datamusicata

Restringing and tuning my guitar the other day (something that I don’t do as often as I once had to thanks to the Elixir Strings (www.elixirstrings.com) and was struck by the similarities between that humble  activity and the business of living.

Putting on new strings is like starting a brand new life.   Every dead note, unwinding buzz is now gone.   Washed clean, just like a sunny morning after a fresh rain.

Tuning up each string, stretching it out and then fine tuning it to prepare it for playing, is just like what we do to prepare for what we want to do, what we will do, and what we have to do.   It’s an undeniable process that is utterly necessary if we are to move forward; and if we are to play the guitar.

So you get it in tune and you play a song.   We can liken that to a day in your life.   You play the song as best you can, and then, you check the tuning again.    Sure enough, at least one of the strings had drifted a little and you bring in back into harmonic resonance.

That’s the first thing that set me off.   As humans, do we do that after an activity; an event; at days end?    What if we did.  Just did a little check to make certain that we are in tune, and if we are not making the subtle adjustments that will make it so.

With the guitar if you don’t do that, in no time at all the sounds coming out of your guitar are more like impressions of mating cats than music. 

And once it’s way out of tune, it takes a lot of effort and time to bring it back into harmony with itself.   And I suspect it is the same with our lives.  

If we don’t keep a close ear and eye on our lives, they drift out of tune; sometimes so far out of tune that we don’t even know which note is true.   Then we can’t tune it because we have no stable frame of reference.

But checking after each time we play something, each time we do something, we can easily bring all the strings in line and make  music that resonates around the world.

Now here was the final thing that occurred to me.   No matter how many times we bring it into tune, we always have to check and re adjust.  After every song.  

We have to do that with our lives as well.   When tuning the guitar, no one becomes upset because they have to tune it again.   That’s just the way it is and you deal with it with no drama.

See if you can put THAT part in place.   I double dare you.

Last night I performed at Lisa Nemzo’s (www.lisanemzo.com)  birthday party and peace benefit at Kulak’s Woodshed (www.kulakswoodshed.com) in North Hollywood, California.

She invited a pile of her favorite singer songwriters to come and perform and celebrate her birthday with her.

The room was packed and the audience was made up of music lovers and musicians, composers and dogs.  

Needless to say, the whole audience sang on everyone’s  songs and this was the amazing part.   All the songs were good.   I have rarely found that to be true but last night it was.    Everybody brought out their best for the benefit and the egos were checked at the door.   And there had to be about eighteen performers.  Lisa (www.lisanemzo.com) was the hostess extraordinaire and played some great songs and guitar herself.

There were, of course some personal favorites for me.   Julie Chadwick (www.jmyspace.com/juliechadwick) and Joe Hamilton (www.joehamiltonmusic.com)  played back to back and both of them were extraordinary.    Lisa Turner (www.lisasongs.com) turned in  her usual wonderful song and performance (and she sang back up for nearly everyone,  always nailing it.)    And Marc Platt (www.myspace/marcplattmusic) always writes a good song.

But literally everyone was good.  It was a joy and it reminded me why I go out to these kinds of things.   And why you should as well.   There really is a community of musicians, songwriters, performers and if you support each other, you not only get enriched, you get inspired.

You hear a song, a lick, a lyric twist, something and off you go, into something new to and for you.  

It really is a never ending learning process and the more you hear and the more you expose yourself to the creative flow that comes from these events, the more you grow as a musician, composer and person.

Plus as artists, we need the community of artists in order to thrive.  Nobody does it, makes it, or lives it alone.   There always has to be a support system and last night I was feeling woven right into the fabric of this creative thing that we do.   

Be part of your creative community.  And every community has one.  It’s there.  Find it and nurture it and  yourself.  You won’t be sorry.

I had quite a heated argument with a dear friend of mine a while back.   She was angry and felt, justifiably, that she had been treated badly.   As I listened to her as she unloaded her burden, I realized that there was a universal theme showing up in every situation she described.     

We are in the only place we could be given who we are.

And I realized that we are right where we are in life because of who we are, as individuals, as groups, as cities, states, country and world.

In every social equation in your life there is only one consistent, common component and that is you.   No matter what has gone down in your life; no matter what situation you are in; no matter how different all these situations are, there is only one common component.  You.

If you do the math, that means that ultimately, you are responsible for who you are; where you are; what you are.  You take up the most space in your life equations so you have the most influence and responsibility.

You can rant and rave about anything you want, but the reality is that there is only one thing that you can change.  You.   You can’t change one other person.

You can change the way you handle things; the way you react; the way you forgive (a huge one), and you don’t do it by making grand announcements or vast lists of resolutions.

The next time that you react to something in a way that doesn’t serve you, at the moment you recognize what you’ve done, whether it is seconds, minutes, hours or days later, acknowledge it and stop going that way.    Apologize if need be, make amends as they say in twelve step programs, but after you‘ve done that once and realize that it doesn’t hurt too much, and you can catch it again and you will catch it a little bit sooner with practice.

Once you are aware of what you are doing to harm yourself and you recognize and acknowledge it, you will find that it is a tiny bit easier and a tiny bit sooner to recognize and acknowledge.    Then you rectify it and soon you are noticing the problem inside of you before you even say outloud the thing that you previously had to apologize for.

I’m not kidding, you can change what isn’t working for you, but you can’t do it in huge chunks.  It’s day to day, minute to minute.  

But it can be done, and you can do it.   Take charge of your life one second at a time.    The years will take care of themselves.

You’d think after decades of booking myself, I would have this down, but I am evidently an even slower learner than I have suspected.

For instance, last winter, almost a year ago, I played in the south.    The shows were all successful and the promoters were effusive in their praise and their insistence that they had never seen such a professional show.    Two of the promoters gave me quotes for my webpage, for which I am extremely grateful.

They all talked about how they wanted to have me back and  one talked about how next time, she had to make certain that they got the big hall and really promoted it because this was a special show, not the regular fare.

I smiled and thanked them and enjoyed basking in their praise. 

Months passed.

As I was putting together a return trip to happen at the same season as the previous tour, I contacted one of the promoters who was, truly the most effusive of the bunch and said that I was planning on coming back.

I was told that they had already booked the season; that there were so many people coming through that they didn’t see how they could book another one.

And then then told me who they had booked.   Kind, generous, moderately gifted people all, but few professionals.  Few who would actually increase the size of audience by virtue of giving a performance that would be talked about as something not to be missed the next time.

Not that everyone doesn’t deserve a chance in the spotlight, provided they have prepared for it; nor that no one should be allowed to work except me, though that would make things alot easier...for me.  But I digress.

If you are trying to build a series, you do it by providing the most professional event that you can.   You keep the bar high and soon your audience knows that even if they haven’t heard of someone, if you are having them in your series, they must be worth it.  

And they come back...and they bring their friends, and you are the toast of the town for creating such a wonderful series. 

What I should have done, and what I recommend to you when you are in this position of having just done a really good show and you are basking in the praise, is to sit down with the promoter, while they are enthused about what you do and set a date.  Even if it’s two years out, set a date.  

The time to book yourself is when the promoter is excited about you and your talents.    A year later, many don’t remember whether you were any good at all, let alone, wonderful.

This is the land of media overload, and it’s easy to get swept aside by the next wave of whatever.   They forget.  They can’t wait to forget.   They are standing in line to forget.   It really is, “what have you done lately?”

Book your next date when you are right there, in their face and you’ve just done a brilliant show.   Even if you have an agent, book the show and then text them, phone them, fax them, immediately and tell them to follow up and contract the date.   

You’ll thank me in the end.

Patter Between Songs

A couple of weeks ago I was at a show and noticed how unengaging the between song patter was from the fellow on stage. 

Fortunately, he had a self deprecating sense of humor that got him out before it actually got boring, but it made me realize that as an artist, you need to pay as much attention to what you are saying between songs as you do to the songs themselves.

I come from the tradition of talking to the audience between songs and all the people that I emulate are people who were successful doing that.   I like to make people laugh and I think it makes for a more rounded performance;   more entertaining and more engaging. 

Nothing turns me off more than a performer just wagging on and on and  not saying anything I am interested in or entertained by.   If you don’t care about entertaining, then perhaps you should not be in the spotlight.   I am not saying that everyone has to be Robin Williams (www.robinwilliams.com), just that if you are going to talk, make it entertaining...somehow.

One of the mistakes this fellow made was to talk about his CD between every song.   He hammered us with the fact that he had a CD for sale and I noticed at the merch table that he seemed to sell his CD’s to people that already knew and loved him.  He didn't seem to sell to any new people and you have to to that  to grow; to spread the gospel of your music.

I believe that if you hammer strangers over and over about your CD, it turns them off.

I make my CD sales pitch before the last song and I have made the pitch as funny as I know how.   And it works.  I almost always do half the house.   If  I could only move into the amphitheatre with those kinds of statistics.

The best way to tell how you are doing with your patter and your set is to record it and listen to it on the way home.  

And by the way, when you are recording make certain that you get the audience on the recording as well.  That way you can actually hear what their reactions to your  patter are.    You can’t tell if something is funny or not, if you don’t hear the laughter after the punch line.

As you listen to yourself, see if you can shorten the set ups.   There is a thing I call the comedic balance.  The set up cannot be bigger than the punchline or the joke/story just lies there.   The painful shaggy dog story, if you will.

Figure out what really matters in what you are saying; figure out what moves the story or joke or whatever along, and what doesn’t, just let go.    You can tell the same story but with more brevity.   This is more effective and keeps your audience engaged.

And you needn’t talk after every song.   Unless you are really funny, it just slows the show done and demonstrates that you are an amateur.    This is not a good look for anyone.