I've spent the last six weeks or so playing music on the north coast of The Dominican Republic, as I have numerous times over the years.  It's "high season" currently in the DR and the resorts, hotels and bars are packed with tourists which creates a lot of opportunities for musicians like myself to perform music. 

I think of performing live as the antithesis of licensing music.  When you play live you get an instant, real time sense of gratification, whereas the gratification and sense of reward that comes from licensing, unfolds over months and years.  When you play live, the crowd either likes you, or they don't, in the moment.  Unlike a lot of musicians I know, I find that the older I get the more I actually enjoying performing live, and it's something I will probably continue to do in one way or another throughout the rest of my life.
 
I played a gig a few nights ago that was one of “those” gigs.  If you’re a performing musician, you probably know the kind of gig I’m talking about.  It was one of those gigs where something just clicked between myself, the other musicians on stage and the audience. During gigs like this it feels like I couldn’t play a wrong note if I tried.  All apprehension and nervousness fades away, and the music seems to flow out of me, without my thoughts or ego getting in the way.  

It doesn’t happen every time I perform.  Sometimes multiple gigs go by without getting into that “zone” or reaching that place.  But when it happens it’s undeniable and palpable and the crowd responds accordingly.  This feeling, this “zone”, whatever you want to call it, is the feeling I’m chasing every time I get on stage. I once heard Slash from GNR explain that the reason he's a musician is that he's chasing the feeling he gets from playing live, sort of the way drug addicts chase highs. I really relate to this description of playing music live.  There's a thrill to performing live that, once you taste, you want to keep going back for more.  Sometimes you get there, and sometimes you don't, but it's the thrill of chasing those moments that keep musicians going back for more.

So, back to the show I played a few nights ago...

Things didn’t really click until the fourth song of the first set, a cover of ZZ Top's "La Grange, which I'll post a clip of below.  I could tell the crowd was into the song as soon as we started the song, and a crowd of people made their way to the dance floor.  The song ended and there was thunderous applause and the entire show from that point on was electrifying.  The crowd danced and cheered.  

As the band thanked the crowd, a huge grin came over my face and we launched in the next song, a blues song that seemed to last about ten minutes or so and was built to a dramatic climax.  As I launched into my solo, I stumbled upon a simple, but catchy melody that I continued to come back to throughout the jam.  The bass player in our band latched onto the same melody and together we weaved in and out of this motif for the next several minutes.  We played it in different octaves, with different rhythmic variations, sometimes together, sometimes more of a call and response, for several minutes, until the jam seemed to reach a natural conclusion.

Again, when the song stopped, there was thunderous applause.  Mot of the second set was like this, until things seemed to peter out during our encore, and the band was clearly starting to run out of steam.  But by then, it didn’t seem to matter.  Every one was clearly enjoying themselves, band and audience alike. 

After the show, several different people came up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed the show.  I got a lot of “great job”, “you played great” sort of compliments, which is always nice to hear.  But one conversation in particular struck me as particularly poignant.  A girl I’ve known for a few years came up to me and said how much she enjoyed the show.  I thanked her and said something like, “thanks, I love to play”.  “Well”, she said, “it shows." She went on, "Your enthusiasm is contagious".  

I had an end of the night drink after the show with a few of the musicians I performed with and went home.  When I got home, I still had so much adrenaline and excitement from the gig that I couldn’t sleep.  It was strange, because I’ve played so many gigs at this point that I’m usually not that amped up after shows anymore.  But for some reason I was strangely excited and my mind was racing more than usual.  It reminded me of how I felt when I was younger, in my early twenties, after a really good gig.  I used to get so excited that I would stay up until the early hours of the morning, reflecting on the night’s performance and de-briefing, in my mind, the good and bad elements of the show.

When I woke up the next morning, my mind came back to my friend’s comment about how she could see how much I enjoyed playing music and it struck me, that that was probably about the best compliment anyone could give me.  The show was great, because myself and the band I was performing with, we’re having a good time.  The audience had a good time because they fed off the energy of the band.  The band picked up on the audience’s response and we got even more excited and as a result played even better, with more confidence.  And that, is essentially, what live music is all about.  It’s an exchange of energy, if you will, between musicians and audience.  It’s an opportunity to escape from the problems and stress of our day to day lives for a few hours, let our proverbial hair down, and simply have a good time.

When I was younger I used to be really into the band Phish.  I saw them live dozens of times over the years.  Love them or hate them, in their prime, they were an amazing live band.  They toured with Carlos Santana in the early 90s and Santana had this great way of explaining the live concert experience at a Phish show, and at concerts in general.  His analogy was that music was like water, the band is like a hose, and the audience is like flowers.  Yeah, it sounds like some super hippy, stoner talk, but it’s a beautiful analogy if you think about it.  Here’s Trey  Anastasio from Phish on Santana’s idea:

“When we went out with Santana, he had brought up this thing about the Hose. ... where the music is like water rushing through you and as a musician your function is really like that of a hose. And, and well his thing is that the audience is like a sea of flowers, you know, and you're watering the audience. But the concept of music going through you, that you're not actually creating it, that what you're doing is -- the best thing that you can do is get out of the way. So, when you are in a room full of people, there's this kind of group vibe that seems to get rolling sometimes.”

I love this idea that as musicians, especially during moments of improvisation, we’re not actually creating the music.  It’s more like we’re channeling the music from a deeper part our ourselves, or from somewhere out there in the cosmos.  This rings true to me in my experience, because in moments where I feel in the “zone” and things are flowing particularly well, a guaranteed way to screw it up is to start thinking too much about what I’m doing or over analyzing things.  It’s better to not think about things at all, or as little as possible and just let the music come through.  If you think about it, that’s what stage fright or nervousness is all about, it’s about focusing too much on yourself and becoming "self-conscious". When you can learn to redirect that energy towards the music, your stage fright and nerves will naturally dissipate.

I think that’s why music, at its best, is so enjoyable.  It’s a way of getting outside of our egos and problems and transcending them, to experience even greater joy and reach greater heights than possible, when we’re stuck in our egoic, “monkey minds”.  That’s why playing music is so enjoyable.  Because, when we’re truly in the moment, in what’s known as a “flow state” we’ve transcended, albeit temporarily, the stress and problems that tend to permeate our day to day lives.

When I was younger I used to have this grandiose concept of what it meant to be a musician.  I looked up to artists like Hendrix and Dylan and saw how music, at its most impactful, could change the world and impact culture.  Of course, that’s still true.  Music and art have that potential.  Music and art have the potential to both reflect and shape culture in profound ways.  The Beatles certainly impacted culture. Beethoven certainly did as well.  As did Dylan, The Stones, Pink Floyd, Coltrane, Radiohead, Paul Simon and countless other great artists over the years.

But music also serves a much more practical and perhaps less dramatic function, which is to simply lift people’s spirits and help them enjoy themselves and well, as Prince said, “get through this thing called life”.  If you accomplish nothing else a musician, other than simply entertaining people and helping to elevate their moods, even temporarily, know that you’ve still done something truly great. 

Life is hard in many ways and on many levels for many people and the world needs as many people as possible sharing their gifts, lifting each other up and inspiring each other.  If you have the gift and ability to do that through music, you should keep doing that!

Here's a short clip of last Monday's show in Cabarete, DR.

A few years ago I was asked to record a rock guitar version of “Joy To The World” on “spec”, by my publisher at the time.  From time to time this particular publisher will reach out to me when she has specific needs and requests that she thinks I’m a good fit for.   When I’m able, I will write or record specific tracks that I know ahead of time she has a need for.  These types of tracks tend to get placed more frequently since there is a specific place she has in mind to pitch the track to before I even record the track.

This particular version of Joy To The World that I arranged and played on guitar has been used many times over the years in a wide variety of ads and promo spots for shows like ABC Primetime News, The Middle, Mary Poppins, The Great Christmas Light Fight and more.

Check it out here:

​It turns out, there’s a pretty big market for public domain tracks in the licensing world, in particular for re-imagined versions of holiday classics.  The great thing about music that is in the public domain is that anyone can record and license these tracks.  There are no publishers you need to contact to get permission.  You don’t need to get clearance for these tracks.  You can simply record them and pitch them as you see fit and collect royalties the same way you would for your original tracks.

What is “Public Domain” music?

The History of Public Domain (From Wikiepdia):

“Although the term domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the concept can be traced back to the ancient Roman law, "as a preset system included in the property right system".[11] The Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined "many things that cannot be privately owned"[11] as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis.[12] The term res nullius was defined as things not yet appropriated.[13] The term res communes was defined as "things that could be commonly enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight and ocean."[11] The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, and the term res universitatis meant things that were owned by the municipalities of Rome.[11] When looking at it from a historical perspective, one could say the construction of the idea of "public domain" sprouted from the concepts of res communes, res publicae, and res universitatis in early Roman law.[11]

When the first early copyright law was originally established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the 18th century. Instead of "public domain", they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law.[14]

The phrase "fall in the public domain" can be traced to mid-19th-century France to describe the end of copyright term. The French poet Alfred de Vigny equated the expiration of copyright with a work falling "into the sink hole of public domain"[15] and if the public domain receives any attention from intellectual property lawyers it is still treated as little more than that which is left when intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patents, and trademarks, expire or are abandoned.[10] In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a, "little coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain."[16] Copyright law differs by country, and the American legal scholar Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being "different sizes at different times in different countries".[17]

Definitions of the boundaries of the public domain in relation to copyright, or intellectual property more generally, regard the public domain as a negative space; that is, it consists of works that are no longer in copyright term or were never protected by copyright law.[18] According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the term public domain and equates the public domain to public property and works in copyright to private property. However, the usage of the term public domain can be more granular, including for example uses of works in copyright permitted by copyright exceptions. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair-use rights and limitation on ownership.[1] A conceptual definition comes from Lange, who focused on what the public domain should be: "it should be a place of sanctuary for individual creative expression, a sanctuary conferring affirmative protection against the forces of private appropriation that threatened such expression".[18] Patterson and Lindberg described the public domain not as a "territory", but rather as a concept: "[T]here are certain materials – the air we breathe, sunlight, rain, space, life, creations, thoughts, feelings, ideas, words, numbers – not subject to private ownership. The materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival."[19] The term public domain may also be interchangeably used with other imprecise or undefined terms such as the public sphere or commons, including concepts such as the "commons of the mind", the "intellectual commons", and the "information commons".[10]

Music

People have been creating music for millennia. The first musical notation system, the Music of Mesopotamia system, was created 4,000 years ago. Guido of Arezzo introduced Latin musical notation in the 10th century.[23] This laid the foundation for the preservation of global music in the public domain, a distinction formalized alongside copyright systems in the 17th century. Musicians copyrighted their publications of musical notation as literary writings, but performing copyrighted pieces and creating derivative works were not restricted by early copyright laws. Copying was widespread, in compliance with the law, but expansions of those laws intended to benefit literary works and responding to commercial music recording technology's reproducibility have led to stricter rules. Relatively recently, a normative view that copying in music is not desirable and lazy has become popular among professional musicians.

US copyright laws distinguish between musical compositions and sound recordings, the former of which refers to melody, notation or lyrics created by a composer or lyricist, including sheet music, and the latter referring to a recording performed by an artist, including a CD, LP, or digital sound file.[24] Musical compositions fall under the same general rules as other works, and anything published before 1925 is considered public domain. Sound recordings, on the other hand, are subject to different rules and are not eligible for public domain status until 2021–2067, depending on the date and location of publishing, unless explicitly released beforehand.[25]

The Musopen project records music in the public domain for the purposes of making the music available to the general public in a high-quality audio format. Online musical archives preserve collections of classical music recorded by Musopen and offer them for download/distribution as a public service.”
 
Summing Up
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If you ever reach a point where you’re not sure what to record next, or perhaps you’re going through a period of writer’s block, recording public domain music can be a fun way to grow your catalog while also serving a niche in the licensing space that there is demand for. 
 
This holiday season, as a fun experiment, pay close attention to the music you hear in commercials, tv shows and films.  Listen closely to the music being used in the background and you’ll start to get a sense of the wide variety of holiday themed music that is being licensed this time of year.  In particular, take note of all the re-imagined versions of holiday classics you hear, all of which are in the public domain.

Although it's probably too late to license holiday music this year, consider creating a few arrangements/recordings of public domain holiday tracks for 2023.  Re-imagining holiday classics is a fun and simple way to grow your catalog while getting into the holiday spirit at the same time.
 
To research whether a song is in the public domain or not, here’s a great resource:
https://www.pdinfo.com/
 
Happy Holidays!
Aaron Davison

I recently listened to an interview with guitarist Steve Vai where he talked about the ups and downs of his career. From playing with Frank Zappa to artists like David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, to his massively successful solo career in the 80s and then surviving the 90s and early 2000s where virtuosic guitar playing wasn’t considered as trendy or “cool” as it once was, Steve Vai simply kept being Steve Vai through it all.

One of the things Steve said during the interview that really stuck with me is how, throughout all the ups and downs of his career and throughout the changing trends in the music industry, he just kept making the sort of music he was inspired to make.  He didn’t try to become a grunge artist just because grunge was popular in the 90s and he didn’t try to become a pop star in the 2000s when pop music became trendier.  Steve Vai just kept making Steve Vai music through it all.

And although most of us probably aren’t at the level Steve Vai is in the music business in terms of fame and success, I think his philosophy really applies to all musicians, regardless of what level you’re at.  If you think about it, all you can really control as a musician is the music you make.  That’s really it.  You can’t make someone like it or stream it or license it.  You can of course do things to increase the odds of these things happening in terms of promotion.  But all you’re really in control of ultimately is your musical output. And if making music is all you can really control, doesn’t it make sense to make music you’re actually excited and passionate about?

I recently found out that one of my songs was “almost used” in a major Netflix production.  A sync agency I recently signed with informed me that one of my tracks was being held for consideration for an upcoming Netflix movie but that it didn’t end up making it into the final edits.  They asked me to send them more tracks and said they feel confident they will be able to place my tracks, but that it’s a matter of finding the “right opportunity at the right time”.  Such is the nature of sync licensing.

I don’t normally brag about my music almost being used in a project, but it’s relevant to the point of today’s post, so hear me out…  You see, at first, I was a little bummed out about the news of my song not being used, but the more I thought about it the more inspired I got.  There are always several different ways of looking at any particular situation.  I could get discouraged about the fact that my song got so close to being used but that ultimately it wasn’t picked and use this as further evidence that success in the music business is unattainable. Or I can choose to be motivated by the fact that my music was considered high quality enough to be considered by the film’s music supervisor in the first place and use that motivation to keep going and continue making even better music that will eventually find its way into even bigger productions. 

The choice is always up to you in terms of how you respond to these types of situations.  You can choose to get down about your perceived lack of success, or you can celebrate every victory and step forward no matter how small it might be.  But either way you go, all you can really do if you want to move forward, is keep making more music.  That’s it.  That is your number one job as a musician.  Make music.  Of course, keep pitching your music and connecting with people in the business to increase the odds of your music connecting with the right project, but ultimately it’s about the music you make.

One of the things that’s strange about the business of sync licensing, is that often we have no idea as musicians pursuing sync licensing deals how close we are to attaining success.  The only reason I found out about the Netflix production was that this particular Sync agency requested more music and so I asked them if there had been any specific interest in my tracks. They told me there were several close calls and gave me specific details about the Netflix project.  

If you have your music placed with different libraries and agencies you could be getting really close to having the sort of breakthrough you’re hoping for, but not even know it!  Of course, it’s helpful to find out details about projects and when you find out specific details it can be encouraging, even if your music isn’t ultimately used.  But you can’t count on finding these details out.  You have to stay motivated and keep making music regardless of what happens.  I’m sure there have been many, many more “close calls” over the years that I never knew about.
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Fortunately, I’ve never stopped making music and so I have new tracks that I feel are even stronger than the track that “almost” made it into the Netflix film.  I’m so glad that I’ve kept going all these years, because I know that getting my tracks into even bigger, higher profile projects will happen eventually.  But until that happens, I’m going to keep focusing on the only thing I can really control, which is simply making the best music possible.  

Hear my track that was "almost" licensed to Netflix, The Road I Travel, here:
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As a generation Xer, I grew up in a time when the music business was dramatically different than the music business of 2022. When I was a teenager in the 80s and 90s, there was still a “record business” that consisted of record labels, radio stations, record label advances, tour support, etc.. 

The music business was never considered an easy business to break into or a “practical” business.  But there was a system and a process in place “back in the day” that seemed to work, in many ways, better than the music business we have today.  It was highly competitive of course and cut-throat, but the music business of the past produced an enormous number of iconic musicians for a span of forty years or so.

Here's Gene Simmons of Kiss describing why he thinks, in his words, the modern-day music business is “chaos” and describing how the “old school” music business model worked better:
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As someone who grew up during part of the era Gene Simmons is describing and then transitioning into adulthood when the music business really started to change (which in my estimation, contrary to Gene’s date of 1988, I think is more around the year 2000), a part of me really resonated with Gene’s take on the music business of today.  In fact, I think Gene, sadly, is more or less on target with his summation of the current music business.  The modern-day music business is sort of chaotic, with no clearly defined path to success laid out for aspiring musicians.

But the more I reflected on the video with Gene Simmons, the more I realized he’s sort of looking at things the wrong way. Let me explain…

My Story

When I started my business teaching music licensing way back in 2008, my plan was to simply supplement my income while I worked towards “making it” in the music business.  To make a long story short, that never really happened the way I had hoped and anticipated.  Yes, I was able to license a lot of my music over the years, and yes, I was able to sustain myself working in the “music business”, but I never quite reached the level of success I had hoped to when I started out on this journey many years ago.

Over the last couple years, as I find myself, well, not getting any younger, I’ve been really reflecting on where things went wrong, so to speak, if anything even went wrong at all, or if I simply ended up where I’ve ended up due to circumstances largely out of my control.  I’m certainly not responsible for the internet or the death of the music industry after all, and we all know talent alone doesn’t guarantee success and that music is subjective.  Breaking into the music business was never exactly easy.

In other words, if I didn’t become more successful due to circumstances outside of my control, I’m ok with that.  I can accept that.  However, if I failed to go further because I didn’t accurately assess the situation, that's a little harder for me to accept and at the very least I want to learn from where I went wrong. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.

The Music Business Will Never Go Back To What It Used To Be

It's hard to be objective about ourselves and our own lives and careers. We all have “blind spots” and things we can’t see about ourselves. As the late philosopher Alan Watts used to say, “It’s hard to see the spot you’re standing on”.  I’ve been working really hard this year to be more objective about myself and my own strengths and shortcomings, and what I could have done better or differently in terms of my own career, so that I can do better going forward.  After all, I can’t change the past, but I can certainly learn from it.

One thing I’ve realized upon reflection, is that over time I’ve become quite cynical about the music business.  Not about music per se, but the music business.  I’ve realized that I’ve sort of been waiting for the music business to go back to what it used to be or to somehow magically improve and all the while bemoaning the fact that the music business is in the state it is.  Although I’ve embraced things like sync licensing as alternative forms of earning money from music, the fact is I never got into music to sell my songs to tv shows.  Licensing my music has been a great boost to my confidence and it’s something I will continue to pursue, but there’s more to the music business than just sync licensing.

One of the things I’ve realized is that while I’ve been sort of inadvertently sitting on the sidelines, waiting for some sort of path to emerge or some sort of semblance of a music business that I can wrap my head around to emerge, is that there have been many musicians quietly paving the way and showing us the future of the music business all along.  And how wonderfully ironic it is that they’re using the internet, the very technology that arguably killed the traditional music business, to create a new one.

The New Music Business Paradigm

I plan to do a follow up piece to this article, where I dive deeper into specific artists that are forging the way in the new music business paradigm and how they’re doing it.  I’m going to give you just one example today, so this piece doesn’t go too long, but trust me there are many artists out there paving the way, that you may or may not have even heard of. 

The band that I’m talking about today is called Polyphia, and in my mind they are a perfect example of both a band that have embraced the modern-day music business paradigm and they’re also a great example of the challenges that this new music business paradigm present.

You see, Polyphia has actually been on my radar for several years.  I came across the video for their song 40 oz a few years ago online, and I remember really liking it at the time, but I quickly forgot about them and the song to be honest.  Like many artists that I discover online, I appreciated their music when I initially heard it, but without a constant reminder that they exist, they simply faded from my memory.

Radio used to function as a great way to constantly remind us of current artists and their music.  It generally takes repeated exposure to a song or artist before it really “clicks”, and you really start paying attention.  When radio was more popular, you would hear the same songs over and over and eventually, if there was a band or song you really resonated with, you would go buy their album or CD and perhaps even see them live.  Of course, there were flaws with this model, it wasn’t perfect, but it was a very effective means of promoting the bands and artists that were lucky enough to get on the radio.

The problem, as I see it, with the new music business paradigm is that things have become so fragmented, and there are so many artists, that it’s all too easy for a band like Polyphia to get lost in the sea of music and content out there.  However, greatness does have a way of rising to the surface and Polyphia are back on my radar in a huge way.   I don’t remember exactly how I re-discovered them, I think Youtube suggested their song “Playing God” to me a couple months ago and since then I’ve gone down the Polyphia rabbit hole and can’t seem to stop listening to this band. Honestly, their style of music isn’t even my favorite, but they’re just so good at what they do and I find their music so compelling that I keep going back to it. It reminds me of a lot of the guitar-oriented music that got me into playing guitar in the first place, yet it’s modern, fresh and different at the same time, which is why I think they’re music is resonating with so many people.
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Check out their latest single, “Ego Death”, a collaboration with Steve Vai!
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Summing Up

This year has been a great year for me musically in the sense that I’ve been forcing myself to step up my own game musically.  Both in terms of my own understanding of the current business and in terms of my own musicianship and guitar playing.  I’ve practiced guitar more this year than I have in perhaps over a decade and have been actively promoting myself on Youtube, slowly learning how to get more views and followers, which has been a humbling yet rewarding process.  Check out my latest guitar piece to see an example:
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There’s a great quote I heard a few years ago, which I will paraphrase as I don’t remember it exactly, but it was something along the lines of “often times in life, we’re so busy looking for our path, that we fail to see we’re already on it”.   Well, I think the same could be said about the music business.  Many of us, myself included, have been waiting for some sort of new music business paradigm to emerge, but have perhaps failed to realize, it’s already here and it’s been here for quite some time.  It’s certainly not perfect yet, but it’s here and it’s happening now.

As a Berklee College Of Music Alumnus, a question I get a lot is whether or not I think attending universities like Berklee are worth it and whether or not it’s really necessary to study at an institution like Berklee in order to pursue a career in music.

My short answer to the question is no, I don’t think it’s necessary to study at a school like Berklee or any music school, for that matter, in order to pursue a career in the music business in 2022.  Before I explain why I think that is the case, let me preface this article by saying I had a wonderful experience at Berklee and it no doubt helped shape the musician I became.  With that said, I think there are alternative, much less costly and more efficient ways to arrive at a similar level of musicianship and preparedness for a career in music.

The great thing about going to a school like Berklee is the structure it provides and the wealth of knowledge the instructors possess.  During my time at Berklee I lived and breathed music and it was almost impossible to not improve in that environment.  During my time at Berklee I practiced several hours of guitar a day, spent all day studying things like music theory, ear training, orchestration, songwriting and lyric writing and more.

When you immerse yourself in this sort of all out, intense music education, you can make huge leaps forward in a relatively short period of time if you apply yourself.  And looking back, I feel like my time at Berklee was a period where I progressed a lot over a relatively short period of time.  Perhaps more than any other time before or since.

Here's the thing though. If I’m honest with myself, after having met hundreds of musicians over the years, it’s pretty clear to me that you can achieve similar leaps forward in other non-academic environments, if you really want to. In fact, many of the most accomplished musicians I’ve known over the years didn’t study music formally at all and were completely self-taught.

I have travelled frequently over the years and one of the things that always amazes me is how many great musicians there are all over the world.  I don’t just mean in developed countries, but places that you’d least expect it.  I spent several months in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, a few years back, and I was amazed that there is a thriving jazz scene there with musicians that would rival the best musicians I’ve met and heard in places like New York, New Orleans, etc.

I was in Mexico earlier in the year and I met an absolutely amazing jazz guitarist, as good as many guitarists I knew when I attended Berklee.  I asked him where he learned to play so well, and he said he was completely self-taught.  He learned everything he knew online from Youtube videos and other websites.

In this day and age, there are no secrets when it comes to learning how to play an instrument like guitar or learning something like music theory.  It’s all out there, online, for free.  Here’s the catch though, and this is a big catch, even though the information is out there, the one thing schools like Berklee do is provide a framework and a structure for progressing.  Even though we all have, at our fingertips, a wealth of information in terms of music education, a lot of us simply lack the discipline and will power to put it all together.  And there is something very helpful about having teachers and mentors that we can learn from and bounce ideas off of in real time,  not to mention the networking and socializing opportunities a school like Berklee provides.

In 2022, the average cost of a four-year degree from Berklee is $240,580.00. This is a hefty price tag for a degree in an industry where there is little job security or real guarantees in terms of getting a job when you graduate.  Of course, there are other, more affordable schools you can get a music degree from.  I’m just using Berklee as an example.   But if you’re considering going to music school in general, you should really weigh the price tag against your expected return on investment.

In my mind, in retrospect, it would probably make more sense to spend several years living in a cheap studio apartment or renting a room from someone while immersing yourself in taking lessons, practicing your instrument, writing music and going out networking and playing with local musicians in a place like New Orleans, LA, Nashville, New York, Chicago, Austin, etc, than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a music degree that at the end of the day, doesn’t really even guarantee you a job.

Also, another drawback to getting a formal music education is that you end up spending a lot of time studying subjects that you won’t necessarily end up using in the “real world”.  This is similar to getting a formal high school education where you are forced to learn certain subjects that you don’t end up using in the “real world”. To this day I look back and scratch my head when I think of all the time and energy I exerted learning subjects like Algebra and Calculus that I simply have no practical use for in my day to day life.

I can recall a defining moment I had when I was around 24 years old.  After Berklee, I continued taking private Jazz guitar lessons with a Chicago based jazz guitarist named John Mclean.  One day I went into my lesson and I simply wasn’t prepared.  This was after several consecutive lessons where I showed up ill prepared.  John stopped the lesson, looked at me in a befuddled way and said, “Aaron. What’s Up?  Why are you so un-prepared?”.  I hesitated for a moment and confessed to John, “John”, I said, “I have to be honest. I don’t really like Jazz”.  John sort of laughed and asked me, “Then why are you studying Jazz?”.  I went on to explain to him that I just thought it was a logical progression in terms of things to study. After having studied at Berklee, I simply thought it was what I was “supposed” to do and that it was the inevitable next step as a guitarist.  John simply said, if you’re not into Jazz, you shouldn’t force yourself to like it.  We spent the rest of our time together focusing on ways I could improve as a rock and blues guitarist.

There is a certain degree of flexibility in terms of what classes you can take when you get a formal music education, but you’ll still end up studying things that you’ll likely not continue to draw from when you graduate.  This is just the nature of formal education.  When you’re self-taught you’ll end up gravitating towards things you’re really passionate about.  After all, you’re not going to force yourself to learn about things you don’t care about or are interested in.   Of course, you might end up missing out on a few things that could be beneficial if you’re not careful, but at the very least you’ll spend time learning about things you’re actually interested in and passionate about.
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So, to sum up this article, there are definite advantages to getting a degree in music.  The knowledge of the instructors, the structure and format the institution provides and the networking and socializing opportunities are all very real, tangible benefits.  But if you can’t afford a formal degree in music or if you’re sort of on the fence about whether you should bite the bullet and get a music degree, make no mistake, you don’t need a degree in music to become a great musician and/or succeed in the music business.  

A few months ago, shortly after Russia began their invasion of Ukraine, I woke up one morning and improvised a guitar piece in an effort to express some of the sorrow and sadness I felt over the events that were unfolding in Ukraine. 

When things like this happen, events that are clearly outside of my control, I often feel powerless and to be honest, somewhat apathetic, since there’s really no clear course of action to take,  that I’m aware of at least, that I feel would make any difference. 

I have a similar reaction to the mass shootings that keep occurring in the U.S., I feel a deep sadness and sense of sorrow when these events happen, but since I don’t really know what to do to change the situation, I tend to sort of compartmentalize the emotions I feel and after a day or two of watching news coverage of the events and sharing in the collective sadness that everyone is feeling, I simply carry on living my life the best way I know how.

But, this particular morning I woke up and I decided to at least try and channel some of what I was feeling into music, and so on a whim I improvised a three minute and 25 second instrumental guitar piece.  I recorded the piece in one take, with no edits.  I decided to call it “Song For Ukraine” and over the next few days I proceeded to share the piece on Facebook and I posted it in a handful of Facebook Groups I belong to around the world in places like Mexico, The Dominican Republic, Chicago, Panama, Costa Rica and a few others.  Places I have travelled to and lived over the years.

​You can check that out here:

I received a lot of comments and feedback about the track, perhaps more than any other song I’ve ever posted on social media.  I received hundreds of comments, most were positive, a few were cynical and wondered why I would care about this particular war as opposed to previous wars the the U.S. have been involved in, as if people that don’t know me online somehow know where I stand on other wars.  But one comment in particular really stood out to me, it was from a musician who was and is living in Ukraine, a musician by the name of Evgeniy Lenov.

He informed me that he was living in Kharkov, right in the middle of an active war zone and was in the process of making an album called “Symphony of War In Ukraine”.  I was so intrigued by his story of making music under what I can only imagine to be one of the most intense, surreal and incredibly stressful circumstances possible, that I asked if there was any way I could help to share his story and his music and invited Evgeniy to do an interview so I could share his story on my blog and Youtube Channel.

Through corresponding with Evgeniy, I learned that although he can read and write in English, with the help of Google Translate, he doesn’t speak English as his native languages are both Russian and Ukranian, but he offered to type out his responses in English so that I could share his story on my blog. So, I messaged him back and said this would be perfect and asked him when we could proceed.  Then, a few weeks went by and I never heard back from him. 

I didn’t want to be pressure him to do the interview since obviously his circumstances were not the most ideal, to say the least, and I knew that things could take a turn for the worse at any moment.  A couple months went by and I started to fear the worst until one day I started to see him post on social media again with updates about his music.  I breathed a sigh of relief, but I still had yet to hear back about doing our interview.

Then, a few days ago Evgeniy commented on one of my posts on Facebook.  We got into a back and forth exchange and I asked Evgeniy how his album was coming along.  He said he had finished it and sent me the link to the full album, which you can check out here. 

I asked him if he still wanted to do the interview and he said now would be a better time and that he had recently moved to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and that although there are still air raid sirens and occasionally incoming rockets, that in his words, “day to day life had become more or less peaceful”.  I was relieved to hear that and so I sent him a list of questions about his experience of making an album in the middle of a war zone in Ukraine. 

At the end of the interview, I’m going to link to a track from the album called “Part 12: Final” which in Evgeniy’s words "symbolizes the end of the war". I will also link to the full album, so be sure to check that out and support Evgeniy.  

Making music under even the best of circumstances can be daunting in this day and age, but making music in the circumstances that Evgeniy made his album in are hard for me to even fathom really and my interaction with Evgeniy has been a great reminder to be grateful for the circumstances I find myself in, as well as a reminder that unfortunately, many other people that share our planet, as we speak our experiencing situations that to many of us would be unfathomable.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Evgeniy.  I’ll be working on creating both an audio and video version of this story for my podcast and Youtube channel, respectively.
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Here's my interview with Evgeniy Lenov.

Aaron: Hi Evgeniy, Thanks so much for agreeing to do the interview.  Can you start by telling us where you’re from and how long you’ve been making music?

Hello. Thanks for inviting me to do the interview. 
 
I was born in the city of Kharkov. At that time it was the third largest and most important city in the Soviet Union after Moscow and Leningrad. At the age of six, I went to the first grade of a general education school and at the same time I was enrolled in a music school, and studied accordion. Then, at the age of 14, I discovered the guitar and taught myself to play it. At the age of 15, my friends and I formed our first band and recorded our first album. In 1991, my thrash-death band was at the top of the local charts, ahead of even pop groups there, and we played concerts to full houses. That's how it started.
 
Over the years I have left music. But in 2017, I decided to return again. Because in life you have to do what you love. After all, life is too short to spend it on other people's goals and affairs.


Aaron: Where in Ukraine were you when the war broke out and where are you currently? 

At the beginning of the war I was in Kharkov. Early in the morning, it was still dark, we were awakened by a powerful artillery barrage. Glass and walls - shuddered from powerful explosions. And we realized that life suddenly had completely changed. The past life we knew was no more.
 
Now I am in Kyiv. Thanks to a friend who gave me a place to live. But I spent the first three months of the war in close proximity to the front lines of the war. Cannonade was heard constantly.


Aaron: What has your day to day life been like since the War started?  I know that you are in a more peaceful part of Ukraine now, but what were the initial weeks and months like?  Can you please describe your experience? 

I won't go into great detail as it will take a lot of time. Only the main points - the most significant part of what I saw and experienced.
 
On the first day of the war, I saw the explosions of shells with my own eyes – I was very close to the front lines. I saw A black column of smoke that was very quickly blown away by the wind. And the sound of an explosion.
 
On the morning of the second day, near the house where we were, a rocket hit the yard. We heard a powerful explosion, that caused a ringing in our ears. the house shook. The rocket hit the neighboring yard - 50 meters from the house where I was. If the rocket had hit 50 meters to the side, we would not be talking now.
 
Then for a whole week, mostly at night, we listened to how artillery and MLRS were firing at us, from the city center, we listened to the explosions of missiles, the roar of flying aircraft. A curfew was introduced in the city, and we knew cases of people being shot for violating the curfew. In the early days of the war, our house in the center was shot with machine guns - neighbors sent photos of bullet holes in windows and walls and photos of bullets they dug out of their walls.
 
Then, after a week of sitting in a bomb shelter, we decided that it was time to leave at least for the suburbs, and we packed our things at home, a plane flew very low overhead and fired a rocket that exploded not far from our house. We threw ourselves on the floor. It was an unforgettable experience.

Living in the suburbs, we listened to the cannonade from several directions all day long. But it was a little further from the front lines, so the shells did not reach is.

For a week we went to a friend in - and the next day rockets also flew there - three powerful explosions early in the morning. And they began to turn on sirens every morning from 5 to 9 in the morning.
 
Before moving to Kyiv, I returned to live at home in Kharkov in the city center for a week. And every day the cannonade became louder and more intense. In the evenings in the dark from 22 to 24 hours, from the center of Kharkov, I observed flashes and glows on the horizon - it was no further than 8-10 km from me, from the city center.
 
During the curfew, blackout must be observed - it is forbidden to turn on the lights at home. Therefore, the city at night looks like you are in a distant village - bright stars, the city does not illuminate the sky at all.
 
And the last thing that left an unforgettable impression - four cruise missiles, which already in Kyiv flew right over the house in which I live on one of the upper floors. This is a 25-story building. And all four rockets flew right over my head, no further than 30-50 meters from the balcony on which I was standing. I examined their wings. And I saw where they all exploded - just 2 kilometers away from me.
 
This is what war looks like.
 
Aaron: I listened to your new album, Symphony Of War In Ukraine, which I really liked by the way.  What was the process of writing and recording this album?  I can only begin to imagine how surreal this experience must have been for you.  Can you describe your emotions and what you were experiencing while you were making this album? 

In the first days of the war, sitting in the basement of a bomb shelter, I realized that you can’t just sit in depression and kill time by reading the news, but you need to convey your emotions and feelings in music. And the name of the album was born by itself - Symphony of War in Ukraine. I had a Laptop, headphones, Cubase Pro and a small midi keyboard - what else do you need?
 
I just wanted to convey the sensations of what is happening around, the experiences of people, the events taking place in cities, the emotions. And now the listeners tell me that by naming the tracks after the names of the cities, I accurately captured and conveyed the spirit of what was happening and is happening in these cities.
 
When, in the first days and weeks of the war, my musician friends called me and said that they were depressed and could not do anything, I tried by my example to ignite them, stir them up, make them start making music again. I told them: "War is a time in which music has its own important mission, music is very important in this period of history." And gradually everyone came to life, they also began to record songs and even perform at charity concerts.
 
It was during the war the value and significance of music increases many times over. Don't forget that. We each have our own function and our own mission. Including musicians.
 
Aaron: We are now several months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Do you have any sense of how long this invasion will drag on? 

The fact is that we are now forbidden to say "what is". We can only say publicly what propaganda tells us. If you tell any other version- you can be arrested or even shot. Therefore, I cannot tell you my assumptions about the further course of the war.
 
I can only say my assumptions about when the war will end. Perhaps it will end before the onset of winter.
 
By the way, from the first day of the war we were forbidden to leave the country. This is the kind of freedom we have. Only women, children and the elderly over 60 can travel. But women will soon be banned from leaving too, as they began to put all of them on military records. It seems that the population of our country is perceived as cannon fodder. But let's not talk about sad things...
 
Aaron: You said during our correspondence, that you recently relocated to the capital of Ukraine and that although there are still air raid sirens throughout the day and that sometimes rockets fly into the city, that things are much calmer and more peaceful and in your own words, “the city lives an ordinary, peaceful life, as if there is no war”.  That’s amazing to hear, can you describe what your life is like now, living in Kyiv? 

Yes, Kyiv lives an ordinary life. There is also a curfew here, but it is short (from 23:00 to 5:00). There is no need to turn off the lights at night - the whole city glows brightly with street lighting all night. Sirens are sometimes turned on here, but nothing arrives and no one pays attention to the sirens. The city lives a normal peaceful life.
 
But, as I said earlier, a few days ago, four cruise missiles flew here. People sometimes forget that the country is at war. But the war does not let you forget for long.
 
Aaron: How has this experience changed your perception of being a musician and making music?  It can be hard to find the inspiration and motivation to make music at times, even under the best of circumstances, I can’t even begin to fathom the emotions you must have been experiencing making this album.  Has this experience in any way given you more motivation to get your music out there and have it be heard? 

I have a Soviet upbringing. And we were taught from childhood that, in the most difficult times, we should not give up, but on the contrary, we should give our all and make our contribution. We had good teachers. Thanks to them, parents and grandparents, who taught us all this and, prepared us for any turns that life would take. They wanted us to live in peace. But they prepared us for everything.
 
Music is an art that can inspire, give strength for life and struggle and fill people with optimism, etc. Therefore, the significance of music in such periods of history is greatly increased. Everyone should understand this and not forget.
 
Aaron: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview.  I’ve been wanting to share your story since we first connected several months ago.  Are there any closing words or thoughts you want to leave us with?  And thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions and my thoughts and prayers remain with you. 

Thanks for the invitation. It’s good that we didn’t do the interview two months ago and that we waited – more events have happened during this time, new impressions and emotions have appeared, more information and life experience have appeared.
 
I wish your blog and your podcast and you personally success and prosperity. And I hope war never comes to your land and your country. It is better to read books and watch movies about the war. And it is better to live in peace.

So, that concludes my interview with Evgeniy.  One musician’s first hand account of what it was like living through the ongoing war in Ukraine while simultaneously making music.  I’m not going to lie I was moved to tears at several points during the process of reading and editing Eugene’s responses.  Regardless of what you feel about the politics of the war in Ukraine, or what you feel about Russia or Putin or Zelensky or Biden or any of the international figures involved in this conflict, at the end of the day, war is simply horrific, brutal and incredibly sad. 

Here's Evgeniy’s track from his album, "Part 12 (Final)":
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Listen to the full Album, Symphony Of War In Ukraine, here.

 
I actually welcomed the push back to the post. It’s a reminder that wars and conflicts always have two sides and different perspectives.  Life isn’t some sort of Marvel comic book only comprised of “villains” and “good guys”.  The real word is complex and nuanced with different perspectives and different interpretations of the same events.  The real world is messy and complex.  But to me, at the end of the day, war and innocent civilians losing their lives is simply sad, irrespective of the reasons for going to war in the first place. 

I realize this has nothing to do with music licensing per se, and this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but hey, I’m just an artist following what I’m inspired to do to see where it takes me. 

I’ll be making a few more “pro-peace” videos and improvised guitar pieces over the next few weeks. If you’re interested in checking those out, please be sure to subscribe to my Youtube Channel here. 
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First and foremost, I’m just an artist doing my best to grow as a musician and get my music out there.  I’ll be leaning into that part of my personality more going forward.

I just got back from a long overdue, extended period of time visiting different family members.  I spent close to two weeks visiting my Mom and Step Father, 5 days visiting my Brother and his wife and nine days with my Dad and Step Mother.  This was the first time I've seen my Brother and Father in several years and the first extended visit I've had with my Mom since the pandemic started.

It felt like really great to visit with the Family and it gave me a lot of time to recharge my batteries and think about 2022 and my goals and plans for the year.  As much as I enjoyed my family time, the more I started contemplating the New Year and all the things I want to do this year, the more I started itching to get back into the swing of things and start what very much feels like a new Chapter of Life.

2021 was in many ways a challenging year for me personally.  Without going into too much detail, there were several things I went through in my personal life that made 2021 probably even more challenging than 2020, albeit in different ways.  2021 was very much a transitional year for me as I found myself making some pretty big changes in several areas of my life.  These changes were both difficult and ultimately rewarding.

As I look ahead to the rest of 2022, I find myself feeling excited and enthused more than anything, and eager to dive head first into my plans for the year. Most of the issues I was dealing with last year have been resolved and are firmly in the rear view mirror at this point. Sometimes in life we have to go through difficult situations to grow, expand and ultimately gain more clarity about our lives and how we want to show up in the world.  2021 was one of those years for me.

One of my main take aways from 2021, is that life in many ways is simply what we make of it.  Not exactly profound I know.  Most of my biggest life realizations and insights over the years have been remarkably simple.  Not happy where you're living?  Move.  Not satisfied in your relationship?  Work to make it better or end it.  Not happy where you are in your career?  Work harder.  You don't like your job?  Find a new one.  And so on.  Of course, we have to sometimes work through nuanced details and evaluate the pros and cons of our choices, but in the end, most of life really is this simple.

Most of the time, the answer or solution to what is holding us back in life is quite  straightforward.  It's simply doing what we know we need to do and taking decisive action that is the hard part for many of us.  Humans tend to resist change and it's all to easy to simply take the path of least resistance and coast through life, not terribly satisfied or excited, but also not terribly stressed or worried.  Sometimes we're just going through the motions, stuck in a safe, but not particularly rewarding "comfort zone".  Not a very inspiring way to go through life in my opinion.

I've been reflecting on my own my life and some of the choices I've made over the years. Although I'm proud of so much that I've accomplished and the own growth I've made over the last few years, if I'm honest with myself I know that I still have a lot of unrealized potential.   This isn't a depressing realization per se. In fact, this awareness makes me really excited to start making positive changes. More than anything, it's simply motivation to step up my game in a few different areas.

But because I know myself so well and have such a high degree of self awareness, I know that making real and lasting change in the areas I want to grow in is going to take more than simply writing down a list of New Year's resolutions in a journal.  Like many of us, I'm a creature of habit and as much as I consider myself an ambitious and relatively successful person, I also know that I sometimes have a tendency to procrastinate and become complacent.  

Like most of us, I have a comfort zone I like to stay in. But as Tony Robbins accurately states, "All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone".  My plan for 2022 is to push myself to expand and grow in new areas that are a little outside my comfort zone both in terms of how much I'm effort I'm willing to put in, and in terms of taking new chances and pushing myself to grow in several different areas.

Since I really want to hold myself accountable and make a very tangible step forward, I've decided to go public with my plans and goals for the year, and also to invite you to go on a similar journey with me, if you choose.  I've come up with a list of key areas I'm going to be taking action in this year, and I've decided to be very deliberate about my goals and the actions I plan to take to reach them. It's easy to simply write down a list of goals or "resolutions" going into a New Year.  It's much harder to actually come up with a specific game plan and execute it.

I'm all about planning and strategizing as you work your way towards goals.  It's one of the key things I stress when I'm coaching clients for HTLYM Premium. For example, it's not enough to just decide you want to license your music in 2022.  That's a great starting point.  But what specific actions and steps are you going to take to get there? It's not enough to just decide you're tired of being single and want to find a partner this year, that's great too, but what are you going to do to change your situation and put yourself out there?  It's not enough to want to simply "get in better shape", but what are you going to do change your health and achieve your fitness goals?

I think you get the idea.  For any goal, in any area of your life, there are most likely a list of things you could do each day to get you closer to where you want to be. Don't just set broad, vague, far off in the future goals.  Come up with a specific plan that you can execute as you work towards your goals.  You don't necessarily need to know every detail of how your plan will unfold.  It's impossible to know exactly how the future will unfold.  But you can come up with a list of things you can take action on that will move you closer to your goals.  

To give you an idea, here's a list of things I'll be doing daily, weekly and monthly in 2022, to move forward in areas important to me. These are just a few initial ideas I came up with.  I'll likely be adding to this list and modifying things as I go forward. I encourage you to come up with your own list and own goals that you can work towards this year.

Here's my list so far:

1) Submit my music to 5 Sync Companies Daily 
2) Reach out to five music supervisors each day
3) Make 5 Youtube Videos weekly 
4) Workout 5 times each week
5) Release 5 podcasts per month
6) Attend three social/networking events weekly

For some reason I gravitated to the number five for most of my goals, but you can pick any number and frequency you think you can stick to.  Make sure you don't overdo it with your goals.  Make sure you push yourself to move forward, but at a pace you can maintain.  

It's amazing how much you can accomplish by taking this "numbers game" approach to your goals and life.  For example, if you simply pitch your music to five companies a day, every day for a year, at the end of the year you'll have made 1,825 pitches. Do you think if you pitched your music to that many places you'd have better odds of making something happen as opposed to simply pitching your music here and there?  I estimate this will take me less than an hour a day.  If you attend three networking events each week, at the end of a year, you'll have had 156 opportunities to meet and connect with new, interesting people.  Of course, these numbers don't have to be set in stone, but pick numbers that you think you can commit to for the most part.

I'm creating a forum and newsletter specifically for this project.  it's free to join and I have nothing to sell you. I'll be posting my own progress and updates, as well as a few motivational emails here and there, to hopefully keep you motivated and inspired. I'm also creating a forum where you can post your own goals and your own results as well.

​If you'd like to join me on this journey of growth and progress in 2022, sign up for free here:

​I have two distinct, very different, musical personalities.  Two very different facets of my musical persona that are sometimes slightly at odds with each other.  First and foremost, I consider myself a guitar player.  I started taking guitar lessons when I was twelve, long before I started seriously pursuing the craft of songwriting.  I love playing long, extended improvised guitar solos.  I love playing blues, jazz, fusion, jam rock, etc.  I can spend hours getting lost in long, improvised guitar solos over something as simple as a two-chord progression. 

On the other hand, I have a deep love and passion for songwriting. This was a passion that I developed several years after I began learning to play guitar. I write a fairly diverse range of songs, stylistically.  But if I had to sum up the kind of music I write the most, I guess I would describe it as a combination of “singer/songwriter/folk/rock”.  I tend to write songs that are fairly simple harmonically, with an emphasis on lyrics and story-telling.  Simple, yet, I like to think, catchy songs. 

I tend to alternate back and forth between phases where I focus on songwriting and phases where I focus on developing as a guitar player. If I spend too long only writing songs, I start to get worried that I’m getting rusty as a guitar player and vice versa.  Lately, I’ve been practicing guitar more than writing new material, although I sill have several new songs in progress.

When I’m writing and recording music for something like licensing, playing long, elaborate guitar solos is usually not appropriate or required.  In fact, I’ve turned in songs where I’ve been told by my publisher to “tone down” the guitar solos.  Licensing music is more about writing music that has the most “commercial appeal” and sensibility and as you’ve probably noticed somewhere in the last decade or two, playing guitar really well seemed to fall out of fashion.  Although there’s clearly still a market for great guitar playing in the context of pop music.  John Mayer, for example, does a great job of both writing amazing pop/rock songs but also shredding on guitar when needed.  Check out the studio version of “I Guess I Just Feel Like” for a great example of a great, current pop song with some really tasty guitar playing.
​

 
To satisfy my love for both guitar playing and songwriting, I both play live and spend a lot of time writing and recording for licensing projects, and just for the love of making music.  When I perform live, I’m able to stretch out more on the guitar and really put all my years of practicing and learning to play guitar to work. Conversely, when I’m in the studio recording material for licensing or just recording music in general, I’m able to put my love for the craft of songwriting to work and develop my songwriting and production skills. 

It would be hard to pick which aspect of making music I enjoy more. Fortunately, I don’t have to.  It’s fair to say I enjoy both playing guitar and writing music equally, but for different reasons.  Writing music is more about expressing something I want to express emotionally through music. Whether it’s writing about something I’ve experienced or expressing myself through a story in the form of a song, songwriting to me is akin to therapy in the sense that I’m able to articulate and process things I’ve gone through or am going through, in the context of a song.  Playing guitar on the other hand, especially improvising and “jamming”, is just plain fun!
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Here’s my latest song release on Spotify.  A song called “We’re Only Human” I recorded with Michael James.

Here’s an instrumental guitar piece from my new all instrumental guitar album, called "Radio Floyd".
​

​And finally, here's a compilation of a few of my favorite solos from last weekend during my reunion with my friends in the "Bandits Of The Apocalypse".
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In this blog, I thought I’d share the stages my tracks go through, from the initial demo stage, all the way to the fully produced, “radio and sync ready” master stage.  This particular song, “Home Is Where The Heart Is”, I wrote last year when I was vacationing in The Dominican Republic, right before the Covid pandemic started and I ended up effectively trapped there for several months due to the airports being abruptly shut down and my flight cancelled. 

I wrote this particular song, if my memory serves me correctly, in about an hour.  It was one of those songs that sort of just poured out of me.  I was on the balcony of a small studio apartment I was renting at the time and this song came to me in a moment of inspiration early in the morning around 7 am. 

A few days later I recorded the following very simple, rough demo:
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As is often the case, this song sat on the shelf for a good long while.  I tend to have a pretty large back catalog of un-recorded tracks at any given time, that I often circle back to when I go into the studio to record. 

Fast forward to earlier this year and I was with my friend and collaborator MJ and we were going through my demos deciding what songs we would work on and we came across this one.  My friend MJ really resonated with this track and he was one of the main reasons I decided to revisit the track and finish it. 

So, for the next couple weeks or so, MJ and I worked on the track.  MJ came up with some really cool harmony parts, a great piano part and helped write the song’s outro.  One of the things I love about collaborating with MJ is having an extra set of ears that is able to hear things slightly differently than I do and come up with different parts and ideas that really enhance the song.  Ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own.

After a couple weeks, MJ and I then created the following, more fully produced demo:

​I then sent the demo, along with a few other tracks to my publisher to get her feedback.  My publisher is cool with checking out songs in their demo stage, in order to see if it’s something she wants to move forward with or not.  This is extremely helpful as I’m able to get a good sense for which tracks she thinks she’ll be able to successfully pitch before I go through the longer process of creating the actual fully produced and mastered version.

One of the other tracks I sent her was produced by Gary Gray and featured a different vocalist, Joseph De Natale, who has sung several of my tracks.  My publisher loved his voice and requested that I use him on, “Home Is Where The Heart Is”.   Since I aim to please I said sure, I will see what I can do and that I would get back to her.

I reached out to Gary, who is friends with the vocalist to see if he could arrange to have Joseph sing the lead vocal on the track and help me finish the production.  Gary, being the agreeable guy that he is said absolutely!  Over the next few weeks, using the initial tracks that MJ and I laid down, as well as adding their own parts and tweaking the arrangement slightly, Gary and Joseph created the final version of the song, which you can hear below.

I’m really, really pleased with how this track turned out.  I think it’s one of my best sounding tracks overall. Joseph nailed the vocals and both Gary and Joseph nailed the production. 
​

​For licensing inquiries of "Home Is Where The Heart Is" contact me here and I'll direct you to the appropriate people.

To work with Gary Gray on your music's production, contact Gary here.

​What do you think of the song?  Let us know in the comments!

What about you?  Did you find your creative output and overall creativity increase during quarantine?  Let me know in the comments!

I’ve had enough.  I’m sick and tired.  I’m sick and tired of watching talented, hard working, passionate musicians being tossed by the way side.  I’m sick and tired of watching musicians invest their blood, sweat and tears into creating beautiful art, only to eek out a meager living, if they’re fortunate enough to even be able to do that.  I’ve had it.  I’m done.

I’ve grown disgusted by how music has become less and less “valuable” in the marketplace with each passing year.  I’m tired of watching super talented, hard working musicians struggle to make a viable life for themselves.

I’ve always taken a half glass full attitude to life and the music industry.  I’ve encouraged artists to hustle and carve out a name for themselves in a marketplace where music has become more and more devalued with each passing year.  In life, you have to focus on the things you can control.  Sometimes you have to make lemonade out of lemons.  We don’t choose the hands we’re dealt in life, but we choose how we play them.

But with all that said, I’m tired of musicians simply resigning themselves to the idea that this is simply how things are and if they want to compete in the music industry they have to accept giving their music away for next to nothing.  I’m tired of musicians putting up with sub-par work conditions, no health care, little to no safety net, no job security and so on.  I’m tired of musicians lining up to get proverbially screwed.

Have a few musicians figured out how to “succeed” in our modern-day music industry?  Sure, there are examples of musicians who are able to support themselves solely from their art.  To those of you who have figured this out, more power to you.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to carve out a decent living primarily from my art and endeavors closely related to it and I’ve invested the last 12 years of my life to helping other musicians figure out ways to make money from their music.  But having a small percentage of unknown artists able to sustain themselves from the music they create and pay their bills isn’t going to fix the music industry or the declining state of contemporary music in general.

In my assessment, and I’ve given it a lot of thought over the last few years, the music industry is deeply broken and fundamentally flawed.   The music industry has become a race to the bottom.  I’ve broken down all the depressing stats for you about the state of the music industry in previous blog posts.   See this blog post as an example.  The problems that ail the music industry are deep seated and widespread.  There are no easy solutions or simple fixes.  However, the first step is correctly diagnosing the problem.  After all, we can’t fix a problem if we don’t know what the problem is.

In my estimation, there are essentially two fundamental problems plaguing the music industry.  Here are the two main issues holding most musicians back in terms of making a real living from their craft:

1. Consumers don’t value recorded music anymore (thanks internet)
2. Musicians don’t value their music anymore (thanks to the platforms who took advantage of the internet)
   
   

We live in a culture where people expect music to be free or next to free.  And because of this, musicians, for the most part, have all jumped on board with platforms who give their music away for fractions of a penny per stream for a chance to gain exposure and hopefully make a few bucks.

In some cases, musicians are able to generate enough streams to make “decent” money.  But in my own experience and according to the research I did for this piece, these musicians are few and far between.  In fact, according to a recent article in Rolling Stone, called “Spotify Dreams Of Artists Making A Living. It Probably Won’t Come True”, the average artist on Spotify makes just twelve dollars a month.  That’s right, that’s not a typo, just twelve dollars a month.  The article is a great read and provides an in depth breakdown of how much money Spotify takes in and how it trickles down to artists using the platform: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/spotify-million-artists-royalties-1038408/

Even when musicians do manage to generate hundreds of thousands or even millions of streams, the money that is generated, after it’s split with fellow musicians, recording and production costs are deducted and expenses are paid, it’s usually a pretty modest payday at best.  Of course there are a few exceptions.  If you’re reading this and you’re doing well on Spotify, or even if you know someone else who is, I’d love to hear about it.

Let’s take a look at some hard stats.   The title of the blog post takes aim at Spotify, but to be fair, it’s really the entire streaming industry.  All of the platforms pay next to nothing.  Some are closer to nothing than others. 

Here’s a breakdown of what the major streaming platforms pay per stream.