The Key to a Great Drummer

How can I pick the right stick for my playing style?
At one time, sticks were generally "classified" into 3 categories: "A" for Orchestra/Jazz/Acoustic settings, "B" for Band and "S" for Street (Marching). However, those general descriptions no longer apply across the board. Percussionists today have a wide selection of implements to create exactly the sound and feel that they desire for any given situation.

Like a chef who wouldn't dream of using a meat cleaver to dice tomatoes, a great drummer wouldn't dream of using a heavy rock stick on a jazz gig! While it will ultimately be up to you to choose the perfect stick, this article will give you some general guidelines and give you a great starting point to begin experimenting with different sticks for different applications!

What makes a great drumstick?

A great drumstick is the perfect combination of balance, response and "feel". Each of these critical factors is a function of a stick's design - including the shape of the tip, the location of the shoulder, the taper, the thickness of the neck, the length and the species of the wood.

Reverbnation

In case you didn’t know, ReverbNation is the leading platform for online music marketing among artists, managers, venues, and labels.  Each day over 1.5 million people use their services to 

1) build their fan base,

2) study fan behavior, 

3) book shows

4) distribute their music.

ReverbNation also provides much more than that.

One of my favorite features is the ability to view charts by location and genre as well as what’s popular globally and on the national level.

It has proven an important tool for helping us network with bands, venues, and labels while sharing our music with a large audience of music lovers and potential fans.

We have found many bands featured on this site scouring the local charts to ensure we are representing as much of Middle Tennessee Music as we possibly can.

If you are an artist or band using the service to market your music, use our 3 tips below to help move yourself up the charts and drive more traffic to your songs.

Increasing your Chart Rank is an effective way to gain more visibility, expand your network, and get more people listening to and sharing your music.

Leave comments on others’ profiles after listening to their music

Take 30 minutes or less each day to find and listen to other bands.

Leave a comment on their profile telling them what you think.  If you like what you hear and think people in your network would enjoy it, click the share buttons and pass them around.

Make sure you let them know you shared their music.  for example check out our reverb page here:

http://www.reverbnation.com/closertotheocean 

In my experience the awesome people will visit your profile and share your music with their fans.

Interacting with others, sharing music, and leaving comments are great ways to increase your Band Equity which in turn increases your Chart Rank.

Read more at http://www.midtnmusic.com/3-ways-to-increase-your-chart-rank-on-reverbnation/#I0Fi0X4TzA4s8QiY.99

Music Royalties

As a songwriter and producer for stars like Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, Preston Glass receives a comfortable stream of music royalties. But when he needed to make a substantial investment to embark on the next phase of his career — as a performing artist in his own right — he had few options to raise the money, he said.

“Me and most writers can’t walk into a bank,” Mr. Glass said in an interview from his home studio in Los Angeles. “Banks don’t understand how songwriting works, how the whole business of royalties works.”

So Mr. Glass turned to the Royalty Exchange, a Web site where musicians can sell parts of their royalty income to investors. He put 15 of his songs on the block — including “Miss You Like Crazy,” a Top 10 hit for Ms. Cole in 1989, of which Mr. Glass was a co-writer — and raised $158,000. Mr. Glass retains most of his rights to those songs, but will now share part of the income with an investor whenever they are played on the radio or streamed online.

Since it was founded two years ago, the Royalty Exchange, based in Raleigh, N.C., has held 18 auctions, raising about $750,000. But Sean Peace, the company’s chief executive, envisions it as a robust marketplace where musicians can capitalize on their work and investors can find a somewhat exotic asset that could still bring in steady earnings.

“Most musicians have no idea that they can take their royalties and reinvest in themselves,” Mr. Peace said. “If they could get $80,000 up front for selling 50 percent of their royalties, that can be game-changing.”

The music industry is full of bitter stories of musicians who have given up royalty rights for a fraction of their future value. Eli Ball, the founder of Lyric Financial, a competing service that gives musicians short-term advances on their royalties in exchange for a fee, thinks that musicians should not sell their rights.

“It’s too easy for songwriters to sell off an asset that took you a career to build and is going to be gone forever,” Mr. Ball said.

But Mr. Glass said he liked the Royalty Exchange because he could define exactly which rights to sell and which to retain. His sale involved what is known as the songwriter’s share of public performance; it does not cover sales of CDs or downloads, and it does not involve any change to the song’s actual copyright. (He also is a national artist representative for Lyric Financial.)

read full article 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/business/royalty-exchange-lets-musicians-sell-royalty-income-to-investors.html

Be A Great Singer!

Here are a few ways we use to practice and warm up our vocal abilities! 

Amazing Vocal Control

Learn how to sing with amazing vocal control and freedom within a matter of minutes. No more frustrating vocal cracks, breaks, or shakiness.  You will no longer lack confidence because you will have a strong singing voice that you have perfect control over.

The Superior Singing Method takes you through 8 steps of high level vocal training with professional, world-renowned vocal instructor Aaron Anastasi so that you know exactly how to improve your voice quickly.

Develop Excellent Pitch

With Superior Singing Method you will get breakthrough vocal training that will develop the vocal muscles that are causing you to have poor pitch.  Aaron Anastasi, the creator of Superior Singing Method has found very specific vocal exercises that will develop every necessary muscle in your voice for rapid vocal improvement.

You will also learn tricks and techniques to improve your pitch quickly, even if you are singing at the very top end of your vocal range.

   

Unlock Great Tone

Aaron Anastasi firmly believes that every voice is unique in its own way.

In the Superior Singing Method system you will learn a variety of techniques and tips to not only identify your unique tone but also how to get the best tone out of your voice.  You will discover how to sing with full, rich, and smooth tone that is uniquely your own.

Aaron gives you a set of video lessons that describe the exact process and techniques to unlock your best tone so that you sound like the best “you” possible.

   

Improved Vocal Power

You will learn how to eliminate tension through simple tips and techniques developed by Aaron Anastasi that will allow you to sing with more power and confidence. The Superior Singing Method system will give you dynamic vocal exercises that are designed to help you to improve your resonance and strengthen your voice muscles.

This will do much more than just strengthen your voice it has also been proven to improve pitch issues, create better tone, and even allow you to have more control while singing in the top of your vocal range. Plus, you will eliminate vocal cracks and breaks so you have a smooth yet powerful voice that is under your control.

   

Precise Vocal Agility

Will Superior Singing Method you will develop precise vocal agility which is the ability to bounce from note to note as you sing. Most singers completely overlook this important skill and it is the difference between from good singers and great singers.

With the video lessons inside and the dynamic vocal exercises specifically designed to quickly enhance and fine-tune your vocal agility, your singing voice will start to be able to do things that were once impossible for you. Singing vocal runs with ease, proper rhythm, and the ability to stay on pitch without wavering are just some of the benefits you will experience.

   

Masterful Mix Voice

Developing your mix voice is absolutely essential if you want to sing higher notes with more power, have better vocal tone, sing with less strain, and smooth out the transitions in your voice while you sing.

With Superior Singing Method you get uniquely effective vocal exercises that will develop your mix voice so that you have a smooth, blended voice free from cracks and breaks. You will be able to sing continuously across your entire vocal range with excellent control and will be able to sing higher notes with better tone and pitch. Improving your mix voice is a vital part of becoming a great singer and the Superior Singing Method system will help you get there as fast as possible.

   

Increase Your Vocal Range

Like most singers, you most likely want to increase your vocal range so that you can sing higher notes with ease and less strain. Superior Singing Method includes an entire section dedicated to increasing your vocal range with breakthrough plyometric vocal exercises.

You will learn singing tips and techniques that will teach you how to sing higher notes the proper way to avoid damaging your voice. When you learn the proper singing techniques for singing high notes you will also have much better vocal tone and pitch when singing notes far higher than you ever thought you would be able to sing.

   

Learn Advanced Singing Techniques

While Superior Singing Method is excellent for beginners, it is designed to take your voice to new levels and that means that you will discover advanced singing techniques so that you get that much closer to your dreams as a singer. Aaron teaches you many techniques that will set you apart from other singers including how to sing with amazing vibrato.

The advanced section in the Superior Singing Method program is designed to challenge your voice with advanced exercises that will increase your range even more, improve your pitch, and give you the ultimate control when singing in every part of your voice.

To purchase the entire method click here:  http://198296zjfxvy4y0auv7ltiumeo.hop.clickbank.net/

Start Up with Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a great way for bands to raise money to make an album! 

Offering the potential to truly take off, startups have flocked to the crowdfunding site in the hopes of sidestepping venture capitalists and turbo-charging their projects.

So who are the biggest Kickstarter winners, and what are they up to now?

Kickstarter breaks its funding projects down into 13 categories such as design, games, photography, and technology to name a few.

So we compiled a list of the highest funded projects from each category, telling a bit about what they are, how successful they were, and what they've been up to since taking the coveted No. 1 spot.

Here they are! 

Design: Pebble E-Paper Smartwatch

Dylan Love

Goal: $100,000     Raised: $10,266,845

The Pebble smartwatch is currently the most funded project on Kickstarter. Once you pair your Pebble to your iPhone or Android phone via Bluetooth, you can receive text messages and phone call notifications. The world's first widely successful smartwatch, Pebble recently announced that Best Buy will now sell the smartwatch in its stores for $150. You can pick one up today.

Technology: The Form 1 3D Printer

Kickstarter

Goal: $100,000    Raised: $2,945,885

The Form 1 is one of the first 'affordable' high-resolution 3D printers out there, though the $3,299 price tag doesn't exactly target the casual enthusiast. But for labs, schools, and designers, the Form 1 offers a stereolithography machine capable of crafting detailed work.

Formlabs is currently letting Kickstarter backers redeem their Form 1, while new customers can pre-order a printer via their website, with an expected shipping date of October.

Publishing: Planet Money T-Shirt

Kickstarter

Goal: $50,000     Raised: $590,807

A collaboration between NPR and This American Life, Planet Money set out to document the journey of a t-shirt, from inception to production. Naturally, they decided to fund the project with the actual t-shirts they'll be producing from scratch, offering people the chance to own a cool shirt while helping out some investigative reporting.

With the project's crowdfunding wrapping up in May, the team is hard at work figuring out the manufacturing process so that the shirts will arrive on time, sometime in September.

Art: Ukiyo-e Heroes

Jed Henry Illustration

Goal: $10,400    Raised: $313,341

Artist Jed Henry set out make authentic woodblock prints of classic video game characters and their iconic scenes, all represented in the timeless style of Japanese woodblock. After raising more than 30 times their Kickstarter goal, Henry and master woodblock printer David Bull have mailed out many art prints already, and are currently expanding the woodblock offerings, while documenting the painstaking process the whole way.

Comics: The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive

Giantitp.com

Goal: $57,750     Raised: $1,254,120

"The Order of the Stick" is a popular comedy/fantasy webcomic series that has gained a loyal following. Printed collections of the comic stopped being produced in 2010, however, and its creators started a Kickstarter to dust off the old printing presses and make the collections available again.

Over a year later, author Rich Burlew has shipped out all of the physical Kickstarter rewards, and has been constantly updating his progress with a humorous "Workometer" that details everything still to be done.

Theater: Rescue The Historic Catlow Theater From Extinction

Kickstarter

Goal: $100,000      Raised: $175,395

The Catlow Theater in Barrington, Illinois offered cheap tickets and a historic setting. But in order to continue to screen the newest films, The Catlow needed to retrofit the cinema with a digital projector and screen for $100,000.

After a successful Kickstarter, The Catlow was not only able to upgrade their projection system and screen, but used the extra funds for other necessary fix-ups including a new heating system.

Photography: ARKYD Space Telescope

Kickstarter

Goal: $1,000,000     Raised: $1,505,366

Calling itself the world's "first publicly accessible telescope," the ARKYD will give people control, allowing them to take their own pictures of space. With an onboard screen capable of displaying photos, backers will also be able to get a picture of themself. In space.

Due to popular demand, the team extended the deadline to sign up for rewards to July 19th, and is busy building both the ARKYD and a test spacecraft A3.

Music: Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra Album

Kickstarter

Goal: $100,000     Raised: $1,192,793

After a horrible experience with a major label, musician Amanda Palmer arrived on the Kickstarter scene with a new band, new label, and a new plan. Palmer turned to her fans for money for the album, art book, tour, distribution, and promotion, and her fans delivered.

Since then, Palmer has given a TED talk on her experience, delivered on Kickstarter rewards such as fan house parties, and embarked on her tour.

Games: OUYA Game Console

Ouya

Goal: $950,000   Raised: $8,596,474

The Ouya took the gaming world by storm, promising an open source Android game console for only $99. With a beautiful design from Yves Behar and endorsements from "Minecraft" creator, Notch, fans reacted enthusiastically.

It has since launched to mediocre reviews, most of which focus on the lack of quality games — a problem easily remedied. The Ouya is available at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Game Stop. 

Dance: Youth America Grand Prix's 'Ballet's Greatest Hits' Gala

Kickstarter

Goal: $35,000      Raised: $38,752

With a desire to educate the next generation of ballet dancers around the world, the Youth America Grand Prix planned to put on a 'Ballet's Greatest Hit' Gala. With a professionally produced documentary the key ingredient, the YAGP looked to Kickstarter to raise the remaining $35,000 needed to produce the film.

With a successful Gala performance on January 5th, 2012, the documentary has since cleared post production and was recently screened in the United States.

Fashion: The 10-Year Hoodie

Kickstarter

Goal: $50,000     Raised: $1,053,830

With a full 10 year guarantee and a quality design meant to last for life, The 10-Year Hoodie team waged war against cheaply made expensive clothing. The unisex design promises to become your favorite hoodie, and is backed with free mending as well to give it some character.

Over $1 million later, the team claims to be three weeks ahead of schedule, with a delivery date for the hoodies set for October.

Film & Video: The Veronica Mars Movie Project

Kickstarter

Goal: $2,000,000      Raised: $5,702,153

Breaking the record for the highest number of individual Kickstarter backers, Kristen Bell successfully convinced her loyal "marshmallows" to fund a movie follow-up to her "Veronica Mars" TV series.

The Kickstarter has since spurred a lively discussion on Kickstarter's use by celebrities, with Zach Braff following suit with his own crowdfunded film. The Veronica Mars movie is slated to hit theaters in early 2014, with digital copies going out to their respective backers days later.

Food: Nomiku sous vide primer

Nomiku

Goal: $200,000       Raised: $586,061

The Nomiku offers the casual cook the chance to try their hand with immersion circulator technology to cook sous vide (slow-cooked meals in air tight bags immersed in water). The Nomiku clamps to the edge of any pot, and by sealing food in a zip block bag immersed in water, the Nomiku cooks dishes 'just right.'

A year after its Kickstarter funding completed, the Nomiku is available to the general public for pre-order, costing $359.

We hope that this helps you and strongly suggest using it yourself. Check out the success we've had with our kickstarter here 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/151652433/closer-to-the-ocean

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-highest-funded-kickstarters-2013-7?op=1#ixzz2tgkT1qEG

#1 Love Song

In honor of valentines day I'd like to talk about the number one love song of all time according to the Billboard Charts. Believe it or not the award goes to....

"Endless Love" Diana Ross & Lionel Richie

Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for nine weeks (1981)

Producer Jon Peters and director Franco Zeffirelli asked Lionel Richie to compose an instrumental along the lines of the theme from “Love Story” for their movie starring Brooke Shields. When Zeffirelli changed his mind and asked Richie if he would add lyrics, the Motown star agreed to write some. Then Zeffirelli made one more request – to add a female singer, someone like Diana Ross.  Needless to say everyone cash in on this love. 

To see the full list:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/1538839/top-50-love-songs-of-all-time?list_page=4

Keep rockin' those love songs! 

Success Through Music

Check out this NY Time's study on how people have achieved success in many areas of their lives through music!

Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?

The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements.

The phenomenon extends beyond the math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.

Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)? Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.

Look carefully and you’ll find musicians at the top of almost any industry. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula Zahn (cello) and the NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell trained to become a professional violinist. Both Microsoft’s Mr. Allen and the venture capitalist Roger McNamee have rock bands. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist.

read more here 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/is-music-the-key-to-success.html?_r=0