+ Pursue your next marketing goal with a Soundfly Mentor! Soundfly offers four-week mentorship sessions with a pro, customized to you. Get in touch. If you’ve spent more than five minutes on any social media, from Facebook to Snapchat, you already know it’s a time suck. Just browsing the feeds can be an hour-long distraction, and when you…
Maintaining an energized fan base is one of the foundations for success as an indie musician — and if you’re active on YouTube, turning those fans into an engaged subscriber base is critical. YouTube is essentially FREE marketing! And even better, it’s a platform that can bring you all kinds of incredible opportunities. What many musicians don’t realize is…
I should preface this by admitting that I started piano lessons while in preschool, so learning to read phrases on a staff and learning to read phrases in a picture book were parallel processes. Now, while that may sound like a rather nerdy humblebrag, it isn’t meant to be. The fact is that notes were…
By David Stewart Jr. Rock music has always pushed the limits of pop culture. Be it through the rebellious lyrics and aggressive vibes, or through scandalous images and (literal) pyrotechnics on stage, rock ‘n’ roll is the go-to form of expression for some of the world’s greatest and loudest artists. I have studied the greats…
It’s easy to romanticize the lives of famous musicians. From larger-than-life rock stars to groundbreaking pioneers of sound, and dazzling technical virtuosos, we look up to our musical heroes and strive to live and create the same way that they do. But no one is free from the potential disasters that lurk around every corner.…
Just like athletes singers need to be extra aware of what they put in their bodies and the effect different foods have on performance.
By Rebecca Redman I moved to the Bay Area from a town where there were only two places to play shows — a garage and a supper club. Unless you could convince someone to let you plug in your amplifier in their living room, choices were slim. Moving up to the Bay Area came with a dramatic…
Throughout my examination of the wide world of musical electronics, I’ve gazed longingly at the spider-web patches of modular and done an in-depth analyses of notable synths and their inner workings. One area we haven’t investigated deeply is the intersection of acoustic instruments with the electronic world — specifically, the burgeoning intersection of “classical,” or solo concert instrumentalists,…
Welcome to the second installment of How Successful Musicians Practice. If you’re just joining us now, take a minute to peruse the practice regimes of some seriously successful percussionists here. To recap, I see there being four kinds of practice goals a musician works towards over the course of their career: practicing to learn an instrument and gain…
This summer, Dan Oshinsky, Director of Newsletters at Buzzfeed, penned a piece in which he argued that email marketing is now as important as ever. I found this interesting, and my own feelings somewhat conflicted, for two reasons: Personally, I hate corporate update emails. I ignore them most of the time. I do pay attention to emails from…
Trying to get a classic shoegaze tone out of your guitar? Our affordable effects pedal combo will help achieve that shimmering wall of sound.
By China Marsot-Wood What is it about live music that inspires me to do what I do — go out, after work, night after night to watch, and photograph, and listen to, and write about strangers playing music? It is a question I couldn’t answer immediately, so I’ll ask it differently. Why are musical events so important for…
2016 is, finally, coming to an end. After an exhausting year like this one, I love looking ahead to New Year’s Eve. Not just because I love champagne and countdowns, but because it’s that special time of year to break out the new planner and set some goals in stone. This time of year is perfect for…
Songwriting is a cathartic, stimulating, and back-and-forth process. When inspiration really sinks in, it’s incredible what we’re capable of creating. And after channeling that inspiration into a new song, there’s a strong feeling of purpose and secure creative identity. We can, however, often sit around waiting for that moment to happen. Writer’s block is one…
This week, my band and I had a recording session for a new album and I was reminded, as I am every time we record, just how much preparation plays a role in a successful recording session. Obviously, you always hope to just show up and the magic will take over, and before you know…
Eunbi Kim is a classical pianist with a flare for chasing down some pretty unexpected projects and, in the process, flipping the typical path of a concert performer right on its head. When I first met Eunbi, she had just returned from premiering Murakami Music in Houston, TX to rave reviews (like this one in the Houston Chronicle). Her multidisciplinary project explores the…
Happy Friday! It seems that I opened the floodgates last Friday by featuring a few weird and wonderful videos in Off Notes. Ever since, the whole office and all of our friends have been piling on top of each other, sending increasingly bizarre and beautiful finds for today’s round-up. We’ve got some great stuff in this post on…
About a year ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Jen Baron — a remarkable musician and passionate educator. Her zeal for teaching music as a means of building confidence and fostering self-expression in her students is nothing short of inspirational. Jen launched the Santa Barbara branch of Girls Rock just a few years ago and already it’s given hundreds…
Allen Tate is best known for his distinctively baritone serenades as one of the lead vocalists for San Fermin. Their self-titled first album was released in 2013 to rave reviews. It is an operatic musical journey of serious proportions, not least because of the full complement of orchestral instruments they employ, but also the male…
All 17 episodes of Soundfly’s “Touring on a Shoestring” course are now available on YouTube! Check out the full playlist here. With Soundfly courses on YouTube, you can easily share single videos, embed them in your own blog, or binge watch the whole series in a single sitting! And you can skip forward through the…
Legendary bluesman B.B. King died yesterday, and we’ll miss him. His bright, bouncy guitar licks and gospel-influenced vocals were iconic — even if you hadn’t listened to him in a while, his music was universal. Dig deep enough and everyone has a B.B. King memory. King was our last living thread to the golden age of Mississippi…
Laura Moody is a wildly alternative cellist, singer, and performer based in London. As a member of the genre-defying string ensemble, the Elysian Quartet, and a performer for Hot Chip, The xx, Aphex Twin, and more, she has toured extensively, performing the works of both classical and contemporary music in the great halls of Europe…
By Rachel Grimes The quality of the sound in an environment is always so captivating to me, and seems to be something that either makes me comfortable or uncomfortable immediately. Here are some of my favorites around Louisville, Kentucky. This morning I walked outside early and heard the sound of a long, low barge horn…
Summertime is upon us, and so is the glory of festival and touring season. If you are lucky enough to travel around to perform music at venues all over the country or world, chances are you’ll spend at least a little bit of time airborne en route to your next exotic destination. Many of us…
Licensing your music for film or television is one of the few sure-fire ways to make money as a musician. But how do you get started?
