Blogs
Work with what you’ve got. Play to your strengths (literally). If you have a great range, showcase it with big sweeping melodies (Queen, Mariah Carey, and other non-cheesy artists as well!). If your tone is average but you have a great sense of groove, cover more rhythmic songs that highlight that. Choose a song that could have been written for you.
Find your key. Just because the original singer can hit that low G doesn’t mean that’s what is best for you. Find your best range and make sure you are hitting your sweet spots. There are plenty of apps that can transpose your favorite song to your perfect key if you don’t want to do it yourself (or, there are people like me that can help you).
Do it your way. Unless you are playing a wedding and it’s the couple’s special song, don’t feel married to the original version. Try different embellishments. Find your voice and treat the tune like you wrote it.
Experiment with arrangement. Try changing the time signature/feel. ( Here is my rendition of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” as a waltz, for example.) Make a rock song into a ballad, or vice versa. Put jazz chords to a simple pop song. Turn a heavily produced number into a minimalist piece (this is also a good way to go if you are still struggling with self-accompaniment ).
Get permission. If you’re playing an open mic, this isn’t such a big issue. But if you plan on recording a cover and sending it out into the world, check out the info on licensing at the Harry Fox Agency .
Robin Yukiko is a Berklee College of Music grad, singer-songwriter, pianist, and music educator in San Francisco. She hosts the SF Singer-Songwriters’ Workshop at the Musicians Union Local 6. Learn more at www.robinyukiko.com .
"Good" is a subjective term. It can mean a couple of things when used in the context of making demo tapes. "Good" can mean the song (with a slant toward "hit" potential), or it can mean the engineering or production value on the tape. If the ultimate use of your demo is to land a record deal, and not to impress your friends and relatives, then this article is for you.
Imagine this scenario: The Vice-President of A&R at a major record label is sitting in his office listening to tapes (which by the way is how they typically spend less than 10% of their time at work). The first tape he pops in to his cassette deck sounds great. The cymbals are crisp. The lead vocal cuts right through the mix. The guitars are warm, but edgy. The bass is round, fat and punchy. The kick drum gives you a heart attack with each beat. The snare pierces like a hollow point bullet. The mix is perfect. The musicianship is superb. The song is very good, although just a little bit dated. All in all, a very good demo.
The next tape goes in to the deck. The drums sound distant and a little muffled. The guitars are raunchy. The bass is okay. The musicianship is sloppy, but it has some feel and emotion to it. The song however, is unlike anything this man has ever heard. It's unusual, and very infectious. It's raw, but it has something about it that won't let go. The lead vocal is "in your face," and the singer is sweating emotion from every pore.
Which of these demos will the A&R person sign? The latter. Why? Because it's a hit song, not a close call. The first demo had everything going right for it but the song. Record companies are in business to make money. They bet a portion of the farm on every release. You can bet dollars to donuts that they would much rather bet on a hit song than a demo with great engineering or great production. You can also bet that they would rather put their money on an artist who has "star quality" than one who obviously spent a small fortune on their demo.
What's the lesson here? Buy yourself a home studio system that you can afford, and learn to use it well. You'll spend a few (maybe several) thousand dollars in the process, but you would have to spend that on one round of demos anyway. Read everything you can get your hands on to get yourself up to speed with your gear. Become obsessive. Listen to every record that you love. Study how each instrument sounds. Notice their relative placement in the mix. Play with your equalizers until you understand the nature of an eq curve. Experiment with reverb and delays. The more you play around, the more you'll learn. It's not rocket science. It just looks like it from a distance.
The most important thing to remember is not to become a gear junkie. Gear will not get you signed to a record deal. Great songwriting will. A unique artistic vision will. Star quality will. A zillion dollars worth of gear will not.
For your purpose, the use of your home studio requires that you get as familiar with it as you are with your car. Feel comfortable with it. Have a good command of it, but don't plan on driving it in the Indy 500. You only need the gear to make a good clean demo of your music.
Assuming you master your studio, there are some other things you'll need to know. First and foremost; songwriter demos don't need much production. A solid rhythm track with a great lead vocal is often all you'll need. A full production can often hurt a song pitch more than it can help. Leave some room for the listener's imagination to do it's thing. If a song demo is fully produced, it leaves the listener with only one way to hear it -- your way.
The second rule of demo production is to match the gender of the lead vocalist with the gender of the artist you want to pitch to. For song pitches, the lead vocal is crucial. No flat notes. No lackluster performances. Sell the song. Sing with your entire being, but don't go overboard and over sell. And please don't be shy about mixing the lead vocal nice and hot in the mix. The lyrics are very important, not the guitar part!
Artist demos should be a little more produced, but again, don't feel compelled to include the kitchen sink unless the kitchen sink is absolutely necessary to make the song's point.
What else should go in to a demo package? If it's a song pitch, all you need to include is a lyric sheet. Make sure the lyric sheet and the tape display the copyright symbol, the name the song is copyrighted under and the year the copyright was registered.
For an artist demo, it's always a good idea to include a photo and a bio. The reason the record company will want to see a photo is so they can see if you have that elusive "star quality." An 8 x 10 glossy has always been the standard for photo presentation, but it's much cheaper to scan your photo and print it on your bio page.
What does a record company want to see in a bio? Anything that will show them that you are successful in your own back yard. News clippings from successful shows. Proof of radio airplay. Better yet -- proof that you've sold a few thousand tapes or CD's in your hometown or surrounding area is the best ammo you can have to snag a record deal.
But remember, the single most important aspect of any demo package is the song. All the bells and whistles won't do you any good if the song isn't great.
Reprinted with permission from Audio Recording Center: Good sound advice for the independent music maker. Includes helpful articles, a well organized Links section, and other useful resources. © 2001 Audio Recording Center. All rights reserved.
data
Release date: 01 05 12
Format: digital download.
Tracks: 001, 010, 011, 100, 101.
data - the seventh net release from digitalTRAFFIC features five heavy electronica tracks around a digitised data theme.
The five tracks are a coherent assault on the senses from the first track wiith heavy sound dissonance and rhythmic patterns reflecting the sounds of digitised data traveling over the superhighway and through internet protocols - there are many strange and wonderful electronic tones, vibes, peaks and troughs.
track 001 is a heavy electronic soundscape with a soft core middle surging to a final climax.
track 010 is a slower but more subtly disturbing shift of sonic pace.
track 011 is a heavy heavy electronica soundscape firing on all electronic cylinders - a blistering noise assault on the senses.
track 100 is a lighter more sophisticated piece with some vocal samples - "hey hey hey" - "make me a better man today" - appropriate?
101 is an ethereal electronica soundscape defying the natural laws of music structure but creating an atmosphere of electronica tension that plays on the mind long after leaving this piece.
The album artwork is a QR code image - scan and you will be taken to the digitalTRAFFIC website.
(no machines were harmed in the making of this album)
click here to play data on itunes 
For almost a year, I’ve worked on compositions of mine, but I couldn’t come up with anything new. I began to think that all of this waiting that I’ve been doing “forever” for my music was making me lose my creativity in the area of composing. My mother once told me that “sometimes, you can be too good”. She meant that sometimes you can be so good at what you do, you inadvertently shut yourself out because the jealousy of others is against you. I’ve come to understand that all too well. Combine that with the stress of a day job and what is the first thing to go? Your musical inspiration. So, for months, I couldn’t compose a song even if some guy had a gun pointed to my head! When I get down-in-the-dumps like that, I pick up my acoustic-guitar and play some classical works that I used to play years ago. It doesn’t necessarily inspire me to compose anything sooner, but at least it’s a nice distraction.
Being a musician/composer can really tax the mind and spirit. If it weren’t for my determination and belief in my abilities, I probably would have given music up by now. I want to be successful just like everyone else, but I can’t sacrifice musical substance for money; thus, here I am, just like some of you, hoping that things will turn in my favor one day. My compositions have a personal history, in that something going on in my life fueled them. I can’t compose a song about someone else’s life. I just don’t have that knack for it. I can compose music based on life, but it has to be real life, not make-believe. Therefore, when you are a composer and you are trying to be as original as possible, coming up with that originality can be hell. I have compositions that were written months or years apart. All through that time, I was still playing gigs but my compositions didn’t come as fast as learning to play my instruments better.
Yesterday marked 10 years since my mother passed away on December 8th. I played my acoustic-guitar in her honor because she was the person responsible for my having interest in that instrument. Just when I thought I had lost my ability to compose completely, I woke up today and a song was in my head. It was quite early in the morning and the sun hadn’t risen yet. I stumbled around in the dark to find my guitar. I didn’t reach for a light switch because I didn’t want to lose the music that was playing in my head. For me, turning on a lamp would have distracted the idea. I know; that sounds weird, but I’m “funny that way”. It’s a simple song, in that there’s nothing grandiose about it, but it has a good beginning. I’ve been involved in music long enough to know when I have something and when the idea is headed for the trashcan. I immediately got some manuscript paper and a pencil. I had the song written out in no time. All I have to do now is fine-tune it. As I played the song this morning and watched the skies change color, an indication of the rising of the sun, I found myself getting emotional. I suppose it was the result of having to wait for my creativity to come. When you love music with all your heart the way I do, wanting to compose and play your instrument as well as you can really matter. It’s not about the money. You never know when the ideas for a song will come or how long it will take before things fall into place when you pick up your instrument. You don’t know how situations in your life will impact your music until you experience them. You can’t let yourself get caught up in the illusions. Just look at how the music business is being presented nowadays. They make it look easy on television, but just ask anyone who has gone through hell for his/her music and you’ll get a different picture.
You know how folks talk about “wheels” that begin to turn? In my case, they’re the “wheels of creativity”. My ability for composition has been dormant for months. Today, I can picture giant-sized mechanical wheels in my head that have begun to turn again. I feel as if I’ve received a Christmas present from my mother…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you…
BY Kim Michele LaCoste
Bill Thompson of the TrueVulgarians and David C. Deal teamed up on this "tribute" to our favorite DJ, Mr. Gene Smith. Inspired by a session of busting Gene's chops in the Mixstream Radio chatroom! Hope you all enjoy it as much as you have Gene over these many years! https://www.mixposure.com/the-truevulgarians/audio/20898/the-ballad-of-dj-gene-host-with-the-most-ft-david-c-deal
I am a fan of the mid-size ensemble and the creative possibilities it offers.
2008 was a transition time for me. I had become tired of conventional big bands. As I looked for something different, ideas came to me about a smaller and more flexible kind of band. I experimented first with a 10-piece ensemble (electric violin and tuba were featured). While this group had only a short life as a rehearsal band, hearing the scores I wrote for it gave me a confirmation of the direction I was taking.
As a next step, I began to use flexible instrumentation in my scores instead of specifying the instruments. The scores are concert pitch with the wind instruments labeled as line I, line II, etc. A set of transposed parts are provided for an assortment of instruments within the range of each line. This enables the music to be performed by many configurations of instruments. An ensemble can have a specific instrumentation, experiment with different instruments, or base the instrumentation on available players. Flexibility!
One of the ensemble configurations that I like is alto flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon. That is, a woodwind quintet with alto flute used in place of C flute. Rather than thinking of a mid-size ensemble as a smaller version of a big band, I envision a woodwind quintet – that is, with each instrument having a distinct tone color – as a role model. Another configuration that I like (this one with saxophones and brass) is trumpet, soprano sax, alto sax, trombone, and tuba. With flexible instrumentation and a creative spirit, the tone color possibilities for an ensemble can be almost endless.
For the rhythm section, piano and/or guitar, bass, and drums are the foundation. It can be expanded with additional instruments such as accordion, vibes, percussion, electronics, cello, etc.
Along with flexible instrumentation, I decided that it would be more practical to use 5 or 6 wind instruments than a larger number for a horn section. 5-horn jazz ensembles are fairly common. I have several scores for 5 horns; however, I think of 6 horns as being the optimal number for my writing. My 6-horn scores are written for a featured soloist, 5 wind instruments, and rhythm section. The soloist has both solo and ensemble roles.
As my concepts evolved for a mid-size ensemble I discovered that, from my perspective, I can be more creative in writing for 6 horns than for a conventional big band. Why? With one player on a line, each line can have an individual tone color. Then, the 6 lines are blended, juxtaposed, crossed, and voiced in creative ways horizontally and vertically. This creates an ensemble sound that is based upon an interplay of colors and an emphasis on the individuality -- bringing out the musical personality -- of each player.
As I envision it, this approach to an ensemble is fundamentally different from what I think of as the defining features of a conventional big band: harmonized saxophone, trumpet, and trombone sections with each player blending his individual sound into the collective sound of a section.
Additionally, with an ensemble of this size it can have a level of creative freedom that, most likely, would be problematic with a larger number of players. I like to extend a jazz soloist's freedom to the rest of the ensemble in various ways in my scores. This enables the music to change, evolve, and be a fresh experience for both the musicians and the audience each time it is performed.
While I have focused on 6 horns and one player on a line, it occurred to me that my scores can also be played by larger ensembles by having two (or more) musicians on each line . This option of having doubled parts -- with either same or different instruments on a part -- is an easy way for big bands to use my scores. (See A Big Band Misconception for more about this idea.)
Apologies about the down time everyone. This screw up was all me. I made a change to the site and it kind of set off a cascading error effect. In order to really correct it, we restored to a backup from Monday. This means you may be missing recent blogs, music etc. that was loaded after that day. Our apologies for that!
Our Easter video! Done as The Dead 20's, Scary Cherry & the Bang Bangs' alter ego.
Please like, comment, subscribe and SHARE!
A Very Scary Bunny Rabbit - Scary Cherry and the Bang Bangs
http://www.scarycherrymusic.com
http://tinyurl.com/ScaryCherryiTunes
http://www.facebook.com/scarycherry
https://www.facebook.com/TheDead20s
Shot & edited by Scary Cherry and Captain Canada (Aurelia).
How ya'll doing} thats right I'm back on the Mix Radio Monday Nights =8pm EST time or 7 PM central with lot of fun & great music from the Artist 's here at mixposure.com . So you just come on in the ChatRoom or just listen in to the show love to have you . Come to mixposure.com homepage .When you get in you'll see Chat click on it .Type in your username .Be sure & check( Guess) if you never been in & your there. We got the best Indie music & radio station here on the net .Oh & some great DJs to . Love to have you. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M A SAYING.