Category: Tips

  • How to Legally Cover a Song

    How to Legally Cover a Song

    Perhaps inspired by the recent rash of high-profile copyright cases, a bunch of our favorite music blogs have lately been providing interesting tips for legally recording and performing covers of other musician’s songs. Unlike the more complicated forms of musical imitation involved in those lawsuits, covering a song is actually quite straightforward. A “cover” is a new performance of…

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  • 6 1/2 Tips for Creating the Perfect Practice Space

    6 1/2 Tips for Creating the Perfect Practice Space

    Setting up a proper workspace can make practice time infinitely more productive — at least, it definitely did for me. Here’s a list of things to keep at hand when you’re honing your craft. 1. A notebook Okay, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a literal notebook (though I personally feel pretty tied to…

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  • 6 Lessons for Musicians from the Robin Thicke Verdict

    The music world is up in arms. In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s what happened: Last week a jury decided that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had violated the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” with their hit song “Blurred Lines”. The song made $16.67 million dollars, so the songwriters…

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  • 5 Practice Tips for Busy Lives

    5 Practice Tips for Busy Lives

    For a brief few years in college, I got to treat music as a full-time job, devoting 40+ hours a week to musical improvement. I lived ten minutes from the practice rooms and had very few responsibilities, so I could practice as much as sleep and school would allow. Now that I’m a full-fledged grown-up…

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  • What Makes You Different

    What Makes You Different

    What Makes You Different? As a musician who loves music, I see a ton of shows, and a ton of really good shows. In recent weeks, I’ve been blown away by how many amazing singers I’ve had the good fortune to see — people with deep, silky voices, or high, falsetto voices, or bluesy, soulful voices.…

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  • Marketing Advice for Young Bands with Dustin Nelson

    Marketing Advice for Young Bands with Dustin Nelson

    We recently sat down with the one and only Dustin Nelson, Marketing Director at New York City’s (Le) Poisson Rouge. He shared with us a ton of good tips and tools that an artist can use to get a booker’s attention, as well as what not to do. Check it out! You can find this…

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  • You Should Be Touring

    You Should Be Touring

    By Michael Corcoran Michael Corcoran is the CEO of musicSUBMIT, a music publicity service for DIY artists. This article was reblogged from musicSUBMIT’s tumblr, you can read the original here. Last month the CD Baby DIY Musician blog posted “Do traditional tours still make sense for independent artists” by guest blogger Jason Schellhardt. The blog post states that…

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  • 3 Practice Tips for Short Attention Spans

    3 Practice Tips for Short Attention Spans

    “Practice makes perfect.” While I can’t necessarily say I’ve heard any “perfect” music yet, I will certainly attest to the fact that putting in the time will improve any musician’s sound. Throughout my college and post-degree years, I’ve heard people talk about how they “hit the shed” for days at a time — stopping only…

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  • Why Singers Need to Learn Piano

    Why Singers Need to Learn Piano

    + Bridge the worlds of theory, improvisation, and jazzy hip-hop, and improve your piano chops with Grammy-winner Kiefer in his course, Kiefer: Keys, Chords, & Beats. Singers need to learn piano — it’s a fact. I’ve played many instruments over the years — trumpet, clarinet, and sax to name a few — but first and foremost,…

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  • How to Write a Musical: The History of Musicals

    How to Write a Musical: The History of Musicals

    This is part 1 of a series on how to write a musical. If you can’t wait to start writing, jump forward to the purpose of the music or how to select song posts! A few weeks ago, I had drinks with a buddy of mine who’s writing a musical about an undercooked piece of pasta named Al Dente. He’s…

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