Skeptic Music

Last week, we had the privelage having Danny and Brian, two St. Thomas graduates and founders of a really cool business called Skeptic Music. In essence, Skeptic Music is a recording studio, that creates and records music for television shows, commercials, and film scores. Danny and Brian write the majority of the music themselves and distribute it to major advertisers. The two most important concepts I gained from these lectures was, one it's important to just do it, and two have a fast turn around on whatever it is you're doing.

The first point of just doing something is exemplified by Danny and Brian. After graduating neither of them knew how to record, but they did it anyways, slowly perfecting their craft through trial and error. In addition, neither of them always knew exactly how to compose the music they were being asked to create, but they did it anyways, by listening and studying the foreign music. On top of all of that, they were able to learn those skills quickly and utilize them to create a professional product.

Observing the career path to Brian and Danny's success reinforced the concepts we've been learning in Creating a Life in music which is; the most important thing to do is try, and you have to be professional no matter what you do.

Tax Returns

The life of a musician is generally hectic, scheduling gigs, writing music, teaching students, rehearsing, and everything in between are all time consuming. Add on top of that the difficulty of filing your own taxes as an independent entrepreneur, it can be to much for one person to handle. Therefore, the two best things an independant musician can do to keep the money they earn from dissolving into taxes is one hire an account that specializes in filing taxes for musicians, and two keep detaied and accurate records of your financial transactions.

Hiring an accountant that specializes in filing tax returns for musicians is paramount. These people know the rules of engagment including; what types of write offs, credits, and benefits are available to musicians. In addition, keeping detailed records will save you money form paying the accountant to organize your receipts. In gist knowing about filing your own taxes is great, but hiring an accountant is so much more efficient, saving you time and money, that you can use to practice and buy reeds...if you're me anyways.

John Snyder Rocks

Now in my final semester at Mcnally Smith College I have mixed feelings about graduating. Of course I'm very excited to be leaving school in a few short weeks, but with all the positive momentum and energy McNally's creating, I wish I was just beginning my first semester, because McNally Smith is doing big things. In this semester alone, we've had international super star Sheila E. visit our school, major music mogul Ron Sobel lecture in one of my classes. The most recent superstar to grace us with his presence was major music producer, four time grammy winner, and creator of a revolutionary website for musicians artistshouse.org John Snyder.

John Snyder gave the speech that by far, resonated with me the strongest. Not only has he accomplished the aforementioned accolades, but he is also a really cool guy. What stood out to me most was that Mr. Snyder had a masters degree in law, not music, and that he attributes the majority of his success in music to the degree he earned in law. Personally, it's inspiring to know that our music degree doesn't pigeon hole us into having to only work a career involved in music. In fact, according to John Snyder roughly 90 percent of people who get a bachelors in music don't go on to make their living in music, which isn't to say that music is no longer important to them, it's just not their only source of income.

While meeting John Snyder in class was inspiring, his website artistshouse.org is unbelievable. I checked it out after meeting him, and that site has everything for the independent musician; marketing, promotion, fan base, teaching, related jobs, etc... and they have videos of experts lecturing on how to accomplish these goals. There's so much information,it's ridiculous.

Yes, this last semester at McNally has been inspiring and I wish I could continue to take advantage of the great benefits McNally has offer. However, after listening to John speak, I'm ready to enter the real world and make a name for myself.

Ron Sobel

McNally Smith College is moving in exciting new directions. In the past week alone I had the privilege of meeting; Desa Darling, a local superstar, see Sheila E perform and lecture, and have major music mogul Ron Sobel lecture to my class of about ten people. It's great!
I found Ron's discussion with our class to be extremely educational, exciting, and a little frightening all at the same time. As a young musician that enjoys arranging and composing I realized now more than ever, the importance of joining some sort of publishing company, whether it be ASCAP or BMI. In plain English, the way Ron described the music business, the majority of the people out there "whores and hookers" out to take advantage of us musicians, because as much as we know about music. And as much time effort we put into music, those people put into stealing it from us. Fortunately, there are people like Ron and his associates who realize that music and business is a symbiosis. We can't function without them, and they certainly can't function without us, and is why it's important to know enough about music business to hire a reputable representative that you can trust.
While all of Mr. Sobel's sobering stories and scare tactics were great at forcing me to get in gear and take care of the legal aspects of my musical career. It was his insights into the future that really inspired me. in particular, the idea about birthday cards with music in them. That brand of futurist thinking is powerful, for the obvious reason that the early bird gets the worm.
Overall, I enjoyed Ron Sobel's discussion with our class. He shed light on the business side of music, which I'm not entirely familiar with while inspiring the futurist in me to innovate.

Desa's Presentation

Desa’s presentation was inspiring, her drive, work ethic, and innovative approach to music and marketing are inspiring. I left the class swimming with ideas about how to promote myself, and build a career. Her concept of, finding something memorable or unique about yourself to market, really resonated with me. I plan to exploit my ability to transcribe, compose and arrange through my MySpace.
The common thread between all the presentations so far this year is, using the internet, and in particular the free social networks it provides, in a creative way to build a fan base and develop an artists image.
Finally, Desa’s point about having a solid product that’s finished, meaning that the c.d. is already put together, your fan base is already established and maybe even a video already made, moved me to put start putting together a product of my own. Basically, the more you can do for yourself, and the less you leave up to the record company, the more money goes to you, which is fine with, because I’m an individual that likes to stay busy. If I’m not working from the moment I get up, to the time I go to bed, I feel like I’ve wasted the day.

MySpace Is Good

I would never be mistaken for someone with a lot of computer savvy, particularly when it comes to the internet. During high school, I resisted making a myspace page, or AIM account reasoning that, if I want to talk to someone I'll call them on the phone and go hang out at there house, instead of living vicariously in some virtual realm. Gradually, the myspace craze seceded into facebook hysteria, which I again resisted, for the same reasons that I boycotted myspace and AIM.
Finally, after holding out for two long years, my lack of being in the know about social events, and what my former classmates were doing pushed me to join facebook. I soon saw what a powerful tool the internet is. Minutes after joining facebook my inbox flooded with messages from old friends, dating as far back as elementary school, old pictures that I had long since forgotten about began to show up on my profile, it was great. I had been bitten by the facebook bug, and didn't mind one bit.
Whitney's presentation about facebook, myspace, twitter, etc... provided a lot potential ideas for how to build a fan base through the internet. I enjoyed listening to her suggestions and critiques about what makes a good myspace account including the obvious like, not using any obscene or offensive gestures, and the more subtle of keeping your profile human because ultimately, facebook, and myspace are a social network. (I also found it interesting that facebook will kick you off there site if they suspect you of using it to shamelessly promote yourself, especially given the ammount of daily junk I get in my inbox from the same people.)
The one aspect of internet networking that I'm still not entirely sure about is twitter. I recognize the importance of being able to track what people are saying about you, and about building buzz surrounding your music. I'm just not sure how to utilize it in the most efficient way. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to whatever you got about this one.
Basically, the most important aspect of these social networks is to use them to promote yourself, and build a strong fan base. As the cliché goes, in the music business any publicity is good publicity, especially if it's free. So get out there and make a myspace. One more thing, there's an interesting interview with Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records about building a strong fan base at http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/chris+blackwell+on+how+to+build+your+fan+base, that I thought was pretty nifty.

Talent v. Hard Work

After reading the first four chapters of Art and Fear and discussing them in class, the idea that resonated strongest with me was the concept that, while talent is great for getting people a head start, there is no substitute for hard work. Personally, I have never been the smartest, most athletic, or most talented at anything, but I have always had a strong work ethic. As a result, my perspective about anything skill related is that it can be learned and eventually mastered through persistence and practice. One of my favorite lines from Art and Fear occurred on page 26, “whatever you have is exactly what you need to produce your best work” (Bayles and Orland). Moreover, there have been numerous books and articles written bolstering that very idea. This Is Your Brain on Music The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin explains why 10,000 hours of practice, not talent, makes virtuosos, or Raw Talent v. Hard Work a blog by Christopher Sung which can be found at https://www.activemusician.com/Raw-Talent-vs-Hard-Work--t11i1.

There are numerous examples of people now consider innovators, masters and virtuosos struggling with music. For example, John Coltrane was by no means a child prodigy. In fact, he didn’t even begin playing the saxophone until he was twenty years old. Another well documented story is of a young Charlie Parker having no idea that there was even such thing as different keys, and playing the song Honeysuckle Suckle Rose in Bb while the band was in another key.

The bottom line regarding talent v. hard work is that practice makes perfect, and there’s no way around it.