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Distracted Divas

A fun project came my way a few weeks ago.  Some friends started a music club, based on the book club format: gather together with a song, chart, lyrics and instruments, and make noise for an hour.  We play covers and have fun.  We even made our debut on stage to the thunderous applause of family and friends.

Wishing you a sensible holiday – and a calm and bright 2013.

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Ch 5. YouTube – MSi9W

It’s hump week: half of Ariel Hyatt’s  Music Success in Nine Weeks is behind me.  My social media skills have improved: it now only takes 25 minutes to FB a request for a drink, and 10 minutes to get an acronym-ic reply:  like DIY, OMDB, or my favorite… YGNL?)

This chapter is all about YouTube and falls into my sweet spot: I like making videos.   At rehearsal, I asked Paul Mowbray and Stephen Ogden (Mowbray Mills Band) to walk back and forth by the camera.   Sure throw on a funny hat; yes up and down stairs…great!  Other than the words “wiley subsciber”,  I had no big picture, no context, no direction … thought it would fit right in on YouTube.  And it’s poorly lit too.  Enjoy.

The soundtrack is  SPOT ON THE WALL –  suitable, poignant, and has a good beat.

Thanks to the Songwriters Association of Canada, and Lily Cheng in particular for enabling this excursion. And of course to Ariel Hyatt for writing the book.

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Ch 4. Social Media – MSi9W

I thought the last chapter in Music Success in Nine Weeks was tough:  it gave me WALAD (web associated lower arm distress), but this chapter really tested my tendons.  Ariel Hyatt’s book  is the trusty 9-iron in the masochistic self-learners bag.

Continue reading →

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Ch 3. Designing Your Website – MSi9W

Good thing I’m a closet techie, Chapter 3 in Ariel Hyatt’s book Music Success in Nine Weeks (MSi9W) is all about the website.  Luckily, for the past several years I’ve been the wizard behind the curtain in our corner of Oz. Continue reading →

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Ch 2. Your Musical Marketing Pitch – MSi9W

This is the second in a series that documents my progress thru Ariel Hyatt’s book Music Success in Nine Weeks (MSi9W).  Chapter 2 – Develop You Pitch.  What’s Your Genre?  Who Do You Sound Like?  Who is Your Target Audience?   Good questions.  Paul and I – that’s Paul Mowbray, my partner in song, have thrown these topics back and forth like a well worn volleyball. Continue reading →

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Ch 1. Setting Goals – MSi9W (em’see’nay wah)

What to do when you have no extra time in your life?  Sign up for an intensive nine-week course in Social Media for Songwriters.  Yep, me and 60 others from across North America confirmed our madness by buying Ariel Hyatt’s book Music Success in Nine Weeks (MSi9W) and working our way through it.  Continue reading →

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The Taxi Road Rally with Helen Austin, Paul Cufflin and Paul Otten

Taxi is “the largest A&R company in the world”.  Says so on their website.  Last November (2011),  I was in Los Angeles at their Rally: it’s Taxi’s free annual conference for members to meet and learn from each other and biggies in the music biz.  I stepped away from that weekend like Keanu Reeves rising from his black leather Recaro after mainlining the Encyclopaedia Britannica in an e-learning session. Continue reading →

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Songwriters Showcase 2012 – by the Victoria Regional Writers Group (S.A.C.)

Dear Teeko,

VRWG's 3rd Annual Songwriters Showcase

Photos by Peter Brunette (click for more)

The 3rd Annual Songwriters Showcase took place on Feb 11, 2012:   fifteen of our songwriters from the Victoria Regional Writers Group (VRWG) took to the stage and let fly their original songs.