True Blue Fan (TBF)

Many artist & their bands can sing & play, but, they are amazed (sometimes mad) when the audiences fail to connect with them.  Artist and bands work on perfecting their play list of songs to sound like the studio version or the 'cover' version they hear. On stage, it's entertainment time!  If I go see a movie and it doesn't entertain, connect, excite me, then most of the time I actually take short naps.  Most artist/band never think about changing up a song to allow it to 'CONNECT' with their audience. And, if you don't connect and create special moments of memory, then, in most cases you will not have won over new fans & you certainly will not have what every artist should strive to have and that is:  TRUE BLUE FANS!  Yes, that is a KSE exclusive.  TRUE BLUE FAN OR TBF IS WHAT EVERY ARTIST MUST HAVE to create longevity as an INDIE touring band.  TBF are those people that will become the most important part of your TEAM.  In short, they are the ones that will show up for your shows with new fans & they are the ones that will buy tickets, merchandise, and leave tips in your tip jar.  As we all know most young inexperienced bands can only tour if they can meet expenses.

Developing into an entertainer takes time, much practice, money, and developing TRUE BLUE FANS!  It's like going from grade school, Jr. High, High School to getting your Bachelors, Masters and your PhD.  After you have completed those degrees, you need continuing updates and training....All Roads that lead to the STAGE must be incrementally improved each year, but, only after an artist has mastered all the baseline stages.  Once this is accomplished, an artist/band will forever be developing their passion for creative performances that make connecting memorial moments that last with their new fans that will change into TBF.

Giving It Your All

Working 24/7 is a given if your an Indie Artist/Musician.  Success = time + total commitment to becoming Indie/Independent. Most doors will be closed.  But, there is always one that will open if your pursuit is endless.

Be ready to work you tail off.  Through your work and efforts you will 'learn'.  You will learn about many new areas of the music business, because, for the Indie Artist, Music is a business...A REAL BUSINESS. 

As an Indie Artist you have total control and can't blame anyone else but yourself if things don't go right or don't get done. 

As a woman Indie artist, the effort required to become successful will require 3X the effort. 

All problems should be view as OPPORTUNITIES OF ABUNDANCE!

Flexibility means you must be patient, for patience is the key to Indie success.  Hone your craft until your music shines and your band is 'tight' on all songs. 

If what you are doing is not working, most likely it will not work until you discover other means to monetize you and your music.  To me that key is in building a base of True Blue Fans.  These are fans that promote you and your music 24/7 and they spend a minimum of $100 / year on you.

The stage is but one place where you connect with existing fans and make 'new' fans.  Failure to connect is opportunities lost to build your True Blue Fan base. 

Remember the only limit in music success, is YOU!

--end

Support Indie Female Musicians

I don’t condemn anyone who does not or cannot buy local. I’m an ardent supporter of small businesses, and I hope that you will be too, but I’m not going to say you’re wrong if you have good reasons for shopping elsewhere.

All things being equal, I suspect most people would choose to buy local. But each of us has a different price at which local is no longer an option. For some, this point is immediate: they’ll always buy the cheapest option, regardless of other factors. Others — and I know a few like this — will buy local no matter the cost.

Female Indie Artist are Small Business.  I am a HUGE supporter of All INDIE artist and ALL LIVE music, especially female.  Why only female?  Because they have great talent; great songs; and in my opinion, heavily discriminated against in both the music 'label', The 'Venue', and 'Indie' world.  

Don't believe me....take a look at any venue and compare the percentage of booked females versus booked males.  Radio is getting better, but, in no way does their scheduling show a 50/50 split in male/female songs played.  It's more like 80/20 or 70/20.  Yes I know this is what the free market supports and calls for, but, the only way to make it right is for someone, some club owner, some radio station, to change the way they do things.  But, as with most businesses I find it's still all about the bottom line....making money...therein lies the 'catch 22" for most all female artist, especially those in the Indie Live Music Market.

The answer:  All female artist have to work 3 times as hard to build a large following everywhere they go.  Once venues know you will fill their place at a 80-90% level, they will be calling you or your booking agency to schedule you and your band on a regular basis, which normally is every 4-10 weeks.  

In today's Music World 2.0 the biggest asset for success is a large loyal and what we call True Blue Fans.  

So make great music, learn to connect on stage with your audience, and above all make extra daily efforts to know your fans, which in turn they will bring more of their friends to your shows.say you’re wrong if you have good reasons for shopping elsewhere.I don’t condemn anyone who does not or cannot buy local. I’m an ardent supporter of small businesses, and I hope that you will be too, but I’m not going to say you’re wrong if you have good reasons for shopping elsewhere.

All things being equal, I suspect most people would choose to buy local. But each of us has a different price at which local is no longer an option. For some, this point is immediate: they’ll always buy the cheapest option, regardless of other factors. Others — and I know a few like this — will buy local no matter the cost.

Female Indie Artist are Small Business.  I am a HUGE supporter of All INDIE artist and ALL LIVE music, especially female.  Why only female?  Because they have great talent; great songs; and in my opinion, heavily discriminated against in both the music 'label', The 'Venue', and 'Indie' world.  

Don't believe me....take a look at any venue and compare the percentage of booked females versus booked males.  Radio is getting better, but, in no way does their scheduling show a 50/50 split in male/female songs played.  It's more like 80/20 or 70/20.  Yes I know this is what the free market supports and calls for, but, the only way to make it right is for someone, some club owner, some radio station, to change the way they do things.  But, as with most businesses I find it's still all about the bottom line....making money...therein lies the 'catch 22" for most all female artist, especially those in the Indie Live Music Market.

The answer:  All female artist have to work 3 times as hard to build a large following everywhere they go.  Once venues know you will fill their place at a 80-90% level, they will be calling you or your booking agency to schedule you and your band on a regular basis, which normally is every 4-10 weeks.  

In today's Music World 2.0 the biggest asset for success is a large loyal and what we call True Blue Fans.  

So make great music, learn to connect on stage with your audience, and above all make extra daily efforts to know your fans, which in turn they will bring more of their friends to your shows.

All things being equal, I suspect most people would choose to buy local. But each of us has a different price at which local is no longer an option. For some, this point is immediate: they’ll always buy the cheapest option, regardless of other factors. Others — and I know a few like this — will buy local no matter the cost.

Female Indie Artist are Small Business.  I am a HUGE supporter of All INDIE artist and ALL LIVE music, especially female.  Why only female?  Because they have great talent; great songs; and in my opinion, heavily discriminated against in both the music 'label', The 'Venue', and 'Indie' world.  

Don't believe me....take a look at any venue and compare the percentage of booked females versus booked males.  Radio is getting better, but, in no way does their scheduling show a 50/50 split in male/female songs played.  It's more like 80/20 or 70/20.  Yes I know this is what the free market supports and calls for, but, the only way to make it right is for someone, some club owner, some radio station, to change the way they do things.  But, as with most businesses I find it's still all about the bottom line....making money...therein lies the 'catch 22" for most all female artist, especially those in the Indie Live Music Market.

The answer:  All female artist have to work 3 times as hard to build a large following everywhere they go.  Once venues know you will fill their place at a 80-90% level, they will be calling you or your booking agency to schedule you and your band on a regular basis, which normally is every 4-10 weeks.  

In today's Music World 2.0 the biggest asset for success is a large loyal and what we call True Blue Fans.  

So make great music, learn to connect on stage with your audience, and above all make extra daily efforts to know your fans, which in turn they will bring more of their friends to your shows.

Great Songs = Success

Success begins with great songs. Without them, all the talent in the world won't give you the best chance of becoming an INDIE success.  If fans like them and sing along, you pretty much know you have a winning combination of  song and artist.

One of the most important things you must do is study and perfect your craft.  Daily incremental improvements are extremely important to becoming all you can be.

Always know you are not as good as you think and only your fans can and will determine your worthwhileness. Road test your songs.  Tweak them until they shine.  If you don't know how to make your songs connect with fans, seek the advice of professionals.  I highly recommend Tom Jackson Productions.  Amy Wolter is one of his consultants that does a great job with artist and bands. http://onstagesuccess.com/

Don't be a great musician singing to an empty venue. Just because you record good/great tracks doesn't mean fans will love you or your music. What most artist/musicians lack is how to truly entertain an audience at a live show/concert.   It takes a lot more than sound and performance skills.  To build and continue building your fan base, (True Blue Fans) you need to be so entertaining that your existing FANS want to show you off to their friends. This is but one piece of the large music puzzle where artists are falling short across all genres and success levels.

Most any decent singer can become an artist, but, to become a successful artist you need the best team you can afford.  Invest more of your money in the training you truly need versus in the things/items you think you need to become successful.

--end

Prince and Creating Spontaneity

Dez Dickerson and Prince

The former guitar player for Prince was telling me about their rehearsals. If you’ve seen any video of Prince or seen him live, he goes off on jams that appear completely spontaneous. Sometimes they’re so off the wall, you wonder where they came up with the stuff they did!

I asked him, how did you get from that place to this funky thing to this Pink Floyd thing to this breakdown, to this jammin’ stuff — and it all seems so spontaneous? And he said one word…“practice.” In practice they got an instinct, they were jamming, and they went down that road in practice. The idea came to them, they stopped, went back, fleshed it out, and rehearsed it to where it was really tight and they didn’t have to think about it.

Those of us who have just “jammed” know that it might be magical….one night. And then on other nights it’s just terrible. So the key is this: if you understand the fundamentals in your preparation, and you know how to hold the mic, and you know placement on stage, and you know what it takes visually onstage, then they’re in your arsenal and you can use them (be spontaneous with them) onstage. They’ll come naturally – without thinking about them.

Otherwise, you get an instinct, and if you haven’t rehearsed the fundamentals, then you have to think about it, and all the audience sees is you thinking about what you’re doing. And that’s not exciting.

I have a good friend who lives in Chicago. When he flies into town he doesn’t give me a call and say “hey, Tom, lets go down to the library and watch people read!” We don’t want to watch people read. And no one wants to watch people think!

So what we need to do is plan, practice it in rehearsals, and then we can go out and do it. And when we’re onstage, IF we have the fundamentals, then we can follow our instinct, and it’s natural. We’ve done it over and over and over again. It looks spontaneous even though the basics are things we’ve worked out in rehearsals.

On a football team, those players are not just playing their 19th, 20th game of the year when they get to the Super Bowl. Before the Super Bowl, they had six weeks of training, and before that they had a 6-inch thick playbook of plays that the team runs, and they study those plays. The truth is, everyone knows their role. They run the plays over and over and over again. Then the coaches have a game plan.

THAT’S what a live show should be! You’ve studied a playbook, you’ve rehearsed it, and where the spontaneity comes in is that every night, every audience is different. So just like the running back, you don’t run through the same hole every play. You try left, you try right, you try jumping over them, you pitch the ball back…. that’s where the spontaneity comes in.

Everyone needs to know the role they have and the goal of each play. That’s the way a song should be, too. That’s what should happen onstage – a combination of rehearsal and spontaneity. No one is thinking! The running back isn’t thinking when he runs up to the hole, and the hole is closed, “oh, maybe I should run this way” – he just reacts. Why? Because he has the fundamentals!

Having the fundamentals down because you’ve done your wood shedding is the first step. Then planning the show – getting a vision for what you want each song to look like, and what you want your show to look like – that’s the next step.

It’s important to find the balance between form and spontaneity, and to understand the creative process. That means brooding over your songs, listening to them in different ways, planning, getting ideas,…and then working it until it becomes a part of who you are onstage. Something natural, something creative, something unique – and that’s what your audience wants to see!

Attracting Fans Means Getting Over Your Self

There are a lot of musicians and groups that artistically want to stretch people’s minds and make people think, figure out and really dive deep in to the meanings of their songs, their name, their image, different elements of their marketing and other underlining elements that many artists think will add that hip or cool edge to them. The problem that can occur though is flat out confusion or actually deterring more people away from your music and you than helping bringing them to listen to you and want to find out more about you.

Don’t get me wrong, adding elements of stretching the mind and being creative is a great thing, but think about it as a later step or being placed a little deeper in your marketing rather than right there where people get their first impressions. Make it something that fans will have to dig in to as opposed to overly confusing the new listener or first time visitor to one of your social networking sites or website.

Wild stories, confusing bios, songs that make no sense or tie in to the more experimental side of you can be red lights for many people to not want to dig deeper. For example, if you are a grunge/industrial type band with fast loops, dirty guitars and in your face samples with brash harmonies and powerful hooks, having song sample number one on your site be one of the tunes that is least like your sound or one of your more experimental and say softer and more trancesque tune that you use right in between two powerhouse tracks, you may loose the interest right off the bat of the listener that happens to pop on to your website for a minute.

Get over yourself.

The reality is that when new people are visiting your website, your networking site or one of your song sample sites, most are only going to be there for a few seconds unless they are drawn in. There are 40 million Myspace music pages and that number continues to grow even as Myspace continues to go down in the rankings in the social networking world. People are being tossed links from spam emails, from friends, from strangers and from third parties everyday.

While every musician wants to think that people are spending a number of minutes listening to every sample, looking at every picture and reading every piece of text, the truth is the majority are only spending seconds and moving on very quickly. We are a nation of ADD, ADHD and every other acronym that points to the bulk of us having less and less of an attention span everyday.

These people have so many choices and so many options so it is up to you to grab them, wow them, explain and showcase to them and pull them in to want more. It is crucial just like having a fast pitch for industry professionals to also have that same fast pitch and grab for the fans and the masses.

Good Ideas vs Bad Ideas

A couple strong examples are the bands that have very fast loading webpages that immediately showcase the logo, the tagline, the image and information easily. Now on the other coin, there is a website for a band that actually has a small animal that walks around the page for some 10 seconds before the page opens and you cant skip it. This may be creative and cute for the band and for fans that know something about the reason behind the path and the creature but for a browsing new person, it just comes off as stupid. Another site has a band bio that is so small and so long with so many applications that have been added to their page that you are not sure who’s information is what, not to mention the slow load from having so much on the page.

Some of these websites or social networking sites where you are forced to scroll down or wait to find or fish out information is not helping you capture the new fans that are coming across your site. On the same side with the music samples. Instead of putting up total songs why not put up samples and a lot more of them?

Think about it, just as you should put together a small demo sample for any industry person so they can listen to the bulk of your songs with out the bulk of time it takes to listen to every song, you can do the same for your fans. Supply 20 to 30 seconds fade in and fade out samples that are clearly marked as samples with the time in the title. This way when a new fan sees the player or what ever you are using to present your music, they know right off the bat, they are getting samples and may just listen to them all.

This also gives you a chance to choose what they listen to and what you want to highlight in the song, instead of them flipping through and potentially just listening to the beginnings of all your tunes if they listen that far. Think of it like giving them a sample of everything and at that point making them want to dig deeper.

Conclusion

It is fine to go deep and make people think, make people have to search and challenge your fans but first get those fans through the door, interested in you and wanting to be challenged. Make sure you have created a crystal clear image that will demonstrate you, sell you and entice them to want more. It is a hard thing to sometimes separate what how you see something against how the bulk of the public will. Remember just cause you get it or it makes sense to you, it doesn’t mean it will to most people. You are the artist, you are right smack in the middle of it all and a big part of pulling in and creating the fan base is working on creating the right appearance and marketing to pull them in the audiences that are sifting through thousands of sites and turning them in to interested fans.

Also remember, with all the other bands on all the other sites and the over saturation of music and artists that are out there, it is crucial to pull them in to want to see more first. Make the first presentation easy, fast and simple so that people can get a clear idea of the overview of you, your music and what you are about, then you can start playing with the intricacies and extra details.

Artist Failure

“Most artist fail. Not because their product wasn’t any good. They failed because not enough people knew about it. In other words, the marketing failed. Not only is marketing important, it’s pretty much
everything. Being a successful artist requires so much more than just being a great singer”

You are welcome to contact KleerStreem Entertainment for an honest discussion of marketing you and your music.

KleerStreem Entertainment is an artist development company. We address and plan all areas of an artist's career.

Email: kleerstreem@gmail.com

Tips for Better Shows

You’ve updated your website; you’ve setup some great viral marketing with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, NOW WHAT?

Play live anywhere and as often as possible is the best way to build a following. The larger your following, the more in demand you will be. If you learn what makes venue owners happy and you do it, then most likely you will have a standing invitation to come back as often as you want to.

A few suggestions:

• Email blasts to your fans
• Create traffic to your website with regular, purposeful communication on social sites. And when you send fans to your website, make sure there is plenty of new video, audio, photos, and so on to give them something exciting and fresh to look at.
• Cold calls. Call every venue, promoter you can find and then follow up each lead. I understand these concepts are not new but they work.
• Work for free

We need to be creative and smart with our time and resources. Keep in mind that at the same time as you are cold calling, emailing, and communicating with fans, you could go to a church, a coffee shop, or some other venue and play for free. After all, most places will take a chance on someone who is doing the gig for free.

Then if you get in there you have a few options to make some money anyway. You can sell some product to make a few $$. If you have aligned yourself with a charity you can make some $$ (and help others at the same time).

But the bigger point is this: all of this is good (experience, exposure, and generating a little income) – BUT, if you are amazing LIVE, they will book you again. And the next time, they’ll pay you!

Bottom Line for Success remains: Live shows and building your fan base. You can have the best of everything else, but unless you focus on these two, it's unlikely you will play a venue more than once.

All roads do lead to the stage, where you and your band have the best opportunity to connect with fans by creating special moments and memories that will gain you the most important thing in your music career: TRUE BLUE FANS.

Each Day, Do Certain Things

Hey, What Day is It? (Getting Into The Consumers Head)

Are you planning your music marketing according to specific days of the week? You should be? Check out this post for sure-fire ways to make the most of your online promotions.

Monday
It’s Monday! Do you know who’s watching you? Monday is considered the day of fresh information. Everything is new new new! Consider this: the average 9-5er arrives at his/her desk in the morning (please refer to obese man above), turns on the computer, and tunes into msn.com for the week’s political news, reviews on which movie did best at the weekend box office, and anything else that might be hot off the press. On Monday, people want to know what they’ve missed since Friday (though is probably not much).

Do you take Mondays seriously? Treat your music like a job. Try to have something new on your page each Monday. Whether it be a blog, new shows on your calendar, a quick news update, new photos from the weekend’s show, or new video. The options are limitless and its not like you have to revamp your page every week…just do a little at a time.

Rule of thumb: If you build it, they will come. Read more about this at Drawing Traffic to your Website(s)

Wednesday
In college, my Communications professor told me something I will never forget: most people open their email on Wednesdays. Yes, this has been mentioned on Grassrootsy before, but its worth mentioning again. Wednesday is a unique day. Because it finds itself smack dab in the middle of the week, its the one day that you’re least likely to get “Out of Office” replies. More people at their desk = more people reading their email = more people visiting your website. Optimize on this. Send your newsletter on Wednesday mornings or afternoons if possible. Stop by Email Marketing – Making Sure People Read What You Write for more tips.

Rule of thumb: Send emails on Wed…in the morn or after lunch. Check out Grassrootsy’s additional blogs on Email Marketing here.

Weekends
Stats prove that few erpeople read emails and surf the internet on the weekends, but the people who do are more likely to read through an entire email and will spend more time on your web page than they would on a weekday. For example, if you sent an email on Wednesday, you might get 100 people to open and they would spend an average of 45 second skimming through what you write. But on a Saturday, only 40 people might open up the email but spend a full 3 minutes reading it entirely.

So if you’re posting a blog or sending a weekend email, make sure it’s not time-sensitive. Perhaps you can post musings, and non-essential thoughts. Take it from msn.com: Their weekend news bits are usually reposts of information that that was already used earlier in the week.

Rule of thumb: Never send an email on the weekend that you would send on a Monday or Wednesday.

TODAY'S Indie Development

Yes, 90% of an indie artist development/career is up to them.

Looking deeper, into the details, one must recognize this will involve assembling a trusting team of passionate professionals. This team’s charter is to get this long train (the artist) moving. As with a long train, no matter it’s destination, the train, always begins moving slowly.

Major record labels are not longer the “engine”, at most, they are only the caboose, Some trains no longer have a caboose, because trains, have figured out the caboose was just extra weight they had to pull & really were not beneficial in helping them reach their destination. Cabooses were painted red, which to a train signaled “The End”.

Will there always be a need for labels, maybe, but, their success will depend on how much they are willing to become an asset & not an impediment to an artist career. When labels start listening to what fans/customers want is when their roles may become more important. When they are willing to change their business models to benefit the artist and connect with fans, is the day their importance will stop diminishing. If they do this, all artist need to recognize there will still be few slots to fill. So, most artist will continue to be truly independent. This means becoming more involved not only in their music, but, in the business end. Assembling a lean knowledgeable team that is totally committed to building a large fan base which is & will continue to be, the “key” to their success.

Do you have your team in place?

The Stage

I agree random wandering is not good, plus, it exhibits non professional, non-caring, ego fed intentions.

The catch 22 here is that some musicians want to be paid well, but, many do not want to be integral teams members. A great band will work to become a tight band that puts on connecting shows that create moments in each song with their paycheck: THEIR FANS! Fans are customers or potential customers. As most everyone should know without supportive fans, THERE IS NO ROAD TO THE STAGE.

The Power of 5, implemented properly, with see an artist/band's customer/fan based grow to 15,000+ in about 5-6 years. If they are TRUE BLUE FANS, as we call them, that will generate $1.5 million dollars in sales/year, which is not a bad living for getting to do what you want to do & as an INDIE ARTIST.

Tom Jackson's Productions services will be the best returns on your investments you will ever make. We believe a higher priority than recording a CD. Its imperative an artist/band become proficient learning & knowing:

ALL ROADS DO LEAD TO THE STAGE & WHILE YOU ARE THERE YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE STAGE IS THE "SPOTLIGHT" TO EVERYONE'S FUTURE SUCCESS.

THE STAGE is where DREAMS BECOME REALITIES

THE STAGE IS WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

THE STAGE IS WHERE ARTIST/BAND MUST CONNECT

THESES STAGE CONNECTIONS MUST CREATE MEMORABLE MOMENTS

FOR WHO?????????????

The audience who become CUSTOMERS, which means, the artist/band can enjoy a career of doing what they love: MUSIC.

A challenge to all bands: WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE IN 5 YEARS? If it's music, please discard your PLAN B, for Plan B's lead away from the stage.

----end

INNOVATIVE ADVERTISING

Oh advertising! Is it really worth it as a musician? Well, it depends. Where are you advertings? What are you advertising? And do you have money? Of course you want to try to get as much free publicity as possible. If you can do it for free, definitely go for that option!

When you do get the funds, check into these ideas. The great thing about the following options is that you can advertise at whatever price is affordable for you.

And in continuation to Monday’s blog, Finding Your Niche, the below suggestions allow you to advertise directly to your niche.

StumbleUpon
Its a great source for people who wanna find good things online. StumbleUpon doesn’t just focus on music. It exposes surfers to every type of website in the world. How does it work? Lets say you wanna get your myspace out to a unique type of listener (See yesterday’s post: Finding Your Niche). Click on StumbleUpon Advertising and create a campaign. As you create your campaign, you’ll see that you can choose what types of people you want to visit your website – everything from people who are history buffs to people who are vegetarian, to people who like kayaking. Tons of random categories.

So what if your music appeals most to men, maybe you’d want to pick people who fall into the following categories: home improvement, mens issues, video games. Or if you think your music has ambience that best fits the spiritual guru/yoga type crowd; you might want to pick people who fall in the following categories: yoga, self improvement, ambient music.

You’re also given the option of choosing age range, geographic location and other demographics. StumbleUpon only costs .05 cents per view. So you could spend $20 on advertising and that would expose your website to 400 people. Check out their short video tutorial.

Facebook (and Myspace)
Its much the same concept as Stumble Upon: i.e. target audiences, demographics and all that jazz. One thing I’ve noticed and like about Facebook ads is that it allows you to pay for impressions by the thousands. So that means, if you set your ad price as 20 cents per 1000 impressions, your ad will show up on the side panel of 1000 facebook pages. Whether 5 people or 500 people click the impression, you still only pay 20 cents per 1000. I’ve found that Facebook isn’t as straighforward as StumbleUpon and takes a little time to understand.

I haven’t tried Myspace advertising, so if you have experience, please comment below.

The Pizza Boy (ya, for real!)
During the week of his CD Release, Pittsburgh artist T. Mitchell Bell stopped into his local pizza store, and asked them if they would be able to distribute flyers for his CD release everytime they had to make a delivery. AWESOME idea! They let him do it for free b/c he was a very regular customer!

Stop into your local restaurant, whether it be a pizza store, or something else. Ask them if they’d be willing to do the same. You might have to pay a little something but its a great idea ( they’ll treat you better if they know you). It’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard lately and I think its probably effective.

Creating True Blue Fans

Many artist & their bands can sing & play, but, they are amazed (sometimes mad) when the audiences fail to connect with them.  When, in reality, the artist and her band have failed to connect with the audience.

Artist and bands work on perfecting their play list of songs to sound like the studio version or the 'cover' version they hear. They throw in some comments; a few dance moves, differenct uses of the mic, etc.

Isn't that a 'Good Thing'?  To some degree, but when an artist and her band take the stage, their show becomes an experience that must entertain their audiences!  Everthing happening, on stage, is live.  There are no edits to make the show more entertaining.  What an audience sees & hears is what the artist and her band have created for them.  

If I go see a movie and it doesn't entertain, connect, or excite me, then most of the time I actually take short naps.  Do you want to look out, from the stage, and see many with their backs to you or sleeping or walking out the door during your first or second set?  Absolutely not....you want their attention focused on you and your band.

Most artist/bands never think about changing up a song to allow it to 'CONNECT' with their audience. And, if you don't connect and create special moments of memory, then, in most cases you will not have won over new fans & you certainly will not have what every artist should strive to have and that is:  

TRUE BLUE FANS!  Yes, that is a KSE exclusive.  TRUE BLUE FAN (TBF) are WHAT EVERY ARTIST MUST HAVE to sustain longevity as an INDIE touring band.  

TBF will become the most important part of your TEAM.  They will always be your biggest asset.  Without them, you're headed for a short lived career in music.  

TRUE BLUE FANS are fans that will show up for your shows with new fans. They are the ones that will buy tickets, merchandise, and leave tips in your tip jar, call radio stations, campaign daily for you.  They will create and help maintain a buzz about you. 

Most young inexperienced bands and some mature bands can only tour if they can meet expenses. To me there is nothing more boring than watching a talented band that never changes anything in their act except songs.  If you want to develop into a successful touring female artist, you and your band must have an everchanging show that makes audiences want to come out time and time again to feel and experience new memorable moments they feel connect you & them for a lifetime.  I assume all aspiring artist want to perform their music for a lifetime??

Developing into a "live" exciting and passionate entertainer takes time much practice, money, and developing TRUE BLUE FANS!  It's like going from grade, Jr. High, and High School to getting your Bachelors, Masters and your PhD.  After you have completed those degrees, you need continuing updates and training.  

All Roads lead to the STAGE must be incrementally & continually improved by mastering all the baseline stages.  Once this is accomplished, an artist & her band will forever be developing their passion into creative performances which make connecting moments that create lifetime memories that will change audiences into new fans.  These new fans will become lifetime TRUE BLUE FANS, which means SUCCESS,  for you, The Indie Female Touring Artist & Band.

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Maximize Your Vocals

Sound Bodies....When your body is your instrument, fitness & nutrition should be combined with a well planned set of vocal exercises to keep it in top form.

Singing may well be the most physical demanding way to make music. But, while most serious singers perform vocal exercises to develop range, tone & articulation, they may not realize the benefits of working the entire body. Good general fitness, as well as a well-designed vocal training program, can increase range, improve pitch, & prevent injuries.

The voice is the only instrument that is alive....it has emotion, it has temperature, it has fluid. Because of that, singing is a physical, athletic experience. Voice teachers claim the physical part of a singer's training is 2/3 of their training....which means you have to be strong & flexible.

While you do not need to be training for a triathlon in order to belt out your favorite tunes, good general fitness & nutrition allow your vocals to reach their full potential.

Since singing uses the lungs, any form of aerobic exercise....including walking, jogging, bicycling, swimming, racket-ball, and tennis.....is useful because it can help develop heart and lung strength as well as physical endurance. Exercises like swimming and aerobics use the breath more than you would for other exercises. Swimming has the added benefit of lengthening the muscles. A singer needs muscles to in their longest form & in their most relaxed form.

Relax & Breathe....Yoga is another popular activity for singers: it relaxes & strengthens the muscles, improves balance, & posture & helps focus the mind on the singer's source of power: THE BREATH.

There are many different kinds of yoga, ranging from very low impact to the intense "power yoga" used by athletes. Kunddaline yoga, focuses on the whole body. It has chanting, it has posture, it has movement, stillness, singing, hand positions & more.

Not all exercises are good for singers....heavy weight lifting is not advisable because it forces muscles to compresses & contract. Lifting weights makes for shorter muscles....which is bad for singers. Developing a "six pack" of abs is not advisable either...singers need to strengthen their cores & Pilate's exercised is a better way to achieve that strength. If you tuck in you stomach really hard, you will feel the tightness in your throat. If singers hold their stomachs too tightly....particularly the upper stomach....they can easily develop vocal problems & stomach nodules & things like that. That area has to be open and expanded. The singer has to learn to use the muscles in the middle of the body in an outward position, not in a tucked-in (contracted) position.

Watch Your Posture....Good posture is important because it allows for the freest movement of air & the most relaxed use of singing muscles. Most voice instructors will tell you to keep your chin level, your knees loose & your shoulders & neck relaxed. Abdominal & back muscles should also be relaxed.

Untrained singers ten to jut their chins forward, which leaves the vocal muscles in a precarious position. They are not grounded or anchored to anything. We need the chin to be IN & the chest to be up, so that the muscles of the vocal instrument can function more correctly. It frees the sound & gives a lot more resonance with less effort & less push.

Many teachers use the Alexander Technique, a fitness regimen that focuses on posture, breathing, balance & coordination. Like yoga, the Alexander Technique involves relaxation to combat tension that causes us to haunch our shoulders, stiffen our necks, & to slouch. Tension in the jaw & tongue can cause singers to go flat, while pelvic & lower body tension can cause them to go sharp because they're "holding & gripping & pushing air." Some singers feel that tightening the muscles gives them power, but, it actually reduces control.

Break Down To The Basics....Some singers need to go back to the basics...take a step back in order to move forward. If you learn the proper use & alignment of the muscles through vocal exercises, your range will grow. If you're not using your muscles correctly, you might have the note in you, but you can't get it out because you're too tight. When you learn how to let the larynx move & tilt the way it is supposed to, you'll hit the notes with no problem.

Like a baseball pitcher has to take care of his arm, a singer has to take care of their voice. Also, like pitching, if you just rely on natural ability, you can get away with it for a while, but you'll never get to be as good as you can be & your risk of getting injured is much higher. If you get a little training, just like a little athletic coaching, you can do better than you every thought you would....& you can do it safer & longer.

Proper training helps prevent injury, too. Learn how to use the chest, abdomen & back muscles to create power, as well as the tissues of the throat, the larynx & muscles efficiently, thereby creating a unique & beautiful voice that carries. If any one of those parts fails to do its job, then singers struggle to compensate....people use delicate muscles in the neck, not designed for power function, & then tissues break down, they get injuries, & they end having to lay off work or even worse have surgery to correct the damage.


Practice Time

How long you practice depends on your level of training & experience. For a complete beginner, go for no more than 20 minutes / day at first & that amount should be gradually increased over a period of months. Never sing if you are ill or suffering with a sore throat or are sounding hoarse. When your voice is healed, start slowly to make sure you don't hurt your voice again.


Warm Up

Like any other muscles in the body, the vocal cords need to be warmed up with excises before asking them to perform. Teachers use different scales, anywhere from 2-note to 5-note scales up & down.

What do those exercises attempt to achieve? There are many muscles....but not all of them are supposed to be involved in singing. It's like playing pick-up sticks: You have to get just the correct muscles involved & eliminate the other ones.


Eat Well to Sing Well

Eat a light meal 2-3 hours before you start your practice or your performance. And drink plenty of water!!! Most vocal coaches recommend somewhere in the range of 8 glasses/day. Avoid caffeine, alcohol or acidic drinks like orange juice before you sing because they can dry out the throat or cause excess phlegm.

Music Yesterday & Today

Having a successful music career is not that much different than it has been all along.

Yes we have new tools for DIY folks & you don't need to have a label deal as much as you once did.

"All roads lead to the stage, where you make connections with your music that creates special moments for your audiences".

For the indie artist to be successful, you have to have TRUE BLUE FANS that will support you & your music year in and year out. So TBF are the number 1 priority as far as we are concern. Without them, how will your survive??

well, maybe some have an unlimited supply of money in their bank account??