Making a living at music…or not, 16 months later

aronwright — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:21:59 +0000

16 months, yes, it’s been that long, and many things have happened since then. July rolled around, which was the deadline for making a teacher’s salary at music. That didn’t happen, not even close, but enough good things have happened to encourage me to keep pursuing music.

I have continually been playing bigger shows at better venues, played more paying gigs, and sold hundreds of cds and digital downloads. I also have had 6 tv/film placements this year: five on the second season of Everwood DVD and one this coming monday on the show One Tree Hill(if you miss it you can watch on hulu.com). This month’s American Songwriter Magazine has a really nice review of “in the woods” and was written by one of my favorite songwriters, David Mead.

I’m listing all of these things not to brag, but to thank YOU for making them happen. Every single thing I listed happened because one of you friends mentioned me to someone else. It’s crazy really, the power that each individual has just by telling someone else to listen, or burning a cd or sending an email.

I know this wasn’t as specific money-wise as the initial post, so if you’re a musician just starting out and you want the nitty gritty, leave me a comment and I’ll be glad to help any way I can.

Songwriting tip of the 21st century

aronwright — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:09:25 +0000

This is mostly meant for other songwriters but it also gives you some insight into my songwriting process if you’re interested.
Most times I pick up a guitar or sit down to a piano, I come up with several melodies, chord progressions or rough sketches of song ideas. More often than not, I walk away without noting it or recording it in anyway except for what is locked in my brain..if it hasn’t been completely forgotten. When I come back and try to play it again from memory it is always different, it has to be, and always seems to be dwindled down to something less interesting than what I had originally created.
The reason I thought of this at all is because I recently got a small recording device which I love called the Zoom H2. It records great quality audio and can be used alone or as a USB mic with Garageband or whatever. I’m not selling anything here (except my music, wink) so I’ll let you read more about it elsewhere-it’s beside the point.
The point is, the importance of documenting the song throughout the process whatever tools you use. The original idea of a song is almost always the most original and visceral thing you do, like I said before, I think our brains subconsciously try and bring it back to something more familiar.
Also, having an easy way to record and listen back immediately gives you a third person perspective as opposed to the first person you would get from playing from memory. This added perspective makes you weed out the weak ideas and expound on the great ones much faster than you would normally.
The ability to use it with Garageband or Protools makes it great for adding additional tracks and fleshing out the idea even further. I’ll try and post some recordings I’ve done with it the last week or so.
I love all of you. Write me soon to say hi. okay?
aron