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In this Issue - October, 2015As many of you know, I stopped gigging regularly some years back. Though I still write and try to keep in practice, I've been using the time I used to spend lining up venues, schmoozing people, tweaking my bio, etc., to help other folks learn about and play music. Especially tradition-based music, and especially through web sites like CreekDontRise.com, ClassicTrainSongs.com and SchoolOfTheRock.com.Within the last few years, though, I have met a few young musicians who needed performance and career coaching even more than they needed, say, banjo lessons or a better saxophone. I've also seen the difference working with a professional like "live music producer" Tom Jackson can make on individuals' careers. Consequently I started linking to other folks' career and performance tips on my CreekDontRise.com forum page. One contact led to another, so I've been adding tips by Leanne Regalla, Rick Barker, Dave Kusek, Carlos Castillo, and several others. Plus I've added links to a bunch of the free guides from companies who depend on independent musicians for their cash flow, like CD Baby. Each of these people and resources have their own strengths, and their own "take" on the most important things young musicians need to work on. In fact, if you download, read, and watch all the resources on our career and performance forum, you'll get more really good advice than you will have time to put into practice. How do you navigate? Consider starting with the things that everyone seems to agree on. Like being good at what you do and continuously getting better. And having a compelling web page as your online "home base" (and not counting on Facebook or whoever to keep YOUR best interests in mind). Starting to Catch Up - As a professional writer, though, I like to be sure of what I'm writing about or publishing. I felt a little uncomfortable publishing content about some of the things I hadn't tried, or hadn't tried lately. To rectify that, I started testing some of the most often-repeated advice of the experts I was linking to. I created a Facebook music page and updated my personal music web site, three times, as it turned out, due to evolving Wordpress templates. It's hardly state-of-the art now, but at least it's not embarrassing. :-) I have not had a Twitter account before. I thought about signing up in January, when some of the other aspects of my life settled down. Then someone tried to start a fake Twitter account in my name, so I figured I'd better start a real one. Not that I'm using it yet, except to delete things that Twitter thinks I should be interested in. At any rate, I have started "blogging," sort of. Which is to say that most of my articles about instruments or specific music issues still go onto my web pages. But when I have something to say about more general music subjects, the blog format works great. Still Catching Up - A handful of folks want to know why I haven't followed through on ALL their advice and tried to collect 10,000 followers, and so on. But I don't have anything to promote right now, really. Again, I'm still writing and trying to stay in practice, but I haven't recorded any music in over ten years. And - to be honest - the arrangements on the old recordings are dated. So that has to happen before the next big push. That said, I think I have at least some of my "online ducks" in a row for when that does happen. In the meantime, even though I'm doing 99% of the posting, the CreekDontRise.com forum page has hundreds of regular readers. Why bother to sign up (for free) when you can read the posts (for free) anyway? Because if you have signed up, when you log in you'll see automatically which sections have added content since the last time you visited. I actually run seven of these forums, on various sites, and I count on that feature to keep up with each one, from my busiest to my slowest. It is a HUGE timesaver. Besides, I'd really like to hear other folks' input on some of these questions, so if you want to sign up and add your feedback to the questions and comments, we'll all learn together. Accidental Banjo - If you read last months' article on Short-Scale 5-string banjos, you may get a charge out of this. I had been wondering why someone didn't make a travel banjo that would be comparable, say, to my Martin Backpacker. The only one that seemed close was one I wasn't in any danger of trying out unless I wanted to pay "real money" for a new one - the Gold Tone CC-Mini. It has a ~19" scale and an 8" head, so it should be great for backpacking. Not that I backpack, really, but some years I rack up the air miles on business trips that include a lot of downtime in hotel rooms. But $400+ for a Chinese-made backless mini-banjo just to take on airplanes and camping trips seems high, especially when it costs more than their comparable full-sized banjos. So I went online trying to find a CC-Mini at what I considered a reasonable price. I eventually found a listing for one, I offered a lower price than the vendor had listed, and the offer was accepted. Then what arrived was an entirely different banjo - the Gold Tone CC-Traveler I started to contact the seller and explain the issue, to see if he wanted to buy it back and list it for what it was worth. But it turned out that the seller was a pawn shop, and their web site was down. So, never mind. He charged too much for shipping anyway, and if he couldn't look his own stock up on Amazon or wherever before he labeled and priced it . . . . It's probably not a "keeper," but I will, frankly, have to adjust the neck and tighten the head before I make that decision. It does have a sweet tone. If I can get it into adjustment, I may take the resonator off and look for an appropriately-sized gig bag, and actually use IT as my travel banjo. Or not. At the moment, it's still on the "catch and release" program. In the meantime, keep playing, keep singing, and keep sharing! This issue's articles are mostly blogs that you probably didn't notice because only a handful of people have visited my web site so far. That's okay; I've been in the web business for a very long time and I know how these things work. :-) Also I've been around long enough to recognize that raw, untrained, unchanneled talent will only get you so far if you don't have focus, determination, and an outrageous work ethic.
If you're hoping for more articles about banjos or other specific music instruments or traditions, I have any number of them in the works, just don't have any published since the last newsletter.
Here's an article about investing in your musical future early and often, so skills you acquire can earn the most possible dividends the rest of your musical life. To jump to the article, please click the following link. As a Creative Person, what if the Journey IS the Destination?This is a response to a blog by Country songwriter Shantell Ogden, listing the ?hard answers? to the questions that wannabes ask her most often. I ask "Are you in music for the love of it or because you're hoping something will suddenly make all of the hard work 'pay off'?"Shantell's original blog is right here:
More to ComeIf you've spent any time on any of our music sites, you know that we have a lot of topics to share about.Again, if you did not get this Momma Don't 'LowTM newsletter through your own e-mail, and you would like to get the newsletters in the future, please Click Here to sign up. In the meantime, if you want to see August's newsletter (the one before this), please click the following link:
And please stay in touch! - Paul Race
Paul D. Race
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banjo. It has a resonator and tone ring, an 11" head and a ~23" scale. Although the neck was about 3" shorter than my current "travel/beach" banjo (a Deering Goodtime), it's nearly two inches wider and several pounds heavier. It also lists for over $100 more than the banjo I wanted. Which is to say I got a pretty good deal on it.
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All material, illustrations, and content of this web site is copyrighted ? 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 by Paul D. Race. All rights reserved.
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