Archive for November, 2009
Articles Update! (recent articles published by Butler Productions)
by claybutlermusic on Nov.13, 2009, under Band Management, Career Building, Marketing & Promotion, Recording, Uncategorized
Greetings!
I wanted to make you all aware of some new articles that we’ve published elsewhere on the ‘net. Here’s a list of the most recent ones:
- How to use Acoustic Treatment to Improve the Learning Environment in your Classroom
- How to Build a Home Recording Studio
- How to Get Started with Computer Audio
- How to Earn Passive Income during a Recession
- How to Adjust a Bowed Neck on a Guitar
- How to Set the Intonation on an Electric Guitar
- How to Boost Traffic to your Website
- How to Get Paid for your Music
- How to Boost Band Revenue with a Merchandise Table
- How to Start Your Own Music Publishing Company
- How to Take your Worship Band to the Next Level
- How to Improve your Songwriting Skills
- How to Record Electric Guitar in the Home Studio
- How to Prepare your Band for a Recording Session
- How to Generate More Interest in Your Band with SEO
Other non-music related stuff:
- How to Cut Grocery Expenses during the Recession
- How to Compose a Professional Email
- How to Make an Insulated Cat House for the Winter
- How to Apply the Lord’s Prayer to your Daily Life
- How to Winterize your Home and Save Money
- How to Maintain Communication with Your Child’s Teacher
Don’t forget to tell your friends and bookmark! As always, comments are welcome. Happy reading!
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How to Get Paid for your Music
by claybutlermusic on Nov.06, 2009, under Career Building, Marketing & Promotion, Recording, Uncategorized
Here’s an article on How to Get Paid for your Music. It deals primarily with writers who are interested in getting their songs into film and television and earning royalties. Topics included are:
- Writing great songs
- Recording your songs
- Signing up with a Performing Rights Organization
- Registering songs with your PRO
- Registering songs with the Harry Fox Agency
- Independent A&R services
- Filing cue sheets
Anyone who is interested in making money from his or her music will find this article informative and useful.
Some related articles to this topic include:
How to Start your own Music Publishing Company
Need session players, singers, or voiceover for your recording project?
by claybutlermusic on Nov.06, 2009, under Recording, Uncategorized
Occasionally I post shameless self-promotional stuff. This is one of those times. On the up side, though, I thought it might be helpful to some of you guys doing recording projects that may be in need of session players but maybe didn’t know where to look. Well, look no further, my friends….Butler Productions Recording is here to serve you!
I’m currently taking sessions via the ‘net. Simply email an mp3 guide track, and receive a professionally recorded guitar or voiceover track that you can drop right into your recording project. You can choose to receive your files on a data CD-ROM or DVD-ROM by USPS or via FTP. Depending on the nature of your project and file size, you may be able to receive them via Email in a .zip file.
Contact me with project details and for booking. A 50% deposit is required upon booking the session. After your tracks are recorded, a low-resolution .mp3 “proof” of the performance will be sent to you for approval. To approve the performance, simply pay the balance of the session and your files will be sent to you promptly. Payments are made instantly and securely through PayPal.
We also work with other great session players in virtually any style, so feel free to inquire about other instruments as well. Butler Productions is here to serve you! Check out the complete scoop on www.butlerproductionsmultimedia.com/tracks
Rock on!
–CLAY
How-To Article: Boosting Band Revenue with a Merchandise Table
by claybutlermusic on Nov.05, 2009, under Band Management, Marketing & Promotion, Uncategorized
Greetings! I’ve just published an article on eHow on How to Boost Band Revenue with a Merchandise Table. After dealing with a couple of bands recently in a management capacity, I thought it was prudent to touch on this topic again. I’ve posted a similar article here on the Butler Productions Blog, but this one digs a little deeper. Here’s a brief overview:
- Treating your band like a business
- Accumulating product
- Dressing it up
- Keeping an organized cash box
- Manning the Table during the show
- Post show activity
Starting your own Music Publishing Company
by claybutlermusic on Nov.02, 2009, under Band Management, Career Building, For Businesses, Marketing & Promotion, Uncategorized
If you write your own music, it’s a wise idea to start your own music publishing company. Although you can utilize another publisher when licensing your music, you can double your profit by acting as your own publisher. It’s easier than you might think.
Taking your Worship Band to the Next Level
by claybutlermusic on Nov.01, 2009, under Band Management, For Worship, Music Theory, Uncategorized
Worship bands are becoming increasingly popular in today’s churches. While many worship bands truly have a heart for worship music and leading others, often they find themselves struggling when it comes to balance, sound, and overall musical cohesion. Here are some simple steps to help improve the quality of your praise and worship band.
STEP 1. Learn to listen to each other. The job of each musician is to fit appropriately within the context of the band. Doing so requires each member to be acutely aware of what each other member is playing. As you practice and “perform” (I’ll use that term, although we don’t consider worship as a performance), try to maintain an awareness of your musical surroundings by focusing less on simply your part and more on how your part fits in musically with the rest of the group.
STEP 2. Building on the listening aspect, the band should ensure that each instrument is playing in its own octave range. This means, for example, the keyboardist should not be playing in the same octave range of the acoustic guitarist. What this approach does is to give each instrument its own “sonic space”, so that each player is heard equally. Not only does this improve the overall blend of the band by eliminating sonic competition between instruments, it makes your sound tech’s job tremendously easier. Here’s an example: the bass takes the lowest octave range, the keyboard handles the lower midrange, the electric guitar shines in the midrange, and the acoustic guitar’s bright strum sound sparkles nicely in the higher frequency range (achieved with a combination of EQ and using the capo higher on the neck. While this is a very basic example, parts could swap places for difference songs, or even between different sections within the same song.
STEP 3. Pay close attention to the kick-bass relationship. This, again, requires those listening skills from Step 1. The relationship between the kick drum and bass guitar is extremely important. The drummer and bassist should always be listening to each other, playing the same (or complimentary) pattern. Although this sounds obvious, it is indeed surprising the number bands, particularly those with younger musicians, which don’t understand this principle.
STEP 4. Play in the holes. Between each line of the vocal, there’s generally a space that could be occupied with a musical fill. If the vocalist isn’t already doing ad-libs between each line, consider adding these fills with other instruments to lend a more polished sound. If you have both a keyboardist and a lead guitarist, for instance, have the keyboardist fill the holes in the verse, while the lead guitarist fills in the chorus. To hear an example of this step, try listening to any current pop, country, or contemporary Christian song.
STEP 5. Utilize density and dynamics. All instruments shouldn’t be playing full-on all the time. In fact, all instruments shouldn’t play playing all the time. Guide the congregation by manipulating the dynamics (intensity of playing) and the density (the number of instruments playing at a given time). Density can also be achieved in other ways, such as arpeggiating versus strumming chords. The band Hillsong are particularly strong in this regard during their live worship sets. Here are some Hillsong live DVDs.
STEP 6. Finally, don’t reinvent the wheel. Congregates relate to what they are familiar with. So, listen to other bands within the worship genre to find out what works and what doesn’t. Also, don’t be afraid to study other genres of music, such as pop, country, R&B, Gospel, and rock. Doing so will keep you musically current-sounding and relevant to your congregation. Much time, effort, and expense is spent crafting hit songs on current mainstream radio. Studying the mechanics of all these diverse genres of music will invariably give you a wealth of time-tested techniques to incorporate into your worship music.
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