The Newbie needs advice!

alitivity · Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 5:48 am Post subject:

Look for your local jam night, and get up with what ever band is the sponsor for the night. That way others around town will see you, and maybe ask you to jam with them.
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Check out Al Diamond Phillips/Nevermet on the web
http://www.reverbnation.com/nevermet

fiddlequeen07 · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 5:12 pm Post subject:

I have an exciting update to my "musical career". Still not in a band or performing live at all, but my guitar instructor is opening his own teaching studio and has asked me to be Assistant Instructor!

As of August 1, I'll be taking on students full-time to teach guitar and music lessons. Decent money, if there are enough people out there wanting to learn to play! Anyway, this is definitely an improvement for me. I've been teaching a handful of students out of my home studio for the past year and I've enjoyed it...but a professional studio space will draw so many more people!

I'm also seeing this as an opportunity to introduce some new people to the wonderful music of RJD! Laughing

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"You'll never make me be like you. I'm Master of the Moon!"

alitivity · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 5:10 am Post subject:

Great news!!!
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Check out Al Diamond Phillips/Nevermet on the web
http://www.reverbnation.com/nevermet

DioInfinitum · Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 262 Location: Denver, CO

Do you know any groups of musicians that jam locally?

When I worked for Guitar Center, we jammed twice weekly at the basement studio of a friend. Essentially, it was a huge pool of people jamming. I must say, getting into a routine like this increased my confidence hugely.

I guess the most important thing is to GET OVER being afraid.

The more you practice in front of people, the better the player you'll become. It forces you to 'extra' focus or something, and I have found that the audience bumped my playing to a higher level all around.

Advising on solos? Idk necessarily...this also requires practice. The more you do it, the better you should become at improvising parts. The less you do it, the more that ability might fade away.

I have a friend who is an excellent guitar player and musical writer. The problem is, he'll be playing and if people walk by, you'll notice it gets softer and vanishes. I say, screw that! Let your confidence flow through you on your instrument!

There is NO legendary musician who is not confident in their ability. Except of course I know they have stage fright and stuff, that's somewhat different different.

I have felt my confidence grow by leaps and bounds even after playing in front of people a few times with just me, my voice and acoustic. I also noticed that the physical nervousness would be less and less each subsequent time I played for people.

However, when I get out of the routine, I kinda gotta build it back up again.

In any case, I enjoy hearing folks with parallel experiences. I suppose some of my favorite types of folks to hang around are the musician/artist types.

Best of luck!
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"Too many flames, with too much to burn, and life's only made of paper." - RJD

fiddlequeen07 · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:11 am Post subject:

I have some updates for my fellow music makers regarding my "newbie" musical career. Thanks again to all of you for the tips in the past...I sure am glad to be a part of this forum!

Anyway, our new guitar studio is doing quite well. I already have three times as many students as I had before we opened. The owner and head instructor (my former guitar teacher) has set up a really great website for the studio, complete with links to YouTube videos of us playing different styles of music.

Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that we will hold our first studio recital in December. It will be lots of fun for our students, but it's also going to be great for us as teachers to see our students get to perform! For my part, I am arranging a version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" based off of the recording done by Ronnie (and Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo, and Simon Wright, of course!) for the Metal Christmas album two years ago. I hope it turns out to be awesome.

Also, we instructors have a gig booked the day before the recital...that will be my first official gig, I guess. It's exciting for me, but I'm also just a bit nervous!
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"You'll never make me be like you. I'm Master of the Moon!"