Things every musician and songwriter can learn from McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner, a giant of jazz piano, embodied powerful lessons that music-makers of any sort can learn from. Read the post.
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What can indie artists learn from a classical conductor?
LA Philharmonic’s Gustavo Dudamel embodies principles and practices that will benefit music-makers of any style and genre. Read the post.
Writing about your music
Writing about yourself and your music can be more difficult than you’d think. These pointers will get you on track to craft the words that match your music. Read the post.
The case for playing every style of music
While it might be impossible to play EVERY style of music there is, you can gain confidence, experience, and new ideas playing in musical genres outside of your regular routine. Read the post.
Craft three band bios to describe you and your music
Your band bio can compel the press/media to write about you, bookers to contact you to play live, and potential fans to check out your music. But one size does not fit all, so you’ll need three versions. Read the post.
Five Takes on “Black Hole Sun” – Remembering Chris Cornell
Though he covered tunes by many diverse artists, Cornell was no stranger to having his own songs covered as well; perhaps none has become as popular amongst other artists as Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” Read More.
Six things I learned watching Chris Cornell cover other people’s songs
Listening to Chris Cornell cover various songs from a wide range of styles can teach you a lot about how to make the most of your own attempts. Read More.
The 100 greatest music artists and their first top 10 singles [infographic]
As Rolling Stone magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary, this infographic showcases the Top 100 Greatest Artists of all time and how long it took each to score a top 10 single in either the US or the UK. Read More.
Are you bimusical? You should be.
As a musician, it’s important to listen to music genres outside of your own. The term “bimusical” has been coined to express a degree of fluency in different styles of music, and there are compelling reasons to aspire to being bi. Read More.
Sell your story, sell your music
“Check out my new single on SoundCloud!” If you’re part of the music industry, you’re either guilty of sending out this message or you’re constantly receiving tweets of it with minor variations. It begs the ultimate question: “Why should your message prompt me to follow your link over any of the other identical messages I receive?” Read more.
Great vocalists from yesterday and today [infographic]
From being able to sort by vocal range and high or low note, the graphic with the keyboard and the chart layout is impressive stuff. From the same folks who brought us the “100 Years of Rock” infographic, here’s another interactive gem that’s worth a few minutes of your time. Read more.
100 greatest songs and the 58 music instruments that made them [Infographic]
For music lovers, digging into the instrumentation and arrangement of our favorite songs is part of the wonder of music production. Berklee Online did an analysis of the instruments used on the top 100 songs from Rolling Stone‘s list. Read the post.
Every music genre in one incredible interactive infographic
This amazing infographic is an exhaustive exploration of just about every genre of music you can imagine – and a ton you’ve never heard of – with music clips and animation to help you connect any given musical style to its influences and the styles it spawned. Read more.
Don’t Get Stuck In A Musical Rut
We came across a thought-provoking post last week on Forbes.com (not necessarily regarded as THE premiere indie music site, we’ll admit) titled "You and Your Musical Rut." While the author ponders, extols, and resorts to fear tactics to tout the values of musical diversity and broadening your musical horizons by not listening exclusively to one artist or one music genre, from a musician’s standpoint, this can also easily translate to not limiting yourself to playing one style of music.
Read more.
What Makes You So “Eclectic?”
When someone asks you to describe your music, think carefully before you drop the word “eclectic.” It may be true that you have a variety of music influences and inspirations, but be specific. “Eclectic” as a catchall can confuse the issue and give the impression that the tracks on your album are stylistically all over the map – or worse, that perhaps you are all over the map and are uncomfortable defining your own music. Instead, try to look for the common threads and the ways you bring your musical influences together. Read more.