Art and The Emotional Rollercoaster

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This is how music, movies, or a book should make you feel. Especially on the highs and lows of the action and drama.

Artists and musicians alike really need to focus on providing  an intense emotional rollercoaster in every product they manufacture.

Never waste an opportunity to give your audience a jolt of surprise on every page, every song, every scene, or every painting.

The growth of your audience depends on their undivided attention and their undivided attention depends on you and how you capture, maintain, and command their attention with artistic magic.

Every piece should encapsulate at least one unique elements that adds an effective aesthetic thrill for the readers or audience on the order of magnitude of what you'll see in this video.

 

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Related Music:

Skydive

Auto-Hypnosis

The Zealot

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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The Basics of Alternate Tuning

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DOWNLOAD “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler FOR FREE.” To get your FREE full-length album…click here.
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The universe of alternate tunings is a fascinating subject for a guitarist. Alternate tuning encompasses two areas: microtones and Western tuning. In Western tuning, you find that only 12 notes are used to create almost all of the music you can find today in analog or digital formats. With microtones, you find that the note variation can virtually be limitless. Microtones as a whole include the 12 notes in Western music, the notes in between those 12 notes, as well as every other frequency which can be produced with a musical instrument within the range of human hearing.

For a guitarist, the 12 notes appear on the fret board of a guitar usually as standard tuning. Its standard tuning that produces the scale and chord shapes all student of the guitar learn from their first day of training.  I suspect that nearly 90% of all guitarists never explore alternate tunings or microtones, but instead always use standard tuning for every one of their compositions. There’s nothing wrong with composing in standard tuning, but composing in standard tuning has its limitations and drawbacks.

First of all, it’s too easy to get lazy about learning new ways to use the guitar. And once you get lazy about anything it’s typical to fall into boredom because there’s no challenge, and because you’re not being challenged, you can become frustrated. When you can’t find anything new and everything kind of sounds the same, it’s hard to come back up because you lose interest. Now while there might be lots of techniques to learn to make your playing sound better or different, you never really learn anything new about the guitar, fret board, or tuning. So the only options available to a guitarist to get new sounds out of standard tuning is through learning more techniques, different styles (blues, jazz, Bossa nova, etc.), and using pedals (electronics). Without these approaches the sound of the guitar will essentially sound and feel the same.

Alternate tuning techniques offer a great way to open up new sonic possibilities on the guitar. Many professional self-taught and underrated guitarists recommend alternate tuning techniques to their students who feel stagnant about their creativity with the guitar. It’s because alternate tunings force them to learn new scale and chord shapes as if they were new to the guitar except the difference is that they have all the training of an intermediate or advanced player. The moment you change the low “E” string down to a “C” or tune the second and third strings to the “A” note, you simultaneously changed the entire structure of the fret board. In the blink of an eye, all of the scale and chord shapes you learned no longer apply.

One thing I like to do sometimes is remove or change the sequence of strings on my guitars. For example, I have one guitar that I use to explore microtonal music, which only has the 4 middle strings of the guitar. On another guitar I recently acquired I found that the guitar was missing the “D” string. When I unveiled this guitar I held it for a few minutes and started playing it. After some minor adjustments to the strings I found several beginnings to new material that needs further shaping. But my immediate reaction to why someone was getting rid of it were “This person was only able to play the guitar one way. They were not able to find the music the guitar wanted to make, for whatever reason he wasn’t able to hear the guitar,” so that’s why they were throwing it away. So this guitar only has 5 strings, two low strings, and three higher strings with a gap between the 3^rd and 5^th strings. Needless to say I’ve kept it this way and am using it for further alternate tuning study.

There are terrific little booklets available on- or off-line that recommend different string settings, so if you find yourself a bit overwhelmed at first, get a copy of one and try the recommended tunings in the book. And remember if you find yourself writing new material in an alternate tuning ALWAYS take notes and write down the tuning you used for that piece. Two of my favorite alternate tunings are EADAAE for six strings and for 5 strings, ADGB and E(flat), removing the 6^th string. Try them. But if you collect guitars then you might get to a point where you always use 1 or 2 of your other guitars specifically for exploring alternate tuning. Now if you’re determined you’ll have to let your training, your hands, your ears, and your mind guide you through the new fret board environment. Many guitarists who use this angle of approach report that a lot of new material pours out of their guitars every time they change tunings. And I have no doubt that the same will happen for you. The most wonderful thing about using alternate tuning techniques is that the guitar can never get old. With alternate tuning techniques you must be active beyond just playing notes and using various style techniques, instead you must also reformat the fret board to a given mood or changes in preference.

In Classical Indian music, the sitar players call this approach to tuning for mood, times of the year, and song type – ragas. Ragas are the ultimate alternate tuning system developed over thousands of years. Modern guitarist can benefit from knowing a little about how ragas are used to give the artist even more freedom of expression on their chosen instrument. With alternate tuning you’ll also find that the resonance quality of your guitars will change dramatically, and in some cases they may even sound like completely different guitars. Also, harmonies will shift so you might find open strings or doubled notes adding unusual characteristics to your composing. Even distant notes sometimes come within reach to give you access to strange scale shapes that leap rather than step up one note at a time. Through it all if you decide to try alternate tuning you’ll notice your interest in the guitar will increase, you’ll think more about the guitar, your ear and pattern recognition will improve, and you’ll feel like you’re on a path of discovery.

To help get you going in this new field of creativity, here’s a quick video showing how easy it is to set up a new tuning and what kind of attitude is best for using this approach to playing the guitar. I hope you enjoy it.

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Related Music (in alternate tunings):

DirtSlow

Snake

Jaam
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Related Articles:

The Definitions and Applications of Microtonal Music (Part1)

The Essence of Music: Frequency, Timbre, and the Organization of Sound
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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/


To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation, click here.

“Crossroads” Guitar Battle – Steve Vai vs. The Karate Kid

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Besides the strong association that we make between the Karate Kid and every time we see Ralph Macchio in another role, the movie “Crossroads” was surprisingly well done. Although the movie is at least two decades old, it’s still a good movie about the passion music can fill a person with for learning about it, composing it and performing it live. Like most movies about music, this one too is timeless. You can watch it at any time in the future and still feel that it’s a relevant film for musicians and composers in any age or era. Albeit, it would probably be viewed for the human interest and most notably the history of Blues music.

“Crossroads” is a story about a young man who wants to come into his own as a guitarist and in order to do so begins a journey of self-discovery. He enlists the assistance of a guide and along the way starts to develop a love interest with a wayward young woman. Much of the music that gets performed within the movie as part of the plot is very well done, especially the pieces with slide guitar. [Note: The original score was written by legendary guitarist and film composer Ry Cooder. Check out his score for the long forgotten movie “Trespass.”]

As the journey finally reaches its end, the climax scene features a guitar battle between Steve Vai (virtuoso shredder) and The Karate Kid. At first from the looks of things it appears that the Kid is in over his head, but in the end defeats the master guitarist with the one ace in his pocket – his classical guitar training, which you’ll remember from earlier in the film. The feel and look of this film is similar to that of “Ray” and “Black Snake Moan.”

Marc

http://stereothesis.com/




To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation, click here.

Tom Cruise in Minority Report – Sonic Weapons

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This is a wonderful example of a sonic weapon in action. Many of you who may have seen the movie Minority Report may remember one of the fight scenes where Tom Cruise uses a “shotgun-like” sonic impulse weapon that throws back an object hit by its sonic burst. In the movie, the weapon appears to be non-lethal, but provides sufficient protection to shock or ward off an enemy long enough for you to get away from the dangerous area. Now if only they could manufacture these weapons as a handgun and lower their price per unit and get them into Walmart and Costco.

I think they’d be a big seller and I’d certainly buy one.

What do you think?

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Related Article:

The Sonic Weapon of Vladimir Gavreau

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

The Sound Artist’s Secret Weapon: The Mystery of Effects…Unveiled

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JOIN OUR MAILING LIST and GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler FOR FREE.” To get your FREE full-length album…click here. 
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Believe it or not it took me a long time to search for an adequate demonstration of how effects can be used to atmospheric or intensified sonic qualities for the guitar, voice, and other instruments. In this video, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ali Handal shows how easy it is to begin with a handful of effects and just by stepping on a single guitar pedal you can dramatically increase the force a guitar can put out emotionally and in terms of texture. As you watch this video pay attention to the way she describes the sound of each effect by itself and when blended with other effects. Watch how she talks about different effect families and which ones she classifies as “dirt,” “swirly,” and “pretty.”

Finally, pay extreme attention to the playful and experimental attitude she expresses as she tries out different combinations of effects just for the sake of finding out what they sound like. This playful or experimental attitude is so important during the invention or compositional phase of songwriting because it keeps us, as artist, open to new sounds and encourages us to learn how to use these sounds for new songs.

In my experience, whenever I come up with a new effect that seems impossible to control, I find that what I’m having a hard time doing is playing something I’ve already recorded or played with some other effect or without an effect, and trying to get the new sound to fit into an old or very different creative context. So what I’ve found is that sometimes when you combine effects and come up with a unique effect with unusual qualities, you have to treat the new sound as if it were an instrument and try to play the sound by letting it re-mold your typical playing style. In other words, you’ll sometimes have to relax and allow the sound to force you to play another way than you’re used to so that you can control the sound and eventually get something out of the effect.

So let’s see how Ali Handal goes about using some of her favorite pedals and develops interesting blends of sonic qualities.

So what did you think? If you got something from the video, leave a comment and share what you learned?

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Related Music:

Ghost Funk

Disco Orchestra

Palace of a Goddess

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Related Articles:

Music and Trance States of Mind

The Essence of Music: Frequency, Timbre, and the Organization of Sound

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/




To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation, click here.

Acoustic Levitation: The Amazing Science of Lifting Objects with Sound Vibrations

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Here’s an amazing video demonstration of how to make small objects float with sonic vibrations. I thought you might find these images very interesting and thought provoking. Some questions which came to my mind while I was watching this video included, “Would it be possible to levitate much larger objects such as a car on the road or a boat in water?” And “how much power would be required for such a feat?” I know hover crafts can go in and out of water and operate on land, but they float by the power of strong fans lifting the vehicle for travel. Levitation is quite another technology.

Sound can be defined as disturbances of particles in the air caused by objects vibrating at specific frequencies. So another question one can ask about the potentials of levitating large objects is: “what frequencies cause levitation with more efficiency.” But perhaps, it’s not really a matter of frequency at all. Maybe it’s more about volume or the focus of sound waves at an object or a combination of these two elements that create the right conditions for levitation.

Sound like all other natural phenomena has a variety of qualities and dynamics which can be harnessed for scientific purposes. Volume is just one of many dynamic qualities sound possesses. Volume in the case of sound means loudness or softness or the greater or lesser degree of output or vibrational magnitude. The dynamics of a greater or lesser degree of vibrational magnitude are easy to understand if you would compare the sensation of someone playing an acoustic guitar in your living room versus the way an electric guitar sounds at a rock concert. That’s a difference in volume; electricity increasing the magnitude of output for a sound source.

In contrast, the focus of sound is a more sophisticated concept concerning how sound is channeled or directed. One way to think about sonic focus is to compare 2 types of microphones. One type of microphone records sound within a very narrow field of focus, whereas another type records sound in a very wide field – sometimes 180 and even 360 degrees – around the microphone. The narrow field microphones can record at greater distances away from the input versus the wide field microphones, which tend to only be able to record sound with high fidelity up close. So if we think of reversing this process, instead of taking in sound for recording purposes, we’re going to imagine sending sounds out to a narrow or wide field of focus.

In life, most of the sounds we hear come from an overlapping of sources without much focus to the listener. What this means is that there is no such thing as a “cone of silence” in which we, and we alone, can hear any particular sound we want. Usually we hear sounds we don’t want to and others hear sounds we make without us wanting them to, thus there is no focus. Even earphones can leak sound when the volume is turned up high. But in the laboratory and with special techniques and tools it’s possible to take a pitch or frequency of sound and focus it like a beam of light into a narrow point, so that it hits an object with enough vibrational force to cause the object to fall over, shatter, heat up, or levitate.

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Related Music:

Skydive

Rockin' Bach

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Related Articles:

The Sonic Weapon of Vladimir Gavreau

Musical Warfare: How to Use Music as a Form of Torture and Assault

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

High and Low Tech Music Marketing – Music Marketing Tactics for Entrepreneurial Musicians

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JOIN OUR MAILING LIST and GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler FOR FREE.” To get your FREE full-length album…click here. 
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Here’s a short summary of some of the techniques I use and plan to use to increase my website traffic, sales, and brand recognition over time. These are some of the most successful actions ever designed which I’ve collected over many years of practice and study. These tactics can be added to your existing traffic generation strategies or used to improve the ones you already implement.

You will find that many of these techniques are quite obvious and common, while others are more sophisticated and technical. I thought you would benefit from seeing my list of profitable activities to assist you in developing your own. So check out these ideas and let me know how they can help you or someone you know.

Part 1: Off-Line Music Marketing

This approach to music marketing encompasses any activity that seeking to improve brand recognition or increase sales through marketing tactics that are used primarily through advertising, print media, incentive programs, and promotional materials.

Mini-CD’s, CD Demos, Free Digital Downloads

Mini-CD’s, CD demos, or free digital downloads available exclusively for VIP’s or supporters for their continued assistance and funding. Mini-CD’s, CD demos, and free digital downloads can also be used as music samplers for promotional uses. Place CD samples in music stores. Make a list of stores like Penny Lane, Amoeba, and other music stores like DJ record shops or indie record stores that are friendly to independent artist and offer them a small inventory of your CD sampler. Rather than wait for their customers to take one on a voluntary basis ask the store clerks if they can place one of them into every customer’s bag until they run out. This way you can be sure someone actually got one, but you’ve got to be willing to eat the expense. Remember free CD samplers should be a cheap, no-frills version of your professionally made albums. It should be nothing more and nothing less, just good free music to get buzz started and to spread. Include stickers, bumper stickers, hats, T-shirt and other paraphernalia to your list of promotional music products.

CD Compilations

Create a CD compilation with other artists and split costs with them.

Street Teams

Multiply your efforts by creating a volunteer street teams to promote your music project and provide them with incentives. Give incentives. It can be as simple as “For every 20 people a fan signs-up on the mailing list, they get a free T-shirt.”

Location, Location, Location

Good locations for passing out flyers and gig invitations are places like tourist’s areas, bazaars, fairs, stadium events, colleges, high schools, and popular local hang out spots. Take your free promotional flyers, CD samplers, and other promotional products and material and approach people at clubs either when they’re coming or leaving. Because most people generally favor specific types of music and the few have extensive music collections you’re more likely to get success with your promotional materials by locating clubs that play artists similar to your genre or style. So look for clubs that play music and acts with music similar to yours.

You could also approach film, photography, performing arts, video, and radio departments in colleges and vocational schools. Students in these departments may need to develop their skills in a variety of contexts for college credits and you might be able to receive free services in exchange. A number of quality and long-term industry relationships might begin from these sorts of experiences.

Try advertising on bus stops and small billboards if you've got the budget. Another clever but advanced strategy is to create a music event or movement (political, religious, or environmental) with your music or music project at the center. This strategy can only work if you've got the connections to pull it off or the organizational skill to make it happen.

Find alternate marketing channels like furniture stores, yoga studios, fitness studios, clothing stores, bookstores, upbeat places, cafes, restaurants, malls, festivals, etc. And don’t forget to always include your contact information in your promotional pieces such as an e-mail address and phone number.

Classifieds and Community Boards

Promote in newspaper or magazine classifieds and community boards where film makers are looking for new music and composers. Website designers looking for sound artist or composers for web design might also be another option.

Music Libraries

Music libraries can also offer a terrific source of additional income for you or your music project. Contact a company like iStock Music to get more information about qualifications and compensation. 

Part 2: On-Line Music Marketing

This approach to music marketing encompasses any activity that seeking to improve brand recognition or increase sales through marketing tactics that are used primarily on the Internet through article marketing, copywriting, parasitic marketing techniques, creating brand alliances, video marketing, blogging, generating digital mailing lists, and e-mail. 

Video, Music Blogging, Article Marketing, and Affiliate Programs

Start a blog or use article marketing as a platform to talk about music you like, music you’re making, music you finished, things you do beside music and ways your fans and supporters can connect with you. Article marketing can also drive unsolicited traffic to you from around the world with very little effort on your part.

A vlog (video blog) is another great way to expand your reach because it allows new people and long-time supporters to see you, which is very important because it adds an element of accessibility to your professional image. In your vlog you can make videos of you in the process of production, during the songwriting process, sharing musical sketches, and even performing covers of some of your musical influences.

And if you’re so inclined you can also talk about your craft and discuss topics such as how to compose electronic music, increasing one’s musical output, creating memorable melodies, beat matching (if you’re a DJ), starting out as musician, and developing a signature sound.

You can include a “Recommended Music” section in your blog or website and attempt to generate additional revenue from joining an affiliate marketing program like Amazon Affiliates or ClickBank. Furthermore, writing reviews on books and music can give you a way to show different sides of your personality while staying connected with your audience.

Remember to close every article, blog post, or video with a short pitch for your visitor to sign up for a FREE album or some kind of free gift.

Influence through On-Line Reviews

Commenting on the news or shares news about yourself, your music – new songs, albums, and future releases – are all great ways to keep your fans and supporters engaged in your musical development and progress.

Free Tools

Take advantage of free websites, blogs, and social media, especially Twitter. One Pager, Blogger, and Google Pages are all cheap and easy electronic tools to help funnel traffic to your main website. This is where much of your energy should go, which is to learn technical Internet marketing tactics to increase the effectiveness of your branding efforts such as understanding SEO and forging business alliances with other marketers and promoters.

Artistic Quotes

Use artistic quotes in order to turn your website or blog into a source of inspiration.

Mailing Lists and Artist Profiles

Build your mailing list and increase sales by learning how to write copy. To write copy is simply the art of selling in print. Your website, blog, articles, social media accounts, etc. are all excellent places to test your copywriting skills and find out what results you can achieve in generating and creating an on-line following.

Create a profile, press kit, or bio for your readers, fans, and supporters to use in promoting you. Provide a ready-made story for the readers of magazines.

Parasitic Marketing

Employ parasitic marketing strategies on Amazon, MySpace, Official Websites, YouTube, and Bandcamp. With Amazon, MySpace, YouTube, official websites, and message boards for established artists you can post reviews, add responses, leave comments, while simultaneously linking back to your profile or website to bleed traffic off from their site to yours. The reason this is called “parasitic marketing” is because you’re using someone else’s platform to get your message across.

In contrast, with Bandcamp what you can do is add an album roll of other artists on Bandcamp, link to other artists in the Bandcamp network, offer other Bandcamp artist’s free music downloads as free gifts to your audience, and occasionally change up the look and feel of your Bandcamp page.Any free music you make available for your growing audience should be set to ask for their e-mail address in exchange for their free digital music package. This step alone will separate serious fans from freeloaders who just want indiscriminate free stuff. This step will also provide you with an important piece of contact information that you can later use in your e-mail marketing campaigns to expand your audience and generate sales. Furthermore, your mailing list just might also be the beginning of your street team.

Part 3: Production and Business Services to Deepen Your Music Marketing Program

Audacity is a music recording and editing program that you can use to create ringtones and shortened versions of your songs for purposes like selling ringtones, and edits for T.V. and radio commercials.

Bandcamp is a great service that I also use as a point of purchase for my music. You can use this service to promote free music giveaways in exchange for e-mail addresses to build your mailing list and sell your music and merchandise.

Animoto is a terrific service that’s great for making commercials, ads, videos, photo film strips, to pair your music with images.

iContact is a contact management service that you can use to manage your growing personal and cold list of contacts. You use this service to send them a steady stream of communication regarding your interests, music news and progress.

Trusonic, Ricall, and Getuplayed are also wonderful services for licensing your music to businesses for royalties. Many other services such as these exist, but these are the only ones that I’ve had some experience with.

Reverbnation is another excellent service that takes your music and creates brand association with products and services that your music complements. This program also pays the artist a royalty.

Last.Fm has interesting marketing component for you because it allows artists to create playlist and a customized radio station to promote their own music such as the Stereo Thesis Radio Channel. I have yet to explore the possibilities this service has to offer, but I plan to discover whether or not it can be integrated into my promotion and marketing approaches.

Wikipedia – Getting a page on Wikipedia might be a bit tricky. I haven’t been able to get my own up for Stereo Thesis because of the following:

According to Wikipedia’s Notability guidelines, you must be a notable person in order to get an article. You have to be famous for something. If you're not famous, then you cannot get your own Wikipedia page. The guideline states that there must be several articles written by a third party about you. You must have some kind of sources or articles that are written by someone else like online or magazine articles written about you. Once you’ve accumulated enough third party sources about you, then you an attempt to create a Wikipedia page for yourself. So basically, the trick is all about getting a little press about yourself or music project to qualify for an article that might get approval from the people at Wikipedia.

Otherwise, if there are no articles or info available about you from third party sources, then you cannot have a Wikipedia page.

Bandzoogle – This is a website template service specifically geared towards musicians and the unique characteristics musicians need a website to have in order for us to properly display our image and artwork as well as providing us with a clean and simple user interface.

Echospin or Nimbit – These are 2 services that make it possible to sell your own music from your own website.

OnePager – Provides you with an additional knot in your marketing web by offering you another free space on the Internet to place your contact info.

Bonus Video: Seth Godin

To further assist you in developing a more detailed music marketing plan here’s a great video with Seth Godin, master marketer, noted author, and founder of Squidoo, discussing how to get your ideas, products, and music to spread like a virus. 

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Related Music:

Island Industry

Mystery Meat

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Related Articles:

The Music Gallery: Can Music Ever Be Valued As Fine Art?

The Cash Flow Quadrant - What Is It? And What Should It Mean to Musicians and other Artists

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P.S. To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation, click here.

Marc

http://stereothesis.com/