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.