Three best things I learned at the Rally

[horacejesse]

Does the naked cowboy have a better chance than a great songwriter? He's good at relationships. The naked cowboy may be rich already. He has been making some waves. Now that's talent. This guy would bury Satriani and Van Halen on guitar. What fingers! Check out the naked cowboy, and bring your barf bag.

[davewalton]

In this Rally...1. Ditto the importance of co-writing. 2. Be yourself when talking to others, especially the A&R reps, library owners, etc. Relax. I never thought of this before but as a panelist who gave a little advice to various individuals who were asking, it was a LOT more fun to give advice to someone who was relaxed and kind of taking it all in as opposed to those who were so intent on showing they were really listening, they practically bored a hole through my head with their intense concetration on my every word and facial expression. Over the past three Rally's...3. The importance of true, genuine, friendship/relationship building and the importance of patience to wait for unexpected results. I chose all of those words very carefully. "Gently push yourself forward" - Traveling Ed

[aubreyz]

Quote:Does the naked cowboy have a better chance than a great songwriter? He's good at relationships. The naked cowboy may be rich already. He has been making some waves. Now that's talent. This guy would bury Satriani and Van Halen on guitar. What fingers! Check out the naked cowboy, and bring your barf bag. Relationships can only open the door-- If the door opens and there stands a naked cowboy... well... then it's more like a porn flic.

[stick]

1. Forum folks are even cooler in person. 2. If you've got the goods (writing AND production value), the "industry people" are interested. If you aren't quite there, they might listen and give you some things to work on, but your tune won't get past the first chorus. 3. Michael is the real deal. TAXI is the real deal. 3b. A living can be made in Film and TV instrumental music. There's more for sure, but hard to quantify for someone other than me.

[mazz]

1. Relationships2. Relationships3. RelationshipsMazz

[gendron]

I get what you're sayin', hj... and I think his chances earn him 250k, in cash, per year plus royalties totaling one billion dollars by years end.Naked Cowboy"...You gotta get a gimmick if you wanna get applause." - Lady TuraQuote:Does the naked cowboy have a better chance than a great songwriter? He's good at relationships. The naked cowboy may be rich already. He has been making some waves. Now that's talent. This guy would bury Satriani and Van Halen on guitar. What fingers! Check out the naked cowboy, and bring your barf bag.

[twilsbach]

Quote:>>>There are profressional staff writers, and writers who still write 15 blah songs for every good one, and 150 good ones for every great one.Did you mean the professional staff writers have that kind of percentage? Or that the professional staff writers don't have that kind of percentage?I mean that even people that already have hits have also written, and continue to write not great songs in between the great ones just like the rest of us. They're constantly working on their craft.

[audiorayne]

Cool - I was wondering where to put my latest meandering litany of Road Rally compliments, and then I found this post, so here you go! I have to tell you a story first though so I hope you’ll bear with me until I get to the point. During Saturday evening’s open mic in the grand ballroom we heard a young lady by the name of Misha Williams. She told us she was from Houston and launched into a great song called “Someone Else’s Eyes.” When the song was over (and while I was still processing what I’d just heard) my wife jumped up and ran over to Misha and gave her one of my CDs. Misha didn’t have any of her own CDs on her at the time, but I ran into her on Sunday while she was on her way to a class. She gave me a CD and since we both live in Houston I asked whereabouts does she live. Can you believe this – she lives FIVE minutes down the road from my house! That in itself is pretty impressive, but that’s not the whole story.What really knocked me out of my chair was her CD demo. It was the first one of the batch of Road Rally CDs I put into my player and by the time the first chorus of the first song (“Take It Like It Is”) came around, my jaw had already hit the floor. The song far, far better than I was expecting, and the production is out of this world! Honestly - it rivals some of the best sounding commercial stuff I've ever heard. It’s pop (teen pop more specifically, I think), and I don’t normally write pop, but who cares? I’m humbled. I looked on her website (www.mishawilliams.com - super professional I might add) and, at 21 years old, her list of accomplishments, releases, interviews, and awards in the US, UK, and Japan is already five pages long.Now wait just a minute, I need to get my head around something … This artist lives right down the street from me?? I drive by her house every day on my way home from work? Umm.. say what!?I exchanged CDs with Misha on Sunday as if we were musical equals. I’m not sure what I was expecting – to be honest I guess I didn’t really know what I was dealing with. I thought that many of the people at the Rally were like me – trying to “chip away” at what they’re most passionate about. I mean, I write my own stuff and I do my own recordings in my own little studio. My house is a mess of instruments, recording gear, and music industry books and magazines. I covet great songs, great sound, great gear, and great production, and I wish more than anything that I could do this for a living. So (after I managed to scrape my jaw off the floor from the first track), when I heard the unbelievably great acoustic guitar sound at the beginning of the Misha’s next song, “Unexpectedly,” I actually gasped out loud - a gasp composed of equal parts disbelief, awe, and complete and utter jealousy. So now I’ll get to the point (thanks for reading this far by the way). In addition to all the great stuff from the classes and panels, here are the three things I learned this weekend:1. This Road Rally thing really has the power to connect us with some amazing people that we may never have connected with even though they are right under our noses. 2. I have a lot to learn. I want to know how to make songs that are as good, and that sound as good as Misha’s. I want to know how to write music that wins awards. I want to know how not to make an idiot of myself when I end up in the elevator with one of the most famous songwriters of the day (that’s a story for another post - stay tuned). In a nutshell, I want to do this better.3. A lot more social drinking than I expected happens at a Taxi Road Rally. Is it odd that I’m on here plugging music for someone I just met? Maybe, but why shouldn’t I? We’re here to share and learn, learn and share, right? Unless Misha is a forum member she won’t know I’ve been talking about her, but I’ll be sure to let her know how thoroughly humbled I am. Maybe I’ll drop over to her house on my way home tomorrow.Cheers,-AR

[michaelteak]

This is my first post on the forum after just joining Taxi a little over a week ago and flying out to the Road Rally from Miami- and I feel overwhelmed and speechless by the whole experience. But "speechless" doesn't really make for a good forum post, does it... The challenge is narrowing all I've learned down to three things. Well, here are a few standouts to me:1) As others have said, being able to clearly and concisely describe your music and what you do. This includes having a quick "elevator" description, as well as really, REALLY knowing yourself and your music, and the industry, well enough to choose your own pigeon holes. I guess it's all about focus, which applies to songwriting, promotion, your image (if you're a performing artist), and networking.2) I have a better sense of where I stand and what I need to learn and develop. There are MANY areas! But I think by listening to the panels, workshops, and various cds I was given that I have a better sense of my own strengths and weaknesses. The cool thing is that when it comes to my "areas needing work" I feel encouraged and motivated to improve and grow, rather than intimidated.3) Number three is a tie between a) my shock at how many open, kind, encouraging people there are in this business, particularly those associated with Taxi. Michael Laskow couldn't have designed a better first impression of Taxi for me. And b) I need to work on my networking skills!Thanks to all you guys who were there for making it a great community, and I look forward to being part of this forum. Now I have dozens of pages of notes to sort through and digest... Michael

[stick]

Welcome Micheal... the folks here are great people and you'll gain just as much here as you did at the Rally. Though, maybe not condensed and shoved in your brain over the period of 72 hours. HA!