http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/put-that-guitar-down.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/put-that-guitar-down.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500
A little confused? Don't be, I'll try to explain. And the best way I can get my point across is by sharing an experience I personally had some time ago.

Back in the 80's, I went to music college in London. I feverishly studied classical guitar for 3 years. Practiced for hours each day. During this time I really developed some good disciplinary skills as far as practice was concerned. I would split up the day. Morning playing Bach fugues or whatever torturous classical guitar piece that had enslaved me at the time. A break for lunch, and in the afternoon I would pick up my electric guitar and plough through violin and flute music, which I'd rented from the music school library, to get my sight-reading together. Reading jazz and pop music is very different from classical music because phrasing interpretation is relative to the genre being played. So it is as much about listening to the band as it is reading the note values. So I wanted to get that together. Finally I worked on jazz harmony, specifically vocabulary for playing over changes. The Charlie Parker Omnibook was my bible, but I would also listen to be-bop players and steal their phrases and try to figure out how I should work them into my own playing. I remember stealing from Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Mike Brecker, and I fell in love with the swinging styles of pianists Red Garland and Wynton Kelly, both of whom played on Miles Davis' album "Milestones", a record that had a profound effect on me. Just as importantly, I listened to the way these musicians would feel the music. It wasn't just about the notes.

Wynton Kelly in particular had a certain thing about playing over altered chords. He would play 4 note phrases that would be repeated in thirds going down. Sometimes in whole tones. In fact many jazz guys I knew at the time would make fun of his style a little bit by singing his name as they played those motifs, going "Wyn-ton-Kell-ey-Wyn-ton-Kell-ey" and so on. After I got the hang of his ideas I would find myself sitting at the guitar and working out my own variations of those ideas. Pretty soon I had a whole bag of Wynton style 'tricks".

And then something interesting happened...

I would practice and practice these new motifs and melodic ideas and really try to work them into my playing. Pretty soon I had a pretty broad library of resources I could draw from. And I would practice them over Jamie Abersold records and so on. The woodshedding continued. Over time, I realized that some of those phrases were technically difficult to play on guitar (at least for me) and when I tried to pull them, off half the time I messed up. Other times I managed to pull them off but because I was really having to concentrate, the 'technicality' of it all would take me out of the moment and I didn't like it. I wanted to improvise without thinking after all. So some stuff stayed with me, some stuff didn't.

About three years after I left music school I felt completely 'educated out'. I was by no means at the level where I could rest on my laurels. Absolutely not. But I had had enough for the time being. I needed to get out of my little London flat and live life a little. Communicate with people. Maybe learn some social skills! :) I had been locked up in the woodshed for too long. And so I took a break as I slowly joined the professional world of music which, as I soon found out, involved much more than pulling off Wynton Kelly licks! I simply let things go. I went with the flow for a while.

Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't giving up on practice, I was breathing in air, allowing nature to take it's course, that's all. I concentrated on 'playing' rather than practicing. I would do gigs around town and simply just play. I stopped worrying about whether the hip notes were going to come out. I just wanted to play and enjoy playing without competetiveness, whether it was with myself or others on the bandstand.

And a fascinating thing happened. Fascinating! During those three years my guitar playing took on a new life! I improved in leaps and bounds and in ways I couldn't have done had I continued practicing the way I had. Phrases that wanted to remain with me did, phrases that didn't want to didn't, and it was all OK with me. I simply stopped forcing things and allowed nature to take its course. And as far as I can remember, this was the best thing that I could have done at the time to grow as a musician. I even started to get a style of my own because I had stopped trying to force my heroes into my playing.

Now I am happy to say that from that time I have gone through many periods of practicing and letting go, practicing and letting go. Personally I like music to breathe, I don't like it cluttered, so if I want the music to breathe I feel it is necessary for me to also. It's as simple as that.

But everyone is on a different path so you must assess whether this pertains to you at this time in your journey or not.

Finally, I do want to point one thing out and I have thought about this a great deal. Jazz musicians can be intense and insular. They can get lost in their own bubble because they spend so much time thinking about music, practicing and so on. This intensity can, and often does, come out in a musician's playing and makes it hard or uncomfortable to listen to. I have always thought that jazz musicians should spend more time socializing with non-musicians to really open themselves up. Opening the mind opens up the soul and the soul is what needs to be bared if we want to really communicate the music.

And I am not saying I am right, by any means. All I know is that putting the guitar down once in a while really worked for me!

--
Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Play Jazz Guitar.com - check out the website for his ground breaking home study guitar courses.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/how-to-really-sell-cds-online.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/how-to-really-sell-cds-online.html Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Unlike other motivators, gurus or success coaches, I will never give you academic theories, untried or untested ideas. On the contrary, in fact, the only ideas I will share with you will be those that I have personally tried out and had success with. That's why I get excited, because I see results, and mostly they are light bulb moments. "Why on earth didn't I think of that before?" is usually the afterthought.

Over the last seven years I have had an enormous amount of success both as a musician and as an Internet marketer. I say that not to brag, but because I want you to to know that if I can do it, then so can you. We are living in a new age. Truly, the geek will inherit the earth. I guarantee that only the proactive 'details oriented', 'out-of-the-box-thinkers' will really have success over the next few years. Watch if you don't believe me.

OK, so where do we start? Do you have a website? Good. Do you have a web designer? If so, he or she must read this because for the most part web designers are not Internet marketers, they make pretty web pages. If you do your own web work (and I highly recommend that you learn), all the better.

I am now going to propose to you that you now have two websites dedicated to your band or act, instead of just one. First, you must have your 'calling card' website. You know, your site at www.yourdomain.com that contains all the good basic info about you that fans can read. I'll talk about the other site in a moment.

Ideally visitors should be finding your main website from a ton of inbound links from other sites. Rather than just getting any old link from another site to point to you, do all that you can to get a 'golden' link. By this I mean a highly visible link on a highly trafficked page. Do a joint venture if needs be by promoting their site from yours and so on. But get good solid substantial links from other sites whose demographic would be interested in you. Ask those questions!

If you want to score high in the search engines, make sure that other sites display your keyword in their anchor text. In other words, if you want to score high in Google when someone searches on 'punk bands', then make sure that that keyword is in the anchor text of the inbound link. (More on this in huge detail in the "Indie Artist DIY Smartkit" http://www.aandronline.com/smartkit )

OK, now you have a steady flow of traffic to your website. Of course you need to make the site fascinating and seductive. Here's what you need to understand about your site;

The only reason you have a website online is to collect names and email addresses so you can direct market to your fans!

Sure you want to tell them where and when you will be playing, show them photos etc. But effectively, you do this by direct marketing through email, forming a personal relationship with your fans one by one. And they will love you for it. More on this in a sec.

So the trick now is to figure out how to capture a new visitor. How do you seduce them into your lair? so to speak. Once you have a committed, interested new fan, you can turn this new person into a purchaser, and if you do it right, a fan who will purchase from you time and time again. You do want to make money as a musician, right?

So the secret is getting them to give you their name and email address so your automated system can do the rest. Enter the second website I was just telling you about...

The second website is what we can refer to as a 'Member's Area". Most commercial or corporate online sites that have a member's area charge a recurring fee to be admitted. You however, are not going to do that. Your member's area will be absolutely free. All they have to do is subscribe. When they subscribe, they get access to this other site (which can be all part of the same domain) and of course you then have autoresponders set up so you can, over the course of a period of time (usually about 2 weeks), seduce them into buying from you. Works like a charm. Read on...

OK, so this member's area sounds really cold and lifeless doesn't it? Doesn't even sound particularly interesting. This is where you have to put on your creative hat. Don't call it a member's area. Personally, I call mine "Backstage", but you could call it anything you like. How about "V.I.P. Only". Or "Private Invite Only". Imagine you are opening a really hip new nightclub and you want only a certain style of person there. Imagine a selective New York nightclub where there is always a line outside and only the beautiful and famous people get to come in. By the way, did you know that there is never usually a need for a line outside a nightclub? How many times have you lined up for half an hour, then been admitted and walked into a half full club? The club is creating a perception that they are extremely popular. But no, all clubs do it because it makes them look good. Adopt this way of thinking for your website. Make it a real 'inside thing'. Kind of like you have to know somebody to get in. There is a website called www.smallworld.com who have successfully done this, and everybody of course is clamoring to be a part of this highly exclusive place. It is brilliant marketing.

So think about this other new site of yours. What do you call it? How will it be? What do fans have to do to get in? Think about this. It's your world. Make it fascinating and exclusive. Then build this other member's site and make it something folks want to come back to. The truth is, you now have their contact info so it almost doesn't matter to you what they do, but you do want them to remain in your world, so think about what you could do to grab their attention. I'll give you some ideas.

Your main website will have all the basic stuff like; About you, bio, photos, tour info, subscribe to newsletter, blah blah blah. All good stuff. But this other private site of yours has to contain highly personal, intimate and fascinating stuff that fans can pore over, that they can't get from your main site. In short, there has to be a seductive and 'slam dunk' reason why a visitor would give up their contact info. Let's face it, with spam issues, it takes a lot these days. Here are a few ideas.

We are living in a youtube world right now. There is every reason to make videos and it's easy to do, and dirt cheap. So...

*Have a band member shoot video of you before and after gigs, hanging out, sound checking, chatting to fans, doing stupid and embarrassing stuff. Make youtube videos and embed them on your VIP member's site.

*Make audio interviews for fans to click on.

*Have a photos library and build it over time.

*Have a reading room where fans can read glowing (and not so glowing) reviews of your albums and shows.

*Have a band blog or message board where fans can personally interact. Make all band members participate. Build personal relationships with your fans.

*Give away free music.

*Think of anything else fun and creative that fans would want to see in your private room online.

If you are the meek or mild type,you know, all introverted and shy and bashful. Here's what I have to say to you; Turn that around pal, because you have to be larger than life! Fans want it that way. They want stars and they want to put their stars on pedestals and worship them. Even if you feel a little insecure in this department, do not translate that online. BE LARGER THAN LIFE! The reason I say this is because you have to be confident enough to think that your fans actually want to know more about you.

OK finally, you have completed your private member's room. On your original website (www.yourname.com) you are going to coax your visitors to your private site area. You can do this on every page of your original website. You can see this whole marketing process on my personal site at www.chrisstandring.com and you can see my "Backstage" private VIP area at www.chrisstandring.com/backstage There, you will see the use of a new marketing idea called Peel-Away-Ads. In the top far right of all my web pages their is a seductive script that makes you want to click on the link that takes you to the Backstage sign up page. You could also place banners and clever text links wherever appropriate. Be creative here.

This whole private member's area is an intriguing idea for visitors because up until now, most bands offer things like "Subscribe to our newsletter so we can tell you where and when we are playing". Is this enough anymore? Absolutely not. We have to be creative.

And what do you do when you have your new fan's contact information? You set up a series of autoresponders that do all the work for you. What this essentially means is, a series of emails written by you personally that gets sent out over a period of time that you specify. Once a week over a period of say 7 weeks, seems to work. You set up these emails like newsletters where you talk about different things your band is doing, or has done. Mostly over time you are going to talk about your CD(s) that you want them to know all about and of course preview and finally buy. Anytime you have something new to tell your fans, you send out a broadcast email. Whenever your new CD comes out, you have a growing list of subscribers to sell it to. Direct targeted online marketing. This is the world you now live in.

If you want to really get into marketing online in a serious way, and do it right from the start, and sell a boatload of CDs online, all the fine details can be found in my Indie Artist DIY Smartkit. http://www.aandronline.com/smartkit/index.html - I talk about all the pitfalls of marketing online and how you can avoid them from the start.

This stuff isn't going to happen for you overnight, but it will happen, and you can sell a lot of albums if you do it right. Go get 'em!

--
Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of A&R Online Visit this website for more free music marketing tips.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/defining-the-true-artist-do-you-have-what-it-takes.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/defining-the-true-artist-do-you-have-what-it-takes.html Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Those falling into the first category can make a living, albeit fairly modest as a general rule. Those falling into the second category often live in a little bit of a dream world and, depending on their tenacity and 'smart' skills, usually end up disappointed because the focus is set on the destination rather than the journey. The third category usually reaps the rewards of the second category gaining all the success and limelight, but as a result of focusing on their art rather than the shallow and flighty end of the musician's world. These are usually the most fascinating people too, because they generally have a little mystery about them and because they actually possess what most entertainers really want; sincere and dedicated talent!

But there are also those that are in the early stages of artistic development who are still learning their craft, and open to influences. Possibly they will become great artists in the future, possibly not. It will be a question of choices and consequences, and doors opened and opportunities taken advantage of - or not. Life certainly will take you places.

But for those that do have aspirations of artistry and expression, then I firmly believe you must have qualities that others do not have. As an artist I believe one must stand out from the herd in order to be heard. It is so easy to make a record these days. One no longer needs to have the luxury of a recording contract in order to stand on a pedestal and say "I am an artist - buy my record!" With home studios costing one 16th of the price they did ten years ago and with software programs that do it all, you can churn out albums by the dozen if you put your mind to it. And many do.

However, just because you can, why would you? - is my question. Just for fun? OK, valid I suppose. But Isn't it better to spend that time and energy searching relentlessly for something unique and different? God knows record companies are releasing enough mediocrity by the hour. Even signed artists are now under the impression they have something to offer. Maybe they have, but for the most part I don't think so (as public reaction and their CD sales will attest!)

Perhaps I am being extremely unfair, but I think too many artists do not realize that they have a responsibility to say something profoundly unique, certainly if they expect any kind of career longevity. We live in a world where musicians spend their lives emulating their heroes; singers spend their lives emulating Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra and so on. Rock guitarists spend their lives emulating Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Paige, Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen. Jazz guitarists are proud emulators of Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Wes Montgomery. Saxophone players worship Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Michael Brecker. And so on...

Before I go on I have to say that emulating heroes is absolutely imperative in your formative years as musicians. You simply MUST listen to the greats, past and present. One has to have a strong grounding and musical knowledge and one simply cannot get there without listening. However, way too many 'artists' cannot get passed this stage. They need to have peer approval, have to know that other respected musicians around them recognize them and applaud their abilities. Often all this takes place subconsciously.

This 'peer approval' is a stage of development that is also important. Every musician goes through it at some point. It is absolutely natural, but I firmly believe that to become a great artist, you have to move beyond that stage and look inward. I always liken it those wedding band singers, who despite having an honorable and justifiable (and in some cases envious) career, they are all too often 'performing monkeys'. They are often fine vocalists but at the end of the day they are seeking approval and applause and not communicating or expressing anything artistic. They certainly know how to entertain but do they know how to intrigue? It's a huge gap. Nothing remotely subtle about it as far as I am concerned.

The real communicating artists seek unique expression. They are not interested anymore in sounding like their heroes. They have moved past that, now searching constantly, developing and refining their own unique voice. Look at any of the true giants of yesterday and today. Yes you can hear their references, but they also have their own strong identity. At some point during their development something bigger than them took over. The chances are they knew it at the time and took advantage of it and made an extra effort to really hone that uniqueness.

Finding that unique inner voice might not be as easy for some. I think it starts by recognizing your technical weaknesses. It is often those weaknesses that ultimately end up becoming your artistic strengths. Let's face it, if you were able to play the guitar technically perfect, at all speeds, meticulously so every note that came out was totally clean and audible, would this be ultimately interesting to an audience? Yes it might be very clever and impressive, but for how long could you listen to an album where every phrase felt like you were having your teeth drilled!!?

Wes Montgomery played with his thumb because he didn’t want to wake the neighbors, ultimately enabling him to become the greatest and most influential jazz guitarist of all time. BB King has about three licks in his entire blues repertoire. Does anyone NOT know BB King when they hear him? Thelonius Monk refused to conform to traditional piano techniques and musical ideas. He simply HAD to play music the way he heard it in his head. He made such a bold musical statement during his time that he is now emulated the world over and revered by the greatest musicians living today.

Technical shortcomings can be the very essence of your unique artistry. Now, should those shortcomings get in the way of what you need to say musically then those weaknesses might need to be turned around so they don't restrict what you hear in your head.

Remember, the true artist simply communicates from within. All other extraneous thoughts, influences and distractions need to fall by the wayside. The minute a lick or a phrase that your hero played or sung (and made famous) ends up on your record - watch out! You might be in trouble. Absolutely steal from your heroes, but just remember that real artistry is about what YOU have to say, not what your heroes have already said before, and have possibly said better.

Push yourself to the max and search for that truly unique quality within. After all, that next great talent we are all so desperately waiting for might just be you!

--
Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Guitar
Made Simple.com Visit this website for free guitar
lessons and a truly ground breaking home study guitar course.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/finding-the-right-music-teacher.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/finding-the-right-music-teacher.html Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500
The big problem when it comes to music instruction is that it is not necessary to have any diplomas or awards in order to set up a teaching practice. In addition, the best teacher may not have a degree in music, just a phenomenal talent for teaching.

The first thing to understand when finding a good teacher is that the best teachers are not necessarily the best players. And it certainly goes that great players are invariably not the best teachers, possibly because they are far too wrapped up in their own playing to be concerned about anyone else’s. OK, a generalization but a theory with legs.

So let's assume you are just starting out, an absolute beginner, so what do you do? Well, the first resource I would use is your own personal contacts. You may have a friend or cousin that also took lessons and he or she may be able to recommend someone. Music stores often provide instruction and you can also look in your local paper for private instructors. Do a Google search. It's actually very easy to find a teacher, but can you count on them to feed you all the right information?

Let's assume you have a short list of teachers in you area. I think it is definitely in your interest to make sure that they are teaching simply because they love to teach. Not because they are waiting for their "big break". This is why I think it is important to find a professional teacher, not an aspiring pop star. So you might ask a series of questions:

How long have you been teaching?
What teaching qualifications do you have?
How many other students do you have?
Can I contact two of your students?

This may seem harsh, but I just think it is so important to get the right person from the start. Why? Because as a student you have no idea whether your potential teacher actually knows what he or she is talking about. So don't be shy to ask.

As an intermediate student you probably need to rely more on word of mouth to get the right teacher to take you forward. In your local neighborhood, especially if you have been playing a while, you are probably already aware who the teachers are so it may not be such a problem.

The other issue, aside from musical expertise, is that your teacher and you need to like each other. If you are to be successful studying together this is very very important. I remember growing up, that I would excel in those subjects where I actually liked my teacher. And of course I dreaded going to class with those teachers I did not like.

I am happy to say that I really liked all my guitar teachers except for one, and that person lasted just a few lessons. I got lucky with the others, there is no question. But other students may not be so lucky. I have heard a number of times that students realized much later that they did not have a good teacher. So at what point do you decide to move on and find a new teacher?

If you have done the prerequisite research I mentioned then this should not be an issue. However, guitar playing is such a personal undertaking that finding the right teacher is relative to each student. What works for one, clearly does not always work for another.

Your teacher should care about you and take an interest in seeing you advance as a player. If this were not the case, I think this would be the biggest red flag to me if I was taking lessons all over again. I would want to know that there was some nurturing involved. If you feel that there really is no connection between the two of you then I think this might be a factor you can use to determine whether you move on or not.

It's tricky. As a student you want the best teacher for you, but you may not know, if there is no barometer to show you.

I also think that many times the student is to blame for being a lousy student. I remember when I used to give private lessons. A few students would come back week after week and had done no practice at all. I found myself explaining the same things over and over and of course we couldn't move on until the essential groundwork was covered. These students eventually gave up because they had no drive or ambition to improve. This can be very frustrating to the teacher. Other times extremely talented players would come for just a few lessons because all they needed was a little fuel to go off on their own and practice. They were literally sponges. These students are heaven for teachers!

So do the research, then take a lesson or two and see if that teacher is right for you. If you are serious about working at your instrument then you shouldn't be to blame for being a bad student. At that time it's simply a matter of finding the right person. Don't short change yourself.

--
Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Guitar
Made Simple.com Visit this website for free guitar
lessons and a truly ground breaking home study guitar course.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/power-linking-strategies.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/power-linking-strategies.html Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Only trade links with a website that:

Shares an interested audience
This is extremely important. If your website is about fly fishing in Montana then linking to a site that sells Viagra is not going to do you any favors. Just as importantly, when you do get offered a link from a site that shares your audience, make sure they are not linking to those Viagra sites!

Only trade links with a website that:

Has a clearly visible text link to its link directory
I can't tell you how many times I get proposed a link trade with a site that has told me they have already placed a link on their links page. 50% of the time they have not placed a link and secondly there is no clearly visible link to their links page from their home page. What good is that to anyone? I can't get traffic from their site and Google won't index either as it can't spider the page.

Only trade links with a website that:

Has a links page with no more than 50 to 60 links displayed
Many webmasters have no idea that search engines detest link farms and will ban a page with an excessive amount of links. More importantly they may not know that their links page is presently percieved as a link farm. They have simply added too many links on one page. Keep a links page to a minimum of say 50 links per page along with a keyword-laden title and description and only link to others who follow this principle.

Only trade links with a website that:

Has a Google pagerank not less than your own
This is a good rule of thumb. Clearly we would all love to trade links with a 9/10 site. It simply ain't gonna happen if you are still at 1/10. Take a few baby steps and climb up the ladder. Once in a while you might get a good 5 or 6 during the early stages. Just make sure you don't link to zeros, especially if their page is chock full of links. It may have been banned anyway.

Only trade links with a website that:

Has a static html links page
Google doesn't rank pages particularly well that are 'called' from other scripts, so try to stay away from these! Be cautious of .asp or .php scripts even though they may appear to be static. My rule of thumb is I will only link to .html pages unless the pagerank is worth it.

I have one or two pet peeves as far as link proposal etiquette is concerned. Here are a few things to take on board when proposing a link trade:

Always place a link before asking for a link
If you are going to propose a link trade with someone then add their link first before you shoot off an e-mail. It shows you are serious, professional and will give the recipient an incentive to trade back.

Give exact URL
When you propose a link trade state the exact page that they can find their link on your site. I get constant link requests from people saying they have added a link back to me and when I go to their directory I am hunting for 10 minutes trying to find it! Very often I can't as they haven't added it yet! When you propose a trade don't simply give the URL of your links directory index page and say "you can find it in the appropriate category". No no no! Give them the exact path so they can get to it in one click. Time is precious.

Don't spam for link requests
Don't simply get a mailing list of websites and send a blanket e-mail requesting a link trade. If I don't see my personal e-mail address in the header of a link trade request I know it has been spammed and they haven't even been to my site. I also know they haven't visited my site because I have link proposal contact forms on all of them. If they actually went there they would have filled out my form. Spammed link requests don't go down well because they are usually from webmasters who are trying to cut corners at every possible turn. Send a personal e-mail to a site that you personally visit. (You can still use software like Arelis to help you find the sites and automate everything else).

Keep your proposal short & sweet
Long convoluted e-mails explaining "how trading links benefits everyone" really aren't necessary. Keep your e-mail short and to the point. Tell them where their link is, and exactly how they should link to you.

Don't delete without good reason
Once you add a link it should remain on a static html page unless there is good reason to delete it. If your partner has deleted his link then by all means send an e-mail and give them an opportunity to repair. If this is fruitless then go ahead and delete.
Lastly I want to mention something that I think is extremely important regarding reciprocal linking. I see way too many websites that have high pageranks on their index pages and very often zeros on their links pages. Usually this is because the links page is too many sub folders away. That and poor internal linking is usually the problem. Webmasters only want to link to pageranked sites if they are building a solid strategy, and quite rightly. Many webmasters don't care too much about their own links page, simply assuming that they are sending traffic away from their site. This is not the attitude to take as the higher the pagerank is on your links page the better external link proposal you will get. The answer is to boost your links page in popularity. There are two ways to do this:

1) Link to your partners index page AND reciprocal links page.
2) Link to a site map that displays all your links pages.

Lets look at the first idea. No one has really adopted this idea yet and I'm very surprised. The idea is that you link to your partner's home page and next to that link you also add a link to the page that contains your reciprocal link on your partner's page. In effect you are boosting the popularity of the page that links back to you. If everyone did this then links pages would rank higher, in turn giving more weight to the link pointing back to you. I personally use Arelis to trade links, a fantastic tool that actually puts the fun back into an otherwise tedious task. At present there is no way to automate this strategy using Arelis (and probably Zeus as far as I know) but I have mentioned it to them and they are considering updating. As of now if you use either of these programs you would have to manually add these link-backs once the pages are generated.

The second idea to boost your links page ranking is to create a new page that ALL your internal pages link to. Let's call this new page /site_map.html. On this site map web page you will display text links and descriptions to every one of your themed link directory pages (making sure again that you keep the number of links around 50 per page - otherwise you will need to create a second site map page linked from the first). Also Include links to all your other internal pages. Now place a little text link to your site map on every page within your site. A good place to do this is at the bottom of each page where you can link from a little copyright sign. Something like this:

© ultimatewebsitepromotion.net

Effectively you have boosted your links page ranking even though it is only internally, something that is still extremely valid to search engines. Now make sure that when you create reciprocal links with external sites that you request they link to your home and your links page. Something like this:

Used cars for sale - Domestic and imported pre-owned cars by George Smith & Co. (Link back).

Get the idea? The "Used Cars for sale" points to their index page and the "Link back" points to the partner's links page. Easy. However, this whole new idea might take a little time to get around and until the big software programs adopt the principle, it might not be anytime soon. Until then you might have to manually add. Happy pagerank!

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To study these website promotion
techniques in further detail pick up Chris Standring's Ultimate Website Promotion
Handbook at www.UltimateWebsitePromotion.net

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/the-art-of-practicing.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/music/the-art-of-practicing.html Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Visualize goal => Surmount problems => Score

Sounds simple doesn't it? However, this clear thinking is all very well but it's usually the thought required before step 1 (visualization) that causes problems. Very often the goal does not manifest in mind because the process is so overwhelming.

And so it is with practicing the guitar, or any instrument for that matter. In more laymen's terms it's more like "What the hell should I be practicing?".

Practice is a constant struggle for many people. There is so much to learn and often so little time to allocate to it. For the jazz musician, clear thinking can be as simple as "I really like that Charlie Parker 2, 5 - how does he do that?". Then transcribing the line, practicing it in all keys and working the phrase into your own vocabulary. The 'score' as I like to call it is the ability to work it in to your own playing. I want to talk a little about that in a minute.

First, I think the most important thing to talk about is how to make best use of your practice time. There was a time when I started playing where I used to sit in my room and allocate 15 minutes to practicing scales and arpeggios, 10 minutes on technique exercises, 20 minutes on sight reading and 1/2 an hour on practicing my classical guitar repertoire. Why? because my teacher told me I had to. Years later once I started to study jazz guitar on my own I didn't feel the need to be practicing this way. It wasn't really benefiting me fully. I started to have my own goals in mind that I wanted to reach. I wanted to learn to play like one or two of my heroes, but more importantly because I liked what they played. Even more under the microscope were certain melodic lines and licks that tweaked my ear and fueled me to transcribe or simply copy the way they phrased or 'felt' a phrase. Once I clearly had in mind what I wanted to achieve I could go about achieving it - I knew what I had to do.

It's important to sit down to practice and be really clear about what you are going to do during that practice time. Now, one thing that helped me tremendously was when I made a huge commitment to scheduled practicing. In other words, deciding that every single day, no matter what, I would sit down and dedicate exactly one hour to working at this instrument. The amazing thing I found is that my regularly scheduled practice literally fueled my regularly scheduled practice! Does this make sense? What this means is that, the more I practiced, the more I wanted to practice. What started out as a committed hour turned into committed six hour sessions. Once I got into music college in London I remember waking up in the morning and practicing until I went to bed at night, remembering to eat on occasion. I was so fueled by the commitment to practice that the drive to play took over completely.

Regular practice clearly keeps your guitar technique on tip top form. There's nothing like picking up the guitar and playing a few short runs and being on top of your game, simply because you are playing regularly.

The other wonderful thing about committing to regular practice is that it actually helps you to think much more clearly, because you start to see results. Once you start to see results the concept of learning is much less overwhelming and you are able to make decisions about what you want to work on much more easily.

So do yourself a huge favor, first, make the decision to want to get much better at your guitar playing. Then once you have decided that, make a clear commitment right now and allocate a certain time of day to your guitar practice. If you only have limited time then give yourself what you know you can afford. Once you get your teeth into this system, if you don't have more time, trust me you will want to find more time. You might just want to wake up earlier. The drive to learn will take over.

Quality practice is key. I find now I am older that, if I let myself, I can get more and more distracted because there are so many other facets to my life. When I make the decision to focus 100% on my guitar problems and how I can surmount them, I find I can get completely absorbed for hours once I get going. Sometimes it helps to avoid those distractions from the outset. Maybe turn the phone off!

There is a huge difference between playing the guitar and practicing the guitar. I can play for days quite happily but am I learning anything new? Not unless I stop myself and work on my weaknesses. And there are plenty of those trust me! Many years ago I wanted to learn licks from my favorite players. I would hear a line and transcribe it. Many times I found that those musical phrases would not come out in my playing and I asked myself why. It dawned on me that there were three possible reasons:

1) I found the phrase too technically difficult to pull off.
2) It just didn't feel like it belonged in my vocabulary.
3) I hadn't fully explored the idea enough - perhaps I didn't fully understand how to use it in a practical sense.

Let's talk about these briefly.

Sometimes a horn line does not necessarily fit under the fingers on the guitar. The line might sound just terrific on a sax but if I can't play it on my guitar it's not going to have the same effect. In fact quite the opposite! Everyone is somewhat limited technically (although there are a few players that keep my head scratching I must admit!), every player has a ceiling in their own mind and I think it's perfectly OK to let some things go because they are just two gymnastic on the guitar. It's of course relative to each player's ability and comfort zone.

Occasionally I'll try and work something into my music vocabulary and it just doesn't feel like me. Some players sound great playing certain things and when I play them them they either sound too much like that other great player or I just don't feel it. Music has to be personal, it's OK to weed out stuff that you don't want to use, even when those 'weeds' are a rose garden to others.

The last idea is something very important I think. That is the idea that when you work on some new vocabulary or a new harmonic idea, that you fully understand how to use it and just as importantly, how to work it into your playing so it comes out naturally. Let's assume you are transcribing a lick on a CD you like. The first thing to do is to make sure you get the notes right. You might slow it down (there is plenty of software on the market that enables you to do this now). Whatever it takes, make sure the notes you are transcribing are correct. Then it is a matter of practicing that phrase so it feels good when you play it.

Now most folks stop right there and wonder why the phrase never shows up in their playing. The secret is to figure out exactly what chord (or group of chords) is being played underneath that line. After that, figure out what other chords could also be played underneath that phrase. Next, learn how to play that phrase everywhere on the fretboard, in different positions and keys. Finally and the most important, work the phrase into your own playing. To do this, start by improvising in any way that you normally might and focus on ways to connect that new phrase you want to play. The new phrase starts on a certain note and you will need to focus on that starting note in order to make a connection to it. Practice improvising freely and connecting to that new phrase, focusing on its starting note. Do this in all keys. Pretty soon you will know if the phrase is going to come out into your playing or not.

The art of practice is a huge subject and musicians have written complete books on it. But I do believe the real success starts with clear thinking. Make a decision to focus on something specific. Here is a more detailed roadmap to take on board:

1) Visualize. What do you want to work on - what do you want to achieve?
2) Plan. What exactly do you have to do in order to achieve that goal?
3) Action. Explore the subject in enough detail.
4) Surmount. Expect problems along the way - this is normal - don't give up! Just level the terrain.
5) Score - making sure that the subject is fully absorbed and part of your new musical make up, unless you decide otherwise.

Great players really got to grips with practicing in the early stages. It became fascinating to them and the results they saw fueled more practice. It's a self perpetuating phenomenon. By simply not practicing, the incentive to pick up your instrument diminishes over time. Then the excuses start to pour out in torrents. Then regrets. Then a very dusty guitar possibly in a dark attic somewhere.

Get practicing. Quality practice. Ask yourself questions. Look for the answers. Insist on results. This is the key to improving.

--
Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Guitar
Made Simple.com Visit this website for free guitar
lessons and a truly ground breaking home study guitar course.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/how-to-seriously-improve-your-guitar-playing.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/how-to-seriously-improve-your-guitar-playing.html Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500
You can spend a lifetime reading books, studying your musical heroes, playing along to music minus one records, but none of this will ultimately give you the full picture. In order to be a true well rounded musician, you have to have real world experience. I'll try to explain why...

When I was just starting out in the profession as a fresh untainted fish in the vast sea of the London music business, I had to get myself known in order to find work. So I set about to answer ads in music papers. Now, after studying classical guitar at the London College of Music, I came out of a 3 year course with a facility to sight-read. Or should I say the beginnings of sight-reading ability, as jazz and pop music written on paper is a whole other world, as I was about to find out. I remember having to sight-read a piece of jazz music with a dance band at an audition. There were about 10 guitar players going for this gig. I must have been about 23 years old. The musical director said "I kind of like what you did Chris but you didn't really cut it mate! There are other guys here that have what I need". Ouch!!! That hurt. But I was young. It was actually good to hear. So I went back to my music library, pulled out a ton of violin music and practiced reading in different positions on the fretboard. Not to mention learning how to grab chords on sight in different fret positions.

Another time, I went down to audition for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, a band known to be extremely taxing musically, and a training ground for London session players. I sat in the guitar chair with my Gibson 335 on my lap, ready to play. The director called a chart, I placed it on the stand and he counted it off. He counted it off around 250 BPM. Frighteningly fast! Well, it was all I could do to get my eyes to follow the music, measure by measure, much less play the music that was written within those bars! I didn't even touch my guitar that rehearsal. I simply placed it back in its case and went home. Ouch again! That was a hard knock! I gave myself exactly a year to get it together. I went back to my practicing with a vengeance. A year later I joined the band for about a year and a half.

Another for instance; about 13 years ago I was playing with a jazz singer in a trio situation with an eminent LA drummer and acoustic bassist. I hadn't done much trio playing, if any at the time, but I was looking forward to playing. At the end of one of the songs I completely messed up the ending. In fact I would go further, I hadn't really worked on any song endings. Didn't really have that together at all. The drummer scowled at me, particularly because I threw him off, as I was not definite in how I wanted to end the song (because I didn't know myself!). He was furious when I made him look bad. He said to me "Dude, you've got to dictate these endings, you're the one playing the chords!". He was right. I was crushed! I went home, sulked for a week (maybe two). Then I went back to my practice room. I was not to be defeated.....

These are the hard knocks you simply have to get in your music life to dictate what you need to work on to get your total musicianship together! You just cannot expect to perfect your instrument without real world experience. You can't get that experience any other way. I can recount tons of times that this sort of thing has happened, and there are still things today that I learn on a weekly basis at live gigs, telling me what I need to work on. The difference today of course is that it's me who is being critical of myself, rather than other bandmates and musical directors telling me I suck!

And the neccessity of performing live is true of any musical genre you choose. Interacting with other musicians is an art in itself. I know technically great players who can't play with others. Does this make them great musicians? I'm not so sure. But they sure can get round the instrument. But if they were to do any amount of live ensemble playing they would have one or two knocks coming, and if they are smart they would work on those issues. Otherwise it's back to solo guitar playing in the back of their local restaurant. (A noble and valid thing to do, let me also say).

There are many issues that come up in a real live playing situation that just don't come up in a bedroom practice session. Time, time-feel, supportive ensemble playing, projection of sound and tone, and most of all a sense of energy and commitment within a performance that is extremely different, and is very difficult to even put into words frankly. You just need to experience it, and that experience will improve your playing tenfold.

So get out there and do some gigs. I know it is hard to make that happen sometimes, but if you cannot make it happen then start a rehearsal band with a few others and play through repertoire. Get together with other guitarists and play through tunes, take solos and take turns being supportive. As you improve, take the plunge and take yourself to the next level.

And by recommending you do all this I am by no means suggesting you put away your books, records and Jamie Abersold play alongs. Absolutely not. This is something of course you should continue to do. But it is only 50% of your musical makeup. I promise you, by performing live you will improve yourself as a guitar player, but most of all as a musician, and at the end of the day this is what we all need to aspire to.

Go to it and have fun!

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Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Play Jazz Guitar.com Visit the website for more info on his ground breaking home study guitar courses.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>