“Light Thrown On Different Ways Of Taking Piano Lessons” plus 2 more

Light Thrown On Different Ways Of Taking Piano Lessons

Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:29 PM PST

The benefits of learning piano are numerous and far reaching for any person. Piano when invented in 1700 was a great revolution in the world of music. Any composer when sits down to play a tune, he tries it on piano. Reason being Piano is really easy to play and moreover it is a gateway to other musical instruments.

Learning piano can help you relieve stress in any situation and one can improve his cognitive skills to a great extent. Many parents keenly find the best piano workshop in their nearby areas so that their children do well in academics. Surprisingly learning piano helps one to focus better on studies.

Most Popular Ways to Learn Piano

When it comes to learning piano there are different choice open before the student. You know piano will change your life forever but the road you take to reach your destination has huge implications on your learning.

Last but not the least learning piano lessons physically will help you develop better techniques and your progress will be continually evaluated.

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How To Write An E-mail Pitch That Gets Your Music Heard

Posted: 26 Feb 2018 06:25 PM PST

To make traction in music, you’ll have to get your music into the hands of gatekeepers in the industry. Ideally, you’ll have a formal introduction to the people who hold positions of power in the business, but what’s most likely is that you will have to send cold e-mails to people you don’t know in hopes that they will respond favorably. Here are the five key elements you should include to make your pitch e-mails stand out from the rest.

The Introduction

This part is simple. You should open your e-mail by letting the person know who you are, and what you do that would be relevant to them. Ex: “Hi! I’m Scott, the lead singer of Trial By Fire. We’re a soft-rock band influenced by acts like The Doors and Pink Floyd.” Including similar artists helps your prospect understand whether or not you would be a good fit for their platform.

How You Found Them

Immediately after your introduction, you should tell the prospect how you found out about them. For even better results, you should include a specific, detailed compliment about their work. This helps to build goodwill and shows that you’re interested in them as a person. You don’t want to be seen as a freeloader who cares only about yourself. Take time to learn about the work of the people in positions of power. Don’t lie just to score points. It’s easy to tell the difference.

The Ask

Tell the prospect why you’re reaching out to them. Do you have a new single you’d like them to consider for a blog post or playlist placement? Say exactly that. Be short, sweet, and direct. Saying something vague like “Listen to our song and tell us what you think” might get you feedback, but it won’t automatically get you considered for Spotify’s “Cool Tracks” playlist. Always ask for what you want. If the answer is no, make it clear that you’d like any constructive criticism they have to offer. Any response is better than nothing.

Relevant Information/Links

If you want someone to spend their valuable time to help you, you have to make it easy for them to do so. Include links to the song you want considered as well as your website, social media or press kit. This will ensure your prospect has all the information they need to make a decision on whether or not to grant your request.

Important: Instead of an mp3 attachment, include a link to a private stream of your song. Mp3 attachments bog down the recipient’s e-mail server and are a huge turnoff to the gatekeepers in the music industry.

Thanks

Always close your e-mail by thanking the prospect. They took time out of their busy day to read your pitch, and even listen to your music. Being sure to show your gratitude will cement you as a professional in the mind of the prospect and make them feel good about taking the time to read your pitch.

If you include all five of these key elements in your pitch, and your music is good enough, you stand a great chance to win over the mind of any blogger, DJ or other Music Industry influencer. Still nervous about crafting the e-mail? I’ve included a free download of our Perfect E-mail Pitch Template. Download it, paste it into your e-mail client and fill in the blanks. You’ll be well on your way to getting your music heard by the people who can help propel your career forward.

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Brandon Jackson is an artist manager, consultant, and author of the Music Marketing Guidebook. For more music business advice, follow him on YouTube, Facebook or subscribe via e-mail.

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What "Entrepreneurship" Really Means For Musicians, Part 2: Music Is Never Made In A Bubble

Posted: 25 Feb 2018 12:20 PM PST

In the first installment of this brief series on entrepreneurial musicianship, I defined what entrepreneurship really means, with the goal of re-orienting many of the ongoing conversations about entrepreneurship in music today. With the focus now on problem-solving and doing good for our musical communities, we now must consider how and why we are best-suited to realize the changes we believe should be made. In this short article, I will begin to highlight ways in which musicians can stand out, and be effective in their missions to make music and do good. I will also highlight the need for critical reflection upon our music making in social context, so that we may continue to evolve and become more effective over time.

Entrepreneurship is about people. As artists, we are constantly thinking and doing in the contexts of ourselves, our environments, and ourselves in relation to our environments. Music is never made in a bubble. Thus, we should acknowledge this fact when we consider how we go about making music and making our music available to the world. If you are reading this, you are probably a musician who is interested in making your music more public, so the assumption is that you want to play out more or foster the growth of your online communities. But, the first question is usually “how?”

How you foster the growth of your musical influence is related to your value proposition. Essentially, there are three different value propositions, and they are listed alphabetically here: “I am better,” “I am cheaper,” or “I am different.” These are the distinct ways in which any entrepreneur sets themselves, their service, or their product apart from competition in a given market. For example, while Apple products may not be cheaper than many competing alternatives, they are often thought to be of higher quality than those alternatives. Or, while many companies make reasonably affordable and fashionable shoes, Toms is different, because every purchase made also supplies shoes to a person in need. These same principles apply to musicians and music, and will partially determine how you grow your musical influence. However, because music is never made in a bubble, the more critical questions to consider are actually “why” and “for whom?”

Entrepreneurship is a critical process. If entrepreneurship is about solving problems for people, then the practice of entrepreneurship requires critical reflection. A critical lens must be used to view our intentions and actions—and those of others—so that we may provide relevant solutions to relevant problems. The questions of how—as described above—may be addressed only once we have interrogated our motivations, and asked why we make music, and for whom we make music. This interrogation will help us discover exactly who is included and excluded from our audience, then we can begin to grow our audience by aiming to include more people. This audience engagement will also inform how you go about including more people, as you will begin to learn more about how your audience members prefer to consume music, and what roles music plays in the lives of your audience members.

We should view entrepreneurial musicianship as a cycle. The politics of music making and entrepreneurship are too often disregarded, while they should actually make up core of our artistic planning, to create a cycle of reflection and planning around our music making.

This cycle of critical entrepreneurial musicianship will not only foster the growth of audiences and communities, but will also lead to self-actualization, which is required for one to understand their placement and the placement of their music within larger structures such as the local community, and the music industry at large. “Who am I,” “where am I from,” and “where am I going” are examples of questions that kickstart this process for the first time, but should be revisited as the process of reflection and planning evolves over time. On the other hand, while focusing on the audience in critical reflection stage, some questions to ask include: “who was in the audience just then? How diverse was the crowd in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, etc.?” “What role did my music play in influencing the makeup of this audience?” “Did the venue and location have an influence?” “Did the promotion only target specific people?” Answering these kinds of questions and incorporating the answers into your planning will lead to audience development.

Thus, the pursuit of relevancy will require evolution. What does all of this this mean for your music making? How do you see yourself making music twenty years from now? In the final installment of this series, I will begin to examine these questions in greater detail, and discuss how economic forces and models may shape our music making practices in the future, and how an entrepreneurial mindset will empower musicians to capitalize on change, rather than become left behind. So, that discussion will end with a focus on the artistic side of all of this—the core of what we actually do as musicians.

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Nicholas Patrick Quigley is a music educator, composer, and cultural entrepreneur based in Boston, MA. He seeks to connect artists with the business practices and laws that allow them to live off of their art, and serves as a creative consultant to artists of various backgrounds through Q Music & Arts Management. More online at qmusicandarts.com (management website) and nicholaspquigley.com (artistic website).

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