I have been playing the ukulele for 7 months. I have regularly been playing my ukulele for 7 months. If you know my habits with learning to play instruments, this should surprise you.
Do I consider myself a musician? Yes. A good musician? Not typically (vocalist, perhaps). You see, I have a terrible tendency to give up on things that I can't master quickly, especially when it comes to music. I recently came to the realization that my ability to almost always sing whatever is thrown at me correctly is not normal, and that it is a gift. I've been able to sing well my entire life...it's always just been pretty easy. I like a challenge, vocally. It's fun to learn something tricky that I can't just do right away. When I get sick, and as I get older, I realize that voices don't normally just do whatever you want them to- they need to be trained, taken care of, and refined. I now value my ability to harmonize with pretty much anything, learn a song with only hearing it once or twice, and seldom sounding pitchy. The Lord blessed me with that gift. But since I didn't really see it as a gift when I was younger, I expected to be able to master anything musically when I was younger. When I couldn't play something well right away, I would just quit. I was not a fan of practicing. I regret that I didn't stick with stuff, but it did eventually lead me to the uke.
I like to say I play a little bit of everything. I know the basic chords of guitar, I can play piano somewhat decently (but ask me to use both my hands to play different rhythms isn't going to happen), I play the bass (but I don't practice, so I'm not that great), I used to play the clarinet, and I actually was pretty good at that (since I had to practice for school). But besides singing, I couldn't do anything well.
I have liked the ukulele for a long time, and really wanted to get one for some time, but I hadn't realized how cheap they were. I thought the uke would be relatively easy to stick with, since there are only 4 strings, so my fingers wouldn't have to do as many crazy things as they do when I play guitar, and they're just so fun-it would make practicing more enjoyable. As a graduation gift to myself, I bought a cheap, red, soprano ukulele. I'm happy to tell you that today there are only a few chords that I have yet to really master! I actually stuck with the instrument! Although you do have to practice if you want to get good, anyone can play the ukulele.
Even if you just strum the strings, you're playing a chord (Am7)! Since there are only 4 strings, some of the most frequently used chords only require using one finger (C, Am) or two (F, A). I could play songs (not perfectly, mind you) the very first day I bought my uke! Because you can quickly master some of the most frequently used chords, the uke is great for people who like to give up when they can't get something to sound good right away. People at all skill levels can pick up a uke for the first time and play something that sounds like actual music, and not just terrible noise.
You do need to practice, especially if you want to learn some of the harder chords (E, B, C#m), and strumming patterns can be tricky, but just knowing that you can play a few chords really well gives you more motivation to learn even more chords. When you're getting frustrated, just play C, Am, and F (and throw in a G if you want), get your confidence back up (and be soothed by the relaxing uke music), and then try again. When I was first starting out (and even now), I could find myself playing and practicing for 3 hours without even realizing it! Your fingers get sore, but not nearly as quickly as they do when playing guitar.
I'd recommend picking up a ukulele to pretty much anyone. You can get them for $30 (mine was $40), you can learn a handful of chords right away, and you can be guaranteed to have an instrument that doesn't make you want to quit playing after a few weeks. And now that the uke is once again gaining some mainstream popularity, it's a really great time to start learning!
If I can stick with it, you can.
Good luck!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
So You Want To Put Your Music Online
Hey there, readers!
Since this is my first post, I thought a good place to start would be where I started (well, not with playing music, but with promoting it)- the internet!
I, personally, was quite terrified of putting my music online. I was afraid of playing my stuff for friends, or even letting them read my lyrics! Besides church and the car, you would rarely hear me sing (legitimately). So, deciding to put myself, my work, and my dreams on the internet, with the possibility of epic failure in the form of YouTube slander, made me quite terrified, to say the least.
But when you have a dream- even just a pipe dream- you've gotta start somewhere, right?
I don't have any fancy recording equipment (heck, I don't even have a nice ukulele), but I decided to record some songs on the computer, just using a basic recording program. I've noticed a few websites where you can just record online and change a few of the audio settings, but I can't remember any specifically right now. Anyway, I was going to post a few songs on my (other) blog, so I looked up music hosting sites.
This led me to my first site: Soundcloud.
Soundcloud is great! There are a ton of options for posting, sharing, and discovering music. There's also quite a large range of users- from complete novices (like me), to really talented artists who are much more well known, but not necessarily mainstream (like a great band from London- The Staves). As far as I know, you can only upload audio (no video), but they accept nearly any audio format you can throw at them. The site is also quite easy to use. I don't use it that much anymore (I took most of my songs down because I didn't care for my recordings), since I would rather post higher quality music, but I would still highly recommend it.
About a month after I first started posting my music online, I decided to take the plunge and play at a local open mic night. I had a few songs to choose from, and I wanted the opinion of some friends on which ones I should pick. I also wanted to record videos, because I figured playing in front of a camera would be good practice. My next logical step, of course, was to then post my music on YouTube. YouTube doesn't need much explanation, since pretty much everyone knows about it at this point, but I do have some thoughts.
I like YouTube, and it's the site that I would hope to get the most hits on, but now that they've changed the way they promote music, it's really hard to get noticed without being active. The most views I currently have is, I believe, a little over 400 (in 9 weeks). All I did to promote that specific video was to add it as a video response on the original song I was covering. Let me say this- if you are covering a song, and there is a video on YouTube of the original song, POST YOUR VIDEO AS A RESPONSE! Most of my views on my cover songs come from posting my videos as a video response. Another way to be active is to get involved (at least somewhat) in the community. Don't just add friends and subscribe to channels for numbers, actually find people you like. If they like you, they may help promote you. Just don't spam. No one likes it. More could be said about YouTube, but let's move on.
Actually, it was on YouTube that I found out about this next site: Limebooth. They found me on YouTube, so I checked out their site. It's essentially YouTube for musicians only (actually, they have dancers and fans as well). It's pretty new, starting back in November 2010, and has only a couple thousand users (I think), but that's actually part of what makes it great. Limebooth has been my favorite site so far in my experience. Because they're new, you have a voice, and can help suggest ways to improve the site. The people there are very friendly, helpful, and supportive, and are great at giving feedback. You can easily import your videos from YouTube, or upload them from your computer (though they need to be smaller in size if you go that route).
Limebooth has a unique point system. You have to have so many points before being able to upload more videos. This can be frustrating at first, but if you have some talent, or people really just like you and follow you, or you comment and follow others like there's no tomorrow, you'll get points in no time. I haven't uploaded as many videos as I could with my points, but it's nice to know I have room to easily add 10 more videos anytime I want to. The nice part about the point system is that it encourages you to be active in the community, but it also is a form of constructive criticism in itself, since usually if you're good, you'll get more points. If you get more points, you can post more videos. This way, you can (I hate to say it) avoid having to watch a lot of really bad music from the same person, since they probably wont get a lot of points right away.
But I do have to say, sometimes the Limebooth crowd can be a little too nice. I think it's just so small that no one wants to say anything bad. There's nothing wrong with that, but it makes me take the more positive comments lightly.
But I do love the feedback and the community. The support I get is just awesome! It's great to have strangers become actual fans! This can be seen and felt much more on Limebooth than on YouTube. It's also much easier to see how your music ranks, since they have charts. I was number 4 on the Original Songs chart for a while! I really appreciate Limebooth promoting my music on twitter and facebook- they even wished me a happy birthday on twitter! If you want a supportive community, a place to collaborate with other musicians, or just want to discover some new music, you should head straight to Limebooth.
Another website that I found through YouTube is MusiciansTogether. They're a lot like Limebooth- same premise, similar feel and design, and also just starting out- but I haven't felt the same sense of community as I have on Limebooth. One aspect that I really like about MT is their online magazine that they just launched. It has great articles from pros, fun articles just because, and a site blog. It's not as easy to use, in my opinion, since you can't upload from youtube, but there isn't a point system. I've found more experienced users on MT who are happy to promote new music, but I just haven't been able to network and connect with others as well. I think it may have something to do with the layout and functionality of the site...I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, it's still good, and I'd suggest starting up an account.
Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to do something a little silly and create a Facebook Fan Page. I currently have 34 fans, and 6 of them are strangers, so that's pretty cool. Even though it hasn't taken off (I think you need a solid fan base on other sites before they like you enough to like you on Facebook), if you have people who are interested, feel like you're making progress with your music and promoting it, and have a little spare time to dedicate, I think creating a fan page is a good idea. I hope to get more fans eventually, but I need to keep building my fan base on other sites in the meantime.
I've been invited to a couple other sites with similar goals, but haven't joined them. They just don't flow as well or feel as welcoming and promising. Even though I'm still new on the music scene, I'm making some progress, and that's due mostly to the above sites. I'd recommend checking them out, if you haven't, and joining- even if you're just a fan. And, as you will have noticed if you clicked on the links, you can follow me on all of these sites! So please do, if you like my music :)
If you have any tips for posting your music online and gaining more fans, please let me know! I'd love to hear your advice and experiences.
Wow, that was quite a long first post!
Since this is my first post, I thought a good place to start would be where I started (well, not with playing music, but with promoting it)- the internet!
I, personally, was quite terrified of putting my music online. I was afraid of playing my stuff for friends, or even letting them read my lyrics! Besides church and the car, you would rarely hear me sing (legitimately). So, deciding to put myself, my work, and my dreams on the internet, with the possibility of epic failure in the form of YouTube slander, made me quite terrified, to say the least.
But when you have a dream- even just a pipe dream- you've gotta start somewhere, right?
I don't have any fancy recording equipment (heck, I don't even have a nice ukulele), but I decided to record some songs on the computer, just using a basic recording program. I've noticed a few websites where you can just record online and change a few of the audio settings, but I can't remember any specifically right now. Anyway, I was going to post a few songs on my (other) blog, so I looked up music hosting sites.
This led me to my first site: Soundcloud.
Soundcloud is great! There are a ton of options for posting, sharing, and discovering music. There's also quite a large range of users- from complete novices (like me), to really talented artists who are much more well known, but not necessarily mainstream (like a great band from London- The Staves). As far as I know, you can only upload audio (no video), but they accept nearly any audio format you can throw at them. The site is also quite easy to use. I don't use it that much anymore (I took most of my songs down because I didn't care for my recordings), since I would rather post higher quality music, but I would still highly recommend it.
About a month after I first started posting my music online, I decided to take the plunge and play at a local open mic night. I had a few songs to choose from, and I wanted the opinion of some friends on which ones I should pick. I also wanted to record videos, because I figured playing in front of a camera would be good practice. My next logical step, of course, was to then post my music on YouTube. YouTube doesn't need much explanation, since pretty much everyone knows about it at this point, but I do have some thoughts.
I like YouTube, and it's the site that I would hope to get the most hits on, but now that they've changed the way they promote music, it's really hard to get noticed without being active. The most views I currently have is, I believe, a little over 400 (in 9 weeks). All I did to promote that specific video was to add it as a video response on the original song I was covering. Let me say this- if you are covering a song, and there is a video on YouTube of the original song, POST YOUR VIDEO AS A RESPONSE! Most of my views on my cover songs come from posting my videos as a video response. Another way to be active is to get involved (at least somewhat) in the community. Don't just add friends and subscribe to channels for numbers, actually find people you like. If they like you, they may help promote you. Just don't spam. No one likes it. More could be said about YouTube, but let's move on.
Actually, it was on YouTube that I found out about this next site: Limebooth. They found me on YouTube, so I checked out their site. It's essentially YouTube for musicians only (actually, they have dancers and fans as well). It's pretty new, starting back in November 2010, and has only a couple thousand users (I think), but that's actually part of what makes it great. Limebooth has been my favorite site so far in my experience. Because they're new, you have a voice, and can help suggest ways to improve the site. The people there are very friendly, helpful, and supportive, and are great at giving feedback. You can easily import your videos from YouTube, or upload them from your computer (though they need to be smaller in size if you go that route).
Limebooth has a unique point system. You have to have so many points before being able to upload more videos. This can be frustrating at first, but if you have some talent, or people really just like you and follow you, or you comment and follow others like there's no tomorrow, you'll get points in no time. I haven't uploaded as many videos as I could with my points, but it's nice to know I have room to easily add 10 more videos anytime I want to. The nice part about the point system is that it encourages you to be active in the community, but it also is a form of constructive criticism in itself, since usually if you're good, you'll get more points. If you get more points, you can post more videos. This way, you can (I hate to say it) avoid having to watch a lot of really bad music from the same person, since they probably wont get a lot of points right away.
But I do have to say, sometimes the Limebooth crowd can be a little too nice. I think it's just so small that no one wants to say anything bad. There's nothing wrong with that, but it makes me take the more positive comments lightly.
But I do love the feedback and the community. The support I get is just awesome! It's great to have strangers become actual fans! This can be seen and felt much more on Limebooth than on YouTube. It's also much easier to see how your music ranks, since they have charts. I was number 4 on the Original Songs chart for a while! I really appreciate Limebooth promoting my music on twitter and facebook- they even wished me a happy birthday on twitter! If you want a supportive community, a place to collaborate with other musicians, or just want to discover some new music, you should head straight to Limebooth.
Another website that I found through YouTube is MusiciansTogether. They're a lot like Limebooth- same premise, similar feel and design, and also just starting out- but I haven't felt the same sense of community as I have on Limebooth. One aspect that I really like about MT is their online magazine that they just launched. It has great articles from pros, fun articles just because, and a site blog. It's not as easy to use, in my opinion, since you can't upload from youtube, but there isn't a point system. I've found more experienced users on MT who are happy to promote new music, but I just haven't been able to network and connect with others as well. I think it may have something to do with the layout and functionality of the site...I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, it's still good, and I'd suggest starting up an account.
Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to do something a little silly and create a Facebook Fan Page. I currently have 34 fans, and 6 of them are strangers, so that's pretty cool. Even though it hasn't taken off (I think you need a solid fan base on other sites before they like you enough to like you on Facebook), if you have people who are interested, feel like you're making progress with your music and promoting it, and have a little spare time to dedicate, I think creating a fan page is a good idea. I hope to get more fans eventually, but I need to keep building my fan base on other sites in the meantime.
I've been invited to a couple other sites with similar goals, but haven't joined them. They just don't flow as well or feel as welcoming and promising. Even though I'm still new on the music scene, I'm making some progress, and that's due mostly to the above sites. I'd recommend checking them out, if you haven't, and joining- even if you're just a fan. And, as you will have noticed if you clicked on the links, you can follow me on all of these sites! So please do, if you like my music :)
If you have any tips for posting your music online and gaining more fans, please let me know! I'd love to hear your advice and experiences.
Wow, that was quite a long first post!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)