How to start a band

 How to start a band

 I thought about calling this How to lose friends and alienate people, in other words how to become a musician and start a band.

The world of the musician in the artist has just become a darn sight harder to exist in, and we now need to be able to think differently about what we do. I don’t think this is just in the world of music and the arts, I think probably it brings into focus what crazy things are going on a what government values, many other sectors are affected here which deals with close interaction. However the world of the arts often flourishes when there is a problem because the creatives find new ways of doing things, so it may be a good time to start a band, that said let us get stuck in.

I come from the UK and north Kent in particular and back in the day punk had just happened and although I was more into the blend of reggae music and rock there were lots of opportunities for bands however good to get up and play because of that make it up quality that punk had created.

Music has a habit of getting complicated only to be knocked back to the basics and now is a time for this to happen again. All you need is a couple of chords and passion to play and then get into time!

So the band classically needs bass, drums, guitar and or keyboards and vocals, in other words a rhythm section, a harmony and melody section. So where are they?

Firstly your friends; if you do not get on with the others in the band it will not last, so friends and then friends of friends is the first port of call. You should be able to get at least the back bone of the band this way before advertising for the other person.

Often the drummer is the hardest to find, if you cannot find one I would suggest that the band forms the set without one, draft someone in later even if you have to pay him and in that way you can get a good player because a good drummer is THE thing that drives the band.

The next thing is you need a gig even if the band has just formed; organise a gig at a party or local village hall to act as a catalyst, if you are still at school all the better because not only do you have a venue you have also got an audience! It always amazes me how all the time that kids are at school they miss this opportunity and then start talking about forming a band at University, no START NOW! Make your band THE school band

For those of you starting late you will need to network and then network and then network, not only for the band members but places to play and other bands to support.

Rehearsals

You will need to find somewhere to work on your material and build the team; this is easier now than when I started off. Make sure that you practice your stuff at home so when you get there it is all about putting it together. You will be amazed how many times the vocalist does not know the song or the guitarist does not know the chords etc. and that can be a waste of time

Songs to choose

Keep them simple! Not a list of your favourite songs, make a list of numbers that an audience will like. Here are some ideas, old rock and roll, Kinks numbers, Punk, Grunge, old soul, Reggae, Bluebeat songs or anything that will get a crowd dancing and moving and simple to play so you can hone your skills as a unit or write your own. I can help you with this it you contact vichyland@msn.com as I run song writing groups which is by donation to a charity

Gear

This is not so much of a problem now as it is easier and cheaper to buy equipment than when I started. However the gear that is shared like the PA can be a problem. If you have bought equipment amongst the group have clear guidelines to what happens if someone leaves or the group breaks up. Having a clear plan avoids a lot of problems later because it doesn’t matter how much you believe that this band is gonna make it, the personnel will change many times before you get the magical ingredients.

So that’s it very basically just get playing and enjoy yourself is if you make your music fun and audience will pick up on that and will enjoy watching you play.

For further details visit www.vichyland.com

 

 

 

 

Ripples in a pool

 

Ripples in a pool

 

I took a small stone and turned to one of the children and said ‘I’m going to show you something of how the universe works, in fact it is most definitely how nature works’. I threw the stone into the water and we watched the ripples radiate out. ‘You see the ripples are caused by something that is not the same as the ripples,  the action itself is not the same as the effect of that action, that is something important  to notice and if you look carefully you can see it everywhere. The bee when it is feeding doesn’t know that it’s pollinating a plant, in fact the benefit that it brings to all life is not his actual intention and this is true of most things. The skill is to be able to work out what effect you can have in the world by doing something completely different. That my dear is Magic’.

I have been fascinated for some time in the unexpected consequence and situations where something is happening but it is difficult to work out the causative effect of it.

Why is it for instance that some people with the same amount of practice could learn much quicker than others, and then slow down?

How is it that  other people learn slowly and then for no apparent reason suddenly become very good almost overnight?  I have seen this over and over again,

I have had a number of experiences where somebody who could not sing, who is struggling to pitch a note and who was make slow progress, could one day turn up to a lesson; sit down and this amazing voice came out.

 In a previous post I said that progress is not linear, I had spoken more of the framework of revelation and some sort of tipping point event but this time I want to look at what we could do to create change in an indirect lateral fashion.

 I was always interested in the work of Edward De Bono who coined the phrase lateral thinking, in his numerous books on the subject there are lots of examples of stimulating thought by coming in laterally. He uses various examples one of them was an American museum looking for extra funding and using a dictionary as the reference source. At random they chose words from the dictionary and then brainstormed what it made them think. One word was mattress and that led to the idea of sleepovers in the museum, children’s parties then business conferences etc. This apparently led to an increase in the funds for the museum leading to their financial survival and course a couple of Hollywood films such as Night in the Museum, I’m joking as I don’t know whether that’s true or not!

Sometimes we see this in our own life where a situation which may have been unpleasant leads to an improvement in one’s life, a fulcrum point in the way that gave you leverage for change.

Instead of waiting for events we create the opportunity for them to happen,  him I’m thinking of the idea explored in the book the ‘The Dice Man’ where his decisions based on the throw a dice. I have already mentioned Bowie and Brian Eno use of cards in their case the oblique strategy cards that Eno had created. Brian Eno was also a collector of Tarot packs and therefore I would assume that the the oblique strategy cards that he created we’re just an extension to that idea. If  it worked for Brian Eno and David Bowie it might be worth considering it yourself.

So what about ritualistic behaviour?  Of course we do this all the time, cleaning our teeth, who goes to the bathroom first in the morning,  how we order our lives; these patterns are the same, day in, day out often, so let us create some that have an intention for change.

Remember that I have a creative experiment going on which is available through my Patreon site which is the Magical Song Writing, where we are creating lyrics and music that has some intention to change ourselves and our surroundings. Check that out by visiting www.Patreon.com/vichyland

 

also Bluescampuk music summer school www.bluescampuk.co.uk 

 

 

 

 

We do not learn in a straight line it is a crazy journey and a tipping point event.

 

We do not learn in a straight line it is a crazy journey and a tipping point event.

 

Over the years I have pondered how people learn. I have looked at my learning which resembles a wrestling match; sometimes I win sometimes I lose.

To me the way that people learn is not a gradual improvement which seems to be the model implied in most academic areas. In fact it is more consistent with the idea of the mediaeval revelation where at some point in time after much trial and tribulation it is revealed to you.

We see this idea more in Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey or any saga; a long journey with lots of tribulation, failures, and alliances, some form of cheating, double-dealing and then achieving the aim, sometimes not in the way that was anticipated; and then the journey back, with the treasure.

The reason I think this is so important is that it dissolves the illusion of how things happen, our intellectual reasoning mind wants things to be measured and mapped but I don’t think the world works like this and the more I interview people for the ‘Creative’ podcast the more I see it. In fact I haven’t actually met anyone who’s had a straightforward trajectory to what they have achieved.

I have spoken to people whose life has been rocked by bizarre events, near death experiences, strange meetings by chance, lucky breaks, disappointments that led to something else but whatever it is  never a gradual improvement on a level road taking us to our target.

It seems that the mind needs to get to that point where the pressure has built up so much that the dam bursts. For the guitarist the amount of practice becomes like a tsunami that enables the muscular aspects to change, for the singer they suddenly find their voice, for the novelist the plot with all its twists and turns comes into view, for the entrepreneur the idea suddenly presents itself out of nowhere.

Now that is not to say that we do not need strategies and tactics that enable us to create and open doorways, because sometimes the Muses aren’t waiting they have to be called maybe by having techniques that get us into that mind frame they hear us and we are prepared  to channel an idea.

You see everything is really like that, we don’t gradually learn to ride a bike, we suddenly learn to ride a bike after spending a lot of time falling off, it’s the same with surfing, walking, talking, in fact the most common graph that you could draw is a steep rise followed by a plateau, then another steep rise followed by another plateau and so on.

In one of the solo shows called Tough Love, I talk about really good pupil who just suddenly gave up when they were just on the cusp of making a great improvement, however in today’s way of thinking with all its ‘let’s have it now’ attitude many people stop achieving, and this is exacerbated by the parents who don’t want little Johnny or little Melissa to be bored or to have to contact with the uncomfortable feeling of struggle. However this attitude may be the very thing that is destroying the young mind when learning to deal with difficulty is what we would have termed in the past, ‘character building’.

So let us get away from this comfort zone and look at how we learn, let us embrace the frustration and the delay and the sore fingers and be prepared for the judgement day went suddenly we can do that thing.

You know it is worth it that is why not many people can play an instrument or do anything at a high level unless they can wrestle with their angels and demons.

 

Vic

 www.bluescampuk.co.uk

www.patreon.com/vichyland 

 

 

 

 

What happens when a song casts a spell?

 

What happens when a song casts a spell?

 

Ok, what if a song actually changes reality? I think that these songs actually exist, for instance ‘All You Need is Love’ by the Beatles may not been the cause of the ‘summer of love’ but probably increased its potency as it rode the crest of that wave in 1967.

Heroes by David Bowie was released in 1977, with its references to the Berlin Wall and its ultimate failure along with Bowie’s Berlin concert, leading  to the sudden taking down of the wall in 1989? Ripples in the pool caused by art? Who can really say? 

I am particularly interested in the songs written by people that hint at their ultimate demise. For instance ‘Son of a Gun’ by Kurt Cobain and ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ by John Lennon, are good examples of this but there are many others.

Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’ foretells of the death of his son by drowning many years later and it gets much weirder than that, Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins recorded the song, she also recorded with Tim’s son Jeff Buckley, the two became lovers and Jeff became the character in the song who drowns in the Mississippi in a freak accident.

What about the song that takes us back in our memory or makes us cry or laugh? We all have examples of that I am sure. What is this mysterious power that music has?

In folk music there are lots of examples of songs that have some sort of magical intent. There are songs that seem to be intended as curses and others that contain the impossible task which was popular amongst the cunning folk as they went about their business. A song such as Scarborough Fair contains many impossible tasks asked of an ex-lover,such as making a shirt with no seem and no needlework, and then to wash it in a dry well. There is also a list of protective herbs such as sage rosemary and thyme which was to be believed to be particularly useful against witchcraft. So does this mean that the ex-lover was a witch? Also within the British folk music tradition were references to trees and birds and enchanted people who had met with the fairy folk, in some traditions they were gifted to learn a skill such as playing music, or as a warning that is might not go well dealing with the Realm of the Fay.

Within the blues there is a rich tradition of magical practice which is most evident in the songs of Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. In fact many of the Muddy Waters songs viewed through the lens of NLP or magical thinking, look like some form of hypnotic suggestion, such as ‘I’ve got my Mojo Working (but it sure don’t work on you). Take out the negative and there you have a magical love spell being cast on anyone who Muddy Waters fancies in the audience.

So I thought it was about time that we explored the possibilities of song-writing using phrases that intend an outcome. This can be done in many ways such as;

All you need is love,

All you need is love,

All you need is love, love,

Love is all you need.

I think this last line is particularly clever in that it is a reworking of the first phrase, and then of course the end of the song is a mantra; Love is All You Need.

 In the outro the song references other songs that include love, like She Loves You.

Make a song that changes your life…….

So if you’re interested in this project and want to go down that rabbit hole visit me at my Patreon site www.Patreon.com/vichyland  

where you will see details of how you could be part of this experiment.

Or send me an email to vichyland@msn.com

 

Vic Hyland

 

 

Interview with Australian Guitar Ace Geoff Achison

 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/creative/id1481493729?fbclid=IwAR3Sk-wLUuJ768oQmp3Uwy8IHAn2XJTJBkHbhwuWd851SxeHB0xkvEvircw

Interview with Australian Guitar Ace Geoff Achison 

When the sun shines it shines on everyone when it rains it rains on everyone, the question is, ‘What can you do to shelter people from the storm?’

When the sun shines it shines on everyone when it rains it rains on everyone, the question is, ‘What can you do to shelter people from the storm?’

What are the benefits and upside of the current situation? Putting it another way, maybe we should not let a crisis go to waste. I have watched as artists have the possibility and potentiality of their careers and income disappearing down a black hole. What is the way forward? What can you do if you ally yourself to others in a similar situation to you?

Could you trade your skills for another’s skills?

Over the years I have had a number of pupils who have traded my guitar lessons in return for their own specialised skills. These have included computer repairs, software and other programming, gardening work, roadies for gigs, yoga lessons and many other things.

It is interesting that this form of exchange which would have been an important part of the economy doesn’t seem to be in our mind-set very much. However this could be an important aspect of your business and although technically you could be taxed on this, in reality it is something that can slip under the net.

Within your circle of friends there will be other musicians and artists who will be in exactly the same boat as you. You may be able to up skill and help them to up skill in areas that all could benefit from.

What experiences have you that you can share?

Life often throws us a curved ball and every now and again it takes our bat and hits us around the head with it. Now such experiences of life and how you recover from the head trauma are worth sharing. Think about financial problems that you have dealt with or are dealing with could they be of use to others. What about health issues? Mental and physical all of these can be the beginning of someone’s journey to health, and can act as a catalyst for others.

If you have not experienced the above, do you know someone who has who you can get to help? Become a portal of information.  

 

Are there any areas of abundance in this situation?

I know that’s hard to find if we coming out of the same paradigm, but if we shift the view of what we are doing, what can we find?

In any crisis there is an opportunity, just as in a good time not everyone benefits, this may not be musical opportunity or artist one however, you may be able to make it into one later, but at the moment look broader and deeper into the situation. I have to wonder how much money people have made from facemasks, sanitisers and then of course the vaccination when it arrives! That will certainly be a good money-spinner. I am not suggesting this, just that some people spot this a long way off and we might need to model that type of thinking.  

Remember you also have a network of other people, they are called friends; this is one of the most important aspects of being an artist you have a long list of contacts that you can use and they are often your friends. It might be an idea to sit down and write them out, make it physical. There will be more than just your Facebook crowd but your email list and you address book; people that you really know and trust.

Now is a good time to discover who your true friends are. Make sure that you are friends to other people.

 

Vic 

www.bluescampuk.co.uk Play in a rock band, Write songs, play gigs in France 

www.patreon.com/vichyland  for Podcast news on 'Creative'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative podcast - Asking better questions

NLP communication skills and creative tactics.

NLP communication skills and creative tactics.

As a teacher and communicator we need to maximise the efficiency of our communication. In today’s society with the challenges that this presents it is even more important to hone your skills.

For anybody who works where communication is at the very heart of what they do, whether you are a teacher, health professional, salesperson; the tactics of NLP will be of use to you.

As you know many of these courses that you can find online would involve groups of people, however that is not practical at this present moment, therefore I am offering one-to-one training either face-to-face or online through Zoom or Skype.

I have used these techniques for over 25 years of music and teaching and I have found them to be valuable and beneficial whether you are in creative mode or communication mode.

Contact me on (07976) 405561 for further details.

 

 

Guitars are almost indestructible, and there is a little goldmine out there

 Guitars are almost indestructible, and there is a little goldmine out there 

Have you got an old electric guitar that has been hanging around, or maybe an old acoustic with a couple of strings missing? They may be repairable, in fact electric guitars and pretty much indestructible, so why not get it fixed?

One of the problem areas on the guitar is the fretboard or the neck. Sometimes the neck can warp, but on a well-made guitar you can adjust this by tensioning or relaxing the truss rod that runs through the middle of the neck. Now this is a job for somebody who knows what they are doing, so I would suggest that you find a guitar repairer who could do this for you, they will also be able to restring the guitar and maybe change the tuning pegs if required.

I was always amazed as a teenager that when you spoke to people about playing the guitar they always had one knocking around the house somewhere. It always surprised me how many people didn’t play but they seemed to have a guitar and as I was getting into teaching at the time I would often get them to pass my name around.

A good friend of mine who is an architect keeps a guitar and amp in his office. He says it is a good talking point when people come in to discuss a new project, getting the conversation off to a relaxed start.

In the years that I’ve been teaching I’ve known a number of occasions where old guitar has been found in the loft and it’s turned out to be quite a  find. The most extreme and for example of this was somebody found an original Gretsch White Falcon that came in the original Gretsch case and this was worth a few thousand pounds 20+ years ago. Although this is unusual there often finds of classic less well-known guitars such as Hofner, and EKO and even the odd Fender Stratocaster.

A few years ago I put the word out for some old guitars to be donated for charity, I had given to me around about 20 guitars that I was able to repair and get into a number of schools that were short on musical instruments. Even in that number there are a couple of Fender Squire’s that were literally given to me for nothing. So this might be a little bit of a goldmine if you are willing and able to do a little bit of repair work and TLC on the instrument.

I am personally keen on the whole idea of recycling and therefore the idea of an old guitar just being thrown away to me is quite abhorrent. Guitars have their own character, even the cheap ones, and with some attention can be made into something quite special. I have an old Ibanez Road Star that I had rebuilt. The guitar actually cost me nothing because it had been left in a school by an ex pupil for a few years and as he had gone back to some exotic country he was very unlikely to come back to retrieve the instrument. The basic build quality of the guitar was very good so I just stripped down and repainted it but then spent some money on pickups and a nice scratch plate. This is one of the guitars that I used to gig, playing in a different tuning and using it for bottleneck blues playing.

I mentioned earlier that electric guitars are pretty much indestructible, so what about the acoustic guitars. The obvious weakness on the acoustic guitar is the acoustic body which is basically a hollow box, and if this gets damaged it might be difficult to repair. It’s not impossible but it is something that you would have to do because the cost of taking it to a professional unless the instrument is a high quality would really not be worth it. However that does not stop the instrument being useful for parts and the same goes for the electric guitar of course. You might fancy building something yourself but using the hardware from an old instrument.

Now if you have an artistic bent then and unplayable instrument might be made into a work of art or even dare I say this into some sort of container; which takes me to a story of an old classical guitar teacher of mine who was horrified that one of his pupils had old guitars with plants growing out of them hanging on their wall.

So with all these guitars knocking around, by the law of averages some of them could be valuable and a good guitar keeps its value not necessarily from the point of view of sale as that is market dependant, but certainly from the point of view of its usefulness.

So if you are keen on salvaging and repairing a guitar but do not know how to play I have a free course that can help

So until next time

Vic

Visit www.bluescampuk.co.uk for links to the free course

for news on the Creative podcast if you want to learn to create and be successful visit my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/vichyland 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How music can change your world

I think it’s fair to say that most people would be able to tell you anecdotal evidence to point to the fact that music is of great benefit to her health and her state of well-being but how about it being true the transformation where it can rebuild your life, prolong your life and change the world that you inhabit?

For me I’ve been teaching and playing music now for over 45 years and I am very interested in music from an artistic and psychological point of view and have used NLP alongside music to transform my life and other people’s lives as a teacher.

 

My search into a deeper aspect of music started many years ago and being intrigued and just basically nosy about what made successful musicians achieve and create and wanting to know how they did it, I started the ‘Creative’ podcast, interviewing musicians and artists and getting them to tell their stories to see if I could find any clues.  One of the lines of thought that I picked up on is where idea that there were no limits to possibilities and this is evident in people who are highly successful.

I was a conversation with Ben Thomas who plays guitar for Adele. Ben has been her guitarist right from the beginning, meeting her at Brit School. He was telling me about being invited over to her birthday party in America and he describes all the crazy things that are going on within this mansion. people doing magic tricks and stuff like that and he was saying that when you meet these high performing and high achieving people they don’t have any limits to what they believe, they can do anything, anything is possible, like there are no rules.

For us hearing this initially might make us slightly concerned and conflicted but in actual fact that tells us something about why we are stuck, because there are limits to what we think is possible.

 

Prince obviously later on his life had some dealings with Mormonism but Princes artwork and the way that he presented himself had blatant magical overtones such as the use of sigils (remember the logo and the odd shaped guitar that he played)

On the surface that all seemed ridiculous however these people are achieving unbelievable things with this mind-set so if we come from a scientific process to test things out you can’t test something out with the belief that it’s not going to work you have to be open-minded and then if something works then that is all that you are really concerned with.

A number of years ago I became involved in NLP and I was fortunate enough to do the training with Richard Bandler, Paul McKenna and Michael Breen, but it was Richard Bandler’s story about how he arrived with the idea of NLP was fascinating.

He tells the story about as a young man being enthusiastic about martial arts trained for many hours a day, however he is diagnosed with cancer and he is so angry and distraught about this he says that he went AWOL and then in his words ‘I woke up in Mexico’ he said that he discovered later that tequila was a great way of destroying cancer cells as it obviously destroyed his tumour, but reading deeper into this story I think he was talking about his pilgrimage to Mexico to meet a shaman following in the footsteps of Carlos Castaneda and book The Teachings of Don Juan.

I am guessing here but I am assuming that Bandler took copious amounts of peyote in the Mexican desert and ‘woke up’, much of NLP is based on shamanic practice just like the work of Carl Jung being deeply indebted to the mystical Christianity and Gnostic traditions which was only evident after the red book was published only recently.

For both of these people they needed to ‘science up’ the work, which speaks a lot about the situation that we find ourselves in with the current thought paradigm which is, if something that doesn’t fit it cannot be spoken, to do so is a form of heresy; science has become a religion. We have situations where people will not dispute ideas from their teachers until those teachers have died and then somebody else can put forward a new hypothesis. This happens in all sorts of areas from science to archaeology, medicine, to psychology and even research into the areas of ESP.

 

So let’s look at what music can do let’s start with what we think it can do. I believe the power of the arts can literally change the world,

Change the context and that will change the detail, at the moment music and the arts are very much of a commodity but it never used to be it was powerful and change the conscious of people (trance dance in shamanic traditions but also raves, discos rock concerts etc) the details can also change the context one can influence the other if we start approaching music, dance, drama, poetry etc in a way that it has real power it can start to really change your life.

How?

Come to Bluescamp and we will show you ……..

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

 

 

 

Ways to make music in these hard times

 

Ways to make music in these hard times

 

The experience of lockdown and its effect on live music has been significant and it doesn’t look as if there is any change on the horizon, it is therefore up to us to look for opportunities in these rather chaotic times. It is safe to say that there are always opportunities in a crisis but they may not be obvious, and they certainly will require us to think very differently about what we have to offer.

Often in these situations the answer is found elsewhere, so for instance if you are looking for an answer to your gigging the answer might be found in something other than concerts, it might be found in sports coaching for instance.

 

If we are waiting for a return to what we did before, we going to have a long wait, we’ll have to think about how we can perform to maybe a few people and go and stream the performance as well, or maybe a ‘drive in’ concert like drive-in cinema might be an idea.

 

They are relevant answers out there, but we’ve got to use our creativity to work out how we can transfer techniques from other areas if life and business. In song writing when somebody is stuck I often ask them what’s the song about? Maybe the song is just a bunch of chords at that point in time and the lyrics have not been written, when they reply that they don’t know, my standard response is ‘what is it not about’ and interestingly people know; if you know what it is not, you must know what it is; it is probably its opposite.

 

This happens a lot when we think because our language frames things, so when we are stuck and we can’t think of an idea it’s because we’ve got into a cul-de-sac in that way of thinking. Language creates the context and landscape that the ideas live, and the way we talk and think about music creates a framework which often becomes a cage.

 

We need to step back and take another turning further up the road, there is always an answer because there are many possibilities in any situation, if you think that it’s more about the question and not about a conclusive answer then you get a flow of ideas.

 

Questions that give forward momentum are good, remember just like meeting people, the person that you want often need to meet isn’t the person that you first meet, it is the friend that they know that can really change your life; a bit like questions and answers, the first question isn’t the one that’s going to lead you in the direction that you need, but it’s what it stimulates. So going back to our problem, what are you going to do about music in this brave new world, what ideas are thrown up by looking at other businesses and how do they do things?

 

Viewing things through a different perspective can give you great ideas, look at things outside of your work in this particular period of time, online sales for instance, clothing, things that have to be delivered. Is there anything we can do from that perspective? Can you deliver your music? Serenading for instance?

 

What is it that you can do for people that’s original and interesting?

I’ve always been successful in getting people turning up to gigs because I involve people in the concerts. Is there any way that you can do something to involve people in your creative processes? Write songs in collaboration with clients for example.

What little niche markets do you know?

 

It’s all about friendship groups;

Engage with information to broaden what we are doing. It is important and many musicians are already doing this, take for instance the singer songwriter and guitar player who has been doing gigs from his kitchen and his back garden during the worst times of lockdown, being funded online by donations. He was on this from day one; we need that proactive ability now more than ever to deal with what is coming, not just what we are experiencing at the moment.

 

So here are some ideas

 

1.       Gigs streamed (RSC productions streamed into cinemas)

2.       Gigs in a drive in situation like the old American drive in movies

3.       Personal gigs in someone’s garden ( got this idea from Chris Difford of Squeeze)

4.       Collaborations with businesses for musicians in residence (like artist in residence) this could also be like the Beatles playing on a rooftop in London.

5.       Find places that have social distancing ideas already in operation such as churches that you can play.

6.       The silent disco but for live bands where the audience have headphones and can dance in a large area such as a field or large marquee.

7.        Go back to the rave culture with a secret gig somewhere that nobody knows about till the last moment

8.       Read up on the East German Punk movement and see how they managed to get gigs happening in a communist regime (that was really tough and illegal)

 

So to add a little bit of focus, develop areas in your art that may be week like song writing and arranging or recording.

We are running a completion for next year’s Bluescampuk in Tonbridge all you need to do is record your song on your phone and send it to us at www.bluescampuk.co.uk the winner gets a free place at next year’s camp.

Get writing ..

 

Vic and the team  

 

 

 

 

Ways to make money from music in these hard times

 

Ways to make money from music in these hard times

 The experience of lockdown and the effect on live music and music education has been significant, and it does not look as if there are any significant changes on the horizon.  It is therefore up to us to look for opportunities in these rather chaotic times. It is safe to say that there are always opportunities but they may not be obvious, they certainly will require us to look very differently at what we have to offer.

Often in these situations the answer is found somewhere else, for instance if you are looking for an answer to your problems look elsewhere in another industry or discipline.

Where are the problems that music teachers are having at the moment?

You cannot assume that things will go back to normal; this event has caused a seismic change in the way that you are going to do things in the future. If you been able to teach online, that is going to be an important component to the work that you do in the future, even if you are able to resume face to face work. It can increase your catchment area to the rest of the world; the only problem is people finding you.

 Online recording work,

There is literally no barrier to where you could work in the world if you are set up to record at home. I have a number of friends who have over the years supply music for films and artists around the world from the comfort of their own home studio. LinkedIn is probably the best place to forge those contacts because it is the platform for professional people of numerous areas of business.

 Don’t just limit yourself to the world of music

Other businesses require music for their presentations and maybe some sort of in-house training this is a brilliant time to be able to offer that, particularly if you can do it online because businesses who are strapped for cash may be able to afford you doing the training as a sort of experience day.

It is also a good idea to create a check list of other skills that you have and see if they can be useful at this point. I know musicians who are skilled in computer programming and others who are keen gardeners, instrument makers, meditators etc. If you have a van and happy to carry things about there is always the (Wo)Man with a van.

 Support for others as a Mentor

 If you have expertise in a particular area, whether it’s in teaching or performance, how about mentoring those who are starting out? You could mentor someone who is a teacher who looks up to you as being an expert in their discipline or you can mentor somebody fresh out of college looking to develop their skills as a musician in the real world.

Remember that people will buy from other people that they trust.

Make the most of the goodwill that you have developed over time with your customer base, whether that is in the form of teaching or concerts. A good customer knows that times are difficult and therefore when you advertise you can ask for their support. Now is the time to record lessons to sell, remember to focus into a niche in the market. You may think that everything is already free on the internet but there are still people making money from Diets and Yoga all of which are abundant on YouTube

Experience days

Companies such as Airbnb, buyagift and experiencedays may be a good port of call getting on a platform that could show your work. Not only does it give you some sort you kudos within the industry but is a very good way of being able to spread your name.

Think of how you could package your things is an experience day maybe ‘beginners guitar in a morning’

And it’s always about innovation and technology 

Whether we like technology or not (and I’m not particularly keen) unfortunately we are where we are. Technology has always been an essential aspect of a human’s interaction with the world. Fire is a technology which meant we could travel very far into temperate zones and apart from offering us warmth it also offered us protection and the ability to create things.

We used it to create implements, it stimulated culture, stories were told around campfires and were the great spiritual force in humanity. But it is also an amazing destructive force when out of control, so think about it,  you know we could use modern technology for good and not so good, but we can’t step back from it, however much we would like to. I can assure you I am a bit of a Luddite at heart. I prefer to do things manually however I do play the electric guitar and not acoustic so in that regard I am hypocrite.

So let’s embrace new tech as we’ve got and use it anyway.

 Think of creative places to play

 Look around you and see what great ideas other people are having, from gigs in your front garden being streamed online, to the possibility of gigs in big open spaces. From the aircraft hangar to the open field, the possibility of a silent disco, which we can turn into a silent concert where all the audience wear headphones, to the drive in movie becoming the drive in concert.

 So it’s time to open your mind up and come up with his many interesting and novel ideas. These are often not the solutions on their own but the idea is that they stimulate other ideas. It’s a little bit like meeting somebody at a party; they know somebody who would be the perfect contact for you. Like Stanley Milgram’s 6 degrees of separation, where you are only six people away from anyone else in the world. I think it’s the same with ideas; one idea will introduce you to another idea. So with that in mind get out there, start talking to people in other businesses and industries and see what ideas they have and see what it stimulates in you.

 So for those of you who are in need of personal help and some form of mentoring I currently have on my Patreon site a Guitar Mentoring program to help you through your problems and find answers. This is explained on the intro video visit https://www.patreon.com/vichyland

 Yours Vic

What makes a good guitar teacher?

What makes a good guitar teacher?

It’s not so obvious what makes a good teacher, having knowledge of the subject is important obviously, but if you’re the sort of person who cannot transmit that information to somebody else, you are not a good teacher.

I have come across many people who are experts in their subject, but are unable to appreciate where the pupil is at that point in time in order to instruct them.

I have also come across people, who are only slightly ahead of the pupil in what they really know, but they are excellent at transmitting that information; they in my opinion are good teachers!

If you go back to when I started there was no formal training in contemporary guitar styles, and there were no exam qualifications at the time. If you wanted to do gradings you had to study a classical instrument. If you were a young whippersnapper like me and you just wanted to just go out and change the world by playing rock guitar,  you were unlikely to go and study an instrument like the piano in order to get a piece of paper to get a job.  I would still rather work at getting in through the back door by gigging and making connections. This was the way that things used to be done in the past, and I suggest actually that this should be more of the way of doing things now.

A good teacher is a mind reader

If someone is able to look inside the mind of a pupil knowing exactly where they are, and is able to read the rules that are laid out in front of them to see the problems and how they can be best corrected they possess a skill of teaching.

This skill requires someone to be focused on the subject, in other words the pupil.

A good teacher is an iconoclast

Break the rules in order that people can be free, so they can get out of the cage they have created by the way they think and by the way they play. This requires the teacher to think outside the box, for instance what do you do when somebody comes along who has a deformity in their hands or their fingers? If you are playing classical guitar how do you get on with the fact that they’re not going to be using the ‘correct fingers’?

What happens if they have some problem in the way that they see the world?  You have to inhabit their world in order for them to express themselves through music, there is no school curriculum or syllabus that will help you, it’s completely down to your own genius. Take the labels like ADHD and throw them away.

A good teacher knows that they are rubbish.

All of the things that one holds dear are only ideas. For everything a teacher tells a pupil about technique there is a great player who is doing the exact opposite. You can never know it all and you are never truly correct.

A good teacher is also a good business person

 Charging a high rate for what they do, but giving incredible value in the way they do is important. A teacher should not be held to account by other teachers who are undervaluing themselves. A teacher should make sure that they earn a good living from what they do, because it will add life force to the work.

If you don’t charge enough you will resent working!

A good teacher is organised, punctual and reliable.

Many things that are taught and not direct, are implicit in what they do. Being an organised and reliable one inadvertently teaches a pupil to be the same. To succeed as a musician, if that’s what they choose, one of the most important skills that you need is reliability. This is because no one wants to work with an idiot who forgets what he or she is booked to do, who is late and unreliable. They will make one or two gigs by being like that, but after they will not be hired again, ever. And the same goes for a teacher.

Remember that Bluescampuk are running free Q&A sessions the next one is one July 21^st at 7.30pm contact us for details

Vic and the team

The received wisdom is wrong and expensive.

The received wisdom is wrong and expensive.

The received wisdom states that to be a good musician you need go to Music College, learning what someone tells you is right. Learn what others do in such a way that you sound like them. In the past that is not how the great players learned, they did refer to other players by studying recordings and working  it out for themselves, and that is an important difference.

If you work music out from a recording, you often get it slightly wrong and in that way one starts to sound like yourself, and not like somebody else. Think of Jimi Hendrix, he was a consummate guitar player who took from all styles and other peoples playing, however, when Hendrix played an idea taken from someone it always sounded like Jimi.

 Now I’m not saying that a modern approach doesn’t work technically, but there is an unintended consequence to the way that we learned in the past, we do not make the type of mistakes that create our personality within the music if we learn by rote.

 Our education system has created a clone factory that might be fine if you want to play in the tribute band, playing exactly like Jimmy Page or Steve Vai, but the drawback to this is these people still exist and therefore you are only a copy, and like any impersonator you can never be better than the original. If you take their ideas and deconstruct them, then reassemble you are able, with your own skills, abilities and personality, to create something that is for want of a better word, unique!

Teaching within a framework of a lesson plan is restricting and uncreative.

It is difficult to teach creativity because it’s so hard to define, whereas teaching something note for note is easy to measure and therefore mark. So the system itself causes a distortion in our approach, and this is as true for other subjects as it is for music.

Saying to a bunch of musicians ‘I’m going to give you five little tricks and tips which will transform the way you play and it will only take me half an hour’ doesn’t make for a good two year college course, and would be almost impossible to mark. However, from a transformative point of view that is the quickest route and the most effective way of teaching.

I have said it is important to have lessons BUT

My last point is the real killer, many music tutors think that teaching is showing a pupil what they (the teacher) can do, it isn’t, it’s finding out where the student is on their journey and helping them to achieve their potential. This I think is the mark of really good teaching, and you can see this in your own work if you are producing different types of musical personalities from your pupils.

 If you find that your pupils are becoming bass players, guitarists, singers, songwriters, actors or music therapists you are a good teacher. All of these people are expressing their desires and their abilities and not trying to copy yours; you have no control over what they become.

Finally, how much is a college course now? £10K per year? What you need is time to practice and people to play along with and then the contacts………….

Vic 

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

www.vichylandcoach.com 

5 things that improve your Guitar playing

5 things that improve your Guitar playing 

Write out your short-term goals which should be measurable and achievable, long-term goals should be aspirational.

Short term

Making your short-term goals measurable and achievable means that you can really get some positive traction on your progress.

Learning a musical instrument takes time but you also need to focus that time. When one practises you will see no immediate improvement. I liken this to taking a long journey, at no point on the journey have you arrived, it doesn’t look anything like the place that you are going to. However, as long as you are heading in the right direction you will arrive and suddenly you are there!

By having achievable measurable short-term targets we can take each leg of the journey in a way that is motivating, and inspires us to get on with the job.

If you make a written list, as you accomplish each item cross it off, this is very powerful. I cannot stress this enough that making something physical like a to-do list and then actively crossing off the items as you do them really motivates you.

So to achieve the items they must be measurable and achievable. For instance, play the A major scale ten times is better than saying learn the A major scale. Even if you get it wrong you can still play it ten times!

Long-term

Your long-term destination should be something that inspires you to take that journey.  Going back to the old idea of a pilgrimage these were truly aspirational destinations which would involve great sacrifice both physically and financially, but the rewards were enormous.  In  order to gain merit in life and to enter the kingdom of heaven going on a pilgrimage was a very positive way of dealing with your sin; that is a powerful motivator.

Think of something that will be that powerful in your mind, be a rock star, travel the world, think of the great adoration of people. If that stuff doesn’t float your boat then find out what does, and make that your long term goal

Make it fun

How much of what we do is boring? When I was at school, teaching was based on the principle of boring kids to sleep in order to teach them!  This does not work, make things fun and you will learn more and learn faster!

Set yourself easy achievable targets (as above) and practice while you watch a film or listen to something you find interesting such as an audio book. When you achieve something reward yourself, even if that is just having a cup of tea. Make learning into a game; in fact make life into a game.

 Practicing chords can be boring, so find a song that has those chords in it and have some fun learning! Same with scales, make everything meaningful and fun; having something musical to learn is much easier than playing something that is a boring exercise.

Leave the guitar out of its case

‘Out of sight, out of mind’.  This could not be any truer when it comes to learning a musical instrument a guitar in its case, under a bed will never be played. So make sure the guitar is on a stand in the way or in a place that can be seen, for you to develop the habit of picking up and playing, the instrument needs to be at hand.

Train yourself to use downtime to practice the guitar, so if the guitar is out of the case and in your hands as much as possible,  you could play while watching  TV programmes, YouTube clips  or listening to a podcast; it’s a really good way of finding extra time for practice.

The more you can do multitasking, for want of a better term, and it really is a case of finding certain things that can happen at the same time. I was taught this by  my guitar teacher when I was in my teens,  to watch a film and practice the boring bits of the technique such as scales,  fast fingerpicking or chord changes whilst watching something on the television, to take me away from the boredom of doing the same thing over and over again.

Over  the years I actually learnt that this was a really powerful way of getting information into my unconscious; whilst the conscious part of my mind was watching something I was building muscle memory. It was like these techniques were slipping in through the back door. However, you won’t be able to do these things unless your guitar is readily available somewhere in the room.

Practice every day

If you practice every day you will make more progress than doing a lot of practice on one day during the week .This is because the mind needs revision; to bring memory patterns forward from the back of the mind to be re seen, literally revisioned.

Getting into the mind-set of building a habit is one of the most powerful ways of becoming a good musician.  I often tell my pupils that everybody can play a musical instrument ,and the skills that are required are not musical they are physical and mental.

 These are the same skills that you would require to be a good sportsman or a good artist or good at languages, because you are dealing with your mind and your muscle memory.

In the case of music there are no special skills or talent other than the fact that we are all geniuses potentially. Build this habit of practice into your daily routine, and you will see incredible results.

If you play the guitar for a little period of time after you’ve cleaned your teeth  or just after a mea; building a habit  by practising guitar is easier if you link it to another habit or ‘ritualistic behaviour’, hence choosing cleaning your teeth or eating a meal is something that is baked into our day.

If the guitar is in the way and visible, that will help, but I cannot stress enough that the frequency of practice is the most important thing. So practise which happens more than once a day and certainly happens every day, are the surest ways to become an accomplished player.

Relax it’s a journey

Practice is a journey and like any other journey it looks nothing like the end, until the arrival.  So keep going until you get there, every step however wrong it might seem at the time is correct, as long as you keep the end in sight. Also there is on any journey constant adaptations to the plan to cover deviations caused by events, same with practice. The British army moto of ‘no plan survives first contact’ also applies to you keep adapting to how you learn.

It is one of the most important skills in learning, just putting one step forward at a time and keep doing it. You can master anything this way; remember that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time!

Look forward to seeing you for the Bluescamp Q&A on Tuesday 23^rd June at 7.30

Make sure you send an email to confirm so we can send you a Zoom link

Remember to send any questions that you might have

Vic and the team

Is it a good idea to take guitar exams?

Over the years I have entered lots of people for guitar grades. I have worked with other musicians and music teachers, where we have used a variety of examination boards and syllabuses.

For me it’s always been about a motivator, I am not focused on the actual examination itself, as I always say to my pupils, the journey is more important than the arrival, a bit like life.

For some may need a certain grade level in order to get onto a music college course, but even that is something that we will need to review now we are in the days of Internet courses, many run by most of the major universities. So from the viewpoint of guitar, (but this is as relevant to other instruments I believe)you maybe able to find another way of focusing that will act as a goal.

I have been using predominantly and sometimes almost exclusively the RGT guitar exams run by the LCM, which is accredited by the University of West London, but I’ve also taught many pupils from other syllabuses. I’ve always found these to useful, but they do have drawbacks.

Their main competitors including The Rock School exams run by Trinity College, and the guitar exams run by the Guildhall.

The categories for the guitar examination fall into three main sections, the Electric guitar, the Rock guitar, and the Acoustic guitar. The Acoustic guitar exams are particularly good for younger players in the early grades, because they contain some very pleasant and relatively simple melodies.

You are also encouraged to learn a few scales and chords, but not as many as the Electric.

As the grades go up there as an accompaniment section starting from Grade 1, where the candidate accompanies using their own rhythm patterns, and a melody played by the examiner. This is often quite a challenging section of the exam as the chord progression is new to the candidate. This requires a thorough knowledge of the chords not only for that Grade, but any preceding Grades. The rest of the Acoustic guitar sections can be pretty much studied and learnt, as is typical for most music exams for other instruments.

The Electric guitar exams on the other hand is all about using information such as scales and chords, and being able to create an improvised solo or a rhythm pattern from a chart to your own rhythm ideas. As the grades progress they obviously become far more complex with different key changes at the high grades, and more Jazzy progressions using classic sort of Jazz 2-5-1 progressions, which is really good for the all-round guitarist.

The Rock guitar exams on the other hand were probably bought out in direct competition against the Rock School exams, and these involve playing pieces of music that all cut down versions of an original classic. Whereas with the Rock School exams the pieces are pastiches of famous songs with the riff turned upside down and inside out, and then given the name which hints at the original.

To be honest I think that it is better to play the original piece of music than somebody’s version of a song by Guns N’ Roses ,with a tribute band style song title. Now there are some very good pieces in the higher Rock Schools syllabus, but I do think that the RGT version has got the edge from the viewpoint of teaching and learning.

There are shortcomings to all of these exams because Contemporary guitar is such a varied style, for some people they will need to learn to read if they wanted to say for instance play in a pit orchestra, but for others they might not want to or need to read. Reading music is a requirement for the Rock School syllabus, but remember many of the famous guitar players could not read at all. Flamenco players and Acoustic players in the past did not know how to read music, but they did have exceptionally good ears which is something that I believe an electric player really needs in preference. However, a little bit of everything is always a good thing if you can manage it.

The music exams happen three times a year at around the same time as the classical music exams. They are held at various centres dotted around the country, and worldwide; since the Coronavirus there have been efforts to put many of these exams online, so that you can perform at home and be assessed by an examiner over the Internet. So, do have a look at the various prices of the exams.

They are all accredited by the examination boards, and they carry the same Ofqual ratings, the higher grades being the same as an A-Level.

Vic 

www.bluescampuk.co.uk