After the post about Tiago Della Vega (aka the fastest guitar player in the world, right?), I have looked some more on YouTube to find more videos about him or similar performances. Well, I did find a few, but I have decided to write about something else today and that is branding in online presence.

The fact is that I am not a marketing professional, I have not studied marketing in school but I have become more and more aware of it’s importance over the last years, no matter what’s your field.

I had this post about why marketing a band is so much like blogging, I suggest you read it if you haven’t done it already, and today I have found appropriate to cover this subject from a more “practical” point of view, being motivated by a new discovery on YT.

The idea is simple: make yourself seen, come with a particular something that will help people identify you. There are many good musicians out there, most of them playing very good, but not always become known. Why is that? Because they don’t have an unique presence that help people identify them. Maybe it freaks you out when you see Marilyn Manson or other artists like him, but that guy has an unique presence and that helped him position himself well on this crowded market.

The fact is that a little something can make the difference, and this is where I come to the reason that started of this post: a lot of people promote themselves on YouTube these days. A camera and a computer and you have just about everything you need, right? But there are so many (not-famous)people that play or sing on YouTube, how many do you actually remember once you close the browser’s window?

Fretkillr rules!

Let’s see, from my point of view: fretkillr. I love this guy’s music and channel, I subscribed to it. But why do I come back? How did I manage to remember him the first time? OK, he has a lovely acoustic guitar music, but did you notice the fact that all the time he films himself from a particular position where only the guitar is seen but not him?

Did you notice that nobody knows his real identity, who this guy is, what’s his name, etc. This created a particular cloud of mystery around him, causing interest and people speaking about him and coming back to him.

We have here in Romania an example of a band that started as a project/experiment, nobody knowing who these guys were, nobody knowing they were even from Romania, and this caused a wave of interest. The guys made their identity public only about 6-7 months after the project started to work. And what do you know? By coincidence, they guy is from my city and we used to know each other 10 years ago from recording in the same studio here. That’s marketing.

The kitchen concerts

Also, an other example, not that successful, but interesting from the point of view of creating a name/identity: concerts from the kitchen! Right! This guy films himself singing and playing the guitar from his kitchen, creating a series of clips gathered under the name “concerts from the kitchen”. I think he changes angles and environment a bit too much on his videos, but if he would keep his “thing” he may be easily remembered as “the guy who sings in the kitchen”. Not much, but it creates him an identity!

Here’s the guy:

Sandi Thom, the girl that lived her dream

And as a 3rd and final example, a girl that made it big, Sandi Thom, if I am not mistaken, started having daily concerts from her basement, streaming these shows live on her website. An unique point of view and the strange location and the internet made her big. That’s marketing, right?

Do you know any more artists with unique presence on YouTube?

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These days I am in one of those periods where nothing really comes to me easy, in terms of inspiration, or whatever you want to call it…

I didn’t post anything yesterday because nothing came to my mind. Period. Yesterday evening while rehearsing with my band, I searched for a better “solution” for the guitar part of one new song and frankly it was not that great. Seems it is a general state, I guess it may be the weather, outside it is sunny and beautiful while I am in here…well…

I guess everybody faces such periods but in artistic environment they really suck! How about if you are a composer pressed to deliver a song by the end of the week and you don’t have any good phrase yet and nothing comes to mind? How about if you are a writer and feel empty of all those great ideas that used to come to your mind a few years ago?

I guess I am not the only one facing such periods, isn’t it? What do you do when it happens to you?

PS: You know, any answer you may come up with must be better than the one I saw on a funny poster, with a monkey squeezed in a corner saying (whenever I feel like working) I squeeze into this corner and wait for it to go, guess it won’t last forever…

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We have this popular TV show here in Romania, called Happy Hour, presented by a very popular guy here.

We have the TV show’s band that does a very good job on the show playing/singing every day.

We have this very popular and appreciated pop/jazz singer, with musical studies with a lot of international awards.

We have this stupid, low class, kitsch “musical” style that is played/sung by gypsies, but unfortunately appreciated by a lot of people. I won’t comment anymore about this. Don’t confuse this with traditional gypsy music, which is another kind of thing, but can be considered the root of the previous one, the “classy” version of it maybe?

Well, this classy girl has a big show with a big band and all the fuss where she plays a song with one of the famous singers of this crappy kitsch style, for “anti-discrimination” reasons, she says. OK.

Because of this show, she received a lot of negative appreciations and in my eyes she lost a  bit of my respect for doing this. That’s my opinion. It has nothing to do with discrimination, just that she shouldn’t have associated her name with that style. Period. But, again, this is my opinion.

She comes to that TV show, and she receives a very good treatment from the presenter (I say that since he respects good artists while the bad ones he just destroys right there on spot with no mercy in an hour of very high audience).

So she is invited to sing a song (a lot of the invited artists sing with the band of the show) and she starts to give sheet music to the guys in the band, here’s the one for guitar, here’s the one for drums…the guys in the band had their moment of confusion, clearly looked at the sheet music lost and with no clue and told her that they don’t read sheet music. Well, she says, the other band (my note: the low class, kitschy one) played the song on the first take from sheet music. But I didn’t want to embarrass you, sorry for that.

Sorry, my ass! She clearly wanted to make a stand but I don’t get it! You don’t go to a rock band (they are a rock band, even if in the show play mostly pop) with printed sheet music asking them to back you up live, right there on spot, in the most popular daily TV show and you say you didn’t try to embarrass them.

Because the guys admitted they can’t play on the first take the song, she sang with a negative (what I am sure she was prepared to do right from the start).

For me, the one who lost (again) here was the singer, not the band. You could say I am subjective, I can’t read music either. Doh, what a surprise! An electric guitar player who can’t read music! But if you really wanted to sing the song with the band, you could at least send them a copy of the song and the sheets before coming there, giving them a bit of time to get the song right. Otherwise it’s a situation where nobody really wins.

The band lost a bit of it’s shining look while the singer ended the show as the queen of music, extraordinary voice, master of piano, but with big issues on her popularity. She (still) is a very appreciated singer, but I think she should not do this kind of things anymore. She clearly wanted to make a stand, probably somebody from the band made some kind of joke on her singing with “the other band” and she wanted to make them pay for it.

Well, I think she payed for it also.

The video is right after they admitted they can’t read music and she used the negative. If you look behind her, some of the guys in the band still keep the papers in their hands (probably masking the guns pointed to her, or some kind of middle finger).

Here’s another one where she sings and plays the piano, for a full picture.

And because I believe in equity, here’s on of the videos of the band.

By the way, do you read sheet music or not?What’s your opinion on that?

Dr J, this question is not addressed to you

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A quick and happy(for me) news now: yesterday I placed an order for a brand new guitar!

Yep, for real! I ordered one of those modeling guitars that I’ve got so crazy about, I have ordered a Line 6 Variax 600 Blue, the guitar in the picture here.

But since the color is not so “usual”, they don’t have it on stock for the moment, so I have to wait for 2 weeks to bring it from wherever they bring it, Germany or UK, I think. I am usually the typical customer to buy a black (electric)guitar and in the beginning when I saw this color, i said WTF is that? The most stupid color ever!! I have first seen it on Fender, along with a crazy green, but after looking again and again, I’ve fallen in love with this color for good! It has a vintage look…

However, my band mates still think it looks stupid…

So, two long weeks of waiting…oh, well…

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This video is just unbelievable, I couldn’t believe it, really! And not for what they do here, but because I have realized how complex Queen’s music really is.

How many of the bands playing today would dare to cmopose and arange something of that complexity nowadays?

Well? What do you think?

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Recently I’ve felt a big joy, like some kind of balloon suddenly inflated inside me. This happened because I have suddenly felt proud about a particular thing that recently happened! Let me tell you about it:

I was traveling with my wife and a few friends by car a few weeks ago and listening music while driving. My friend was driving the car, his car, that is, and in the CD player it was one of his CDs, so his music, not mine. A bunch of great rock chops so I started some kind of “recognize the song/artist” game that almost all the time I won since none of my friends or my wife are really passionate about music or something. However, I could not stop myself “explaining” them what makes the difference between Santana’s sound and licks compared to Satriani or Slash. I didn’t think it will make much of a difference but I couldn’t help it not to observe one thing or an other related to the music that was playing.

And now the reason that started me…These last days I had the surprise to hear my wife telling me, while listening some music in the car, indeed, Santana has a particular sound that I now instantly recognize!!! Damn! I looked at her with THAT look on my face! Indeed, one of the recent songs of Santana was playing on the radio, I didn’t know the song, my wife didn’t know it either, but SHE RECOGNIZED THE GUITAR!

I should tell you, if this doesn’t seem like a big break through to you, that my wife does not know too much about guitars(other than hearing me playing) and she has no interest in rock music! She couldn’t tell a band from an other one, unless the band is one of the highly promoted monsters of rock that really is different one way or the other (something like Queen, Guns, probably Metallica, etc).

So I really felt like winning a really big battle this time, since she managed to recognize THE GUITAR PLAYER out of a feature song, you know, the kind of songs Santana makes lately, in a different style, with different singers.

I guess I feel like a teacher that realized his students payed attention.

Man, how good it feels!

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Kind of related to the post of a few days ago, I have thought about this reading IG’s last post where he has this guitar noodle as he calls it. Interesting piece, made me ask myself what would I have uploaded in his place?

The song he uploaded there is a nice piece, with 2 tracks, but can not be categorized as solo and rhythm, but more like 2 rhythm guitar tracks playing together creating a nice warm feeling. Now, did you notice that when you ask a guitar player to record something, on his own, he will probably go for a solo over rhythm piece?

I am actually more and more interested these days in lovely rhythm parts, than solo parts. Solo is good, everybody loves solo guitar tracks, I know I do and you probably love them also since you read these lines. But in some cases, a good rhythm piece is way better than the solo part, for the overall weight of the song.

Now, if I would ask you to record and upload something, what would you go for?

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Last night I was at a wedding party. Actually, it was all day long cause a cousin of my wife’s got married, but what made me write this post was the actual party, not the paperwork or religious service.

So, a short overview of what Romanian wedding music means: usually there are 2 main traditional dance styles in Romania that are suited for weddings, a faster one and a middle paced one. Both have speed variations, but basically these are the 2 main, period, both being traditional folkloric dances. There are also other regional variations, but wherever you go in Romania, if you are going to take part to a wedding, you’d better know to dance these 2.

Now, what this has got to do with music? All the (traditional)songs can be adapted to fit these 2 dance styles so you get to a point where no matter what you are singing, it works on one of these 2 styles. Both are 4/4 so it’s not that difficult. If you have seen my previous post about Romanian folkloric music you will understand me better. They both dance in large circles, usually a lot of people participate to these circles.

Now to get to my point: there was this band on stage, playing, when I got there. I didn’t give them too much attention since I was already tired and frankly I was also hungry, after a long day of running around with the groom and bride and barely waiting for the food.

But at one moment, the band managed to get my attention since they managed to play some common songs on a totally different rhythm than the original one. The original song had a rhythm where the singer had enough room to breath. Musically speaking, a song needs breaks, pauses for the voice, a song can not have the lyrics chained one to the other, since nobody will understand anything from it. Well, this was the case with a few songs there. Imagine a fast paced dance, fast measures, where one sentence ends at the end of the measure and the next one starts right in the beginning of the next one, forced by the rhythm.

This was a mistake, since they forced these songs on a rhythm that was not the original one. Honestly I couldn’t understand why they did it since the original songs were quite good, very known and were very “danceable”, which is always a good thing at weddings.

Well, now comes the second part of my frustration: given these fast measures and lyrics that ended at the exact end of the measure, the singer actually didn’t have the time to start the next verse in the beginning of the next measure, on the first beat because she needed to breath, so…she let one more beat to go!! So, instead of starting on the first beat of the second measure, she started on the 2nd or on the 3rd, starting counting an other measure from there!!

For me it was frustrating, even if I didn’t pay too much attention to them, the songs have a fluency and a rhythm that leads you and you start feeling it at one point. When the measures are not well respected, you feel it effortlessly. I guess it has to do with your inner mathematical/musical sense.

After a while I realized this girl that was singing had quite a habit of not counting the beats in measures, even if she had all the time in the world to breath. So, it was quite frequent to start singing on the 2nd or 3rd beat instead of the first beat of the next measure and start counting from there and this happened no matter the rhythm of the song. For God’s sake, woman, count! Damn it!

I remember I had an experience with a girl singing in my band about 10 years ago, we had this song that had 8 measures in the beginning of it, measures that had a particular meaning, a melody that justified those exact 8 measures there! Well, she didn’t count too well, almost each time we played that song, on stage, she counted till 4 or 6 instead of 8 and started singing. The only good thing it was the fact that the chord was the same as the one where she should have started singing so we quickly played along exchanging glances! Damn, woman, count! Damn it!

Well, after a few bottles of wine with friends and family, these things were overcome, since overall, the singer didn’t sing flat or anything like this, she had a good voice, I think her math was not very good(considering counting beats in a 4/4 measure), or breathing sense, but they kept a good spirit for the audience and the songs were good.

I came back in the morning with a small headache, but not because of the music. This was from the Whiskey and wine, I guess. Too many glasses of wine?

But, well, again…who’s counting? Damn it, woman!

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Stage names are usual and after a while using them, nobody actually remembers the real name behind the artist. It would be very interesting to take a little quiz here… Let’s see:

1) Name the English singer, guitar player and songwriter born on 30 September 1947, become very famous in English rock music in the 70’s and died in the year I was born. Well, nobody said it is going to be easy, ok? Real name: Mark Feld, hint: Jurassic Park.

2) Name the guy behind the name Paul David Hewson. Born in 1960 in Dublin, raised in Dublin also, became one of the most influential lead singers of present day. Hint: humanitarian work, involvement, military outfit

3) Name the American singer and songwriter that was born in 1948 under the name Vincent Furnier (that’s funny, his name really does not represent him at all!) whose career spans five decades.The stage show features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood and boa constrictors. Hint: paint,horror,recorded an “aria” of the world famous Jesus Christ Superstar but not being part of the original show.

4) Now that’s old, you fans of vintage things must know this one: born in 1936, died in 1959, pioneer of rock and roll, inspiration source for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The name: Charles Hardin Holley. Hint: Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 13 on a list of 100 most influential artists of all time. That must mean something, right?

5) Ooo, this is good: Lars Lannerback. Really good! Guess the man! Born in 1963, icon of rock music, I won’t say the style cause you’ll nail it at once, reports he was “born”(as a guitar player) the day Jimi Hendrix died. Hint: Fender, scalloped fretboard, Speedy Gonzales

6) Another tricky one: Farrokh Bulsara. Would you believe this guy is one of the most famous rock singers!? Born in 1946 in Zanzibar, died, but again, I don’t say the year. Trademarked voice, trademarked band style, stage presence, shows. Hint: not of the stone age, trademarked guitar for his famous band mate, big shows, George Michael, Paul Rodgers, teeth

7) Born 1947, James Newell Osterberg, Jr is an American singer, songwriter and an occasional actor. Considered to be an innovator of punk rock and garage rock, he is sometimes referred to by the nicknames “the Godfather of Punk” and “the Rock Iguana”, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most dynamic stage performers, as Wikipedia says. Hint: bare-chested

After being one of the most famous rock singers around, William Bailey got into a long period of struggling, studio work and re-branding. Turbulent, left the stage more than once, unique, inimitable voice, he is the branded voice of some of the most famous hits in modern rock music. Hint: Dr Pepper,13 years

9) Born in 1958, Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna, Jr. is an American bassist, author, photographer, and the main songwriter for the rock band…na, na, na…it won’t be that easy! He usually plays Gibson Thunderbird Reverse Basses, and had his own signature bass produced by Gibson. Hint: 12-string basses, Playboy

10) Name the guitar player born in 1967 as Jeffrey Phillip Wiedlandt. Tough, rugged look, branded Gibson guitar, unique playing style, a worldwide guitar icon, he is most known for his work with some…let’s say TV reality show star…Hint: bulls-eye,his biggest influence is the very guitar player he replaced in the same band. Now that is interesting…

So, let me hear you! Who are those guys? Do you know your stuff? By the way, Stumble and Digg me!

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I have seen a lot of guitar players that play rock, blues or jazz having not so good opinions about alternative music bands, nu metal, etc. The fact is that I had myself my share of fast judgment related to some bands and honestly I feel bad for kind of rushing into judging them. Now, after this small mea culpa, let me tell you the point of this post: we work since a few days a song that is new and at the same time, old, meaning that it has been composed about 4-5 years ago, has been played a few times, but then kind of forgotten. Now we try to bring new life to it.

The fact is that we used to refer to this song by the name Rolling, as in Limp Bizkit’ Rolling due to drum line. Now, when I started playing the guitar line, I realized I need something new, some new approach, to match the drums and the bass line. Everything must sound new, I need some strange sounds, some interesting chords to dress up a very simple progression, Em, C, D…

I have started to listen Limp Bizkit, Korn, Guano Apes to see how they do it and what makes them sound the way they do. Beside the over processed guitar, in most cases, the chords use some interesting forms and turns, that, again, don’t come naturally to me, but surely provoke me.

I have come up with something that IMO sounds as it should, but I kept on thinking about this.

Actually, modern music, nu metal, alternative music, all these are not simple to create, despite what an experienced guitar player might think at a first glance. I am sure that if you are used to play pentatonic scales, blues and fast solos, you might face a problem trying to put up a simple alternative song, because your brain doesn’t think that way.

The fact is that I was listening yesterday, I think, something on YT, but I don’t remember where or what, I just remember what the guy said: “they don’t have the experience, so young people can not do anything else but being creative!”

I can’t help thinking about Metallica and that album that changed their musical direction a few years ago, I presume it was not easy for them to be creative on a new musical direction, preserving at the same time their branded sound.

So, let’s do the following exercise and then come back and comment here: listen one of the new bands that you hear these days (I don’t speak about Blink 182, OK?), take Guano apes or Korn and try to come up with a few riffs that match their music. Put yourself in the place of their guitar player and try to enrich the song.

Well, do you still think it is easy? The interesting part is that it is not about technical knowledge, even if a good chords theory helps a lot, but it is about creativity and breaking new grounds! And if you think at one moment that if it is just about power chords, listen carefully again

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