Another February is upon us and so thoughts turn to the RPM challenge.
I’ve signed up for it most of the last 6 years, but I never finish it. I wasn’t planning to attempt it this year, but then I got the welcoming e-mail from RPM that included the statement:
"Whether you're gearing up for your 10th RPM album, or wallowing in 10 years of sordid failure... RPM 2015 needs you!"
Which made me feel a lot better about all my failures, and I figured, what the heck, and signed up again.
The most successful I...
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Turns out I’m writing a multi-post series on getting my practice area up and running. In my last post I talked about what software and gadgets I find useful, today I’ll talk about how I’ve arranged my work space for the new year, and some of the other essential items I have on hand.
Now that I’m not renting exterior rehearsal space I’ve had to arrange a corner of my house for music practice. (Actually, there are more like 3 or 4 corners, but we’ll get to that.) One half of my bedroom is now my main work area. I...
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In my last post I mentioned my reliance on software to help me practice. I thought I’d go into a little more detail about what I use.
For starters I make heavy use of the alarm clock on my phone. I usually work on something for 10-30 minutes, so I set the alarm for that time. Within the alloted time, I often do speed exercices for 60 seconds at a time, for which the egg timer is essential. I also use a time sheet app to clock the time I spend on various musical activities.
I’m a big fan of...
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As I begin every year (and periodically throughout the year) I take a look at my practice routine and change what I’m doing. I really haven’t been happy with my routine for about the last six months and haven’t found a way to unstick, so I’ll be looking at what’s working, and what’s not working. One of the things that’s not working is the space in which I’m currently practising. We gave up our rehearsal space last year as we had moved across town, and while I’m no stranger to practising at home, I somehow haven’t been able to set...
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I just spent the week-end at the Canadian Music Week summit in Toronto. The highlight of the summit for me was seeing Martin Atkins speak. The panel discussions at these things are still generally geared towards those who are going for a more mainstream approach to the music industry, but Martin Atkins is very much the DIY poster boy. I’ve got his book “Tour:Smart And Break the Band” which I can’t recommend highly enough, and he gave out downloads for his new book “Welcome to the Music Business You’re Fucked” which I’m currently devouring.
I also attended the...
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