Think about it. The average lesson time is 30 minutes per week, which means that you have 167 and a half hours until you see your teacher again. A good student knows that what they do with that time can make a tremendous difference to their progress as a player.

A teacher might have a good reason for not showing you a technique in beginner lessons; usually because they’ve determined you just aren’t ready for it yet. They may be right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try!

Here are seven guitar playing techniques they won’t teach you in beginner lessons.

1. Hammer-Ons

This is a technique where you either pick an open or fretted note, and quickly “hammer down” another finger to sound a higher note without picking a second time.

It isn’t necessarily an advanced technique, but it usually requires a little bit of finger strength and dexterity to pull it off, which is why you won’t usually find it in beginner lessons. Hammer-ons can be a lot of fun, because it’s relatively easy to make a series of hammer-ons sound fast, and most beginners like to get to the point where they can sound fast as soon as possible.

2. Pull-Offs

Pull-offs are more or less the opposite of hammer-ons, where you pick a fretted note, and quickly “pull off” to another fretted note or an open note without picking a second time.

Much like with hammer-ons, you’ll need to have developed some strength in your fingers in order to be able to perform a pull-off. What makes it a little tricky is that you can’t just remove your finger. You have to pull down (or up) and off without bending the string. It’s a great lead guitar technique, and combined with hammer-ons, it can sound pretty cool.

3. Trills

On a guitar, a trill is where you rapidly alternate between hammer-ons and pull-offs. This is trickier than both techniques combined, because you need to sustain the sound of the notes with the strength of your fingers alone. The idea is to pick once and then let your fretting hand do all the work.

Guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen both have wicked trills, so it’s worth watching their playing to figure out how to play an effective trill.

4. Tapping

In some circles, this technique goes by other names like “double fretting”, but the basic idea is similar to hammer-ons and pull-offs, except that, in addition to your fretting hand, you also use a finger (sometimes multiple fingers) from your picking hand.

There are a number of different ways of performing this technique, but typically, you would fret two different notes with your fretting hand. Then, you would hammer down and quickly pull off of a higher note with the index or middle finger of your picking hand, and as the lower note sounds, you would pull off to the other note you’re fretting, and then hammer-on the finger you just pulled off again. Repeat this sequence for best effect.

Tapping sounds very impressive, but it’s not that hard to do. What was once a “mind-boggling secret” is now a standard rock guitar technique.

5. Slides

Generally, a guitar instructor has no reason to show you what a slide is or how it works until you’re playing a riff or a solo that necessitates it.

A slide can take many different forms, but the essence of it is this. First, you would pick a fretted note. Then, you would move your finger either up or down the fretboard without releasing the tension on it. If you do it correctly, the string you originally picked should still be ringing out.

In combination with other techniques – including those already mentioned here – your lead guitar playing will begin to sound a lot fancier when you master the slide.

6. Harmonics

At various points (or frets) on your guitar, you can find what are called harmonics. Without getting into the exact specifics of how this works – because it is kind of technical – if you pick a note with a finger lightly touching (but not fretting) a string directly above a fret, you’ll hear a high, chime-like tone. This is a harmonic.

For beginners, the fifth fret, seventh fret, an 12th fret are the easiest positions to produce a harmonic. Again, you have to make sure your finger is lightly touching directly above the fret, and after you pick the note, try to move your fretting finger out of the way to let the note ring out.

If you’re wondering what a harmonic sounds like, listen to the guitar in the verse sections of Linkin Park’s “In The End”.

7. String Bending

This is pretty much exactly like it sounds. The idea is to pick a note and then bend up (or down) on the string, thereby raising the pitch of the note. This can be a little tough to do with any one finger. If you want to cheat a little, try supporting your ring finger with your index and middle fingers, using the combined strength of your fingers (without forgetting which note you’re bending; the one your ring finger is fretting).

Although some string bending does exist with rhythm guitar, most of the time it is used in combination with other lead guitar techniques. Guitarists like Jimmy Page and David Gilmour are famous for their big and tasteful bends, and are worth observing to see what good string bending looks (and sounds) like.

Final Thoughts

If you find yourself frustrated with any of these techniques; don’t worry. As mentioned, you won’t learn these in beginner guitar lessons.

You may need to spend a little more time building finger strength and practicing the basics before you can move on, but rest assured, if you keep practicing, you will eventually be able to perform all of these techniques fluidly. And from there, you’ll be able to move on to marketing your guitar playing and getting known.

A good guitar teacher probably won’t mind helping you out with new techniques if and when they see that you’ve been practicing on your own. A teacher loves it when they see that a student is taking a proactive approach to their practice routine.

A short while ago, Youtube implemented a new design called ‘One Channel’. You can see an example of this design in action on Yasmine’s Youtube page.

The ideas behind this is a much simpler channel design that also works well across many different devices. As more people get tablets and smart phones, it has become increasingly important to be able to effectively display your content to as many of these devices as possible. This new channel allows this.

Although this is very cool, it isn’t the only cool new feature. For example, One Channel now allows you to present one set of videos to your subscribers, and another set to people who haven’t yet subscribed. As I’m sure you can imagine, this gives a lot of exciting possibilities (I.e. Subscriber only videos etc).

So, here’s how to set up your new One Channel design on Youtube. Give it a go, it’s really easy to do!

Getting A Picture For Your Youtube Music Channel

Au revoir (‘Goodbye’ for those non French speakers :)) elaborate graphics, all you will need is a photo of 2560px by 1440 px.

On most screens, only a small area of this photo (Usually 1546px by 423px at the center of the photo) will be shown. So if you add text, all of it needs to fit in there. I wouldn’t suggest you put too much text in though.

On a TV, the whole photo will be used. On desktops, tablets and smart phones, only part of the photo will be used. This will make it look like a banner (Its length will depend on your screen).

If you want to get all the visual information and sizes, click here (You can also download the template from this page).

Once you’re ready to add your image, click on the ‘add an illustration for your channel’ message on the banner. From here you can drag and drop your photo.

Adding Links To Your Other Websites And Social Profiles

Once your image is up, you will probably want to add some links to your other music based pages. To do this, go to the top right corner of your banner and click on ‘edit the links’.

Here you can add several links :

The first one is the link to your official site (Which, by the way, you should have. If you haven’t yet got one, learn how to quickly and easily set one up here).

After that, you can add links to any social networks you may have. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Instagram etc to name only a few.

Adding A Teaser To Your Channel

Right below your new illustration, and to the left, will be the teaser content for your channel. You can make this different content for subscribers and non subscribers.

By hovering the little arrow on top of this spot, you will call up the editing tool.

You can now add a video for people who haven’t subscribed to your channel yet.

You can either film a short video explaining what your channel is about (Keep it short and simple, and make sure you include a call to action) or simply choose your best music video or footage.

People who are already subscribed to you will see a video from your channel in this spot.

Describe Your Channel To Potential Fans

Next, go to the ‘about’ section (To the right of the home icon), click on the editing pen, and describe your channel.

This description doesn’t need to be very long, but it needs to be relevant to the actual content of your channel.

It will appear by default on all the descriptions of your new videos and on other places on Youtube, so be sure to change this as and when is needed.

Creating Sections And Playing With Playlists

Playlists are very important in the One Channel design. Youtube now allows you to add playlists of both your own videos and other people’s. So if you and another musician are supporting each other, you can add their videos to your channel, and they can do the same with your vids.

Again, when you hover on a section, you are calling the editing tool. You can choose to add one or several playlists to the section, and present it horizontal format (line) or vertical format (list).

You can add as many sections as you like by clicking on ‘adding a section’ (Below the last section).

And you’re not limited to videos from yours or your friend’s channel. You can also add a sections with videos you like, music artists that have inspired you, people you’re working with, etc. The choice is yours.

Conclusion

And voilà ! You’re all set

Changes to platforms you’re used to can be confusing at first, but hopefully this guide has showed the new Youtube design isn’t that difficult to understand, and using the above step by step instructions you can get yours set up exactly how you want it.

So, what’s your view on this new Youtube design? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

“There’s so much knowledge out there, I don’t disagree with you, but it’s scattered all around the web. Impossible to find the really credible resources!”

And then it hit me:

“Why don’t we stop whining and do something creative instead?”

Our First London Music Conference With Andrew Dubber

A week after, the first conversation with a famous music expert was a reality.

Darker Music Talks took place in London on a rainy Monday of January, with around 20 UK musicians asking questions to Andrew Dubber for about an hour.

The first bridge between serious knowledge keepers and passionate independent musicians revealed something promising: musicians can be really conversational about their music career when the chance is provided.

Especially when this person has tons of actionable knowledge they could benefit from, or advocates a refreshing, modern mindset.

For those who are not familiar with Andrew Dubber:

He is Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University, a public speaker, the founder of New Music Strategies and an adviser to Bandcamp and Planzai. He’s also the author of 20 Things You Need To Know About Music Online and Music In The Digital Age.

I’d describe him as a legend in the independent music scene and a charismatic speaker. That’s why I could see a lot of happy faces at the end of the event.

What Lessons Can Andrew Dubber Teach Us?

There is a strong tendency nowadays, and it has a lot to do with the way people consume information. We prefer distilled knowledge instead of long essays with too much in depth information.

I tend to prefer the second one by the way, because it alters your understanding of already existing stereotypes.

This conversation with Andrew contained valuable nuggets of wisdom that could sum up the proper mindset of a musician in the digital age.

Let’s go.

1. Being Social As A Musician

“There is just one thing you need to understand about music online: ‘This is a conversation’. And it seems like a really oversimplified way of looking at the Internet, but it just human beings talking to each other.”

Key Words: Be human.

In 1999, C. Locke, D. Searls, D. Weinberger and R. Levine published the Cluetrain Manifesto, which contained 95 theses about online conversation. They were difficult to digest at that time, but now things are obvious.

Thesis no. 3: “Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.”

Today, we see how these simplistic words have conquered the online word. This is what you should deeply understand, whether you’re a marketer of a coffee brand or a musician.

Be human.

Talk like you would talk in the physical world. Understand that you’re not talking to profiles or bots. There’s an alive human being behind each conversation.

Announcements and ‘screaming’ via press releases and ads is dead. Brand humanization is not merely a trend, it’s the consequent result of understanding how the Internet works.

2. Make Yourself Interesting

“In an online space there is the conversation and there is the things about which the conversation is taking place. You can either be talking to people, or you can be the thing about which they talk. But the easiest thing to do is make things people have conversations about. They’re called ‘social objects’. “

Key Words: Social objects.

This is the fancy way to say ‘be interesting’.

Jyri Engestrom has coined the term, and it has to do with the fundamental understanding that people talk every day about stuff, but they only pick stuff that make them sound interesting individuals.

Talking about the weather is not a topic that enhances your image, but some novelty that you recently discovered is worth talking about.

In general, this is the mindset behind virality. Think in reverse and spot something that people will be interested in talking about or some trend that the masses have not had enough of yet and you could ride while they’re hot.

Then make it real and give to people the chance to ‘discover’ it.

There’s a catch though. The aforementioned are seasonal tricks.

Most importantly, be originally interesting and show your real self. People cannot be fooled by imitators. Building an interesting character heavily depending on others’ creations will not take you a long way.

Being the social object because you’re an innovator is the path to fame after death.

3. Keep Your Fans Engaged And Interested

“Give them a reason to come back. Give them something that will encourage their engagement and will make them want to stay on the mailing list.”

Key Words: Keep them in the loop.

I figured it out with my own band, after being inactive for many months on social media: if you disappear from the public eye for a long time, don’t expect to be remembered.

It’s simple. Life goes faster, so does information consumption. The human brain cannot keep up with everything we encounter in our daily lives. We only remember information that is either on top of mind or integral part of our habitual living.

Short attention spans are satisfied with short and sweet posts that contain strong visual elements and bits of information without the fluff.

On the other hand, our favorite bands don’t have to be on top of mind, because they achieved something stronger: they’re a habit of our lives because we chose to.

The latter is the ultimate goal, longevity in other words. It cannot be achieved, though, without mastering the first step, which is to keep people in the loop and engage with them in a meaningful way. Once you break this barrier of disbelief against you, you can say you got yourself a real fan, not just ephemeral audience.

4. You Can’t Stop Music Piracy, So Don’t Sweat It

“In independent music, your problem is not piracy. Your problem is obscurity. You want people to have conversations about you. You want people to have things of yours they can share.”

Key Words: Don’t restrict.

Lots of debate against piracy, whether it’s wrong or right to copy and spread other people’s art on digital media, whether copyrights are helping or restricting etc.

There’s not much debate to be done on this topic, I reckon.

Andrew put it in a brilliant way; you should not care about piracy when you haven’t built awareness. Restricting the audience from sharing your work is plain nonsense for the digital age.

Personally, I see it as a blessing. Having fans to evangelize your work and spread it around the world is something everyone would wish for, and this should be the goal in the first place.

How can you make money if you don’t sell your music and let others pirate it?

Read further…

5. Give Your Fans A Real Reason To Buy Your Music

“There is nothing you can do to stop somebody having what you make for nothing. That’s not the problem you wanna solve. What you wanna solve is ‘How can I be that meaningful that they want to give me money for something they already own?’ “

Key Words: Meaningful incentives.

This was a question asked when the session started: “How do you make people pay for your music?”

Andrew’s answer was disarming: “You can’t force them to.”

As Mike Masnick highlighter in his keynote talk about Trent Reznor’s model, it’s all about CwF + RtB (Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy).

The latter is the incentive you provide to the audience to pay for what you do, and I don’t strictly mean your recorded music. In fact, recorded music will not be a great revenue stream in the future. We already see happening, and it’s not pure randomness.

The future audience, the ‘digital natives’, will either pay for digital goods because either they have a connection with the brand, in other words because they volunteer to pay (this is what’s happening with Kickstarter) or because it’s a service that saves them time, organizes their lives and/or gives them something first.

I don’t see recorded music anywhere near this mindset. Stop forcing people to pay for your songs, let them spread them and give them incentives to pay if they want.

6. Let Your Fans Help Mould Your Music Career

“I want my face to appear to the page of the band that I like. It’s like I’m actually involved in this process with this person that is making this music that I love. That’s a completely different dynamic and a much more personal and gratifying connection.”

Key Word: Personalization.

Personalization is going big and is here to stay. Recently Bandcamp launched the ‘Fan pages’, where you can make your own profile and concentrate the favorite music you’ve found around the platform, connect with other individuals and share your tastes with the world. They infused the ‘social’ element.

Not random either. We are in the ‘We’ era, as described in the book “Pendulum” by M. Drew and R. Williams. There is a need to say out loud what we stand for and what groups of people we belong to.

Having our face in the music page of our favorite band, showing that we participated in the Y cause and making public that we supported the Z crowdfunded campaign is a characteristic of our nature that will exaggerate in the next years.

Don’t forget that: in an era where big numbers are considered to be a success and reaching new people with the click of a button is costless, being a human and talking face to face with people enjoys a new, unique meaning.

We have the need to feel like humans again and know that others feel likewise as well.

7. Own Your Own Data

“Anything you put up on Facebook is not your thing, it’s Facebook’s thing, they own it. Personally, I would use Facebook to direct people away from Facebook.”

Key Words: Own your data.

No, it’s not wise. It’s common sense.

You cannot really build something and surrender it to a third-party to build their own business. Well, you can, it might bring some interesting results and boost your audience.

But maintaining this mindset will never help you build a real following and business for yourself. You need to own the data you create and collect.

Facebook shuts down tomorrow, what will you do? Right, all the data (which you don’t own anyways) will vanish.

This is the juice of Andrew’s point: Facebook is merely a communication tool and a service to drive more audience to your own website. It’s not a replacement.

Email is an evergreen means of communication. Yeah, lots of ups and downs in the meaning it has for people, but it is an integral part of our lives and will never fade away.

It’s simple. Start building your mailing list today and own your data (Shaun Letang: You can see our guide about building a mailing list here. I also suggest you build your own music website rather then relying fully on social media platforms. Social platforms should be used to drive traffic to your website, and should themselves be diversified).

Bonus 8^th Tip For Music Industry Success

“There is actually a formula for music business success on the Internet. Step one is: Be F**king Amazing.”

This is the cornerstone of success. No matter big marketing budget you have or interesting discussions you start, simply put, the essence is one: your art needs to be amazing.

Cliche, for sure.

I know you’ll counter-argue that art is something subjective and there are always fans for any kind of music. And that’s absolutely true, this is the magic of artistic creations.

Do you want to know the difference between making art and making a career in art? In order to make a sustainable career in music, you first need to be able to reach a respective volume of audience. This happens by offering music that is already accepted by the broader audience, or by teaching the audience how to love your eccentric and unique kind of music.

The second one is more difficult. Both tasks entail a mutual element: Be amazing.

I hope you enjoyed some of what Andrew had to say about music in the digital age. You can read up a lot more about him on his official website.

About Tommy Daker, The Author

I’m Tommy Darker, the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician. I started ‘Think Beyond The Band’ because I feel proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and I like helping other fellow musicians that struggle with the same problems.

I love starting conversations, join me in The Darker Side to talk about the music business. If you share the same mindset, find me on Facebook and Twitter and let’s talk!

Photo Credit: Andreas.

On our sister site (Music Industry How To), we now also offer a step by step study course for musicians wanting to make more money and gain more fans from their music career.

We’ve got a lot of useful information coming for you over the next few months, so sign up to the mailing list so you don’t miss a thing! You’ll also get a free ebook, & exclusive weekly guides & tips. Enjoy

Shaun Letang,
Independent Music Advice

I grew up heavily involved in my local music scene: I knew the bands, and the promoters well enough that I called them my friends. As soon as I was old enough I started organizing shows so my favorite local bands could be heard and seen more. I had a fair crack at it, but as the years went on other things took over, and I moved into other realms. I remember that time fondly, especially because I helped many bands get going, both fan base wise, as well as financially. Now, for many reasons I’m being drawn back into the world of promotion, and I’m noticing quite a few differences in the way the local promoters now operate: they don’t pay the bands.

This isn’t everyone, I just want to make that clear, but it is a lot. Saying that, I really don’t understand why this would be the case: social websites such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook suggest that music is more alive than ever, so why is this the case?

I met rock band Pianos Become The Teeth after a show once, and they told me how they still have full time table waiting jobs back home to make a living. Okay, they’re not exactly a household name, but they are a hugely respected band who tour globally, and their media exposure, as well as the way people talk about them online would suggest they’ve somewhat “made it”. If they can’t make being in a band financially viable, how can local bands?

Well, I feel this is not just the band’s responsibility but largely the responsibility of the promoters that hire the bands to play as well.

There a whole range of cost involved in organizing a show, and right now some promoters see covering the cost of flyer printing more important than paying the bands. This shouldn’t be the case. Promotion is very important yes, but never ever as important as paying the band, or as I like to think of them as: the reason people are at your show.

I understand that ticket prices need to be kept as low as possible, but if cuts need to be made, this should always come from what the promoter pockets, and not the bands’. The bands involved are the artistic commodity: they are the things you are trying to sell, and they should be justly rewarded. You shouldn’t ask a band to play for “stage time”. A band asks for stage time, a promoter never offers it as payment. The completion of a job is always paid for in money, nothing else.

Some times a promoter does pay, but they don’t pay enough. From my experience this comes as a result of there always being someone who will work for less. As a way to save costs, some promoters will choose the act that wants less money. Over time this has forced bands to accept less and less to remain competitive. This has seriously devalued the Art form. It seems expected now that many bands should just play for free. This isn’t how a promoter should choose their acts: they should choose them on who is best, and then pay them a fee that reflects how much they trust them in doing a job…

A good friend of mine is a band with four other people. The last time they played they were given £50 (That’s about $75) to open a show. That works out at £10 per person. To play the gig they had to make a 200 mile round trip in a van, and be there for 7.30pm. This meant that they had to take the afternoon off work, losing out on any pay from that. On top of that, the promoter wouldn’t pay them until the end of the night, so they had to stick around until 11.30pm. This meant they couldn’t double up or anything, to try and make a little money at another venue across town.

Apart from the travel I would say they technically did 4 hours of work by being at the show, for £10 each! They were supporting a globally touring band (I won’t say who) and the whole thing was supposed to be a big deal.

If you were to work for 4 hours in the UK, you would make a minimum of £25 (about $38) because of minimum wage. For the five of them to make minimum wage, they would need to be paid £125 ($187.50). They didn’t receive half of that. If they had asked for that much, the “opportunity” would have been given to somebody else.

Due to the financial toll taken by being in a band, and trying to take as many “opportunities” as possible, they ended up calling it a day. They could have been the next big thing, but now we’ll never know.

Things could have been different if promoters had valued them more, and I imagine the same could be said for many bands the world over.

How Much Should Musicians Get Paid For Gigs?

It’s really not that difficult to pay your bands properly. When I would organize shows this is how my payments would break down:

• Venue: 200
• Bands: 800 (200 x 4)
• Promotion: 100
• Total: 1100

You would need 100 People to pay 11 each to break even. Any money I made would be the extra. If you don’t think people will pay that sort of money for your show, you need better bands, not cheaper ones.

Your band’s presence and exposure on Facebook has just became all the more vital. Facebook Graph Search is on its way, and could possibly change the way potential fans hear and find your music.

There are many ways to market your band with little or no budget, and social media is an excellent place to start your online marketing strategy.

So far potential fans have been able to find your page by studying their friend’s list of recommended pages, or when enough of their friends comment on your bands posts. Facebook Graph Search however will be able to expose your band’s page to new fans in a way that Google search results have never been able to.

Read on, as we talk more about this new Facebook feature below.

How Does Facebook Graph Search Work?

Mark Zuckerberg describes its use: “Graph Search is designed to take a precise query and return to you the answer”, he said, “not links to other places that might take you to the answer”.

‘The Zucker’ in person at the Facebook Graph Search Press conference.

The new search function can understand a mixture of phrases. In the case of your band, a search for ‘Friends in Australia who like electro-funk’ core and going to gigs’ will show you exactly who this criteria matches. If your band’s page lists you as ‘electro-funkcore’, and their friends in Australia have interacted with your page, you may have just found yourself a new fan.

The varied use of this service, rather than searching essentially for music has other possibilities for your band page.

Online Dating– Yes. Yours could be the music of love. Who doesn’t appreciate a partner who you can share your incredible music taste with?

Searching for ‘guys in Manchester who like country music and eating out’. What are the chances of someone spotting they like your band, giving you a ‘Like’ for their own profile in order to feign interest and secure a hot date with them? Stranger things have happened.

How To Tune Up Your Band Page For Facebook Graph Search

Have your band page appear in as many search results as possible by completing these instructions. You will also be left with an informative and interesting page for your visitors.

1. Your band profile: place your band name, genre, and location in the main headings. This includes your URL and the ‘About’ section. Also include any other key words that you think people would search for in relation to your band. Fill in as many sections as possible so that every potential search category is complete.

2. Photos: Facebook shares your visual content a lot wider in your news feed than it does a long written post. Tag everyone present, including a tag for your band page. Title each one with its location and something that will stimulate discussion around them.

3. Privacy settings: the best settings are no settings. Remove any age limits and country restrictions on all of your band’s content. This makes them as widely available as possible for search results.

Here is Facebook’s guide on managing your page

What Matters Most For My Band Or Rap Page To Appear In A Facebook Graph Search?

• Engagement: creating conversations around your band has the ability to increase your visibility in someone’s news feed.

People are naturally curious about something already gaining plenty of attention.

The number of conversations around your band and positive mentions will become more important as Facebook Graph Search becomes more intuitive. Engagement is the first step to encouraging ‘Likes’…

• ‘Likes’: these are the most important way to ensuring your visibility in search results. ‘Likes’ are the confirmed stamp of authority that your band is worth someone’s while. The posts that you create must be written and designed to ensure they receive the most likes.

How Can I Turn Engagement Into Likes?

Facebook lets you become more than just a band. You have the potential to create a whole community centered on your music and your combined personalities.

Give them unique reasons to ‘Like’ your band. They want to feel part of something exclusive. They want get closer to the people who create the things they enjoy. This is how.

Organize competitions and offer exclusive giveaways such as tickets and downloads; be as creative as you like with what you offer. Place a condition on each entrance that they must ‘Like’ your page. Here are a few ideas.

1. Caption competitions: the best photo comment wins. This also encourages ‘engagement’.
2. Album artwork contest: announce a new song; the best artwork is chosen for the song/album.
3. Simply ‘Like’ or share our band page and receive a free download.
4. Post a favorite lyric on your band page.

You can get more Facebook marketing tips for musicians here.

The below handy info-graphic shows you how to write those amazing posts that will result in fans sharing them far and wide.

Source: blogs.salesforce.com via Vesa on Pinterest

Go forth and spread the word of your musical genius. Facebook Graph Search is coming; your band page will be ready.

About The Author:

Tom Siddle is a musician and experienced music industry writer who works on behalf of BIMM: Brighton Institute of Modern Music.’

Some guides on writing songs are overly complex, and often overload you with information you don’t really need to know. I’ve tried to avoid that in this guide, giving you just the steps you need to get started on writing your song within the next 20 minutes or so.

But anyway, I don’t want to waste time with intros. Let’s get right into this so you can move on to writing your first song.

P.S. This guide refers to writing lyrics, not writing music. If you find this guide useful, please share it using the social links at the top of this post. Thank you.

How To Write A Song – Picking Your Subject

Without doubt, one of the most important parts of writing a good song is getting down the right subject matter. While the backing track, the flow of your lyrics and more are all important, if you really want your fans to connect with your music, you have to sing or rap about the right things. Depending on your genre of music and how you want people to relate to you, the ‘right thing’ will vary for each individual musician.

So if you’re new to writing lyrics, how will you know which subjects you should be talking about in your songs? Well, there are two ways you can figure this out:

1. Write About Whatever Is On Your Mind.
   When you’re writing, you want to get a real part of you into your songs. This means you will often have to take what you’re feeling, and display it on a track for all to hear.
   Writing about your personal experiences, good and bad, will really allow the listeners to relate to you. If they can relate and see some of themselves inside you, it’ll make it that much easier to convert these people into long-term fans.
   While you don’t always have to write about total truths or do songs that are talking about you personally, this is a good way to get started and practice lyric creation. It’ll mean there’s no thinking about ‘what to write about next’; you already have the full story in your head so just let it flow out.
2. Listen To Similar Song Writers And Get Ideas.
   If you’re stuck for inspiration, hit up a TV channel or website that plays your genre of music. Have a look at the other acts on these channels, and see what the themes for their lyrics are. Is there a common theme that continues to come up song after song? If so, there’s a good chance it’s a proven song subject that is currently working at the moment.
   My advice is to write a song with this subject, but try and do it differently from the others. As you become a better song writer you will want to come up with unique ideas of your own, but while you’re still in practicing mode, it may be best to learn the methods that are currently working.

In addition to those two ideas, it’s never a bad idea to brainstorm a few subject as well. So once you’ve practiced writing to the above formed subjects, get as many weird and wonderful song ideas down on paper as you can.

Ask yourself if you’d want to hear a song about each of these subjects, and write to the ones you genuinely would. The ones that make people think, relate to you, laugh or dance are often the best subject ideas to go with.

Writing Your First Song – The Structure

Once you have your subject, the next stage is to write the song.

As I mentioned in my last guide, this can either be done to a backing track, or written without and placed on a backing track at a later date. Either option works fine, but if you’re a beginner songwriter, you may want to start out writing to a backing track. This will allow you to structure your lyrics in a way that fits an instrumental, as without this structure it’ll be hard to match your lyrics to a beat later on.

While the structure of a song can vary, it often looks something like this:

• Introduction.
  This is optional as you can always leave the instrumental to play as the intro, then go straight into verse one. If you decide to do an introduction, you can either have you talking in it, or singing / adilibing random “ooo” and “yer”s.
• Verse One.
  The beginning of your song. Here you should introduce people to the song’s subject, and talk about it in as much detail as you require.
• Chorus One.
  The chorus will hold the main part of your song, and sum up the subject matter in full. To make your song really stay in people’s mind, you may want to make the chorus catchy.
• Verse Two.
  Here you should continue to build on the song’s subject matter and go into more detail about it.
• Chorus Two.
  Your first chorus done again.
• Breakdown.
  Once again this is optional, and can instead be replaced with a third verse if you prefer. A breakdown though is where you change up the style of the song, and build it up so the next chorus sounds explosive when it comes in. You could make it so your lyrics here are slower, quieter, or just change up the way they’re delivered. Making your backing track match this change will also add to the effect.
• Chorus Three And Four.
  Finish your song with your chorus twice in a row. This firmly backs up the point of your song, and will be something for your listeners to sing along to.

This is a tried and tested song structure, but feel free to change it up as you see fit. There is no set right or wrong way to write a song, so you may want to jiggle things up a bit once you’ve got used to the basic layout.

How To Write A Song For Beginners Conclusion

So there you have it, two more tips on how to write a song. As you may know though, song writing is a very big subject. My guess is that while I’ve now written a few thousand words on how to write a song, you still have some unanswered questions, and want some extra guidance in this process. If this is the case, your best best is to check the following resource on how to write a song for beginners.

It goes into much more details then I possibly could in such a short space of time. So if you’re serious about writing your first song, I suggest you check it out.

This book comes in the form of a PDF file, and lets you know the top 20 things musicians often do which stops them from getting where they should rightfully be. Thankfully, it also lets you know what you should be doing instead.

Are you doing any of these harmful things? You’ll only know if you read the book:

Download Music Career Killers now.

This book is a real eye opener, so I suggest you give it a read. Just be sure to apply anything you learn.

Feel free to share this around with any other musicians you know, either by showing them this page or by sending them the file directly.

If you haven’t already seen them, please start by reading the following parts before you go any further with this guide:

How To Form A Band Part 1.

How To Form A Band Part 2.

Once you’ve gone through those guides first, let’s carry on setting up and positioning our money making band.

The Thorny Bits – Money, Equipment And Who Does What

Running a band isn’t always going to be smooth sailing. In the previous parts, we’ve walked you through how to get the right band members, and how to start getting yourself out there. But there are going to be some other issues you’re going to have to deal with. Some of these can be touchy areas, so it’s best you think about them now so you’re prepared to deal with them if they ever come up.

Bands And Money

Lots of bands will work for beer (which cheapens the market for everyone else, but that’s another story). As a professional band however, you want to make it all about the money.

If you’re serious about making money, then ground rules should be established as soon as possible. Find a method that works for everyone. It took ages for things to settle in Celtic Clan, but we learned a lot along the way. Here are some suggested scenarios to make things easier:

Scenario 1 – You (The Band Leader) Takes A Cut

Presuming you do all the work, you must take something for this. I’d suggest 15%. The rest is then shared equally, with everyone equally sharing any expenses. Any objections – show them this article!

As the bandleader, you generally:

• Find the work. Negotiate the fee. Mail the band members any set dates. Work on the basis that unless they have booked out a date, it is available. This saves you having to ring around everyone to check they’re free.
• Deal with the paperwork. Always have contracts with weddings and private functions. Nothing fancy – just stipulate the client’s name and address, your details, the venue, and the timings.
  Ask for any special requests from the client’s party, and make sure there’s a clause at the end that says the deposit is non-returnable in the event of a cancellation. Take their deposit first, then send them two copies of the contract, both signed by you. They keep one, and sign and return theirs within 7 days. Arrange for either cash or check on the night, or for it all to be paid up-front 14 days before the event.
• Organize the final set list for gigs, which should be printed up and distributed to the band.
• Liaise with clients before the gigs to organize first dance requests, timings for arrival and set up, the length of your performance at the venue etc…
• Generate stories and publicity for the band. Look at what’s happening locally; what can you get involved in?
• Digital marketing. This is a HUGE job, and if you have the skills, could take up several days a week. This is any activity that promotes you online. Anything from putting free ads on Gumtree, to filling in your dates on websites like wherecanwego.com and registering your band on Google maps. There are countless free business websites available, and some of them can really help get your band out there. Things like blogging, tweeting, setting up a Facebook fan page or even guest-posting on other people’s sites can all help as well.
• Looking for new material, printing out song words, organizing tour schedules and accommodation, audition and rehearsing with deps (deputies), and lots more. It’s a major job!

If you do all of these duties or a good amount of them, then you deserve to take that extra 15%. If you do the majority of the work, you should get paid accordingly as band leader.

Scenario 2 – You Pay The Band A Set Wage

This is a tough one. It works on the basis that everyone gets a set wage, regardless of the gig. Of course, things can go either way…

If you play at a run down pub for hardly anything, but you have to guarantee them their £100 or £150, not great! Alternatively, if you get hired to gig at a wedding for top money, it’s bonanza time for you! Everyone gets £100 and you walk home with several hundred more.

I worked the band like this for the first year, but I also picked up all the expenses too. Ultimately they voiced that it didn’t feel very inclusive and was too secretive, so we now do the more open accounting and it seems to flow better.

Scenario 3 – All Money Goes Into A Pot To Be Divided Up

Some bands do work this way, but they tend not to be high earners. The idea is all money gets held back and just petrol covered. It goes into an account which, depending on how often you work, is then split over the band members every now and again (or when someone leaves).

Ultimately, it’s up to you all to decide what will work best.

Sharing Your Band’s Expenses

Ok, so this is very important. You need to keep all receipts, and keep everyone informed of what expenses are coming up. These expenses could be anything from:

• Petrol.
• The printing of flyers and banners.
• Website domain names and hosting fees.
• Advertising costs in papers, on websites and for trade shows.
• Backing tracks (if you use them).
• Equipment repairs.

Expenses that individuals are responsible for are repairs to their own gear, their stage clothes, their strings etc.

Who In The Band Should Buy Equipment

Always a tough one. It’s probably best not to pitch in and buy together, as it’s a minefield if somebody leaves. If you can provide the basic PA this is ideal, and everyone else provides their own microphone, stand, leads, and amps where needed.

If you can’t afford a PA, then consider hiring one for your first few gigs, just to see how it all goes.

Or if you do buy together, make sure everyone is responsible for a ‘bit’ of the rig. If someone leaves, they take that with them and nothing else.

How To Run A Band Conclusion

So, hopefully all this will have been some help to you forming a band. If you’ve read all the articles (See How To Run A Band Guide 1 and Guide 2), then you should have found your look, your sound, your brand and the right people. The internal running of the band should be established, and you and/or the others will be looking hard (in the right places) for good quality work.

It’s not easy. In fact, it’s a hard slog. And sometimes you’ll wonder why you bothered. But ultimately, bear in mind there are far worse things you could be doing to earn money. Enjoy the journey and ALL THE VERY BEST!!!!

This is a guest post by Ruth Graham, band leader of the Irish wedding/function band Celtic Clan. Take a look at their website for more useful information or to book the Midlands’ best Celtic and Irish function band.

How To Form A Band – The Ultimate Guide Part 1

This is a three part series looking how to set up and run a professional or semi professional band. If your aim is to form a band which can make money from gigging (Or you already have a band but want them to do more with themselves), make sure you read these guides in full.

Start off by reading the above mentioned guide, and once you’ve done, get started on this one.

Now that you’ve caught up with part one, let’s continue on from where we left off.

P.S. If you find these guides helpful, please share them on your usual social networking sites, and link to them on your own websites. The more shares we get, the more articles we’ll write.

Marketing For Maximum Exposure

When I set up my band Celtic Clan, I had the advantage of knowing how to market a product, as that’s my background (marketing and PR). Happily, this resulted in a full book of work, just 3 months after launching. We did around 100 shows in our first year, and were able to turn professional almost immediately.

Some of my ideas you’ll like, and some you won’t. When reading this guide, I suggest you take what works for you, but do bear in mind these are tried and tested methods. So many bands fail at this step because they don’t know what to do to get work, and people get fed up of waiting and drift off.

I’ll keep everything brief here, and if as a reader you’d like more expansive information, keep checking our website and band blog as I often post more up there.

Step 1 – Deciding Who Does What

Vital!!!!! If people have different skills to offer, that’s great. But everybody in a band has to pull their weight, otherwise resentment forms.

I’d recommend one person (the bandleader) handling this side of things if possible, so you can keep track more easily. And DO NOT be afraid to take a cut of the fee for doing this. I take 15% for managing the band – it’s all transparent and nobody minds, because without it, we wouldn’t be getting any gigs in the first place. If you’re the person in your band who gets gigs, you can see more advice on how to get gigs here.

Step 2 – Branding Your Band

A ‘brand’ is the uniqueness of something that makes it memorable. Think of all the great brands that spring to mind instantly: Coca Cola, BMW, Walkers Crisps, Cadbury’s Chocolate. All household names with recognizably. And that’s what you need for your band.

We chose a great logo for ours, a strap-line (the slogan, if you like), and a look; kind of Celtic, gypsy with coin belts, crushed velvets and waistcoats for the guys. It makes us look professional and we stand out.

Everything to do with your band should reflect the look or feel. This should ideally be sorted out during the stages where you’re first forming a band, but if you’re past that stage and haven’t done so yet, now is the time.

Step 3 – Building A Great Website

This can’t be under-estimated. Get a decent site build, it should cost around £400 – no more.

Note from editor: If you want another way to creating a music website for much cheaper, you should check out this site which walks you step by step through the process of how to make a music website.

A good site really sorts out the men from the boys. Again, keep the band colors, the logos and the ‘look’ in keeping with your branding.

If you can set up a website before you begin gigging, this is a huge help. I did this with Celtic Clan, and it helped make us look like an established band, before we really were. It requires planning and some financial investment, but if you’re all in it together…

So, firstly you need to register a domain name. Use a site like 123-reg.co.uk (Good value). Register your domain name before someone else does.

Then start planning how you want your site to look. Ours unfolds in a great order, is easy to navigate and is full of lively info. People remark on how professional it is all the time. Imagine you’re a punter looking for a band, what do they want to see?

Your site should include pictures, a promo video if possible, gig lists, write ups on the band members and audio recordings.

Lastly, you need to find a good web designer. We used Darren from iKandidesign.com – a really helpful independent guy who works for lots of entertainers. He’s based in Birmingham, so if you’re also based there you may want to check him out…

Step 4 – The Marketing Accessories

As well as your site, you’ll need supporting material. These are physical tools which help your band stand out when you’re up on stage. Here are a couple of the things we like to get made:

• For maximum effect, we like to use two pop-up banners. These provide a great backdrop for any stage, and instant publicity. They cost around £60 each to have made, and they display just the logo, the website address, and our strap-line. That’s it. You don’t need any more info. Don’t put the phone number on, as you want to drive people to your website. People will be able to see a lot more information about you here, and be able to pre-qualify themselves as being someone genuinely interested in your band. After all, if they’ve already looked around your website and still make the effort to call you, don’t you think they’re going to be more interested then someone who takes your number in the spur of the moment and doesn’t know anything more about you? Your website will both inform people about what you offer, and screen out anyone that isn’t potentially serious about hiring you. This will both save you time and get you more gigs.
• We also give out postcard-sized flyers as our cards. These have the logo and strap-line on the front, and bullet points and contact details on the back. That’s all you need.

That’s probably enough to get going, but it’s worth considering CDs and T-shirts etc for the future. Anything to promote your cause.

Step 5 – Getting Seen

This is the hard part, but what you’ve been working towards. If you’ve done your background work, you’ll have a website, supporting materials, a good set list, good internal organization and all be working towards the same target. Time to let people know you’re out there. Consider the following:

• Showcases.
  One of the best things we did in the early days was the Keeping It Live showcase. This is a showcase event which happens in the UK twice a year, once in the northern area, and once in the Midlands. It’s a 3 day event that is really well run, and attended by literally hundreds of agents of all sorts. The phone rang every day for 3 months after this, and filled our diaries up completely. If you’re not from the UK, look around for alternative events like this where you live.
• Open Mike Nights.
  Sounds obvious, but a good way to get some exposure.
• The Care Home Circuit Is Another Opportunity.
  Retirement villages are massive now, and they have an active entertainment programmer. Speak to the activities coordinators there.
• Register With Agents.
  Agents are impressed with a good bio, photos, and if you can put a show reel on YouTube for them to show their clients, that also helps. Bear in mind this must be agent friendly (with no branding). So when you’re having a video made, get two edits. One with branding for your own use, and one without which agents can use to promote you.
• Look For Opportunities Outside Of The Norm.
  Malls and shopping centers often have events. Ask what’s coming up over the next few months and see if you can be involved.
• Weddings Are A Prime Market.
  Book to display at a wedding fair. Make sure you can play at the fair, or at least play your DVD whilst on the stand.
• Offer To Support Well Known Local Bands.
  Or to a charity night somewhere. Make sure you inform the local paper of when it’s happening too. Provide them with a good photo and a small write up of who you are and what you’ll be doing.

How To Form A Band And Get Paid Gigs Conclusion

So that’s it for part 2 of our guide on how to form a band, you can see part 3 here. The opportunities are endless once you get your thinking cap on, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to getting paid gig. The important thing is that everyone in the band is committed to working, and available for work when it comes in. Good luck in your search!

This is a guest post by Ruth from Celtic Clan, the Birmingham Contemporary Irish band that doesn’t just do Irish! Take a look at their website for more useful information or to book the Midlands’ best Celtic and Irish function band.”