Posted: 10 Jun 2021 08:05 PM PDT

It’s almost June, are you ready to get to work on your goals?

Soundfly’s community of mentors can help you set the right goals, pave the right path toward success, and stick to schedules and routines that you develop together, so you improve every step of the way.

But it all starts with that first, crucial step: finding someone who inspires and challenges you, and whose experience can lead you along the right path. Check out some available Soundfly mentors below, and click on a session topic that fits your goals for 2021.

Learn more about custom mentorship here.

(*Scroll down to learn how you can take $125 off the price of your session.)

Ian Prince won a Grammy for his work as a writer, arranger, and keyboardist on Quincy Jones’ Back On The Block. Since then, the Vancouver-based pro songwriter has racked up more hits with EMI including a Billboard Pop #1 single, and songs for Jermaine Jackson and Earth, Wind and Fire, and more.

Work with Ian on:

Request a session with Ian here.

Charlotte Yates is a New Zealand-based indie songwriter who has released seven solo albums, produced multiple compilations, and toured extensively. And she’s been a professional songwriting coach, having organized countless seminars, retreats, and workshops, for five years.

Work with Charlotte on:

Request a session with Charlotte here.

Andrea De Carlo is an award-winning engineer, producer, and musician based in Turin, Italy. He’s worked at some of the world’s best studios in London, Milan, and beyond, and has an MA in audio production from the SAE Institute. Andrea works in Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and Garageband.

Work with Andrea on:

Request a session with Andrea here.

Keturah Brown is a Memphis-based songwriter, producer, and marketer with an MA in music marketing from Berklee College of Music. She has studied with fantastic mentors like Imogen Heap, and she loves helping songwriters create audience development campaigns and write true and honest music.

Work with Keturah on:

Request a session with Keturah here.

Brooklyn-based mix engineer and producer, Leon Kelly has worked with diverse and successful artists such as Run The Jewels, Danny Brown, Action Bronson, Just Blaze, Kaytranada, Twin Shadow, Flatbush Zombies, Zach de la Rocha — and legendary studios like Electric Lady, Converse Rubber Tracks, and The Space Pit.

Work with Leon on:

Request a session with Leon here.

Or, if none of these topics fit your goals… Tell us about yourself so we can match you up with another Soundfly Mentor to start learning today.

With Soundfly, musicians of all types can learn at their own pace using our in-depth online courses. But for those in need of something more personalized and customized to one’s exact goals, we also offer 1-on-1 mentorship sessions with a professional lasting four weeks.

How to get $125 Off Your Next Session…

…When you join Soundfly’s all-access subscription. You’ll get unlimited entry to all of our in-depth course content, an invitation to join our Slack community forum with daily discussions and collaborations, exclusive members-only perks from partners, weekly office hours and livestreams, and a $125 discount on four-week customized mentorship sessions.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How to cultivate your stage persona: 10 Tips

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 08:00 PM PDT

Whether you’re a musician in a band, you’re a solo performer or you’re doing something entirely unconventional with your performance, whatever it is, cultivating a stage persona and having a presence that matches the work you’re doing is an important part of reaching your audience effectively.

One of the beautiful things about stage presence is that everyone is unique and has something to offer, and that includes you. From your fashion sense to your interactions with the audience, your stage presence is your unique means of communication with your audience.

While, of course, your work should speak for itself, there’s no harm in using other tools to assist you in that pursuit. No matter where you stand in the band or where you are on your journey, here are ten tips that will help you improve your stage presence.

1. Start With Self Reflection

When you’re just starting out, your stage presence might feel like a foreign idea, but the most important thing to remember is that your persona is just a version of yourself. Think about your mannerisms, try to distinguish your personal style and think about what characteristics define you best. When you know yourself, the rest becomes easier.

2. Get Inspired

Knowing yourself doesn’t mean you can’t look outside of yourself for inspiration. Consider some of your idols and inspirations and take a look at how they move on stage, how they carry themselves and how they dress and accessorize. You are uniquely you, but understanding what qualities you appreciate in others can expand your inspiration.

3. Collaborate With Others

If you’re a musician, it’s likely that you have other creatives around you who are doing similar things. If this is the case, turn to one another and talk about cultivating your stage personas. Ask for advice from those you trust. Work with one another and see what knowledge you can share.

Express Your Personal Interests With Your Style

Of course, fashion is a big part of stage presence. Not only is fashion a visual performance, but it can also communicate all kinds of things to the audience. For example, punk or hardcore musicians might want to express their style with tattoos, piercings and punk clothes. Another example would be local bands or cover bands showing their regional support by wearing a local sports jersey or college t-shirt. There are so many ways to signal your personality with your clothing.

1. Take Up Space

If you’re struggling to jump out of your comfort zone because you tend to be a bit shy in your regular life, one of the ways to combat this is reminding yourself that it’s okay to take up space. While this is often taken figuratively, you can take it literally, especially if you’re working with a big stage where you have room to make use of the space around you.

2. Interact With the Audience

Once you’re actually on stage, part of the performance is about making the audience feel truly involved. This includes making them feel safe and comfortable with you as well as making sure they have a good time. Pay attention to your audience and truly engage.

3. Interact With Your Band

The audience aren’t the only people you should give your attention to, though. In fact, so much of cultivating a great stage presence is often about having fun with the people who are performing with you. If you aren’t doing anything choreographed or pre-planned, have fun with one another while you perform! Crowds love to watch performers have a good time.

4. Record and Watch Yourself Back

If you have a bit of experience already, one great exercise you can try is to record yourself on stage and watch your performance to evaluate yourself and improve in the future. Some people don’t like doing this, so if it causes you stress, you may want to avoid it, but if it does seem like it might work for you, you can always give it a try.

5. Get Lost In the Moment

While cultivating your stage persona and really calculating who you want to be is great, you also don’t want to completely abandon any sense of fun and spontaneity. Get lost in the moment onstage and let yourself feel the groove. It might just make things a whole lot easier!

6. Be Authentic

Similar to the previous tip, it’s important to be yourself and be authentic, even when you’re onstage. People have layers to their personality, and while being in front of a crowd might take a bit more curation, remember that you can still be exactly who you are.

Creating Your Stage Persona

No matter what kind of music you make or what you want out of your stage persona, it all comes down to building your confidence and discovering what part of yourself you want to show to the world.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The oldest song ever written

Posted: 10 Jun 2021 07:41 AM PDT

Guest post by Daniel Reifsnyder. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

It’s often said that songwriters need to strive to be the first to say or do something, or otherwise be the best or most unique at saying it. Music, in some form, has been around for at least 35,000 years, so being the first to say pretty much anything would certainly be a feat.

Knowing that, how old human music is, has led many to wonder what exactly the first song ever written was. While the actual first song may be lost to time, researchers have discovered the oldest song to be preserved in its entirety — which includes its notation!

35,000 year old mammoth ivory flute (cast) found in Geissenklösterle Cave, Germany, in 2004 by Nicholas J. Conard.

The melody, known as “Hurrian Hymn no. 6,” is thought to be from around the 14th century B.C.E. To give you an idea of just how old it is, it predates the use of the Gregorian Calendar (the system we actually still use today).

So what’s it about?

Unrequited love? Partying on a Saturday night? Perhaps a melancholy ballad about the good old days?

Not quite. Although translations differ, it appears to have been a religious song honoring Nikkal, the goddess of orchards. Aside from the obvious religious importance, the song actually appears to have had another significance; it was apparently used in wedding rituals!

Let’s listen to an interpretation here, and unpack the song’s assumed meaning below.

A Hurrian Cult Song from Ancient Ugarit

Anyone listening to the song, at the time of its usage, would have called to mind the marriage of Nikkal to Yarih, God of the Moon. In the myth, they were smitten with each other — Yarih offering her father thousands in gold, silver, and lapis lazuli to convince him to let Yarih wed her. Clearly this would be culturally significant to a couple being wed in this area at the time, and possibly even relatable; at least as far as being smitten with each other is concerned.

Its cultural significance may also help explain why it survived for so many thousands of years! It wasn’t simply a flash-in-the-pan pop song, known only to a certain generation or popular for a few months. It would have been a well-known tradition to most people in that area who even thought about getting married: grandparents, parents, and children.

What we basically have unearthed is the world’s oldest wedding song. Let’s talk about that “area” now.

A drawing of one side of the tablet on which the hymn is inscribed. The top part of the tablet contained the words and the bottom half was instructions for playing the music. More info here.

The tablet was discovered in the 1950s in what is now modern day Syria, written in Hurrian — the language of an ancient and now-extinct culture. This presented quite a few difficulties in translation, namely the fact that the Hurrian language was essentially dead and has no obvious modern corollary. Although that it was written in a form of Cuneiform made it eventually possible to decipher to some manageable degree.

Researchers believe they have been able to piece together the song’s meaning, and likely its cultural context, over the years. Adding to the difficulty though, the tablets that contain the song were made of clay, which obviously has a tendency to crumble and erode over time.

In fact, “Hurrian Hymn no. 6” was in fragments when it was unearthed.

One translation suggests these are the lyrics, which don’t exactly roll off the tongue in English:

For the ones that are offering to you, prepare two offering loaves in their bowls, when I am making a sacrifice in front of it.
They have lifted sacrifices up to heaven for (their) welfare and fortune (?).
At the silver sword symbol at the right side (of your throne) I have offered them.
I will nullify them (the sins). Without covering or denying them (the sins), I will bring them (to you), in order to be agreeable (to you).
You love those who come in order to be covered (reconciled).
I have come to put them in front of you and to take them away through a reconciliation ritual. I will honour you and at (your) footstool not….
It is Nikkal, who will strengthen them. She let the married couples have children.
She let them be borne to their fathers.
But the begetter will cry out: “She has not born any child!” Why have not I as a (true) wife born children for you?”

One of the coolest things about this discovery is the notation system in tow. Unfortunately, it too is still a little bit of a mystery.

The song predates staff notation, and there was no international standard of tuning as there is today. Although the notation is in fact pretty detailed, telling the musician which string to hit (string one, string three, etc.), this is complicated by the fact that other, different notation is included underneath.

Is one note meant to be sung and one to be played? Are these two notes meant to be played together while the words are spoken over them? Was it simply an old key change or notes some other musician wrote over the existing music?

These questions have left researchers (and subsequent musicians who attempted to cover the song) scratching their heads and coming up with different variations. Of course, musicians have geeked out over the discovery and tried to interpret and play it in myriad ways.

Thanks to many Cuneiform scholars and music transcribers like Salim George Khalaf, you can find a modern interpretation of the sheet music here, and learn to play the song yourself!

It is a fascinating subject to ponder how early cultures may have developed music – and what tunings, instrumentation, and traditions may have surrounded it. “Hurrian Hymn no. 6” — along with other ancient songs that have been unearthed — provides us with a small window into music distant and murky historical beginnings.