Guitar Nine Columns

Don't fall into the same old trap of convincing yourself that now is not the time.

Completely subjective, straightforward tips in the areas of promotion, publicity and your career.

My long-term goals are simple, continue improving and have fun! I don`t care really if I don`t become a `rock star` or a `guitar hero`, as long as I`m happy with my music and maybe someone else likes it too.

I`ve sold thousands of copies of the "Dreamscapes" CD. You have to realize that 95% of all my sales come from traditional print advertising. Reviews don`t sell your product. Marketing and advertising do! I`m amazed at the amounts of money bands and artists put into the recording and manufacturing of their product and then have no idea on how to sell it. Marketing and promotion go hand in hand; you need to do both.

I was offered a couple of small record deals, but the contracts were ridiculous so I invested my own money, and it`s starting to pay off. At least this way you own your product.

We all write together at rehearsal. We never set out to write something new, it always happens that one of us will be tuning up with an idea or just jamming on something, and the other two will jump on it. By the time we realize it, half the song is already written. We look at each other and say, `I guess we`re gonna` write today!`

I`ve mostly been motivated by wanting to hear something that`s already in my head. For the classical tunes, I always thought Paganini`s Caprice No. 5 would sound amazing on an electric guitar and just really wanted to hear it. If someone else had a recording out first, I probably would have bought it and then just listened to it instead of playing it.

Many of the first seeds of a song come to me when I`m mountain biking or jogging. It is at that time when my head gets totally clear and the creative juices start to flow. The tricky part is to remember your ideas until you get somewhere that you can write them down! Then it`s just a matter of developing the songs.

Get on the Internet!! It`s the best way to get your music heard by millions of people all over the world. Get someone in the music industry to help you (if you`re lucky). Get a web-site and push your music and never stop. If you have a dream go for it and don`t let anything stop you! Get out there and perform your music live as much as possible.

I record at home in my 16 track (analog) studio. It took me lots of time, energy and money but I`m glad that I`ve got one. Nothing can beat a home studio. You can go there anytime you want and not be bothered by anyone other than yourself. You don`t have to book time, and pay by the hour. Unless you`re a lunatic, that is.

You have to have a good promotion budget and don`t skimp corners when it comes to this. You can have the greatest album and if no one knows that you have one out and available, it really is no good. Utilize all that you can with local publications and national ones as well. Always think of the nation as your market and not just your town. You can be the biggest thing in your hometown and unless they know you around, it really is not going to help you.

Even though these days it takes a lot of idealism to produce an instrumental record, I strongly encourage everybody who`s playing around with the idea to do so. Just don`t expect to get any money out of it, regardless of the quality of your product. It might happen, but it`s very likely that it won`t. But you will have the best musical business card there is and a unique document of your own creativity.

The one thing I always try to do is be in a creative state of mind when I compose. It seems that the ideas flow better if you are working on it on an ongoing basis. For a lot of my instrumental tunes, I sometimes get a mental picture of something in my head, and then ask myself what music goes with this scene. This is much like scoring for film--except the film is in my head!

I do as much pre-production as humanly possible at home. When you`re ready to record, and I can`t stress this enough, have everything rehearsed to death and a production plan ready. I did my latest CD at a commercial place, but my dream is to do my next one at home.

The bottom line is: I believe in my music. As an instrumental artist you`re not going to land a huge deal with a major label. If you do get a deal the label is going to take a huge chunk of money, and even if they do sign you, they may not even distribute your CD. Some friends of mine signed with a major label, and the label has not done a thing with them. So they have a great product that they can`t do anything with.

A Javascript-powered worksheet designed to help a record label estimate costs, price CDs and cassettes, and compute potential profit for a recording project.

We turn the electronic mailbag upside down to answer some of the most commonly asked questions about releasing and promoting records.

How to start and organize your own record label. It's a lot easier than you may think.

How to trigger inspiration by understanding what causes it, and more importantly, what causes it for you.

A number of short lick ideas designed to kick-start your technique.

More short lick ideas to kick-start your technique.

Nowhere to go with ascending licks but up? Dan McAvinchey confronts the problem and gives you several ideas you can use today. Don't just take the easy way out and start descending either.

Stop practicing with boring scales and start testing your fingers with melodic 'riffs' from Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and more.

Stop strumming those simple barre chords, and embellish your chordal work with licks and phrases that blur the distiction between rhythm and lead guitar playing.

Break free of your limiting beliefs about pentatonic scales.

An introduction to the world of copyrights and publishing. It`s not hard at all to protect the songs you`ve written, and you may be surprised at the various ways your original compositions can earn money for you.

Studio and music business psychobabble explained.

Chock full o` ideas for promoting and selling your new record, and building a fan base.

An original work (part one of two preludes) composed for solo electric guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

Some creative uses of digital delay when writing or recording.

Tips for playing arpeggiated chord progressions using string skipping.

An arrangement of the Tchaikovsky piece for solo guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

New Jersey guitarist Paul Kuntz takes time out from lunch to give you his assurance that there is life beyond the blues scale.

Don`t let your current concept of reality dominate your guitar playing.

Arnold Schulman discusses lyric writing for the beginner.

An original work composed for solo classical guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

Jason Pruett offers his light-hearted yet insightful views on getting the most from your guitar and busting a playing rut.

Learn some substitutions for those tried and true barre chords. How the knowledge of triads can help you come up with original sounding guitar parts.

New Jersey guitarist Paul Kuntz is back and aside from a ravenous appetite, he`s got plans to teach you all about tuplets and fitting the notes to the rhythm.

Do you still think the Aeolian mode is a ship from Star Trek? Are you comfortable discussing Mixolydian and Phrygian modes in mixed company? Tony Young cuts to the heart of modes.

Just can`t get enough info about modes, can you? Guitarist Tony Young relates modes to chord progressions.

Sometimes it seems every guitar riff and chord progression has been done to death. How you can avoid the tendency to copy.