There are too many musicians out there that won’t play for free. A lot of them would want to get paid. Whether it’s playing a gig or doing studio work for a project. They can’t go a day without making money out of music. They see music being a job. They feel that going through all that hard work for a band, they deserve to be paid.

I never cared about money. I do like money, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t care to make it playing music. I can get by in life just fine.

When a musician wants to get paid, it makes them self centered. Kind of shows that they don’t really have heart for music. They’re not really passionate about music that they think they are. If you want to get somewhere in music and become successful, you’re not going to do that, by playing a bunch of “pay” only gigs. You want to be willing to play a bunch of free gigs. If you play free gigs, it’ll show respect to your fanbase that they don’t have to pay anything just to see you perform.

Out of all the gigs I’ve had in the past, they were mostly free ones. I’ve had actual paying gigs sure, but that didn’t matter to me. I never got payed a lot to begin with. For paying, I would only get paid around $30 – $70. Depending on how big of a crowd I get. Paying at the door. I would even split my money with the other musicians on the gig sometimes ’cause really money didn’t matter to me playing music. I don’t care for it.

Not playing for the money, will show your true passion for music. Think about it, ya know? All I cared about was making the music for the people. That’s why I do this.

Kev

I came across this Albany band called, The Parlor, from the Crumbs website, and this song kind of blew me away. Don’t know much about this band yet,  just discovered them. This is a pretty good tune. Love the vocals, and the tune is good over all. Got a 60’s vibe to it.

Kev

How can you tell when a musician has a huge ego problem? Read up…

• They’ll want to think they’re so talented at everything they do, no matter what anybody says – In other words, a lot of them will want to think that they are like, “God” or something. They get criticized by somebody, they’ll get all defensive.
• They’ll want as much publicity as possible – They’ll want to be all over the internet, radio, newspapers, etc. They’ll look at themselves like they are some sort of local celebrity or something.
• They call themselves a headlining act, they’ll want to headline a show and play last every gig – Some of them will want to think they’re important and think they’re the superstar, all the time. I’ve ran into musicians like this before.
• All they think about is money, they want to be payed the most and obsess with it – There are too many money hungry musicians around here. It’s crazy. It’s not like you’re going to get rich off of music, guys. You may get payed a little, but it’s not like you’re going to be millionaires in local music, get over yourselves.
• They think they’re too good to talk to them online, they ignore you a lot when you write to them – Look dudes, you’re not a celebrity or a star or anything. I’ve tried to write to musicians that are established or popular, but you either get no reply back or they’ll also claim they don’t have the time to write to you. Bullshit lie! Get over your celebrity thing, people!
• They’ll think they are better than you as a person and a musician – Don’t let other musicians think they are better than you ’cause they are no better. I certainly don’t let them think they’re better than me and I’ve ran into musicians like this too. Don’t let their egos destroy you, that includes online or at band gigs.
• Some musicians will claim they are business people. They will claim they have their own label or promotional company, just to make themselves look good – Ouch,  did I just say that out loud? There are a lot of frauds around here. Not naming names.
• They’ll want to hog up a lot of stage time – Bands would want to play longer sets, even if they’re booked to play short sets. Also, some musicians will want to play with other musicians onstage as much as possible, as an excuse to hog up the stage. I’ve seen it before.
• They’re not supportive of other bands & musicians, some musicians just play music for themselves – There are bands and musicians that don’t even care to support other musical acts. There are even bands out there who don’t even care to get support by fans or other bands. Believe me, these kinds of musicians are out there.
• They’ll want to think they’re so big after winning a big band competition or contest – This happens pretty often, a band wins a “Battle of the Bands” competition or some radio contest, they’ll want to think they’re bigger after that. Congratulations on your big win but that doesn’t make your band any bigger. You’re still a local band, right?

That’s all, enjoy.

Kev

When you’re a musician, it almost seems like you are not allowed to be honest or have an opinion on your own. When you do either of these things, people will call you a jealous person or call you a hateful & negative person, just because you were trying to be honest about something. You’ll also get called delusional & crazy, and people will think you’re wrong about everything you say.

When you try to be honest and having an opinion, you NEVER attacked anybody or anything. It was just honesty, you being real, and people will still want to see you as an asshole.

This happens with a lot of musicians out there, not just me. I notice that when a musician tries to be honest about something, he/she is immediately the badguy. I’ve been dealing with this stuff for years.

Here’s why I think that is. It’s just that when you become a musician, you become a public figure. Your name is widely known, likely known in your area and beyond. When the truth gets out there for the world to see, it bothers other people. Your honesty gets put out there where everyone can read. Other people think they can be honest and be opinionated when they want to but when you do it, everyone thinks it’s a bad thing to do.

People think they can have opinions on bands all they want to, but when I have an opinion, their fans will stick up for them, and call me a jerk because of it. Only for having an opinion if you don’t like their music!

A musician want to believe they are honest & real, not because it’s for attention or ego. They do it because it’s their way of showing people they can be human. Yet, honest musicians are accused of being badguys no matter what happens.

This is why I’m not liked too much by some folks around the music scene, and this is why I’ve been kicked out & banned from local music forums over the years. People didn’t enjoy me telling the truth about something.

The way I see things, there is nothing wrong with being honest & real at all. I don’t get why people get pissed, but that’s okay with me. When you’re a musician, you need to be honest about things ’cause it is good for your life and your musical career & dreams. This is why you see honest musicians online.

I’ve always believed that when you tell the truth and upsetting people, you’re probably right and they just hate hearing it. No matter how positive and nice you get, people will always find something to get mad at you about, it still happens in facebook. I post in a status when there’s nothing wrong with it and someone will disagree with it and call me out on it. Same thing happens on my blog once in a while.

Don’t let a backlash or a negative response bother ya. I’m used to it and actually enjoy it when it happens. Another reason people get mad, is ’cause jealousy is a small part of it. They get a little jealous ’cause they know you had the balls to say something in front of everyone. End of story.

Kev

While I still stand by the things I say about band & musician photos, I’m not so photo crazy, but I understand why other bands & musicians do it. When you do band photos for marketing material, YOU must do it carefully and responsibly, just like you talk to people online carefully and responsibly. The photos you post on the internet. It’s there forever. No matter if you delete it or not, it’ll always come back to you and someone will leak it.

A lot of bands will make photos to try and be funny & humorous. They’ll make silly faces at the camera (which I see a lot more often), or they’ll flip the bird to the camera or they make sexual poses. Stuff like shirtless guys grabbing their crotches or female musician showing too much cleavage.

Again, nothing wrong with it, free country, but if you want your career to be on a positive note, you must look at how you release photos carefully. Some may find your photos offensive, inappropriate, a bit controversial. Some may make fun of you with those photos. Not just to laugh with you but at you. Do you want to be listed on other music websites under the Top Bad Photos list category? They will whether you like it or not.

If you don’t want to be a target of making bad band photos, you need to do it the right way. I’m sort of a photographer myself. I’m not a professional photographer, I just do it for fun and as a hobby, so I do know some photography.

You don’t need to release every photo you take. Don’t be afraid to trash the photos you’re not happy with.

When I get a band going, I’ll make sure our band photos will be normal. Nothing humorous, nothing weird, nothing too crazy. They’ll just be normal and simple band photos.

Nothing wrong with being funny and having a laugh, but music shouldn’t be about that. Photos say things to people. If you want to show your true love for music, you need to show that in your photos too, by not clowning around too much. Being a comedian will just send the wrong message to people.

Kev

A lot of people mistakenly believe that what makes you a great lead guitarist is playing super fast notes, aka, a guitar shredder. Playing super fast guitar licks and leads is great, but in my opinion, it’s not important in music. I’ve always believed that when a guitar player wants to play super fast solos all the time, just wants to be a show off. It’s like, “Hey, look at me, I can play fast”. Playing fast is just for entertainment purposes.

If you really want to impress people with your playing. Play guitar like you’re on fire and send chills down people’s spines, then you need to play lesser notes, and play a little slower. You need to make your solo sound musical. Something memorable. Make your solo sound like it’s somebody singing a song. That’s why I admire players like Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Hendrix, Clapton. Those guys can do that.

This is my goal that I want to achieve with lead guitar playing. I want to sound musical, instead of sounding like I’m playing a bunch of scales and exercises. You don’t want to sound like that at all. You want to play music with solos just like you do with chords.

There are too many bands out there that try too hard on solos, mostly showing off a bit way too much. You got to have passion in your soloing and it’s hard to do. You can play a long solo as long as you want to as long as you don’t bore the audience to death with it. You need to sound musical every time, if you don’t want the audience to walk away from your playing.

When your fans go see a rock or metal concert, they expect to hear good guitar solos live on the stage. So you have to take lead guitar seriously.

Believe me, the listener will let you know if you’re playing a good solo or not, no matter where you are. If someone sticks around listening to your playing, that means you’re doing something right. If someone tells you to stop playing or play something else, that means you got a lot more work to do.

You have to impress the listener if you want to be a great guitarist. You can’t call yourself a great guitar player, you have to let the listener say that to you. The people will let you know if you are great or not.

Kev