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Daylle's News & Resources |
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Issue # 22 |
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Hello
to you all! I
hope that your new year is beginning on a positive and productive note!
If it isn’t, try to do something about it. I don’t believe in making
New Year’s resolutions beyond affirming that I’ll do the best I can
to continue to live up to my potential. That means I try to work hard
every day. Luckily, writing is such a passion it feels like I’m
playing hard. I was blessed to get a press pass to the annual conference for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters: http://www.artspresenters.org/ I’ll write about it in the next issue. I also hope to have the info on selling ringtones off of your site by the next issue. --------- Please
forward this newsletter to your mailing list or anyone you'd like. If
this was forwarded to you and you'd like to subscribe, send me an email
that says "subscribe" in the subject header with your name and
city/state. If you'd like to post it on your site, please ask for
permission and I'll give it. Read past issues at http://www.daylle/monthly.html
If you prefer to be taken off my list, please say unsubscribe in the
subject header of an email. ------- My
other newsletter, Self-Empowerment Quarterly, for the body, mind and
spirit is free. This
WON’T come to you automatically. If
you'd like to subscribe, please send an email to subempowernews@daylle.com
with you name, city/state. You can read the back issues at http://www.daylle.com/daylle/newsletter-growth.html
------- Please visit my new website, http://www.idontneedarecorddeal.com/ to take advantage of the many resources for developing a career in music. I finally finished the tour part of my blog. I will now make short commentaries on the music industry on a regular basis. Come visit! http://www.daylle.blogspot.com I was interviewed for a podcast with John Savannah and Peter Bowman at http://www.musicianscast.com/ . Check it out – episode # 32. They have lots of info for musicians ------ My next Start & Run Your Own Record Label full day seminar is on February 25th (more info below under #3). For those of you in the Nashville area and those with a tie to Christian music, I’ll be speaking at the CIA SUMMIT, which is in Franklin from March 24-26. http://www.ciasummit.com/ Looking ahead, I’ll be a speaker at DFest Music Conference/ Festival in Tulsa, OK, July 7 – 8. http://www.dfest.com I’m very impressed with the way both of these conferences are run and highly recommend attending any that you can get to. I’m excited to be part of them. ------- In
this issue, I've got an interview with Dr. Lillie Rosenthal who
treats musicians with repetitive stress injuries and other problems
developed from a musician lifestyle.
I also have one with Dorothy Potter, who is a full time musician who has
created a touring career in Europe. I also have info on what I call a
miracle for people with sinus problems or cluster/migraine headaches –
all natural and gets rid of most problems (more in #7). Plus, there’s
a guest writer – Peter Spellman, head of Music Business Solutions. I
hope that you'll find the other resources in this issue helpful too.
Please feel free to write with suggestions and questions that I can
include in future issues. Revenge
Productions http://www.daylle.com
---------- 1.
Breaking
Bad Thinking Habits 2.
Avoiding Injury as a Musician 3.
Daylle’s Seminar & Books 4.
Look To The Forest Floor by Peter Spellman 5.
Interview with indie artist Dorothy Potter 6.
Minding Your Music Biz: Signature Your Emails 7.
Sinus problems? Cluster headaches? Migraines? Natural Relief is Here! ---------- 1. BREAKING BAD THINKING HABITS: Sometimes you need to mind your head before you can mind your music. When you’re in the habit of thinking on a one-way street, YOU can be the main deterrent to progress. We all get into ruts and continue to do things the same way – ways that don’t get us anywhere. It can be easier to complain than to do something about it. Before you scramble to find another path, think about your head, because change begins in your thoughts. They control what happens to you. Want
to be a victim? Many people act like they do by continuously breeding a
negative mindset. In her interview below, Dorothy Potter talks about how
she get rids of the naysayers who try to reinforce victimhood and what
they see as they impossible task of succeeding in music. I’ve seen
that many of them are too lazy to do the work or have no talent, and
must chew up those who want to get ahead. Since they can’t do it, they
try to convince others not to bother. Don’t listen! Obstacles can be
overcome with hard work, determination, and talent. Don’t make
statements that defeat you like: * “Why should a manager ever want to represent me?” That belief can attract what you expect. If you don’t believe you can get a manager, you probably won’t. Professionals can smell insecurity and run from it. Ask yourself why you don’t feel worthy of representation. If it’s because others say it’s hard to get, stop! Let go of negative messages. Many musicians do get managers. Ask yourself, “Why not me?” Or develop yourself more so that you’re more appealing to someone for representation.
* “Nobody
comes to my gigs.” Keep saying that if you want to play to empty
rooms! That belief will hold you back from promoting your shows and
inviting people to come. Your attitude won’t be attractive to music
lovers. When your performance is good, people will hear about it. Keep
practicing and people will come. Leave what happened in the past in the
past and live for now. “Now people are going to come to see me
play.” *
“There’s
too much competition for me to succeed.” There is no competition if
you’re good and work hard. Snuff out those thoughts and get out into
the music world. There’s plenty of room for talent. Now if you don’t
have any, that’s another story. But if you do, accept that the only
competition for success is the thoughts in your head that hold you back!
The good news is you can change them if you choose to. * “A producer said my songs aren’t strong enough so I’ll never make it.” True, if you let it stop you. Or, take songwriting workshops and improve! Few songwriters start out being able to write hits. It takes time to do that. Make time to write with others and learn from pros. Weak songs don’t sell. But like exercising your body makes it stronger, exercising your creativity and learning from feedback will help you write stronger material.
Studies
show that the brain behaves differently when you repeat the same thought
over and over. Our thoughts truly become reality. And you can choose to
make it a good reality by choosing good thoughts and letting them roll
through your mind, replacing those like “Woe is me,” or “I’ll
never get there.” Why not? You can choose to keep believing you
can’t or reprogram your thoughts and KNOW that you can. We
create patterns with our thoughts. Norman Vincent Peale said, “Change
your thoughts and you change the world.” It’s your choice to have
ones that defeat your dreams. Success begins in the head. If you believe
it’s yours, it will be if you don’t lose faith. It may take longer
than you’d like. But you’ll reach where you need to be if you
don’t begin to think that it won’t happen. You have the power to get
rid of negative thoughts and beliefs about you. Otherwise, they’ll
grow and become toxic if you don’t clean them out of your mind. It’s
YOUR choice. Always YOUR choice! Things will go wrong. That’s life. Even with my total faith in God, I get setbacks and problems too. I’ll feel down for a bit. But I work on getting my mind set firmly in my faith. I don’t moan, “Why me?” too often. I allow myself to feel down for a bit. Then I begin talking to God and doing what I can to bring my mind back in synch with my beliefs. It’s not easy. But you can do it by talking to yourself, and to your higher being. Negative thoughts reflect a lack of faith. What a waste! Faith manifests incredible miracles when you use it. So use it! ----------- 2.
AVOIDING INJURY AS A MUSICIAN: Dr.
Lillie Rosenthal, D.O.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is
a board certified physiatrist specializing in the treatment of
musculoskeletal conditions including repetitive strain injuries. She
says that musicians are also athletes because of the physical demands of
playing music. She works with musicians to help them heal and avoid
future injuries. How
do musicians hurt themselves? Most
musicians just want to sound well. They may not be aware of their
posture. Crouching or things like that 6 hours a day just isn’t
healthy. You have to pay attention to your diet and water intake too.
What can they do to prevent problems? Change postures regularly. Some musicians think I’m crazy when I say that every 20 minutes there should be a break in music playing. Unfortunately people play for hours on end without changing their body posture. That is a very significant risk factor. Just getting up for a glass of water or taking the guitar strap off is helpful. Exercise – both aerobic and strengthening – is very important. Get proper sleep. Pay
attention to general health rules. Eat well, keep hydrated, and listen
to your body. Learn to recognize general stress and tension AND
emotional tension. People go through a relationship change or an agent
change and don’t pay attention to these things. It’s a common theme
that when these things build up, stuff happens – a snowball effect.
You have to pay attention! What
are the most common problems? Overuse or repetitive strain is really
common. I do see some specific diagnosis of carpal tunnel and tennis
elbow. A lot of these things are very related to posture. I see a lot of
people with neck pain and back pain which could be anywhere from muscle
tension to permeated discs. . .I treat the immediate complaint but it is
just as important to keep it from happening
again. Being able to mobilize the body is important. Most
problems are mechanically so it doesn’t make sense to treat it
chemically. What can musicians do to avoid injury? Relax the shoulders. That’s where most people hold tension. Breathing is very important. Keep the chin tucked in rather than forward. Forward head reaching is bad because it strains the neck. Keeping the shoulders up to the ears creates a lot of tension in the neck – a set up for bad posture and injury. If you hunch forward with your shoulders up, by definition you need to put more tension on the lower hands and forearm when you play. Then you don’t have openness and freedom of movement in the upper body – an increased risk for injury. Pay attention to it. Shoulder rolls are good. Stretch out the pecks - put your hands in a corner and drop your body forward to stretch. Exercise really revitalizes you.
What
about the road? Your posture while driving can be bad. Don’t grip the
steering wheel too tight. While on a plane, make sure you’re hydrated.
Be careful of the overhead compartment when you take your luggage down. Dr. Lillie Rosenthal treats musicians at the Kathryn and Gilbert Miller Health Care Institute for Performing Artists in NYC. http://www.millerinstitute.org ------ 3.
DAYLLE’S SEMINAR & BOOKS: My
next seminar is Start & Run Your Own Record Label on Saturday,
February 25, 2005 from 11 am - 5:30 PM at The New Yorker Hotel, on the
NW corner of 34th Street & Eighth Avenue. I’m excited that Madalyn
Sklar, founder of gogirlsmusic.com is coming in from Texas for it. I
want to publicly thank Madalyn for her tremendous support in getting the
word out about the seminar. A bunch of her members are coming! Madalyn
– you really rock! I have some terrific speakers coming down: Patrick
Arn founded Gotham Records – an independent record label that
specializes in pop, modern, alternative and hard rock formats – in
1994 in NYC. The label has had great success with identifying talented
new artists, including Liquid Gang, The Loose Nuts and Supafuzz. Patrick
has effectively nurtured artists at their earliest stages and brought
them to the next level. The label acts as a consultant to top A&R
representatives. Patrick has also learned quickly how to get his label
successfully into the digital revolution. http://www.gothamrecords.com Wallace
Collins is an attorney in private practice in NYC, specializing in
Entertainment Law & Intellectual Property matters. He's represented
many independent record labels, acts such as Junior/Senior,
Dru
Hill, and Beanie Sigel, managers, producers, clothing apparel and
product licensing companies and much more. He was a recording artist for
Epic Records before attending Fordham Law School. Wallace is a regular
contributor to magazines, including Billboard, and has appeared on many
national TV / radio shows including COURT TV and HARD COPY. http://www.wallacecollins.com Ellyn
Harris is the owner of well-respected music PR firm, Buzz Publicity.
She’s worked with many artists and record labels, including Gloria
Estefan, Webster Hall Records, Louie DeVito (#1selling DJ in America),
Artemis Records and Warner Music Group. Ellyn has served on the Board of
Governors of the New York Chapter of The Recording Academy®. She is a
music pioneer – responsible for creating the first Grammy Dance Music
Category called "Best Dance Recording" in 1998. Prior to
opening Buzz Publicity, Ellyn enjoyed success as a recording artist and
had her own independent record label. http://www.buzzpublicity.com Speaker
from DiscMakers TBA The seminar is $99 in advance or $125 at the door. Credit cards can be used on my website or the payment can be mailed to: Revenge
Productions,
PO Box 8016, FDR Station
New York, NY 10150 I take credit cards up till the Thursday before and cash until the day before is you pay in person. This will be the only private seminar I do this year. I’m available for speaking in other cities and also for phone and in-person consulting. My
new book, I Don't Need a Record Deal! Your Survival Guide for the Indie
Music Revolution, continues to do really well! The focus is on making
money from musical talent. It guides you to creating as many income
streams as possible and has specifics on how to pursue the variety of
opportunities. It’s the only book I know of with so many specifics on
how to tour and license music in international markets. People are
surprised to find chapters on taking care of your physical and mental
health too. But part of surviving and thriving includes taking good care
of YOU. You can order this book from me by sending $25 ($20 + $5 priority mail return) in check or money order (made out to Daylle Schwartz) with your name, address, and email address. My other books, The Real Deal: How to Get Signed to a Record Label and Start & Run Your Own Record Label are also available from me at the same price. Please specify if you want it autographed. Send it to:
Daylle Schwartz PO Box 8016, FDR Station New York, NY, OR 4. LOOK TO THE FOREST FLOOR by Peter Spellman If you were to judge the health of the music scene by the mainstream press you would have to conclude that things are looking pretty bleak. Industry trade groups like the RIAA and the IFPI both released their respective data reports on CD sales around the globe and things are not improving. In real dollars the industry has been essentially flatlining for four years running. The
key word here is “industry”.
It’s important for those in the biz to make the distinction
between the music “industry” and the music “trade.”
The former is primarily the
domain of transnational corporations and organizations like the RIAA; the
latter is the domain of most musicians and a tremendous
diversity of small music enterprises, most “under the radar”
and perceived by the former as basically insignificant in the larger
picture. But
if anything is clear to me as a student of history it’s that “the next
big thing” is...well...small. There
are clearly forces at work that are
taking the rug of necessity out from under large sectors of the corporate
industry, and not just the music industry either.
The same thing is happening
in almost every other industry sector you can think of.
But the same forces that are undoing long-standing industries are
empowering small-scale players.
There is power in the corner of individuals that there has never
been before. To
flip Paul Simon’s lyrics from “Can’t Run”, “the music business
suffers while the music thrives.”
The coolest stuff has always come from outside the industry.
Now the music trade has a chance to control its own processes,
apart from the pressures of
corporate imperatives. The
tools, the reach, the power of creation is in your hands. Fear
not the slow death of the big old tree. Look to the forest floor for
shoots of life. -----------
5.
INTERVIEW
WITH DOROTHY POTTER:
Dorothy Potter is a guitarist, composer and songwriter. She began making
music professionally in 1990 and went full time living in 2002. She’s
run 3 bands but has now turned to rock and pop with her rock project, B1,
with singer/songwriter Aaron Gilmartin. They did their first 3-month
European tour in 2004 and have been successfully touring there ever since.
I chose to have this part of her interview to motivate you by showing what
can be accomplished when you respect yourself and value your talent.
Dorothy gets paid!
How
did you get yourself into the position of getting paid?
I don’t do anything I don’t get paid for anymore. I’ll be
damned if I’m going to drag my amp and body and my twenty years of
performing experience into a place a do it for free to make other people
feel good. If it’s near my house, I’ll play for what I consider cheap.
There is a dysfunctional relationship between musicians and clubs. [Some
musicians] accept the poverty. I won’t do it anymore! …. With my first
CD on the market, it became clear to me that I needed to progress to the
next stage – not playing at being an artist, but really living from it.
What
do you do that other musicians can learn from?
Most of the good work we get is by keeping up good connections with
people who are active in our field. That takes work and money investment,
another thing that a lot of artists [don’t] do. You have to spend money
to make money. They say they can’t afford to pay to go to conferences or
for lessons. I pay for lessons. I’m a singer. I pay eighty dollars for a
half hour. But I wouldn’t have sang every night for three months without
her help. Invest in your website and in good photos. You have to spend
money to develop your art career. I won’t cheat myself. If you can’t
drop fifteen bucks to meet people who may employ you, then you’re a
hopeless case! Why
did you turn to Europe for touring? We quickly realized that making a
living as a performing artist in New York City is a very frustrating
experience. Why
do you like doing your music in Europe? In Europe, for all artists,
there’s a respect and understanding that music is an important aspect of
every day life. People care about it and are willing to pay for it. I get
more money from pubs that take fifty people than I got out of three gigs
at Le Bar Bat in New York City. There has to be a joint commitment between
the venue, the society at large and the musician about the value of the
art. If you don’t have this, you can’t make a living. In Europe it
comes together. At this point, I’ll be in Europe eight months out of
every year. How
did you find your first gigs? We got on the Internet and looked for where
we wanted to go, what kind of venue would give us a gig, and agents. We
got up at 6:00 AM to make up for the six-hour time difference. The
Internet is full of anything you need to book a tour. All you need is a
high-speed connection. The number one thing I had to learn how to do is to
understand what my primary objective was – to perform and write songs. I
had to be willing to invest serious discipline and time in finding my
market and selling myself to it. We searched the countries we were looking
for, Irish pubs that are notorious for live music, cultural venues of
various types. How
did you prepare mentally to do all the work? I had to shut a lot of people
who were nay-sayers out of my life. I don’t deal with a lot of artists
anymore, because they’re just not encouraging people. They question how
you can do it and when you do …. then they want to know how you did it
and want all the contacts you worked for. What
your best advice for someone who wants to tour internationally?
Spend the time doing the research. Understand, that at the
beginning, at the front end, it’s going to seem as if you’re spending
a lot of time for no results. The time investment in the beginning WILL
pay off. You’ve got to do it! You’re not going to get gigs the first
week you do research. You’ve got to make a long-term commitment not only
to the booking process, but to the touring process. If you really want to
be a touring musician in Europe, you need to make a multi year commitment
to doing it. Learn a little bit of German, French, Danish, and a little
bit of Spanish. So far, those are the best countries I’ve found for
booking rock and pop. If you know enough to make people happy and ask for
the manager, you’ll have an easier time of it. Don’t whine. Just put
the time in. You can do it. I can do it. Anyone can do it. Dorothy has done many things to create income streams that add up to a full time living before she began to focus on touring Europe. She gets angry when those nay-sayers that she referred to see how successful she’s becoming and hit her up for details about how to book a European tour instead of doing the work. She kindly shared it all with me for my I Don’t Need a Record Deal! book. http://www.dorothypotter.com/ ----------- 6.
MINDING
YOUR MUSIC BIZ
– Signature Your Emails A
terrific way to get your website around is to create a signature line for
all your emails. My website is automatically at the end of all my emails.
If I had to remember to include it in each email, it wouldn’t be there.
So having an automatic signature that appears on every email you send is
very helpful. Make sure you include the whole URL so people can click
through. http://www.daylle.com/ Without the first part, people have to cut
and paste it, which they may not bother doing. This is such a simple thing
but can get you a lot of mileage. I write to many people for a lot of
reasons. They often click on my website just because it’s there. And
then they see other things that I do and good stuff happens. 7.
SINUS PROBLEMS? CLUSTER HEADACHES? MIGRAINES?
NATURAL RELIEF IS HERE!: In my
I Don’t Need a Record Deal! book I include a whole chapter on taking
care of your health. When you’re independent, your body is your
foundation. If you’re sick, it’s hard to go on the road or do anything
well. If your vocal chords are irritated, it takes its toll on your
performance and recording. And when your head is stuffed up or headaches
get you down, it’s hard to think clearly. Creativity can take a nosedive
when you head is throbbing. I know, because I’ve had stuffed sinuses for
most of my life. And since 9/11, they’ve gone to a new level of
discomfort. It’s so hard for me to concentrate and write when the
pressure on my head blurs me, especially when headaches accompany it. I
got used to not breathing well but hated it. Then a miracle happened. I
found Sinus Buster. Do
I sound like a commercial? Maybe I am, except I won’t get anything from
it. I just want to share this miracle with anyone who can benefit. Sinus
Buster is made from capsaicin
pepper – all natural, with no known side effects (and there have been
clinical trials). It drains the sinuses and clears pressure. I’ve taken
no Sudafed or used Afrin from the first day I took it. And I’ve tried
everything, though nothing helped much. Now I can breathe! I have more
energy. Everyone I’ve recommended it to has thanked me. So I’m telling
all of you about it. It’s hard to sing with a stuffed nose. It’s hard
to feel good with all that pressure in your head. If you have sinus
problems or get bad headaches, at least check out the site. It tells how
it all works. I want you all to feel good! For those who get my
Self-Empowerment Quarterly, I’ll have a bigger article about all the
products they offer in my summer issue. http://www.sinusbuster.com
----------- The late Christopher Reeve touched the world with his courage and fortitude. I met this extraordinary man not long before his horrible accident and cherish the photo I have of the two of us. He greatly impressed me with his strong will and dedication to making the world a better place. Back then he was an advocate for actors. His accident tested his strong will and determination to make a difference. He won! Christopher
said, “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem
improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become
inevitable.” That can be interpreted in many ways. I see it as taking
baby steps toward cultivating your passion. If you’re just beginning to
get your career going, getting out of your town or growing a fan base may
seem too daunting to conquer. But your passion drives you and you keep
plugging away, one fan at a time. You taste what it’s like to do what
you love and push on. As you get into a groove and are loving what you do,
your hunger for what you taste gets stronger. And stronger. And stronger.
Until you know that you won’t stop because you can’t. When your passion takes hold, go with it. Believe in yourself because anything is possible if YOU know it. Did you ever think you’d see Christopher Reeve with a happy smile after he was paralyzed? What could he have to smile about? He found many reasons! He didn’t quit. He lived and loved. We all have it in us. Don’t waste another year telling yourself why you can’t succeed. Shut down those thoughts. You can have the same spirit that Christopher when he did many things that no one thought he’d ever do. If you love what you do, or want to do, don’t deny yourself the pleasure. It’s your life and your choice. Choose the way that will make you happy! ----------- Until
the next issue..... Keep
your passion strong, Daylle
©
2005 Revenge Productions http://www.daylle.com http://www.idontneedarecorddeal.com |