a few of your songs. Older audiences and niche oriented music might be more inclined to buy a CD either out of habit or because the full album is best experienced as a whole. The music and artists I tend to listen to usually don't shoot for the hit single, and I much prefer an entire album (keep in mind, I'm 27 and Napster was in it's heyday while I was in college). In high school I used to buy jazz albums and comb through the liner notes and pictures to learn as much as I could about everyone on the album. When I bought rock albums, it would be to learn every song on guitar, and this ranged from Hendix to Alice In Chains to Led Zeppelin and back again. I'd like to believe there are plenty of people that look at music the same way I do, and so as long as I want to buy full albums, somebody else will, too. I write this knowing fully well many people I know probably haven't bought music since 1999, and to people under 20, spending money on music is unheard of.

Even so, I've been able to create some profit from the music I sell. In fact, that's the bulk of my income. The vast majority (I'd guess 90%, but I don't have figures in front of me) is from digital sales, and almost exclusively iTunes. I've only manufactured CDs for two albums. I'm now sure what I'm going to do for the next album with my trio--maybe a short run of CDs and some vinyl. CDs are good for mailing to press or for the few people that still want CDs. Vinyl is gaining in popularity again but is still a tiny slice in the pie. However, I think a big chunk of that slice is made up of people that could be fans of my music. But the bulk of my focus will be on the digital release because I know that's how I make my money back so I can record more music, pay my band, and ultimately make some kind of living. The physical formats are simply for credibility. Perhaps this is a new form of paying your dues.

Leo Tolstoy

2008-08-23T07:54:00.002-04:00

I'm out of town this weekend, and trips that involve airplanes are always a good time to start a new book. I've just dug into Leo Tolstoy's Collected Shorter Fiction Vol. 2. It was recommended to help get me adjusted to Tolstoy before going further in War & Peace. But the thing I really love about short stories is the relatively limited amount of time the author has to create his or her desired effect. It's not that different from playing music. Writing a song, or improvising a solo, requires an acute compositional sense to know where you are and where you are going, and how you plan on wrapping things up, and all in a very short time. You're essentially creating a moment in time, conveying a feeling or mood that is experienced in one sitting. It can be experienced repeatedly if one chooses. This is exactly how you read short stories.

New respect for Bob Dylan

2008-08-21T22:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I got the idea that I would play a little chord progression I wrote on mandolin while playing a melody on harmonica. Not easy. I can do either one perfectly fine on their own. I can even pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time. But it's going to take some serious shedding before I can execute this together. And I need to figure out a better way to hold the harmonica, because that metal neck contraption that Dylan used is a piece of junk.

But let's face it, Bob Dylan sucked at harmonica. Now I know why.

Free Jazz

2008-08-19T23:27:00.002-04:00

I love free jazz. At least, I love the idea of free jazz. The basic concept is to freely improvise whatever you want. Ultimately, it's an open conversation between musicians. There's little, if any, preconceived notions of what is going to be said, but when done well the end result will speak volumes. The problem is many musicians don't really know how to listen and you get the equivalent to one of those conversations where everybody keeps changing the subject back to themselves and talking over each other. When you consider that most people don't even know how to listen to jazz when it's played straight ahead, never leaving the form and rarely going too far outside the chord changes, it's a wonder anybody ever decided to take things further.

Socks

2008-08-19T22:26:00.003-04:00

Sunday and Monday I recorded all day and well past midnight. Thursday is going to be another marathon session. This is all tracking that is easily done in a quiet apartment on home studio equipment, but if you heard the end result you'd have no idea this was the scene vs. a polished studio. At least not for the kind of music we're recording right now.

There are a few things I'm noticing about myself now a days. I wear socks less often. I also eat less. As new music comes to mind, I stop whatever I'm doing to write it down. That's been Rule #1 since quitting the day job--treat every new bar of music like it's an investment in my imaginary 401k. Of course, this interrupts whatever routine I'm trying to piece together for myself, including getting completely dressed or making a sandwich, but I think it's ok. This is what I do now, and I can do it with bare feet.

Print Advertising... does it sell CDs?

2008-08-16T22:42:00.002-04:00

I recently took out a 1/3 page ad in a jazz magazine. Like any jazz mag, the circulation isn't huge (22,000 or so), but it's going to a niche audience. It makes more sense to me to focus on your audience than to throw spaghetti at the wall. I got a deal too, or at least that's what I was told, and it seemed like something I could afford. Anyway, I looked at the SoundScan DMA sales (broken down by metro areas) and saw NO SALES in any of the major metro areas where the magazine circulates. It's also worth noting my trio has never played in any of those areas, so it's not like anybody knew who I was before they saw that ad and the album review.

I'm still reflecting on the value of advertising. I've never been a fan. It feels like a lazy strategy. If you have money, you can advertise. And there's so much of it out there, we're all desensitized. Even though I sold no CDs, was there value in placing that ad? Does it put my name in the back of people's heads? Does it give people the impression that I'm somebody they should know?

I'm not convinced, but I don't regret my decision and appreciate the support of the publication.

Fingerstyle Guitar

2008-08-16T00:28:00.002-04:00

There are many ways to play guitar if you don't have a pick. I've seen guys play with a pencil, drum stick, bow (saw part of The Song Remains the Same tonight), you name it. I happen to be talking about what you can do with your fingers.

You've got your flamenco players, classical guys, folk guitarists, hybrid pickers, Mississippi John Hurt disciples... you name it. There are many, many ways to play a guitar. I'm trying to figure out the finger style method that suits me best. As long as I've played, I've been a pick sort of guy, and early on I started using my ring finger and pinky to grab a string here or there to bring out the soprano voice in a chord. I've also studied classical guitar and done my share of etudes that build right hand strength. But I still trip up a little when I'm just playing through a progression and want to keep a pattern up, but the voicing looses a string (5 string pattern all of a sudden hits a 4 string chord voicing). Maybe it's my left hand that needs to make the adjustment? Regardless, I'm not there yet.

If you're a finger picker and have any tips, I'm all ears. I'm not looking for an explanation of somebody else's style, I can hear all of that, I'm just curious to see what goes through your mind when you're just kind of jamming along.

Duhnam Van Durham

2008-08-15T17:52:00.003-04:00

Speaking of harmonica, I highly recommend the album Simpler Times by Dunham Van Durham. It's got a nice use of blues harmonica in Americana music. Top notch compositions to boot.

Click the album cover, it'll take you to album on iTunes: