Keith Courtney: June 2016

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Thumbpick vs Fingers vs Nails vs Pick’n’Claw

I’m in the midst of an internal debate. What picking technique to I invest practice time in? I’ve played with picks, of course, over the years. Especially for electric. I’ve use my fingers and not-so-long nails for acoustic. Especially for fingerstyle. I’ve experimented with Chet-Atkins-Tommy-Emmanuel style thumbpicks.

But I’m not satisfied with my progress on any of these fronts. Where do I focus?

Some Background:

I’m focusing on fingerstyle playing right now. So thumbpicks or fingers makes sense. Right now, my fingers (without long classical nails) produce to soft and muted of a sound. But it feels great. Thumbpicks are nice for mixing styles, picking runs and fingerstyle passages. But it doesn’t feel at all natural yet. Do I grow nails to compensate for the muted tone? Put in the hours on a thumbpick? Go rogue and do pick’n’claw method?

And whatever I do, I need to follow Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice: “Reps, reps, reps”. There’s no advancement without puttin’ in the hours. So I want to put in the hours on the right thing.

The Answer

The real question (as you already guessed) is: Who do you want to sound like?

Ok, that was two questions. So the goal is to pick a technique that produces the sound you want and allows you to play the songs you want.

So. In order to do that, I did a simple 5-minute survey. I listed which of my favorite players use which technique. Feel free to use this to inform your own decision making. And please leave me comments below on other players that I can add to the list!

*Caveat: Most players use multiple techniques. I tried to list the technique that a player is most known to use.

The List

Thumbpick

Tommy Emmanuel
Emile Ernebro
Adam Rafferty – (Adam has a nice post on this topic here)
Chet Atkins
Jerry Reed

Fingers With Nails

Thomas Leeb
Don Ross
Calum Graham
Andy McKee
Antoine Dufour
Martin Taylor
Michael Hedges (and Ping Pong ball fragments)

Fingers

Phil Keaggy
Eric Johnson

Pick’n’Claw

Joe Pass (although he used many methods)

Thumb

Wes Montgomery – Yup, just his thumb.

Epilogue

Grouping players by right hand technique yields some interesting perspective. Though I have listed the most players in the “Fingers with Nails” category, I don’t think I want to go that route. Why? Because these players seem focused on one style of music. Tommy Emmanuel, Joe Pass, and Eric Johnson strike me as having more diversity of genre and format (band vs solo).

I think thumbpicks are the place for me to focus and grow right now.

The post Thumbpick vs Fingers vs Nails vs Pick’n’Claw appeared first on The Guitar Journal.

Monday, June 20, 2016

10 Ways to Increase your Views on YouTube

1. SEO Your Video

Your video title and tags should be optimised for the search terms you would like your video to show up in search results for.

You should have a detailed description that includes your social media links too.

2. Use a Suitable Thumbnail

Not all YouTube suggested thumbnails accurately represent your video. You can upload your own but make sure it is a suitable image and is not misleading to your audience as this will affect your Watch Time.

3. Use Facebook

Embed posts on Facebook to increase your views across multiple platforms.

You should also look at uploading the video directly to Facebook as it will then autoplay in the News Feed and Facebook prioritises native videos over other video formats.

4. Don’t Forget Twitter

Twitter is the best way to stay up-to-date with everything you care about. Use relevant #’s with your video but make sure you do so in a may that isn’t spammy or misleading.

5. Include a Call-To-Action

Ask viewers to subscribe to your channel at the end of your video. Explain to viewers how your channel will be of use to them, what type of content you will be posting and how often they can expect new videos.

6. Be Consistent

Continuity and regularity is key. Create a posting schedule that you can stick to and include consistent elements at the start or end of your video that viewers stick around to watch.

7. Create a Supporting Blog for Your Channel

This works well for cross promotion, it also creates a central location for you between your YouTube channel, social media accounts and other activity on the web. It also helps to create a sense of community and makes it easier for fans to contact you.

8. Create an Email Newsletter

Encourage people to sign up in your Call-to-action and from your blog. It creates a better relationship with you and your subscribers. It creates a sense of loyalty too and can make it easier for you to engage with your most loyal subscribers.

9. Use Google Ad-Words

These do actually work and are more cost effective than Facebook ads. You can see results for a relatively low cost and you only pay whenever someone clicks on your ad.

10. Make a Channel Trailer

Keep it short, usually under 60 seconds. Introduce yourself and let viewers know what they can expect from your channel.

Read Full Article Here: http://www.helpforbands.co.uk/10-ways-to-increase-your-views-on-youtube/

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Free Book: Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (by Steven Pressfield)

Steven Pressfield, popular author on the creative process, just gave away his latest book. Get a free digital copy of “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t” by clicking here (Available in formats for Kindle/Nook/iTunes/PDF/etc.).

Why get the book? Because Steven Pressfield has done an amazing job of addressing the problems that plague creative folks, from pianists to playwrights. His most popular book, The War of Art, is worth buying right now (or getting from your local library). Each chapter is a page or two long, super interesting, and will result in multiple ‘a ha’ moments.

The new book is similarly good (I’m a third of the way through right now).

How does this apply to guitar?

Take all of his advice for writers, actors, advertisers, and artists, and simply apply it to your craft. Re-title the book (in your head): “Nobody Wants to Listen to Your Sh*t“. Lessons that apply:

People have to much to listen to. If you want to be heard, refine your idea to it’s most powerful, concise essence. (Chapter 4)
Sometimes your ego is in the way of you making money. (Chapter 6)
The right type of idea leads to more than a single riff, song, or album. (Chapter 13)

Go to the book’s download page >>

The post Free Book: Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (by Steven Pressfield) appeared first on The Guitar Journal.

Friday, June 10, 2016

5 Tips To Independently Kick-Start Your Music Career

1. Develop your sound!

Define what kind of artist you are. A singer/songwriter? Band? Do you only perform covers? What genre would you place yourself in? Or perhaps you believe your sound is unique and can’t be defined by a traditional genre. In that case, how would you define your music?

Come up with a description for what you do. This will help you figure out what route to take in the development of your career e.g. what venues are suitable to perform your music in and therefore might give you a gig? What blogs/social media pages post about your style of music and therefore may post about you? Etc.

5 Tips To Independently Kick-Start Your Music Career

2. Create some content!

Now that you know who you are, you may be ready to set up any social media pages or websites to promote yourself. But, how do you expect to draw interest without any content to share?

Social media sites give you a chance to share your music and your interests as an artist, so get creating some! You don’t have to fork out to record in a professional studio (a lot of home recording equipment and software is very affordable nowadays) – you don’t even have to create tracks at all! Just recording yourself performing your songs at home will give potential audiences an idea of what your music is, and also what you would sound like performing live at a gig.

3. Book some gigs!

You don’t need a manager to book gigs, you can do this yourself. Now you know your sound you can find venues in your local area that may be open to showcasing your music. And through your social media sites (including examples of your work), give you something to show these venues that may help them decide to ask you to perform there. It is useful to search for any acoustic nights or other themed music nights that are going on so that you can experience other artists performing.

These artists and venue staff may have contacts at other venues that you haven’t thought of yet and help you book yourself gigs at these places. Make sure you network! Don’t forget to utilise these opportunities by getting yourself photographed and filmed at these gigs for added content online… Just don’t upload blurry videos with awful sound quality and heads bobbing in front of the camera as this won’t be a very accurate or professional representation of your music!

4. Search for other opportunities!

Don’t just limit yourself to small venues in your local area. How about venues in cities/towns further afield to develop your fanbase? Or perhaps a small festival? Festivals are a great way to perform alongside other, sometimes more well-known / developed, artists. A lot of festivals have unsigned artists perform, and some are even programmed by the venues in their local area – which is why building up these contacts first is important to open up other opportunities like this!

For example, Simon Says festival in Leicester is programmed by the venues Firebug, The Donkey and The Musician who take artists who have performed in their venues and put them on a stage at the festival which draws around 1500 people every year! Research what is available to you and potential ways to utilise these opportunities.

5. Keep on top of things!

It’s all well and good getting yourself gigs and festival slots but these opportunities can be wasted unless you really milk it! Use the opportunities as a talking point on your social media sites, upload videos of yourself performing at home or at previous gigs as a taster of what people can expect at the gig / festival you are now promoting, use the gigs / festivals as a chance to promote your sites (e.g. using business cards with your links on them).

Amongst all these steps there is always time to get your songs recorded either professionally or through your own at home equipment and software – get them uploaded online and also burn them to disc and hand them out for free at gigs. No, you won’t make any money from this, but you’re more likely to get them handed out if they’re free, therefore providing people with a reminder of your music after they’ve seen you perform. It can be easy for people to forget you with the plethora of talent out there!

Getting far in the music industry can be a hard slog, but if you make the effort to do the research, make the contacts and develop your craft you will be able to further define what path you want to go down in the industry. Usually one contact can lead you to another, and one gig booking can lead to another one in the future or one at another venue and so on, but only if you really grasp the opportunities presented to you.

Read Full Article Here: http://www.helpforbands.co.uk/5-tips-to-independently-kick-start-your-music-career/