MMC15 - Part 3

I'm finally making it back to the MMC blogs. Again, this is a series on my experiences at the Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg, PA a couple weeks ago. If you missed the first two, here are the links:
MMC15 - Part 1
MMC15 - Part 2

This post will cover the second session that I attended:

Music Industry Entrepreneurship - Dr. E. Michael Harrington, Lawrence Gelburd, Jason Spiewak, Jeff Snyder

This was a panel on how to approach music from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Since there were 4 minds contributing to this, I'll just use initials to denote who made which point (since there are 2 JS's, Jeff Snyder will just be Jeff). Also, as was the case with the previous posts, my commentary will be after their bullets, un-initialed.

• Balance analysis w/action - L.G.
• Looking at your record sales, number of facebook friends, and email stats is only half of the battle. The point of analyzing is to figure out what actions benefit you the most. Act accordingly. I've found that posting to this blog every few days helps build traffic on here, my website, and my reverbnation page. However, using the rest of the data, I can see at what times of day that works best and then act accordingly.
• Blogging
• Has to be relevant (no credit)
• When I'm reading anything, if it's not relevant to anything I do, then I have very little interest in it. Many people reading this or who may be reading this either have an interest in my music personally or are musicians themselves, so things like this I feel are relevant to the reader. Unfortunately, unless you're getting tons of traffic on one type of post and none on another, you've gotta have your readers help to tell you what's relevant to them. That being said, if you've made it this far, does anyone have any request for things they'd like me to write about?
• Crowd sourcing (no credit)
• Crowd sourcing is basically getting reader involvement. I feel like you first need to have a relevant blog before you can have people who care enough to ask you to write on something specific, but after that it would make sense that things would perpetuate themselves.
• Troll youtube for live performances of yourself - J.S.
• 46% of all youtube videos have > 500 views - Jeff
• I've trolled and trolled and trolled, but there's next to nothing. C'mon guys, take some videos of me playing! Doing little videos at home is one thing that's up there on the list of things to do, but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet. It does seem like youtube is the place to be these days, however. Andy Mckee's success is largely thanks to youtube. Unfortunately, so is Justin Bieber's, but that's a whole different set of blogs.
• Volunteer - get yourself in the door (no credit)
• This is largely what I've been doing. Paid gigs are often times gigs you get from people seeing free shows. One of the speakers was saying that he got his university job by volunteering a few hours a week. When everything is so reliant upon who you know, what better way to meet someone than by something that benefits them and costs them nothing. Sure, it may seem like shortchanging yourself, but occasionally you get some sort of break from those actions.
• Don't make excuses for your music - J.S.
• Play it w/conviction - L.G.
• If you don't believe in your music, who will? I'm definitely better about this now, but at first I would just rip myself apart for every mistake that I would make. When you show discouragement on stage or after a set, you and your music lose credibility. No one notices your mistakes 99% of the time, so just play them off, with confidence.
• Portray confidence in your website - M.H.
• Draw people in by making yourself sound good on your website. Saying that you sound like someone, but aren't as good isn't going to make me want to see you. You've got to set yourself apart by saying that you sound like this person, but also do x, y, and z. Essentially it's about having that 30 second elevator pitch to sell yourself.
• Make 3 goals for the next 2 years - L.G.
• Have 3 strategies for each goal - L.G.
• Have 3 things that you can have other people do for you for each strategy - L.G.
• This is like engineering "milestones" and how we like to do project planning. I'll have a later post (after the last MMC post), and actually try to come up with these for myself.
• Treat everyone as a potential friend - M.H.
• For me, someone who really has no faith in humanity, this is tough. Any type of entertainment requires a bit of handshaking and baby kissing in order to have good public appeal. Eminem would be a good figure to contrast this point, but I highly doubt that I'll be rubbing shoulders with the same crowd that he appeals to. I think for the most part I do a decent job at talking to people, but I can always do things better.

So this was sort of a long one. There is a ton covered in this, so if you've made it this far, I'd love to hear any thoughts on what was said. The next MMC blog is like 3 pages of notes, so it'll probably be a few pages. Maybe by the end of the week, I'll be done?

-Alex

Customer Service

Earlier this week I had a few posts about the Millennium Music Conference (the rest of the posts are on their way). On the second one (MMC15 Part 2), I had a point that David Sherbow made: customer service is your job.

Just 10 minutes ago I was reminded of how good customer service can affect your relationships.

Far too often do we see companies with "restocking fees" and crap like that. Basically they're saying that if something is wrong with your product or if you need to take the product back for any reason, that that is an additional service that you must purchase from them.

I've heard many complaints about how someone has mail ordered a guitar to find that it was defective. When they had to ship it back in order to get the quality that they paid for, they had to pay the shipping both ways. This is essentially a fee for the warehouse's negligence.

It's becoming harder and harder to find good customer service. That's why when you find it, it's like the best thing ever.

American Musical Supply just blew my mind with their service. About 3 weeks ago, I ordered a guitar case. Well then a few days ago I got an email from AMS, asking me to write a review for my purchase. This reminded me that Oh, right, I don't have my case yet. I went down to the school post office, talked to them, and, unfortunately, they didn't have anything or have record of anything coming through. Then this morning, right before class, I emailed AMS, asking them what was up - the order said it was delivered, but I didn't have the product. It took a simple explanation of my situation and, by the end of class, I had a reply saying that they would just send me another case, asking where would be the best place to send it.

Customer service is about going out of your way for the customer, for your fans.

I recently purchased This Time It's War's debut album online. A few days after receiving it, I got an email from them, asking if I had received the album, what I thought of it, and just thanking me for my purchase. I replied - they replied - etc.

That is what customer service is. It's a means to building relationships by showing your customers/fans that you care about them.

The Things You Stumble Upon

Every once in a while, while scouring the web for interesting things to read, I come across something that is awesome. Tonight, as I often do, I've been in search of the illusive press that I really don't have any of.

Everyone always asks about what press you've gotten and I'm always in that awkward situation where I have absolutely nothing. My album has been reviewed once by a friend whose arm I twisted to write the review, but aside from that, I've got nothing. With actually doing something with my music, you'd think I would've at least gotten a review from someone at school in the school paper or something, but no.

I know I've gone about the whole press thing wrong, but I've really had no help whatsoever on the matter. This is all beside the point, however.

So what did I find tonight?

Some hidden gem of press-like interest? Some new tunes that I can add to the 12-cd-high tower of cds that I've acquired in the last week and have yet to listen to? The answer to how to get the press I've blindly sought after for years?

No. No. And ...no.

However, I did find a blog post by Caleb Hawley about the gig we played a little over a year ago. Read it HERE.

For those who don't know both myself and Caleb - we're essentially the same person, give or take a few things. His blog post is about just that. This whole encounter was the inspiration for my song, Doppelganger. I think this gig was the first time I had played the song live, but at that point it didn't have a name...

A few posts ago I posted a picture from that gig. I'm new to blogging, so I have no clue if it's bad etiquette to post a picture twice, so I'll assume it is and tell you to just read the rest of my blog entries.

Seriously, though, this made my night. I didn't find that hidden piece of press that seems to be evading me, but I feel as though I can sleep soundly tonight.

And at 3am, I will do just that.

-Alex


ps - I'll try to get the rest of the MMC series up soon

MMC15 - Part 2

MMC had 2 days of music business sessions - Friday and Saturday. With having class on Friday, I unfortunately wasn't able to make anything on Friday. Basically, I got to conference to register and missed the last session of the day by 5 minutes. It was a bit disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as the backlog of traffic that turned a 15 minute drive into an hour... Then, of course, I got to play Friday night at Pint's and Saturday at the open mic. After that, I was finally able to attend some sessions.

Being the good engineering student that I am, I took some notes. Right now I'll just cover the first session with some thoughts I have on the notes I've taken. The first bullet will be his point and the second will be my response.

Grabbing Your Music By the Balls - David Sherbow

• "There is no culture anymore. It's all been sold and shipped off."
• In today's society this is very much the case. Though we've had a huge increase in album releases in the past 10 years, there's been a steady decline in the musical quality. A "culture" that has come to revolve around auto-tune and American Idol is seeing music as a get-rich-quick scheme, rather than an art form. This is leading to more and more mindless garbage being produced. Of course there are the gem-in-the-rough kind of acts that embody culture and art, but with more and more music and media being pushed down our throats, they're easy to miss.
• Customer service is your job
• I don't view playing guitar as a job. It's a "job" but as long as I'm playing at said jobs, it will be for fun. When it starts to become a job, then I won't play out - simple as that. I've worn myself too thin before and have had to cut back on playing so that it would be fun again; it worked. So if I'm just going to play for fun, then that will leave the "job" portion for customer service. I've definitely been trying and I feel this blog is one of those steps. Obviously there is more that I could do, but it's all a process that will be happen over time
• Playing for free is better than giving away free music
• The main point Sherbow made on this was that everyone gives out free music. With everyone doing that, it devalues music handouts and you won't make fans. Fans are made by relationships and relationships are made during and after performances. Ultimately the goal is to make fans who are fans for life and the bottom line is that they aren't made by free music.
• Be deliberate about e-mail lists
• This means not only connecting with fans through email, but being intentional about getting names on that list. Honestly, I get maybe one or two email's per gig. Clearly, I could be doing this better. Over the next few gigs, I'll work on implementing a more deliberate plan for my email list. I always feel pushy in asking people to sign up with the list in hand, but I guess it's a good way to see whether people are in it or not. If someone doesn't like that I ask them for their email address, then I guess they're not who I want as a fan ...right?
• Attrition, Collaboration, Unification, and then Engagement
• The key steps in music business success.

More tomorrow. In other news, last week I saw 7 or 8 bands/artists, outside of the open mic. Not bad for a week...

MMC15 - Part 1

This weekend, I've had the pleasure of attending the Millennium Music Conference (MMC). It's the first music conference that I've been able to attend. Over the next few days, I'll be writing on my experiences - some of what I've learned, contacts I've made, etc.

Today's post is on my showcase spot in the festival and an open mic I played.

Pint's

So I played this small venue in downtown Harrisburg, Pint's bar and grill. Now this is the first bar that I've played. Those that know me know that I don't frequent bars. Really, the only time I've been in bars has been to play pool. Being to all of maybe 4 or 5 bars ever, I had no clue what to expect...

I'll paint a picture for you to give an idea of what my first impression was: small, dimly lit, smoky, questionable side of town, etc. When I walked in, semi-clean cut appearance, I stood out. Since it was smoky, I tried to keep my gear out of it as much as possible, so for a while I just listened to some of the other acts. However, when I did bring in all of my gear, again, I was the anomaly of the group. Obviously, once I started playing that was enforced again.

So, far this seems super awkward and weird for me. However, I did have a few friends drop by. I can't name them on here, but it was great getting to experience such a different culture with some familiar faces. We likened it to being abroad immersed in a foreign culture. It was a good look into a different part of our community and really interesting to do some people watching and whatnot.

As is with a music conference, the main point of this all was to network. I met some great artists and had some good discussions. My music went over well with most of the people in the bar as well as the musicians. Never having played in a bar, this was a major concern. However, with a completely new style being shown to them, the bar goers were actually intrigued to the point of standing up to watch. This is always a great thing to have happen.

Ultimately, the only part that I really didn't like was the smoke. So, if I can find some non-smoking bars, I'd love to play some more.

PA Musicians Magazine Open Mic


Today, I went over to the Radisson, where the main MMC events were held. Throughout the day, in addition to the speakers, there was an open mic. Since I was there closer to when everything started, I was asked to start off the open mic set. Strangely enough, this was the first open mic that I've ever played. Since I was the first one up for the day and was breaking the ice for things, I got about 5 songs in before someone else went up. From that brief exposure, I was able to meet some more people and to hear some more good music. I'll definitely be looking to play some more open mic's when I am able. There is also supposed to be a short write-up on each performer in the open mic in their March issue. It'll be nice to finally get some press and I'll definitely get a link up when that happens.


The performing side of things is just one facade of a music conference. Tomorrow I'll hopefully have some time to start exploring some of the speakers and what I've learned from them. First, I'll start with just the notes that I took, and then, perhaps at a later date, I'll start to talk about how I want to implement new things that I have learned.

Show Review: Jason Vo

Sunday was quite an excellent day for me with regard to music. Hopefully by the title of this post, you realize that this is not about the Grammys. I didn't watch them, nor do I really care. Aside from not watching the Grammys, yesterday was great in music for 3 reasons:

1. Matt Stevens' cafe noodle free streaming concert
2. James Corachea's Second Life free streaming concert
3. Jason Vo @ Prince St. Cafe

Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of the first two streaming events. However, I caught all of Jason Vo at Prince St, which is what the focus of this review will be.

Jason Vo is a guitarist out of Scranton, PA, who I met through reverbnation, talking music and such. He's a percussive fingerstyle guitarist, and a rather exceptional one at that. Apart from myself, some other, more prominent percussive fingerstyle names include: Andy McKee, Antoine DuFour, and Guitar Republic. However, Vo doesn't care for these comparisons, and would describe his music to be much different from their works. The main difference that Vo cites, which is rather apparent, is the focal point of his music. While Andy McKee and the candyrat gang (everyone else I mentioned are signed under Candyrat Records) compose around melodies, Vo chooses to center his compositions mainly around rhythm and the percussive nature of "percussive fingerstyle." To beef up the percussion, he often times plays gigs with a percussionist, whose name is, conveniently, Jason (Yablonsky - sorry, I'm not looking that up again to spell later in this).

"The Jasons," or "Jason and Jason," or whatever else you want to call them, reminded me a lot of The Andreas Kapsalis Trio as far as the shear amount of percussion involved. The duo used thick chord progressions and really had good taste for using a variety of time signatures in them. In talking to them afterwards, it made sense that percussionist Jason has been playing progressive styles for years. This influence was seen by a more cautious approach to the use of otherwise obscure timings that made transitions fluid and unforced. He even provided a percussion solo during a short set break.

Despite the connotations behind, "thick" chord progressions, there was a great amount of variety throughout the night. There were some more "mainstream" (to percussive fingerstyle) melodic motifs explored, but there were also some very prominent Celtic themes in the melodies as well. Apparently it's all the rage in Scranton? That basically means that I'd be sick of Celtic music if I were from there, but I'm not, so it was awesome and refreshing. Any type of "traditional" folk music I usually find rather intriguing and inspiring. Again, there were some Kapsalis-like qualities exhibited with this.

These guys really reinforced what I've been seeing more and more often lately: that the percussive fingerstyle genre is simply a framework for experimentation and innovation.



So I leave you with a video of Jason's work. I'm currently writing this while watching The Colour Revolt play at B-Sides, so I haven't gotten to preview the video (though I'm sure it's great).



-Alex

Website Error in Your Favor: Collect Free Music

 So I may have screwed some stuff up on the website... Nothing big, it's just that until I fix it, everyone can download my album for free. Have at it.

The Business Side of Things

Music has always been fun to me. Isn't that how it should be? It's never been a money-making venture, a means of finding approval, etc. I've kept playing because I enjoy playing. Being both a perfectionist and an innovator is what has driven my enjoyment and has definitely helped to further my "career."

This all being said, I haven't really taken much mind to the business side of things. My reasoning for wanting exposure is primarily to help expose people to what the guitar really is and because I enjoy playing for new people. Not that this is changing, by any means, but recently I have given more thought to how I am accomplishing my goals.

My friend, Ken Mueller, runs a blog on social media in business and I have learned quite a bit from him. Basically, the big push I've made to be more present in social media has been prompted by how much of an impact social media can have. Playing guitar professionally is much like a business, so much can be learned from Ken. I've had a facebook and a twitter for a while, but have recently added not only this blog, but my own website as well. Yes, there is a lot of upkeep, but it's a challenge that I am enjoying quite a bit.

Beyond the business side online, there is also the business side in person. Everything from how you carry yourself on stage to how you interact and network with other musicians is vitally important to being successful. Lately I've been trying to talk to people more after shows as a little bit of self-promotion and it's worked out great. It's helped me to sell some CDs and even get some engineering job contacts. I've also been carrying myself a little bit better, dressing nicer, etc. Again, this is all stuff that's been really enjoyable and a good challenge - this is still fun for me.

One group that I haven't gotten to cater to as well are all of the people who hear/see me, who are interested, but not ready to commit to being a fan or buying a CD. You can't talk everyone into it, and I understand that. However, there's a good chance that these are opportunities that I'm missing big time. Be it a potential fan who wants to remember my name, other musicians who want to get in contact with me, a DJ at a wedding, or someone wanting me to play somewhere, I've recently realized how important reaching out to them is.

This realization, along with a commercial online, has led me to finally order up some business cards. I designed them late last night and placed the order. It's been quite some time since I tried anything with business cards, but since I've finally got a website to throw up on them, I feel it's time to do it professionally. I would almost liken a business card to a physical piece of social media and think similarly of their potential importance. So here's a screenshot of the design. Let me know what you think:

Again, despite this making it feel like I'm trying to make this a career, I'm not. I like playing for new faces, playing new venues, and watching my abilities progress. Since I'll soon be leaving the safe-haven of Messiah College and all of the people who already know me, I feel that it makes it that much more important to connect with the general public and the real world. This is a means of getting there - one that I thoroughly enjoyed designing and will later enjoy handing out to everyone. My goal was to have these by the MMC next weekend, but it looks like they'll take a bit longer... Still, this is pretty exciting.

-Alex

Show Review: Atlantic/Pacific

Last night, as part of Messiah College's free concert series, B-Sides, I was able to catch a performance by Brooklyn-based Atlantic/Pacific. When I first walked in the door, my first thought was Starflyer 59.

Though not quite as textured and Starflyer (sorry, but they're one of my favorite shoegaze bands...), Atlantic/Pacific embodies the shoegaze style of simple chord progressions, thick lead lines, and slow-moving melodic contour. Atlantic/Pacific takes a more folksy approach with a little less electric guitar and a bigger emphasis on the acoustic guitar. Unfortunately, they had some gear crap out on them before the gig, so what we got may not have been the most "true" Atlantic/Pacific sound. Regardless, it was still nice, relaxing music; much like folksy shoegaze should be.

Perfectly coupled with their sound, was their appearance and demeanor on stage. They were calm and collected, looking very comfortable on stage. Though there wasn't much talking between songs, what was said was important and came out smoothly. I've seen plenty of acts with a similar appearance, go up on stage and shoot themselves in the foot when they try to speak. It was good to see real people, enjoying getting to play, and making the best of their gear dilemmas.

Overall, though not my favorite band, they didn't do too bad of a job. While sitting and listening to it intently it wasn't too engaging. However, over light conversation, it was really enjoyable. I think that's probably how the whole shoegaze genre is structured, much like my music. The people who seem to enjoy it the most are also the ones enjoying themselves and the company of their friends during the set.

-Alex

New Gear!!

As many of you know, I had a massive Crate BV300H guitar amp head. It was 300W of pure tube power. Obviously, as I only gig small venues with a primarily acoustic setup, this was a bit overkill and was left unused for quite some time. After trying to sell it for probably a bit over a year, I finally found a buyer on craigslist. As part of the deal, I got a Carvin Belair 50W Tube Combo amp. Here are some pictures:

The amp sounds amazing. It's got real glassy cleans and some nice grit in the "soak" channel. It's got a great vintage look and feel to it. I'm very pleased with the trade. If I had it more than 2 days, I'm sure I'd be able to add to the list of accolades, but a full review is a bit of a stretch for that little play.

In addition to looking and sounding awesome, it adds to a nice little pyramid of combo amps that I have started. On top is the Roland AC-60 that I normally gig with for it's acoustic voicing. In the middle is a Marshall G80R 50W combo that I got from my cousin over the summer. On the floor, you'll notice my Boss RC-20XL looping station, Danelectro Tape Reel Echo Simulator, and Boss GT-10. The GT-10 I got in the fall to replace my GT-3 and the Tape Reel Echo I just got a few weeks ago. The loop station and echo through the Belair is an amazing combination.

After seeing an add for the Boss GT-10 in a magazine a few days ago, I realized that it can also be used as a usb interface. Hopefully I'll be able to record with it in the near future, as soon as I find a spare Type B USB cable. There will definitely be more to come on this gear and more of my gear, as the collection expands.

-Alex

Alex Brubaker Guitar Dot Com

It's here. alexbrubakerguitar.com is finally a reality after like 2 years of talking about it. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks. Leave some comments in the guestbook, on here, facebook, an email, etc. Just no myspace - that's pretty much dead.

-Alex

ps. Sorry this whole thing is one big link. It just felt appropriate so that no one would wonder where the link was.

Musical Experimentation Thoughts

As many of you are aware, I love experimental music. The whole percussive fingerstyle genre is essentially about pioneering what can be done with a guitar and coupling these efforts with marketable material, so it should be of no consequence that I often find myself thinking about how to do something new and innovative. While many of these ideas do not materialize themselves in the form of musical compositions, they are, at the very least, musings that are engaging and thought-provoking. The rest of this post will skim the surface of some of the endeavors which I have delved into and some of the ideas that I will be experimenting with. It is very likely that I will go into more detail with these techniques and ideas in a later post.

Prepared Instruments
Some of the more abstract experiments involve prepared instruments. To my knowledge, this is only done on stringed instruments - primarily pianos and guitars. Preparing an instrument involves adding or subtracting from the instrument something that ends up altering the sonic qualities of a note. In the case of pianos and guitars, there are very definite pitches which can be played as individual notes or together in chords. Common preparations involve wedging nuts or bolts between strings, paper-clipping strings together, damping the strings with something, etc. The end result may be anything from a slight alteration in pitch to a completely new, unique sound. In this way, preparations are done before playing the instrument and are done in a very precise, reproducible manner.

Sometime last spring I had the pleasure of seeing one of the finest guitar trios in the world, Guitar Republic. After seeing some of their work, which includes various preparation techniques, I was inspired to mess around with some prepared guitar. I was working mainly with paper clips, twist ties, and paper, but the possibilities are literally endless. I have yet to write anything for prepared guitar, but it is on my list of things to do.

Even before I had heard any prepared guitar, I was exposed to prepared piano by one of my roommates. John Cage pioneered prepared piano and, after listening to more of his work and looking at some of his music scores, I became interested in the art of preparing a piano. This was able to flesh itself out this past fall when I found a free piano on craigslist and brought it to school. Throughout the rest of the semester, during the composition lessons I had with Dr. Dwight Thomas, I prepared the piano. This spring I will be writing for prepared piano, alongside many other composition students. Here's a short clip of some of its sounds (understand that I don't play piano and this is merely for demonstration purposes):

Also, note that the piano has not been damaged in any way (I know that would freak some people out). I'll have a full post on the piano sometime soon...


Abstract Playing Techniques
By this, I mean techniques not seen traditionally. For instance, Henry Cowell's Banshee , where one pianist is playing inside of the piano, or Trace Bundy's percussive fingerstyle guitar compositions played with capos that are moved throughout the piece. These are the sort of things that inspire me. When I see someone do something like that, it floods my mind with all sorts of crazy ideas. This is actually what this post is about... So here are some innovative ideas pertaining to guitar:

• Body Percussion: Especially with an acoustic guitar that is internally mic'd - this adds tons of possibilities to your compositions. Keep in mind that different parts of the body will give you different sounds. You can utilize the entire body, front and back to get a variety of different "drum" tones (I would advise against beating on the neck of the guitar, however, as that could really end up sucking). You can also vary the part of your hand that you're using. Try using your palm, the side of your thumb, your finger, rolling your knuckles, and even using your nails (if they're grown out).

• String Percussion: The most common string percussion is made by slapping the strings against the fretboard after playing a chord. By simply slapping your palm down over the soundhole, you'll get a nice string slapping sound that will add texture to your music. This is also extremely easy to do and a good place to start. You can also get a similar sound by using individual fingers on your picking hand to make quick slaps on the fretboard across all of the strings. When this is done at a natural harmonic, you'll get what's known as a tapped harmonic. Try this out along with using 2 or 3 fingers individually on your picking hand in a rolling motion.

• Playing Overtones: Whenever you do a hammer-on, you're actually producing more than one note. Obviously the note that you are fretting is primarily what you hear, but you are in between two fret wires, so you will get an overtone of the section of string above your finger as well. You will notice this more the further down the neck you travel. Beyond the 12th fret, if you are not muting the top half of the strings, you've probably heard this and it's probably been rather distressing if you are a tone seeker. Rather than freak out over this, experiment to use this to your advantage. By muting the strings above where you are fretting (a heavier palm mute will work), your hammer-ons will sound the otherwise obnoxious "overtone" section of the string. You can also fret normally and strum on the opposite side of the stings to get those tones.
• Note: the action on your neck may cause a considerable amount of fret-buzz when you try this. Just get a new guitar (not that yours is insufficient, but I'm just giving a reasonable excuse to expand your collection).

• Tune to the Headstock: I played a show once with a brilliant musician, Trevor Gordon Hall. Not that other people haven't done this, but one thing that I took note of was how well he incorporated the section of string at the headstock of the guitar. A month or so later and I found myself in my room, asking myself how I could do that better. I started experimenting and, as anyone who has done such a thing can attest to, the mix of tones up there sound horrid. It doesn't have to be, though. Just as you can change the tuning of the "playable" lengths of string to meet your needs, you can also tune the section on the headstock. You'll end up with some weird things going on with the normal section of strings, but that just gives you another challenge.

These are things that inspire me. I'd encourage everyone to play around with these and experiment. Music is much more than playing cover songs; it's an art that ought to celebrate creativity and innovation.

-Alex

Website Update

Looking back at the past few years, it's hard to imagine that I'm about to graduate from college. It's also hard to imagine that I've been doing solo gigs for 3 1/2 years. Though they're mostly unrelated, I would attribute most of my musical accomplishments to the opportunities I've had here at school. Without forcing myself to play coffeehouses in front of 1000 people, I probably wouldn't have ever shaken my stage fright. Additionally, in the past few years, social networking has really taken off, and the climate on college campuses has really encouraged that. However, with that alongside the ability to network easily on campus, it's been easy to go without an official website for the past few years. Being able to identify with both the starving college student and the starving musician mentalities, I haven't really found the "need" for a website.

This has all changed. With playing my first wedding a few weeks back, I felt that I should be stepping up my professionalism a bit. To play more events like that, a real website will work a lot better than, say, a facebook or myspace page. Not that I want to get into playing weddings all the time, but it's nice to have a variety of clients.

Last night, for my birthday, I tried to launch alexbrubakerguitar.com. I've been working on it for about a month and was ready to get it out there. Unfortunately, it takes a few days for the domain to register. So in a few days, it'll be here. 

Wait for it...