to michael regarding today's taxi tv show on branding

[rdance]

well i missed the live show but watched it later. boy did that help me! now re-vamping the song choices on my next marketing cd for the rally...honing it down to a very specific genre.

michael, if you're out there, just wanted to say i really appreciate you hammering home the idea of getting specific in how we can help the music sups solve their problems by telling them specifically what we can provide musically, which in turn can help solve their daily challenges.

then if they dig what we do, they will ask us to expand on it later...all in good time...which is also obviously cool, because we all want to eventually expand into related genres as we move along through this film/tv music game.

from what you are teaching us michael, i am finally realizing to re-apply what i learned back in graduate school: go narrow and deep into one thing, and it will expand at the bottom.

ingenious sir...did you used to be a professor? i feel so lucky to have the benefit of your experience...thank you!

cheers!

[HectorRContreras]

Well said dear Richard.

Wasn't Michael's enthusiasm so catchy on that night ?!

Michael's enthusiasm has been positively contagious for the last 20 years ! Bless him. Do keep well dear Michael. We are learning and we love it !

[rdance]

catherine & hector...thanks.

it is very different and strange for me to make a cd in which all the tracks are in such a narrow frame/genre. my mind is so wired into providing a variety of material within a several related genres, as i have done in the past when releasing cd's as an 'artist'.

but i get more and more each day what michael has been talking about, not only on this week's taxi tv show, but probably for many years...i have to create a sound/vibe in just ONE specific, narrow genre when marketing myself...so it jumps out to the industry listener.

i can't worry that the music supervisor will think, 'oh, these all sound the same.' rather, from what i gather from michael's advice, these music sups hear tons of varieties of music day after day. i imagine they are actually happy to hear a very specific musical theme, which can help them solve a specific music-under-picture problem...my hope is that they will think, 'oh yeah, the crawdaddy...he has that one sound.'

so by putting my cd song choices in a VERY specific slot, the industry is more likely to remember me...in perhaps the same way a philosophy professor can instantly recognize a particular philosopher's thought style...heraclitus for instance. he sounds nothing like socrates or aristotle or parminedes. he's heraclitus!

so the learning process for me was, i first thought i would title my cd 'rock and soul guitar grooves'. but that is too generic. then i thought something like 'southern music.' but that's too broad...so then i hit upon something like 'GULF COAST FUNK & SOUL'. it will not venture into southern rock, or blues rock, or blues...it will not venture into west coast funk, or detroit r&b, or new york style grooves. it will stick to a special sound that can only come out of my personal musical experience on the gulf coast, with elements of new orleans, biloxi, mobile, pensacola, etc. it will have a very particular sound, and hopefully that will make it stand out.

not sure how in demand this genre will be, but probably no less demand than 'romanian gypsy folk music'...we'll see. you gotta do what you do best, and then expand from there. long road perhaps, but what else can a player do to stay real?

meanwhile i am driving my cd graphics/photographer and mastering engineer crazy with the changes as i whittle this cd down to its essence...driving my wallet crazy too...yikes!

[HectorRContreras]

Woah, my God, same here ! Composing Music under the restriction and the demands of the Listings, not easy, ... a challenge but very interesting. And the learning is good.

Hector has two excellent CDs, one of Latin Jazz and one of New Age/ Easy Listening Music.

Myself, Catherine, I have a CD of my three Concertos. And those Concertos are definitively unfit for TAXI commercial use ! Smile.
You may want to listen to a small excerpt : "Concerto Two in E minor for Guitar Mvt Two" here :
http://www.taxi.com/E-2013-1844

Hector at the moment, because of current important affairs, is not composing for the TAXI Listings. Hector submits old Music when appropriate. But he collaborates with me in all that which I compose for the Listings of TAXI for him.
Our latest : "TREMENDOUS Gentleness"
http://forums.taxi.com/topic125104.html

All this to say is that we have now so far, 11 short Pieces that we exclusively composed for TAXI. We are going to make a special CD of it soon, when it will reach 60 minutes of listening time or something like that.
I shall do the Cover. You bet that there is going to be a Yellow TAXI on it ! We will call the CD : "For TAXI"
Not for sale of course. Just for our keeping.

Therefore we choose well our Listings, as we bear in mind that the Music once returned will be ours ... for ever !

This is how we cope as Artists who are currently working for business, thanks to TAXI, so to speak.

[rdance]

catherine, thanks for your reply and sharing your music. i think what the two of you compose, by the examples you sent, is very sophisticated and intelligent and demonstrates your individual and collective musical prowess.

if i could offer any feedback, i would just say, it sounds a bit dry (especially the electronic keyboard parts).

i think if you gave these pieces some space with reverb or delay for example, it would breathe much more and allow listeners to 'feel it' in their body. but please do not take this as an overt criticism...you both seem like strange and wonderful geniuses to me.

glad to hear you are making a 'taxi' cd...very clever for marketing!

cheers, and hope to meet you if come to the rally in november!

[HectorRContreras]

Ah dear Richard,

Your response is so very very nice !

Your words are about "TREMENDOUS Gentleness", yes ? Also may be about "Concerto Two in E minor for Guitar Mvt two" ?

I put the little Bells and other sounds in Reverb., in "TREMENDOUS Gentleness". I was happy with the result because it sounds that they are a bit far.
But not the Glockenspiel which part is Abstract, I must say. I went quirky with Abstract notes ! ... smile.
Offering a Critique to myself, I should have kept the speed or the rhythm of the beginning till the end, related to these quirky Abstract little notes. I do not know why I slowed down toward the middle till the end. Too late now !
And it is very difficult to re do because everything corresponds and is placed at an exact spot. I know what I mean, it is difficult to explain.

Hector is the opposite of me. Hector can write the warmest Melodies you can ever imagine. He is a Latin Seductor, you see. Women love his Music.
Once his Professional Keyboard is repaired, Hector will help me with the warmness and the Melody.

You mentioned "Delay" as well. I saw this word before here at the Forum. Is this the same as "Echo" ? Or what "Delay" means ?
Yes, I am going to attempt few slowing down, next time, instead of going all the way the same. One minute is short, so I did not think about it.

Oh I see, yes ... the Electric Keyboard in the "Concerto Two in E minor for Guitar Mvt two". Actually it is an Organ, a Church Organ. I should have called it : "Concerto for Guitar and Organ". The Mvts One and Three keep this dialogue between the Organ and the Nylon Guitar.

Concertos have always three parts or three Mouvements, of about 4 to 5 minutes each. A bit like in a Movie, they express a whole Mouvement precisely, in three parts.
That one of hope or hesitation, that one of sadness, or failure, even interruption, and also acceleration, and it ends with a "solution". Whatever one wants to put in this "solution". It can be anything.

But within the three Mouvements, there must a coherence.
A bit similar to Theatre, or Opera and Operette. Once the Characters and the Settings/Decorum are introduced, they stay there till the end. They come and go and come back within the whole Mouvement.
It makes the Story, because us the Public we can consequently in that way get familiar/accustomed with that which we see and hear.
This is this good feel you know when finally the big curtain drops, and one goes home with the feeling that they went to a place and met real people with a real Story.
This applies to Concertos.

Thank you again, dear Richard for listening and your feedback. It is appreciated.

[Russell Landwehr]

Right on, Crawdaddy.
This was timely for me as it validates my own recent narrowing focus.

Russell

[coachdebra]

Focusing Narrowly! Deciding your niche (music supes), genre and fulfilling their wants/needs/desires - Yay!

Please picture me having a coaching happy dance! This is what I teach every day all day! It's the underlying concept behind multiple streams of music income. Multiple streams because you build one deep focused niche, then that will attract other focuses which become additional streams!

[rdance]

debra, i believe you helped me with some ideas on this in an earlier post...thanks!