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Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 12-13-2008

   Every week at Live Musician Central I pick some of the top new releases available for you to download from both iTunes and Amazon.com music service. These new release choices reflect the heaviest music industry marketing. There are two reasons I post up the most heavily music industry marketed albums. First, by checking out these releases you’ll be able to keep a finger on the pulse of the mainstream music industry. It’s still a very powerful business that heavily influences peoples buying choices. The second reason is that a large number of people are going to know these albums. So if your band is looking for new music to put in your bands setlist these would be good choices simply because your chance of people knowing the songs at your shows will be very high. You’ll also look very on top of things and current with your knowledge of music. So these albums are a great resource for your song selection. I will also post up links to top selling albums of all time for the reason of song selection as well.

   I use links to both iTunes and Amazon.com. iTunes is now the top music retailer in the U.S. so it goes without saying that people are going to be downloading their recommended new releases. I put links up from Amazon.com because their music service is an incredible bargain and their MP3’s are DRM free. You can save a bundle downloading entire albums from Amazon.com over iTunes. Amazon.com MP3’s are also ripped at an excellent sounding 256kbps and since they’re DRM free you can play them on multiple MP3 players including iPods and iPhones.

   This week we’re also featuring some great gift idea’s from iTunes!

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Get Your Band Focused By Scheduling A Gig

In Stereo Gigging The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City

Nothing, and I mean nothing, will have your live band working together like having a gig scheduled. When you have a deadline for a performance the whole band will suddenly become more focused on creating a great final product to present at the show. The constant tweaking of parts will stop, songs that just aren’t coming together will be dropped and the songs you do well will really start to get tight. Having an upcoming gig will give your band a sense of urgency that really will help you to polish things up and make them presentable. (more…)
Save Money With Great Christmas Deals On Music Equipment

There are still some excellent deals on music equipment for the live musician on your shopping list. The best online music equipment retailers are really giving out some great deals that can save you a bunch of money. Another thing to remember is if you buy your equipment before the end of 2008, you can deduct your equipment expenses on your tax return this tax season. (Which reminds me, I have some cash from gigs that I still need to spend…) Anyway, check out the great deals going on right now at Musician’s Friend, Music123, ZZounds and iTunes.
Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert – Bass and Guitar Duel

Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert

This clip is of bass playing genius Billy Sheehan and guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert. These two great live musicians played together in their band, Mr. Big. One of the highlights of the show is when the two players took center stage and solo’d on their respective instruments.

This clip is a great example of two extreme players going back and forth and doing some truly incredible stuff. It’s long, but worth the watch. (more…)
The Guitar Player Repair Guide Review

Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine

The most beloved possession any live musician will own and take care of is their instrument. Playing in a live band over the years I’ve seen guys play on the most beat up and improperly setup instruments you could imagine. They still loved them but they loved them even more when they were setup correctly. I’ve been setting my own guitars up now for about 20 years and I have become extremely good at it. My guitars really play silky smooth. I take the time to properly set up the string height, pickup height, neck relief and intonation as well as maintain my guitars very methodically. I set my students guitars up for them and they often say “I didn’t know my guitar could be so easy to play!”.

Today I want to tell you about one of the most valuable books in my collection. It is by legendary guitar builder and repairman, Dan Erlewine. I bought his book “The Guitar Player Repair Guide” when I was about 19 years old and it has been very well used over the years. This book is packed with information about setting up, maintaining and repairing electric and acoustic guitars. It covers Fender style bridges, Floyd Rose style bridges and Les Paul style bridges. It goes in depth about how to setup each type of guitar as well. (more…)
Playing Christmas Gigs: Good Times, Good Pay, Good Marketing

Playing A Christmas Gig

For live performing musicians, Christmas gigs can be the most lucrative and funnest gigs of the entire year. There’s just something about the season that brings out the best in people. Some of the best times I’ve had at gigs are the ones I’ve played right around Christmas. The celebratory and giving spirit of the season seems to really affect the club owners and especially the audiences at this time of year.

A good show is really the coming together of the performer and the audience. Around the holidays people are just ready to relax and have a good time. This really becomes evident as you play gigs around the holidays. The audience is so eager to celebrate that our jobs as entertainers become much easier. You can really draw on the audience for that extra push of energy to take your show to the next level. Having a successful gig at Christmas is as easy as keeping things light and happy onstage. You don’t even have to play exceptionally well as long as you’re having a good time. It’s a great time to market your band because people will remember you if they have had a really good time. Associating your band with good memories is fantastic marketing. (more…)
Sunday Funnies – Bad Singing At Its Worst

I feel like you should never label anyone as the worlds worst singer. I believe that since every voice is unique that labeling and categorizing voices is simply a lame practice. That being said, singing skill level is definitely something that we can rate. So Robert Conway here gives it a good try, but his skill level is quite low. Thank heaven this young man has a good paying job at a chicken factory. His cover of Aqua’s Barbie Girl is hilarious though and I do think some background music and echo would have helped his performance immensely. Enjoy! (more…)
Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 12-5-2008

   Britney Spears new album Circus is out and it’s Christmas so why not treat yourself to some great music downloads. With Amazon.com’s DRM free MP3 downloads you can even download from Amazon and give it away as a Christmas present. As usual, every weekend here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know. It’s a good idea to have them on your MP3 player at gigs so you can test them out on an audience before you spend the time learning them. The album picks can make great break music.

   We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central. A really great thing about Amazon.com’s DRM free downloads is you can download the album, then give it as a Christmas present. I know I said that before, but it bears repeating!

     I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album.
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Should I Get Guitar Lessons?

Matt Plays Guitar Like A Keyboard

I get asked this question all the time “Should I get guitar lessons?” and it’s a question that’s quite tricky to answer. As soon as people find out that I’m a performing live musician they ask if I had music lessons. The reason these questions are tricky is because I did take music lessons in general but I’ve only taken about 4 formal guitar lessons in my life and that was because it was required in my college music studies. I’m a self taught guitarist, it’s my best instrument and I play guitar professionally in two bands. So when I tell people, yes they should get guitar lessons, it’s hard to justify formal guitar lessons from my personal experience since I never really had them. I’m going to answer the, should I get guitar lessons, question today on the blog.

The answer is different for everyone and it depends on what other musical training you’ve had. Let’s start off easy, if you’ve never had any musical training on any other instrument then yes, you should definitely get guitar lessons right now and hang in there taking the lessons until you have a good command of the guitar and a really good grasp of guitar theory and music theory. (more…)
Last Chance To Save $200 From Musicians Friend

So you want that Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster? Or maybe you’re really itching to buy the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier that I’ve been talking about? Well, through December 2, 2008 you can save $200 on these items. Not only that, but you can get Free Shipping as well. I’m telling you, now is the time to buy those big ticket items. Hurry because this sale is ending December 2, 2008.

UPDATE! Well, you missed the $200 off sale, but Musician’s Friend is now offering fabulous holiday deals on all kinds of equipment. So you can still find great deals at Musician’s Friend. They’ve also broken down the categories into specific price ranges. Click on the banner below to see all the great deals at Musician’s Friend.