Blog Challenge - Week 7

Building your e-mail list

I've been told, and I believe it to be true, that your e-mail list is a vital part of reaching out to your audience and engaging them in what you are up to. Last week, I learned about sending a good newsletter (which I then did. I hope it was a good one. I included a great recipe for yummy hummus.)

This week's chapter is all about building your e-mail list. It's interesting, because when I read the title for the chapter, I thought.....ya, I do this already. I bring a sign-up sheet to my gigs...I've offered a free download to anybody that signs up, and it's prominently displayed on my website, FB, etc. BUT, there's more you can do!

Step 1 is mining through the people you know/people you converse with over e-mail/anyone really and asking them if you can add them to your e-mail list. I sometimes shy away from forward actions like this, but I think I'm gonna do it! It's important for me to try and promote (without being obnoxious...)

Another interesting idea is putting time aside to work on building the mailing list. Again, I thought this was something that could only happen when I had gigs. I'm going to put some time aside, and see what I can get done.

Another interesting idea is getting people to sign up for the list at gigs by offering a prize (free CD?!?) I'm definitely gonna try this at my next gig. I think this can work for sure!

Again, I thought I had this covered, but I've realized there's so much more I can do! So, instead of writing about it, I'm gonna do it.

Wanna be on my e-mail list? Go to www.ernestocervini.com and sign up! You'll get a free download of my NYC jazz trio MEM3 performing live in Edmonton, AB

Blog Challenge - Week 6

So, I'm still a little behind, but I'm doing my best to catch up....

This weeks chapter is about e-mail newsletters.

I've recently started focusing on sending out better e-mails, and building an e-mail list. In fact, one of the goals I set in week 1 was getting 500 names on my e-mail list. Right now, I'm at 418. If you're reading this, and you're not on my e-mail list, please go sign up! You can get a free download of my quartet live in action...

The chapter focuses on not just e-mailing people to say "HERE'S WHAT I'M UP TO, HERE'S WHAT I'M UP TO , BUY MY STUFF, COME TO MY CONCERTS!!!" We need to remember that at the end of the day people are always looking out for #1. So, these e-mails should offer some sort of nuggets of info, and other things to engage people.

Newsletters should have 3 parts...
Greeting (hello, it's me, I'm here)
Guts (the reason for the newsletter ie. I'm on tour, these are the gigs....)
Getting

Getting is the interesting one to me. That's where you engage the reader. Offer something unexpected, like recommending a cool book, or recipe, or album you just discovered. Or give something away for free, like a new live track.

I'm looking forward to doing my December newsletter (in the next couple of days.) I have all sorts of ideas!

Blog Challenge - Week 5

Oh Dear!

It has been far too long! I've continued to read the book, "Music Success in 9 Weeks" but have been woefully behind in my blogging.

Alright, week 5 is about...Blogging! ha ha ha....oops

So, I'm not sure blogging is for me. I read a bunch of other peoples blogs, but I've tried this blogging thing a bunch of times now, and I can't really get into it. I'm doing much better at staying active on other social media outlets but (as you can see) blogging is still a bit of a struggle.

But, in the spirit of blogging, here are some great blogs I follow

Chris Donnelly
Nextbop
Peter Hum - Jazzblog.ca
Howard Berger on the Toronto Maple Leafs
Amy Cervini - Random thoughts

I will endeavor to continue blogging....the challenge continues!

Blog Challenge - Week 4

Week 4 in the book "Music Success in Nine Weeks" is all about internet social media. This chapter was available as a download immediately upon my purchase of the book, so I have had a head start. I've embraced Twitter, and Facebook. The application I haven't been able to get into is Flickr...which is funny, because I LOVE pictures. So, here's the plan. Instead of blogging any more about this, I'm going over to Flickr. I just finished a great Cross-Canada Tour with my quartet, and I have TONS of pictures.

I will update you on my progress!

Blog Challenge - Week 3

Week 3 of the blog challenge is about optimizing your website. There are six main points in the chapter.
1. Add the pitch to your website
2. Your site must load in less that 3.5 seconds
3. NO flash intros
4. Have a consistent look, name and feel all across the net
5. Give away an exclusive thing to satisfy the WIIFM (What's in it for me?)
6. Make it clear and set them at ease

So, I've been able to implement most of these things on my site, www.ernestocervini.com. I haven't added a pitch yet, as I'm still working on one. On a side note, I thought I'd be able to stay on top of all of this while I was on tour with my quartet. ha ha ha....not so!

My site does load quick, and there's no flash. I have a consistent look, and if you sign up for my mailing list, you get a free download of a live recording by my quartet.

Hooray! Week 4, here I come!

Blog Challenge - Week 2

So this week's chapter in the book "Music Success in 9 weeks" is about creating the perfect pitch. In my case, I think it would be a good idea to establish a pitch for both my quartet, and also my own playing.

Funny thing happened this morning. As you may or may not know, I'm currently on tour with my quartet, traveling across Canada. I was doing an interview this morning with a journalist in Kamloops in advance of our gig there this upcoming Saturday. The interview was going great, and towards the end, she asked me to describe my band and our music. This would have been a perfect time to unleash my "pitch." Unfortunately, as I've been on tour I've had a difficult time working on my pitch. SO, when she asked me for my description I was pretty stumped. I fell back on the..."well...we play modern jazz, mostly originals...it's a quartet." Finally I said "we are along the tradition of the Miles Davis quintet of the 60's." Suddenly, she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Now, I'm not really sure my quartet is exactly like the Miles quintet from the 60's...but it gave her (the journalist) an comparison, and she felt she had a much clearer idea of what we're about. Now, I just need to work on my pitch to make it fit the quartet a little more. Maybe something about how we swing like Miles' quintet playing original jazz compositions in the style of Dave Douglas and Kurt Rosenwinkel's bands.

Anyways, I've learned firsthand already that a pitch is a very useful tool. I'll let you know when I come up with something....I gots some work to do!

Blog Challenge - Week 1

So, I've been reading this book entitled "Music Success in Nine Weeks" by Ariel Hyatt. The book is a "Step-By-Step Guide On How to Use Social Media & Online Tactics to Supercharge Your PR, Build Your Fan Base and Earn More Money."

So, far I'm really into it. When I bought it, it came with a downloadable file which serves as a precursor to the book entitled "A Musicians Guide to Social Media Success." I dove into this right away and have been implementing many suggestions that were in the guide. First off, I stream-lined all my social media outlets (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) so that I had the same username. I also implemented a free download on my website for anybody that signs up to be on my mailing list. I've opened a Flickr account (although I've yet to really start using that) and I've become much more active on Twitter.

Week 1 of the book focuses on setting goals. I bought myself a nice notebook and wrote down some solid music, financial, business, and personal goals for the next year. I'm happy to say I've already achieved one! I had 30 fans on my Quartet's Facebook page and I set a goal of getting 75 fans. I now have 160 fans and counting! I'm pretty sure that has no tangible meaning, but I set a goal and I achieved it. I've realized a more useful goal (rather than FB fans) is names on my mailing list because I can reach out and contact these people on a more real and direct level. My goal is 500 names on my mailing list. That'll be a pretty tall order, but I'm going on tour this Friday for 2 weeks with the quartet, so I'll be hoping to get some names and e-mail addresses from each stop along the way.

The next post will be from Edmonton. You can keep up with the quartet on my travel blog!

Inspirations

I have been inspired the past week, and it's felt great! A number of different things have inspired me; Seeing Brian Blade perform live (with Chick Corea), Listening to the Avishai Cohen album "Gently Disturbed", Watching Roy Halladay pitch a no-hitter in the playoffs, reading Music Success in 9 Weeks (by Ariel Hyatt.)

Brian Blade
Wow, he is such an explosive drummer. I realized that one of the main things I found so captivating about his playing was his dynamic contrasts. He sizzles along and cooks and then, BAM! he drops a bomb out of nowhere. When he hits his cymbals, he HITS his cymbals. He played his butt off with Chick Corea and Christian McBride the other night.

Avishai Cohen Trio - Gently Disturbed
I was introduced to this album the other week by my good friend, Tom Richards. I haven't stopped listening to it, nor have a listened to anything else since (literally.) The writing and playing on the album are both fantastic, and it's super-rhythmically complex. I'm really digging it, and I've already started writing a tune that it inspired.

Roy Halladay
A couple of months ago, Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies. I read about how he's one of the hardest working guys in the majors, and how the day after he threw the perfect game, he was the first person to the park to work out. That's how you succeed. Hard work...EVERY DAY. When he was a rookie with the Jays, things weren't working out for him, so they sent him back to Single-A ball (which is a huge demotion) to rework his game. And now, he's one of the best in the game. Hard work = success...Inspirational

Music Success in 9 Weeks
This book deals with getting your social media act in gear. When I ordered it, it came with a side book discussing different social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr) and how you can use these to your advantage. I've taken that to heart, and am spending some time focusing on cleaning up my social media....stuff. In terms of the book, I will be blogging a lot more about it over the next 2-3 months....

Being inspired is a wonderful feeling. The challenge is to keep this going....

A new challenge

I recently purchase a book called "Music Success in Nine Weeks." Contrary to the title, I don't believe this will make me a successful musician in 9 weeks. I'm pretty sure years of musical training, inspiration and experience play a pretty large role in that!

The book is about embracing the Social Networking available online, and maximizing an artist's online presence. One part of this is a 9-week blog challenge, which I will be taking part in.

So, over the next 9 weeks I will be reading through the book and blogging about it. This may prove tricky right from the start, as I'm leaving on a Cross-Canada tour from Oct 15-30th. I'll be video blogging and taking tons of pictures that you can check it (if interested) at http://ernestotravelblog.blogspot.com/

Don't look now, but in 9 weeks I'm gonna be a Music Success!

failure?

hmmmm...haven't been updating this.

Perhaps it's just not that interesting...practicing, that is.  But maybe that's a cop-out.  Maybe I need to think more about practicing...maybe...I shouldn't try and continue to write this while I'm talking on the phone...

booooo

I will buckle down....see if I can make this happen for reals

Victory!

So, today I had a bit of an accomplishment that I'm very happy about.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've been working on transcribing a solo by Bill Stewart from Question and Answer (as recorded live with Pat Metheny.)  This solo was a bit of a mountain for me.  I think I started transcribing it 5 years ago.  I got a bit of the way in, and then gave up.  I started again last year, but again quit before I finished.  So, I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks and today I transcribed the last bunch of it and it's done!  Hooray! 
The next challenge is actually learning it.  But, that (somehow) doesn't seem nearly as daunting to me. 

Drum transcriptions are a funny thing.  For some reason I find transcribing them difficult to do.  Sax solos?  not a problem.

Anyways, I've already starting learning it, and I will continue...

Realistic

So, I've come up with another project to do.  I've decided that my knowledge of specific drummers is really low.   Therefore, I've chosed 6 drummers and will study each one in depth for 2 months.  The drummers I've chosen (in no particular order) are Elvin Jones, Bill Stewart, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Matt Wilson, Clarence Penn.  I decided to choose 3 modern drummers, and 3 legends. 

I've started with Bill Stewart (as I was already working on transcribing a solo of his.)  I'm working on lifting the drum solo from Question and Answer from Pat Metheny Trio Live.  Here's a link to the drum solo.  The plan is to transcribe solos, read some books/articles about them, watch some youtube videos (which I never do...) and listen to them a ton.  I've also written a tune that is inspired by one of Bill Stewart's tunes. 

Another thing I've realized (in my quest to consistency and musical maturity) is I need to keep my goals realistic.  Not that I don't want to push myself, but just be realistic.  Last year my New Years resolution was that I was going to practice every single day.  This isn't really a realistic goal.  Some days things come up, or I may be travelling, or whatever.  I've decided to be a little more loose with the interpretation of my goals, and set out to constantly improve.  Does that make any sense?  Well, it does to me.

One last thing.  I know this is a blog about practicing...but...I saw Avatar last night, and it rocked!  I can't stop thinking about it.  Good flick.

Warmup (as promised)

So, here it is.  I've been doing this warmup for the past 6 years.  I find it's a great way to warm up my muscles, and also to relax my mind.  I've recently toyed with putting in some other rudiments....we'll see

Delinquent

Already, I'm being a delinquent. But not in terms of my practicing, but just in terms of my blogging about my practicing. I have been working hard, and have been fostering many new ideas. My reason (excuse) for my absence is that I wanted to post my 15-minute warmup that I do every day, and right now I'm currently without Sibelius (the music notation software I use.) I will be getting a copy of it today, so the plan is to post the warmup tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am also a fan of many other blogs, including one written by my good friend, Chris Donnelly. In his most recent blog post he talks about writing down goals for the new year. This is a great idea, and something that I am doing this year. My goals aren't fully formed yet, but it is definitely getting me to think about some different musical goals.

I have a new little project I'm starting to work on that I'm kind of excited about. I'm going to lift Peri's Scope off of Bill Evans' "Portrait in Jazz." My plan is to learn the melody and solo on the drums, while playing Bill's comping rhythms in my feet. Should be fun!

Anyways, blah, blah, blah...tomorrow I will post the warmup.

Warmup

Week 1, Day 1

I haven't yet decided what format I'm going to use for this blog. I'm not sure if doing it every day is a realistic goal, nor am I sure that anybody would be interested in what I'm practicing every single day. It tends to be a little repetitive (which I guess is necessary.)
One thing I do every time I play is warm up.
It's like zen...a way to calm the mind, while warming up the muscles. I never had any patience to do this when I was younger. Now, I do it religiously, regardless of which instrument I'm playing. On piano, formula-pattern scales in all twelve keys. On clarinet, longtones and scales across the range of the instrument in all twelve keys.
On drums, I have a fifteen minute warmup that I came up with a couple of years ago. It's late now, so I'll spell it out tomorrow.
Anyways, that's what I worked on today. I've been dealing with a little pain in my right wrist (uh-oh....I hope it goes away soon!) so today I just did my warmup/maintenance.