Curious about the music industry? Find out stuff.

[BonsaiK]

So I just got done giving my friend a guitar lesson. I'm pretty patient, so I thought it was actually kind of fun.

Because you're a person with more experience, I'd like a few tips for giving lessons.

The main thing is to make it about them. No point teaching someone something that they don't give a shit about unless there's some way it can be related back to other things that they do give a shit about. You don't teach a country and western fan heavy metal and vice versa... but you might teach both speed picking technique as that applies to both styles... The beauty of one-on-one lessons is that you can tailor a lesson to an individual. If a student has specific goals in mind that makes things a lot easier, because then you have something to work towards, so always ask them what they want to get out of it. Most guitar students don't plan on being Eddie Van Halen, they just want to be able to play at a reasonable level.

Remember that what you're doing isn't teaching them directly, you're more of a guide so they can teach themselves. Practice shouldn't be done in the lesson - they can practice the shit when you're not around. You're just there to tell them what to practice, as well as look at what they've been working on and iron out any errors, pick up any bad habits, give them some direction to work towards etc.

Write everything down. Internet tabs are useful but it's rare that I see an internet tab that is 100% accurate - get used to working out things yourself, by ear, it's an invaluable skill.
I swear it's this skill over any other that has my students consistently coming back to me.

The rest is all common sense. Being patient helps. Be on time/reliable, be nice, that sort of thing. If students don't practice, there's not much you can do, all you can really do to motivate them is to try and make the content of the lessons as interesting for them as you can. Also make sure students have got okay guitars, by which I mean playable without pain. Don't start some young kid on an acoustic steel-string with forebodingly thick strings. Also encourage them to ask questions. Anything you don't know off the top of your head you can always find out the answer to and get back to them.

Also, if you're doing this as a career keep accurate financial records of attendances and payments...

 

[BonsaiK]

So ask me stuff about any facet of the music industry, if you want to know about it. Any reasonable question will be answered.

If I write a piece and want to get it published, should I just send it to different companies or should I try a different strategy?

Why do you want to get your work published? What's your end goal here? Well, make money, I suppose, but what I'm asking is, how do you envisage seeing your published work be used?

 

[BonsaiK]

Hey I have a question for you.

Since most of these posts have been about rock, I want to ask about electronica.

Which genres are the biggest and what do you think would be a good way to get started with producing electronica?

Free tracker programs these days absolutely kick ass. Start there. I have a friend who scored a multi-album record deal with Europe-wide distribution and all his tracks are made at home on a PC with the free version of FruityLoops. There's two types of software that I recommend:

1. Free shit (FruityLoops, Audacity, etc)
2. ProTools

In other words, either spend lots of money and set up a real-deal digital studio properly with ProTools, or just use free shit because with a bit of ingenuity the free shit can get results that are close enough to the real deal that the large majority wouldn't know the difference. There's no point shopping in the midrange. I recorded and mixed a thrash metal band's album in one weekend using Audacity, three microphones, a laptop and a lot of overdubbing. Electronic music is even easier because you can DI a bunch of stuff - you don't even need more than one microphone, you just need a ton of cheap leads and if possible some kind of patching system or desk.

Also buy yourself a cheap physical mixing desk and when I say cheap, you can go for the absolute bottom of the range here. I've got a Behringer desk that only takes 3 channels at once, is about half the size of an XBox, cost me $90 and it's the most versatile thing I've ever used, and it's not even as technical or hard to use as those 2-channel mini-desks that DJs use for crossfading.

Also, listen to a lot of the music you like (I'm sure you already do) and try and work out what makes it tick. Know how to get really good bass on a recording, in other words learn to pick out sub-bass frequencies, how to use octave sub-bass, waveform editing or tone generators and gates to underlay subs, etc. That type of thing really important for electronica. Also, buy any old analog gear you see. Electronics shops will often sell cheap DIY tone generators in kit form, it's worth learning how to solder so you can build your own. A tone generator is the single most useful piece of equipment any electronica musician can own.

As for things that are huge right now, you only need to look at the charts wherever you live. Dubstep is popular, crunk and reggaeton are popular, 80's electro rehashes are really popular... that doesn't mean that you'll get popular if you copy this stuff though. Whatever you do, try doing it a little bit differently to everything else out there. It's uniqueness that really stands out in electronic music for me. If you've got the ability to conjure up through various devices just about any sound under the sun, you might as well exploit that opportunity to the hilt, I think.

 

[EatPieYes]

Does one need to sell ones soul, metaphorically speaking, to the devil in order to get successful (the Lady Gaga kind of success, where you're the biggest person in the universe) in the music business?

 

[BonsaiK]

Does one need to sell ones soul, metaphorically speaking, to the devil in order to get successful (the Lady Gaga kind of success, where you're the biggest person in the universe) in the music business?

Not sure what you mean by "sell one's soul" - please elaborate.

 

[EatPieYes]

Does one need to sell ones soul, metaphorically speaking, to the devil in order to get successful (the Lady Gaga kind of success, where you're the biggest person in the universe) in the music business?

Not sure what you mean by "sell one's soul" - please elaborate.

I'll put it in a different way:

What would you need to do to become a huge selling recording artist, as opposed to just being on an indipendent label? Are there certain deals and such you need to go through? Would you, in fact, need to become a simple marionette used to spread certain views and messages to the masses? Is that what TPTB want?

 

[BonsaiK]

Does one need to sell ones soul, metaphorically speaking, to the devil in order to get successful (the Lady Gaga kind of success, where you're the biggest person in the universe) in the music business?

Not sure what you mean by "sell one's soul" - please elaborate.

I'll put it in a different way:

What would you need to do to become a huge selling recording artist, as opposed to just being on an indipendent label? Are there certain deals and such you need to go through? Would you, in fact, need to become a simple marionette used to spread certain views and messages to the masses? Is that what TPTB want?

Pop stars are never used to spread "certain views", and when they choose to do so, it's almost entirely off their own bat, because those pop stars insist on doing so. The industry would honestly prefer that most artists just STFU about politics, social issues etc and stick to talking about the new album, how the tour's going etc. Having said that I can understand the temptation for a popular artist with the world's ear to want to say something more into that ear than just "gee I really love all you guys" or whatever, and to be honest so can most industry folks. Spouting political diatribes isn't encouraged but nor is it strongly discouraged, unless someone is getting really extremist. As for the reverse, or the idea that pop stars may be being deliberately shallow in order to spread some kind of "sedative" mind-control effect, or keep people distracted from bigger issues, etc, well it's a nice theory, but to be honest most people are perfectly capable of being stupid and ignoring the world's big issues without the help of a pop star. Most pop songs are about love simply because it's a universal theme that almost anybody above a certain age can relate to, and if you want to be popular it makes more sense purely from a marketing point of view to sing about something that the maximum amount of people can find some sort of resonance with. It's not an attempt at Orwellian mind control, it's just plain old market forces at work.

To be stratospherically huge as a recording artist, that's really hard to answer, because if anyone really knew the answer to that question, we'd just be able to wave a fucking magic wand and anyone who we wanted to be successful, would be. I can tell you however that massively huge artists, when they get massively huge, usually have the following things going for them:

* A work ethic
* Songs that people like
* Good management
* Effective distribution (this generally means that a major label needs to be involved)
* Some kind of word-of-mouth or promotional buzz
* Luck

Motley Crue's excellent book "The Dirt" talks about the music industry as a machine with various cogs and wheels, and talks about the big mega-famous state as "The Big Wheel"... well worth a read to get more detail on an artist's perspective.

If your question is more along the lines of "do you need to suck cock to get to the top" well the answer is "no, but in certain circumstances it could help". A band that used to be on my label a while back were label-shopping a while ago and their female singer was told in no uncertain terms by their would-be management that she needed to show a little more skin if her band was going to get anywhere. The band turned the offer down and took their business elsewhere, so maybe they lost out, but having said that, there's no guarantee that their new management was going to do the right thing by them anyway. Too much of the wrong type of "exposure" can actually hurt an artist, because it can prevent people from taking you seriously. Madonna received an enormous backlash when her "Erotica" album came out, so she backed off on the overt sex and her credibility as an artist was restored. It's a tricky line - obviously the industry does use sex to sell things, but at the same time we don't want to offend people to the point where they won't buy the shit because that's just bad marketing... hopefully this is answering your question...

 

[BonsaiK]

So, have you ever met KISS? If so, which band member did you like the most? Which did you like the least?

No. I had the chance quite some years ago but I turned it down. Although I find them interesting as a marketing phenomenon, I've never been much a fan of the band's music and I really wouldn't have had anything to say to them, so I passed my opportunity on to someone else where I work who was more of a fan. He said afterward that he didn't have much time for Paul or Gene but he really liked Bruce Kulick, the guitarist at the time, who was apparently really down-to-earth and nice, and he even got some guitar-playing tips.

 

[BonsaiK]

Are rappers complete tryhards in reality or is it all an act to attract consumers?

I was wondering when rap would make an appearance here.

If everything that rappers talked about was real, they'd all be either dead, in jail or in the STD clinic. Of course, a few are in these places, but most aren't. What does that tell you.

The lyrics in rap are deliberately exaggerated, and always have been. This can be traced back to the movement's roots in the Jamaican dancehall scene. The original rappers were more like spruikers, they'd be guys who would get on the mic and try to attract you into a club or party, by telling you how great the DJ is, or how hot the girls are, or whatever. No different to the guys who get on the mic in the shopping mall and try and get you to buy suits or handbags or whatever. Gradually this MCing meshed with the DJing that was happening at the club/party itself, as different MCs would try and compete with each other for more attention. They gradually incorporated rhyming, talking the DJ up, talking themselves up (while simultaneously shit-talking the opposition), very broad humour, storytelling, controversial statements, innuendo and several other things into the speeches - just whatever it took to grab attention, get someone into their club and not someone else's... modern rap has retained all of these original elements (and collected a few more along the way, such as the political stuff, which came later, and more sophisticated wordplay). It's actually very intentionally funny, lighthearted music, even when discussing serious topics or including a lot of profanity, violence etc, it's not meant to be taken quite as seriously as a lot of people take it. Rap can be serious too of course, but even in the most serious raps there is still humour embedded in the worldplay. All the really good practitioners of the style understand this concept innately. Unfortunately, many others (performers and fans alike) miss the point completely, and that's why you have all these dickheads running around thinking they have to be "hardcore" or whatever. You can't really blame rap for that though, I've listened to the most violent, misogynist, distasteful rap I could get my hands on ever since I was 13, I'm now 36 and yet I've managed to resist the temptation to act like a shocking douchebag. The bottom line is that rap is exaggerated entertainment like like metal is exaggerated entertainment and Eminem and 50 Cent probably aren't going to fuck your mother just like Dragonforce probably really aren't going to carry on "through the fire and flames".

 

[EatPieYes]

Does one need to sell ones soul, metaphorically speaking, to the devil in order to get successful (the Lady Gaga kind of success, where you're the biggest person in the universe) in the music business?

Not sure what you mean by "sell one's soul" - please elaborate.

I'll put it in a different way:

What would you need to do to become a huge selling recording artist, as opposed to just being on an indipendent label? Are there certain deals and such you need to go through? Would you, in fact, need to become a simple marionette used to spread certain views and messages to the masses? Is that what TPTB want?

Pop stars are never used to spread "certain views", and when they choose to do so, it's almost entirely off their own bat, because those pop stars insist on doing so. The industry would honestly prefer that most artists just STFU about politics, social issues etc and stick to talking about the new album, how the tour's going etc. Having said that I can understand the temptation for a popular artist with the world's ear to want to say something more into that ear than just "gee I really love all you guys" or whatever, and to be honest so can most industry folks. Spouting political diatribes isn't encouraged but nor is it strongly discouraged, unless someone is getting really extremist. As for the reverse, or the idea that pop stars may be being deliberately shallow in order to spread some kind of "sedative" mind-control effect, or keep people distracted from bigger issues, etc, well it's a nice theory, but to be honest most people are perfectly capable of being stupid and ignoring the world's big issues without the help of a pop star. Most pop songs are about love simply because it's a universal theme that almost anybody above a certain age can relate to, and if you want to be popular it makes more sense purely from a marketing point of view to sing about something that the maximum amount of people can find some sort of resonance with. It's not an attempt at Orwellian mind control, it's just plain old market forces at work.

To be stratospherically huge as a recording artist, that's really hard to answer, because if anyone really knew the answer to that question, we'd just be able to wave a fucking magic wand and anyone who we wanted to be successful, would be. I can tell you however that massively huge artists, when they get massively huge, usually have the following things going for them:

* A work ethic
* Songs that people like
* Good management
* Effective distribution (this generally means that a major label needs to be involved)
* Some kind of word-of-mouth or promotional buzz
* Luck

Motley Crue's excellent book "The Dirt" talks about the music industry as a machine with various cogs and wheels, and talks about the big mega-famous state as "The Big Wheel"... well worth a read to get more detail on an artist's perspective.

If your question is more along the lines of "do you need to suck cock to get to the top" well the answer is "no, but in certain circumstances it could help". A band that used to be on my label a while back were label-shopping a while ago and their female singer was told in no uncertain terms by their would-be management that she needed to show a little more skin if her band was going to get anywhere. The band turned the offer down and took their business elsewhere, so maybe they lost out, but having said that, there's no guarantee that their new management was going to do the right thing by them anyway. Too much of the wrong type of "exposure" can actually hurt an artist, because it can prevent people from taking you seriously. Madonna received an enormous backlash when her "Erotica" album came out, so she backed off on the overt sex and her credibility as an artist was restored. It's a tricky line - obviously the industry does use sex to sell things, but at the same time we don't want to offend people to the point where they won't buy the shit because that's just bad marketing... hopefully this is answering your question...

Yes, very much so. Thank you.

 

[Eumersian]

So ask me stuff about any facet of the music industry, if you want to know about it. Any reasonable question will be answered.

If I write a piece and want to get it published, should I just send it to different companies or should I try a different strategy?

Why do you want to get your work published? What's your end goal here? Well, make money, I suppose, but what I'm asking is, how do you envisage seeing your published work be used?

Well, you've asked a tough question there. I know that I've written a few complete works in my spare time for different types of ensembles, concert band, string orchestra etc. I've never though about how it would be used, but I imagine some would be appropriate for high school groups, some for professional ensembles, it depends on the piece really.

Take my piece for brass octet. This is obviously a specialty kind of piece, since brass octets aren't the most common thing in high schools or other such places. Then take a piece that I wrote and conducted for my high school concert band. Pieces for high school concert band are in higher demand, so would be used more in that respect.

I hope that's what you meant.

 

[Ham_authority95]

So I just got done giving my friend a guitar lesson. I'm pretty patient, so I thought it was actually kind of fun.

Because you're a person with more experience, I'd like a few tips for giving lessons.

The main thing is to make it about them. No point teaching someone something that they don't give a shit about unless there's some way it can be related back to other things that they do give a shit about. You don't teach a country and western fan heavy metal and vice versa... but you might teach both speed picking technique as that applies to both styles... The beauty of one-on-one lessons is that you can tailor a lesson to an individual. If a student has specific goals in mind that makes things a lot easier, because then you have something to work towards, so always ask them what they want to get out of it. Most guitar students don't plan on being Eddie Van Halen, they just want to be able to play at a reasonable level.

Remember that what you're doing isn't teaching them directly, you're more of a guide so they can teach themselves. Practice shouldn't be done in the lesson - they can practice the shit when you're not around. You're just there to tell them what to practice, as well as look at what they've been working on and iron out any errors, pick up any bad habits, give them some direction to work towards etc.

Write everything down. Internet tabs are useful but it's rare that I see an internet tab that is 100% accurate - get used to working out things yourself, by ear, it's an invaluable skill.
I swear it's this skill over any other that has my students consistently coming back to me.

The rest is all common sense. Being patient helps. Be on time/reliable, be nice, that sort of thing. If students don't practice, there's not much you can do, all you can really do to motivate them is to try and make the content of the lessons as interesting for them as you can. Also make sure students have got okay guitars, by which I mean playable without pain. Don't start some young kid on an acoustic steel-string with forebodingly thick strings. Also encourage them to ask questions. Anything you don't know off the top of your head you can always find out the answer to and get back to them.

Also, if you're doing this as a career keep accurate financial records of attendances and payments...

The main thing my friend wants to learn is playing tecnique and learning the chords and fretboard inside and out.

He already has a book for scales and shit, and I already gave him a few chords to work with, so I'll have to think of some other stuff to give him.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[BonsaiK]

So ask me stuff about any facet of the music industry, if you want to know about it. Any reasonable question will be answered.

If I write a piece and want to get it published, should I just send it to different companies or should I try a different strategy?

Why do you want to get your work published? What's your end goal here? Well, make money, I suppose, but what I'm asking is, how do you envisage seeing your published work be used?

Well, you've asked a tough question there. I know that I've written a few complete works in my spare time for different types of ensembles, concert band, string orchestra etc. I've never though about how it would be used, but I imagine some would be appropriate for high school groups, some for professional ensembles, it depends on the piece really.

Take my piece for brass octet. This is obviously a specialty kind of piece, since brass octets aren't the most common thing in high schools or other such places. Then take a piece that I wrote and conducted for my high school concert band. Pieces for high school concert band are in higher demand, so would be used more in that respect.

I hope that's what you meant.

Okay, so you're talking about print publishing, I had to clear that up because "publishing" means quite a few different things, potentially. You just need to hit up places. Chances of your brass octet being published are probably very small, but more heavily in-demand stuff might have a pretty good shot, it all depends on who you approach though (and whether your music sucks or not, naturally). Go into a print music store, dig out stuff that is kind of like where you see your works ending up, and take down names, addresses and numbers of publishers. Then make phone calls asking them if they're looking for more people to send stuff, and by the way you have some stuff and would they mind taking a look at it. Don't just send stuff in cold if you can help it - always ring first, so you know someone is maybe expecting your shit on the other end and can extract it from the piles of other junk that gets sent. Don't be pushy (it's annoying and they will burn your stuff without even looking at it when they get it), just be friendly and nice. It's more or less the same process people go through to get novels published etc - you just keep trying different publishers until you find one that feels like your stuff fits into what they're looking for.

 

[BonsaiK]

So I just got done giving my friend a guitar lesson. I'm pretty patient, so I thought it was actually kind of fun.

Because you're a person with more experience, I'd like a few tips for giving lessons.

The main thing is to make it about them. No point teaching someone something that they don't give a shit about unless there's some way it can be related back to other things that they do give a shit about. You don't teach a country and western fan heavy metal and vice versa... but you might teach both speed picking technique as that applies to both styles... The beauty of one-on-one lessons is that you can tailor a lesson to an individual. If a student has specific goals in mind that makes things a lot easier, because then you have something to work towards, so always ask them what they want to get out of it. Most guitar students don't plan on being Eddie Van Halen, they just want to be able to play at a reasonable level.

Remember that what you're doing isn't teaching them directly, you're more of a guide so they can teach themselves. Practice shouldn't be done in the lesson - they can practice the shit when you're not around. You're just there to tell them what to practice, as well as look at what they've been working on and iron out any errors, pick up any bad habits, give them some direction to work towards etc.

Write everything down. Internet tabs are useful but it's rare that I see an internet tab that is 100% accurate - get used to working out things yourself, by ear, it's an invaluable skill.
I swear it's this skill over any other that has my students consistently coming back to me.

The rest is all common sense. Being patient helps. Be on time/reliable, be nice, that sort of thing. If students don't practice, there's not much you can do, all you can really do to motivate them is to try and make the content of the lessons as interesting for them as you can. Also make sure students have got okay guitars, by which I mean playable without pain. Don't start some young kid on an acoustic steel-string with forebodingly thick strings. Also encourage them to ask questions. Anything you don't know off the top of your head you can always find out the answer to and get back to them.

Also, if you're doing this as a career keep accurate financial records of attendances and payments...

The main thing my friend wants to learn is playing tecnique and learning the chords and fretboard inside and out.

He already has a book for scales and shit, and I already gave him a few chords to work with, so I'll have to think of some other stuff to give him.

Thanks for the advice.

Well he's already got the manual, so he knows what to play, and chords/scales is just doing it over and over until the conscious brain stops working and the muscle/instinct side kicks in. What he might not know is how to play the stuff though, in terms of technique etc... and textbooks are typically very light on information like how to control your sound at high speed/high gain (like in metal), or with multiple chord shapes in very rapid succession (like in jazz). They just tend to assume that you're not going to have problems (heh). Most of the faster players I teach have sloppy technique and most of my teaching revolves around trying to get them to tidy up those elements and play fast and clean rather than fast and messy. He can teach himself where the notes/chords/scale patterns are easily enough without any assistance at all, but the practical application of technique is something where the more guidance you can get, the better, to stop weird habits from developing that can mess you up down the track.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Well he's already got the manual, so he knows what to play, and chords/scales is just doing it over and over until the conscious brain stops working and the muscle/instinct side kicks in. What he might not know is how to play the stuff though, in terms of technique etc... and textbooks are typically very light on information like how to control your sound at high speed/high gain (like in metal), or with multiple chord shapes in very rapid succession (like in jazz). They just tend to assume that you're not going to have problems (heh). Most of the faster players I teach have sloppy technique and most of my teaching revolves around trying to get them to tidy up those elements and play fast and clean rather than fast and messy. He can teach himself where the notes/chords/scale patterns are easily enough without any assistance at all, but the practical application of technique is something where the more guidance you can get, the better, to stop weird habits from developing that can mess you up down the track.

Next time we're together, I could ask him to show me all that he was given to work on, and I'll correct any tecnique issues from there...

He also has pretty bad rhythm, so I'll help him work on that(I'm a bass player so it should be easy)

 

[BonsaiK]

Are rappers complete tryhards in reality or is it all an act to attract consumers?

I was wondering when rap would make an appearance here.

If everything that rappers talked about was real, they'd all be either dead, in jail or in the STD clinic. Of course, a few are in these places, but most aren't. What does that tell you.

The lyrics in rap are deliberately exaggerated, and always have been. This can be traced back to the movement's roots in the Jamaican dancehall scene. The original rappers were more like spruikers, they'd be guys who would get on the mic and try to attract you into a club or party, by telling you how great the DJ is, or how hot the girls are, or whatever. No different to the guys who get on the mic in the shopping mall and try and get you to buy suits or handbags or whatever. Gradually this MCing meshed with the DJing that was happening at the club/party itself, as different MCs would try and compete with each other for more attention. They gradually incorporated rhyming, talking the DJ up, talking themselves up (while simultaneously shit-talking the opposition), very broad humour, storytelling, controversial statements, innuendo and several other things into the speeches - just whatever it took to grab attention, get someone into their club and not someone else's... modern rap has retained all of these original elements (and collected a few more along the way, such as the political stuff, which came later, and more sophisticated wordplay). It's actually very intentionally funny, lighthearted music, even when discussing serious topics or including a lot of profanity, violence etc, it's not meant to be taken quite as seriously as a lot of people take it. Rap can be serious too of course, but even in the most serious raps there is still humour embedded in the worldplay. All the really good practitioners of the style understand this concept innately. Unfortunately, many others (performers and fans alike) miss the point completely, and that's why you have all these dickheads running around thinking they have to be "hardcore" or whatever. You can't really blame rap for that though, I've listened to the most violent, misogynist, distasteful rap I could get my hands on ever since I was 13, I'm now 36 and yet I've managed to resist the temptation to act like a shocking douchebag. The bottom line is that rap is exaggerated entertainment like like metal is exaggerated entertainment and Eminem and 50 Cent probably aren't going to fuck your mother just like Dragonforce probably really aren't going to carry on "through the fire and flames".

Oh, I understand that not all rappers are the morons they portray themselves to be. I've listened to quite a bit of rap and I just honestly can't tell whether they support the stuff they say. I listen to metal myself, so I can't exactly claim highground on maturity.

I'm not talking about the fans either.

I guess what my poorly worded question was meant to say, Do new rappers really support the crap they talk (in the majority)?

I realise that the genre started out differently, as do most things and I can see the skill in quite a lot of the music. Plus most the rappers most have some ability/charisma to get where they are. My issue is with their socio-political views. Are they just reflections of a consumer base whos views are not appealed to by other genres?

Which particular socio-political views are you referring to? Because there's a lot of different rappers out there and they certainly don't all see eye-to-eye on that front, that's for sure...