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Daylle's News & Resources |
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Issue # 36 |
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Hello
to you all!
I hope that the warmer weather is heating up your passions. My lifecontinues to get blessed as my passions grow and flourish. I continue to look forward with good intentions and live a healthy lifestyle to support them. Music continues to be my drug of choice! That keeps me high and clear to write and educate. I truly believe that a healthy lifestyle is a great act of self-love. The more self-love you have, the more ammo you attract for your career. This issue has an interview with Italian recording artist, Giorgia Fumanti, and articles by Jazz and improvisation artist Andrea Wolper and Recording engineer Adrian Carr. The rest is written by me. Please feel free to write with suggestions and questions that I can include in future issues Feel
free to contact me about my fees if you need CONSULTING on how to make
progress in your music career or need a shot of motivation by using my
CAREER COACHING. I do it in person and by phone. You can email me at consulting@daylle.com
for more info. I now give discounts for booking at least 3 sessions. 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
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If you prefer to be taken off my list, please say unsubscribe in the
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other newsletter, Self-Empowerment Quarterly, for the body, mind and
spirit is also free. This
WON’T come to you automatically. If
you don’t receive it and would like to subscribe, please send an email
to subempowernews@daylle.com with you name, city/state. Read back
issues at http://www.daylle.com/daylle/newsletter-growth.html Please check out and forward the video I did for my first rap record, Girls Can Do. It was so much fun to go back to my music roots and do the video. Self-empowerment for women has improved since I first recorded it. The Musician’s Guide to Licensing Music was recently published by Billboard Books. This one is different from other books I’ve written as the perspective is mainly from Darren Wilsey, a songwriter and composer who’s earned a living licensing his music for many years. I worked with him to write the book in his voice. The book covers most aspects of licensing music. We also got advice from people who need musical content, including film and TV music supervisors, advertising people, production houses, etc., lawyers, and other players involved in the process. You can get more info and order a copy directly from me here or check it out in stores. Please
visit my website, http://www.idontneedarecorddeal.com/ to take
advantage of the many resources for developing a career in music. If you want a stronger dose of self-empowerment tips, check out my BLOG, Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat. I have tips for achieving goals, interviews with successful people and guidance for using the Law of Attraction most effectively. You can subscribe to it and get the posts by email. I’m honored that Beliefnet.com has invited me to bring my blog over to their site. This will happen shortly. If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll be notified about how to change over to the new site when it’s official. I feel very blessed that I’ll be able to reach a lot more people with my self-empowering, spiritual posts. Strong on the inside helps you achieve A LOT more!
Daylle Deanna Schwartz http://www.daylle.com
1.
1. "I WILL!": When I work with musicians, I often ask if they believe they will be successful. A common answer is “I hope so.” Or “People say I have a chance.” Some say they pray that they’ll get the gig or increase their fan base or that something else will happen to create a lucrative opportunity. Some are really wishy washy, not quite sure what will happen. Others tell me all the reasons why the odds are against them. Which of these has the best chance to succeed? Actually, it’s none of those. The musicians with the best chance to succeed are those who say, “I WILL succeed.” The more conviction in your view of future success, the more chance that it will happen. It’s sends a powerful message to the Law of Attraction and also puts you into a great frame of mind that works for, not against your goals.
I correct people when they have one of the other answers but many don’t get it. Putting out your intentions in the most positive, definite way gives you the best chance of reaching your goal. Some call it positive thinking; some call it working with the Law of Attraction; some call it strong faith. I call it all of those factors! You can view it in whatever way is comfortable. I don’t tell people how they should be spiritual. But it’s a proven fact that the energy given out by you, positive or negative, is supported, and affects the outcome of what you’re going after.
I personally live by the Law of Attraction and have manifested the most wonderful life. It works for me and those who use it. I even have a Law of Attraction in Action series on my Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat blog. http://bit.ly/9GsoqV It covers many different aspects of life that affect what you attract. The Law of Attraction works in both your personal and business life. That’s why it’s so important to watch the words you use about what you say you want. I truly believe that our words play an important role in our success.
You can scoff it off as crap, or try it! I scoffed until I saw it work in my life, over and over. That’s when I began to watch the thoughts or statements I put out into the Universe. I personally have strong faith in God now, but it still worked when I didn’t. At the beginning I focused on my faith in the Universe. I wouldn’t be here today, doing all that I do, if I hadn’t embraced a spiritual lifestyle and recognized the force of the words I used. Think about how you feel when you say or think about what you’re hoping for. It’s obvious that saying, “I can’t succeed” closes the door on success. It says, “I’m defeated so why try?” But there are more subtle ways that your phrasing of thoughts sabotages your success. Some examples are:
These type of statements have doubt attached to them. They may sound sort of positive but wish, hope or but aren’t definitive. Hoping isn’t knowing, and any doubt clouds your path to success. It also doesn’t allow you to feel as revved as you could since the doubt will niggle you. You need all the faith and positive thinking you can generate to stay strong in the music business. It enhances your confidence. And, a decisively positive attitude is attractive. People gravitate to those who sound confident and positive. They like working with positive people. The more people in your path, the more potential opportunities you have. According to Webster's Dictionary, WILL means "to determine by choice." So the difference between will and won't (will not), is a matter of choice. If you won't do something, you’re choosing not to. WILL means you’re choosing to succeed at what you’re going after. “I WILL get a national tour booked” will get you a lot further than hoping for it. n
Magician David Copperfield said, "The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities." That’s how I live! You can do it to. Practice. Speak with very positive intentions. Let the words rev you. The more you get into the habit of using “I WILL” about what you’re going after, the better your chance of getting it! 2. Reflections on “Safe Vs. Happy” Jazz and improvisation artist Andrea Wolper wrote this in response to my article in the last issue called Safe Vvs. Happy. I asked her to elaborate on an email she sent me so you can see how a musician has put what I wrote about into action. She wrote this article on my request: Reflections on “Safe Vs. Happy”
I suppose this is why I found the “Safe Vs. Happy” article in Daylle’s last e-zine so meaningful. Daylle’s wise words set me reflecting on the areas in my musical life where I’ve taken chances, and the areas where I’ve played it safe. I can tell you without hesitation that while the former has brought plenty of highs (and, sure, a few lows), the latter—playing it safe—has not brought me a bit of satisfaction. Not one. Why do we play it safe sometimes? Why do we choose to be artists and then deprive ourselves of the full experience we could be having?
Daylle said she hears “many excuses from musicians about why they can't do a tour outside their comfort zone.” This one surprised me, because I always want to tour. Now, I’m not on the road all the time; perhaps I’d feel differently if I was because, indeed, touring can be stressful. But it also allows me to see places I might otherwise never get to and, even better, to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise meet—often the most wonderful people, some of whom become friends. People can be unbelievably welcoming simply because you’ve traveled to their city or country to share your music.
My last tour raised my spirits considerably, in large part because a number of people, including several who didn’t know me from Adam, helped pull it all together. I still don’t know why people decided to help in the various ways they did; all I know is that a bunch of people chose to be generous, which then allowed and inspired me to be as generous as I could be in front of some new audiences. And you know what? It wasn’t perfect. We didn’t get quite the audiences we’d hoped for, one of the venues wasn’t a great match, there were a few minor mishaps. And we survived all that. Better than survived: we made new friends and new fans, and had a fantastic time on the gigs, blending my group with local musicians. And I had one of those “renews your faith in people,” and “this is why I love music!” adventures that has stayed with me far longer than the length of the tour. None of that would have happened if I’d stayed home. As Daylle said, “avoiding that which might bring you pleasure because you're scared it won't work out really does put you in prison.” Well, I have something to say about that, too. You see, I’ve been struggling with my own apparent fear of getting back into the studio. I started rehearsals for a new CD over a year ago. But there were some problems with one of the people involved in the project, someone I hold in very high regard, and I was too damn scared to talk about it.
My fear—of talking to the person in question, of moving forward, of the next CD not being as good as the last one—kept me in a prison of my own making. My project went into limbo. But although I was avoiding what frightened me, I felt neither safe nor happy. Pushing aside what was uncomfortable was not making me comfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact: I felt frustrated, stupid, angry, and really disappointed in myself.
Somehow, recently, I managed to get more honest with myself about the situation and, having done that, I found the courage to have the scary conversation. Which turned out to be not so scary after all. If I’d addressed the problem when it first cropped up, it might have been resolved much sooner, and my recording might be released already. There isn’t a happy ending yet, but now there is a road, and I’m on it. And just as I know that Daylle is right about avoidance imprisoning us, I know that the opposite is every bit as true: When we embrace that which calls us—frightening though it may be—we can find a kind of freedom and even joy we may not have anticipated or otherwise experienced. And that doesn’t apply only to things like touring or recording. It applies to the music itself. I didn't start out as an improviser. But once I discovered jazz, and then got more deeply into improvisation, something opened up inside me. Improvising is risky: you have to be willing to go out on a limb, to be entirely present, and to give yourself the gift of letting go of controlling everything. It’s harder than it sounds. It’s easier than it sounds. I’ll say that again: It’s harder than it sounds. It’s easier than it sounds. Here’s what I’ve discovered: the more I trust the skill, knowledge, and technique I work to acquire, and allow myself to let go of expectation, the more alive I feel. The more rewarding and exhilarating the experience of making music becomes. It’s scary and it’s thrilling and it’s living. Being fully alive inside the music. You don’t have to be a jazz musician or even an improviser to bring that spirit to your music. What you do have to do, I believe, is be willing to take some chances, to put your true self into the music, to give yourself and your audience an honest and immediate experience. This brings me to something that came up recently with a student of mine, in one of those lessons that brought tears for no apparent reason other than that voice lessons sometimes do. This subject almost always comes up when I teach workshops, too (which I suppose is part of why I love teaching workshops!) We—musicians and other performing artists—are really lucky because we get to express feeling. That’s our job. We get to feel, transform, and release what most people have to walk around suppressing. This may hit a little closer to home for singers, but I hold that it’s true for all musicians—all instruments and all genres. And if we're afraid to accept what our job is, if we keep our musical expression safely on the surface because we’re afraid—of deep emotion, of making a mistake, of stirring things up—then we're not giving ourselves and our audiences the fully-satisfying experiences we’re there for. I’m not talking about unfiltered expression absent good musicianship, about histrionics or manufactured tell-the-audience-how-to-feel emotional manipulation. Nor, on the other hand, am I suggesting that technique is an end in itself; no, technique is at the service of expression, and I’d rather hear a skilled musician take an honest chance that doesn’t work than I would one whose playing is technically perfect but spiritually chintzy. Well-developed skills, generosity, and the courage to go beyond what we know we’re capable of are, I think, an unbeatable combination in music and in life. In the words of the 13th century Sufi poet, Jallaludin Rumi Open the window in the center of your chest, Andrea Wolper is a vocalist—jazz and improvised music—a songwriter, voice teacher, and clinician. She leads or is a member of several ensembles including the Andrea Wolper Quartet. Former president of International Women in Jazz, Andrea is an advisor to the Jazz Vocal Coalition and a human rights activist. She also writes poetry and non-fiction. 3. DAYLLE’S STUFF: Start & Run Your Own Record Label, third, revised and expanded edition (Billboard/Random House) is still building steam. I rewrote the entire book, interviewed MANY more industry pros and independent labels including—Daniel Glass (founder, Glassnote Entertainment), blogger Perez Hilton, Jennifer Nielsen (YouTube), Anslem Samuel XXL magazine), Bill Werde (Billboard), Rev. Moose (CMJ), Recording Artist CJ Baran (Push Play), Recording Artist Ingrid Michaelson, Scott Lapatine (founder, Stereogum), Jed Carlson (founder, ReverbNation), MP3 bloggers, indie label heads, publicists and many more. I also added 20,000 words. It has lots of new info, including: * Balancing on and offline promotion and marketing For more info or to order the book, click HERE I Don't Need a Record Deal! Your Survival Guide for the Indie Music Revolution, complements my others. 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 a 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 get info on or order I Don't Need a Record Deal! HERE or The Real Deal: How to Get Signed to a Record Label HERE. My book Nice Girls Can Finish First (McGraw-Hill) is also just out. I'm extremely excited about this book! When I began my record label, I was one of the only girls with an indie label in a very male dominated industry and wasn't taken seriously until I figured out ways to earn respect in soft, friendly yet firm ways. I transferred these techniques to all areas of life—setting boundaries with parents, getting more in a romantic relationship, turning down requests you don't want to say yes to, stopping unacceptable behavior and getting better customer service. While it's written for women, many parts of the book work for both sexes. I plan to write one specifically for guys. A sample of the many testimonials I got for the books is: "Nice Girls Can Finish First offers brilliant tools and savvy advice for making 'nice' work for you in business and in life. Nice girls do finish first and this is their 'how-to' manual." ~~Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of The Kaplan Thaler Group and bestselling author of The Power of Nice Get info or order it HERE. 4.
CD MASTERING:
People often ask if mastering is really important for a music recording. I always say it’s critical to the quality of the product you sell. Not being super knowledgeable about what it entails, I turned to Adrian Carr, a world class mastering specialist who I met when he had great success with his studio in NYC. He is now replicating it in Montreal, since the Internet allows everyone living anywhere access to his skills. Here’s what Adrian has to say about mastering.
CD Mastering? It may be a little mysterious process to you, and I’ve met many musicians who did not know what it was and did not want to spend a lot of time or money learning. By the time you’ve finished recording and mixing, you feel like you’re finished. I know, I went to Juilliard and have been a musician all my life. However, where you leave off as a musician is where the professional mastering engineer begins. Mastering creates the experience the listener will have with your music. That is why mastering has become so important from a first time indie performer to a major label artist. Creating a great experience for your listener is going to help you sell more records, get more professional acclaim and land you better reviews! All this is done in mastering. Here’s a quick primer of some of the most important aspects of mastering:
1. A professional mastering engineer does only mastering. With years of practice as a mastering engineer, I’m not only listening to the needs of your music but making decisions about how to optimize the sound of your CD to compete favorably against major label albums in your genre. Besides the primary element of sound, other things like the spacing of songs, order, fades (and ISRC codes, so you get paid from iTunes) are all done in Mastering, creating the experience of how your CD will sound to your listener. A mastering engineer loans you his or her highly trained ears to help you make the best decisions for your album.
2. With the advent of the home recording studio, a professional mastering room, which is a normalized and tested listening environment, has become more important than ever. Any shortcomings in your home or recording studio monitoring environment can be heard and corrected by the mastering engineer before you get the 1,000 CD Copies!
3. A good mastering room has the expensive, specialized tools and technology of a mastering studio. Although home recording may have gotten cheaper, a Universal Audio 1176 limiter has only increased in price. And the plug-in does not do quite the same thing.
All these elements contribute to the cost of mastering. Since a mastering studio is an expensive place to make mistakes, I’ve come up with 9 mixing tips that will help your mastering session go as smoothly as possible, saving you a ton of cash! If you don’t know all these terms, the engineer will.
1. No limiting or mastering plug-ins on your mix buss. Please don’t try to make your songs louder by Normalizing, adding Compression or using a Limiter. These methods prevent us from giving you the loudest, punchiest master you can imagine. Don’t worry. We’ll make it loud. But we need room to work.
2. Give yourself -3 to -6 db of headroom. Never go into the red on the Master Fader Meter. Going into the red means it may have already clipped, leading to digital distortion. Keeping your mixes at -3 to -6 db leaves us maximum headroom so we can give you a quality, finished product. . 3. Record at the highest bit rate possible. A 24 bit rate is ideal because it gives more headroom. For example: 44.1k 24 bit, 96k 24 bit, and so on. Regardless, always send us what you’ve recorded at. If you recorded at 16 bit, that’s cool. Send it to the engineer at 16 bit. 4. Don’t add dither. Dither is the very last step in the mastering process. It’s done after all signal processing is complete. We use high quality converters and you’ll hear the difference when we do it for you.
5. Clean up your tracks. It’s a gazillion times harder to get rid of a guitar player sighing or a singer clearing his throat after it’s mixed. Solo all the live audio tracks and take a listen to what’s there. You might get a laugh.
6. Relax on the reverb. Reverb levels, like everything else, (especially hand claps) are heightened during mastering, so holding back a bit when you mix contributes to a superior final product. 7. Send songs as WAV or AIFF files, not MP3s. Just compare the file sizes between the different formats and you’ll see that MP3s contain about one-tenth of the data in a WAV or AIFF file. 8. Whatever you do, never mix and master at the same place. It really will help your CD to get a fresh approach from a different studio and person. Mixing and Mastering Engineers are two different specialties - no one is able to excel in the professional world in both. 9. You get what you pay for in Mastering. The finest equipment and the many years experience of a good mastering engineer may not be cheap but it will make all the difference in the sound of your CD. When you've come this far, find a professional mastering engineer who you feel can do the best work for you. The quality of the work is remembered long after the price paid. Most of the work can be done through the Internet. Nowadays, most of my clients no longer sit in my room paying the hourly rate. Mixes are sent online and oftentimes I send the final master back electronically, which translates into saving time and money! Trained as a musician and composer at Juilliard and Princeton, Adrian Carr has a musically global perspective on mastering. After having his studio in Midtown Manhattan for almost 20 years, Adrian moved to Montreal and opened ACMastering Mastering Facility in 2008. has earned its good reputation for CD mastering and restoration services for Indie artists. Adrian has received Grammy Entry Nominations for his work and was featured in the Mastering Issue of Mix Magazine (December’s 2009). The Internet allows him to offer his experience to clients in the U.S.A., Canada, Europe and Asia. You can check out his services, samples of his work and more info at ACMastering.
5.
Interview with Giorgia Fumanti: Classically trained, Italian recording artist Giorgia Fumanti has taken her unique sound global. After going to law school to please her parents, she finally succumbed to the call of her true passion—music. A manager signed her after hearing a sample of her singing and she relocated to Canada. In 2004, she recorded her debut independent CD, Like a Dream, which featured Giorgia's take on the music of Vangelis. She began touring internationally and major labels began courting her. She signed with Angel Records. After several recording deals and touring the world, Giorgia is back to being independent (for the moment!) and continues to stay focused on pursuing her passion in ways that are true to her soul. She speaks 3 languages and sings in 5. I interviewed her when she was in NY.
How would you describe your music? “It’s a mix of styles, classic evergreen songs, music with beautiful melodies. I feel like a very free singer who sings whatever touches my heart, no matter which language. Through my music and songs I can give all of myself. I hope people can take what is the best from me, if they need to relax, to cry, or do whatever they need my music will help them.”
How has being international helped you? “I had the chance to sing for viewers at the Olympics in China. Asians are very into my kind of music. It’s become very popular and I’m in a good position there. Thank God I’m doing music that’s timeless so it won’t be out of style soon. The world is very big and I’m very happy to be able to sing all over it in many languages. I love the idea of music being universal because I feel that we are all one.”
Why did you use a picture of yourself pregnant? “It was empowering—celebrating and honoring my pregnancy and body. At 40 pounds more I felt so beautiful because a life was inside of me. And I was kind of tired that women are seen as having to be young to be a singer. It’s not the reality. I know that I sing from my heart. So I can sing pregnant or not pregnant, young or as I get older. We are all beautiful exactly as we are.”
How did you go from studying law to singing? “I tried to study law and do music as a hobby—singing in a choir. Around 22 years old I was very sad and far away from myself. I couldn’t find peace and started doing yoga and meditation to try and find what I wanted. I asked God to guide me and let me do what I was meant to do, wherever it was. I asked from my heart, not my ego. I recorded a demo for a well-known singer in Italy. A manager heard it and asked who was the singer. Two years later he was in Italy and we met. He was from Canada and I relocated there to work with him.” ) How did you get started in creating a buzz? “My manager always told me that good musicians will always have a place. I had a chance to do shows and people watching the shows called me to do more shows and TV. So it was word of mouth and the hard work of my manager.”
When you first started doing classical, not pop trendy music, were you told that you’d never make it if your music wasn’t current to the moment? “Yes, many times. People questioned why I was doing music that was different. Many people in the music industry asked why didn’t I do music that was more pop, more sexy. I can’t and don’t want to! What I feel from my music is too sacred to lose it. I don’t need the spotlight for my ego. I want to perform for my soul. Another reason they doubted me was I started my career at 27. I’m 35 now. It’s great because I feel much more confident now.
How important is spirituality to you in terms of getting your career going? “Faith in myself, faith in God, is number one. It’s in my soul. My music is a consequence of my faith, of my well being and my connection with God.”
How would you define success? “Success is to be at peace with myself every day. It’s hard to develop a music career. I know because I did it. It’s not a day job. In one month you can earn so much and the next earn nothing. So it’s a very precarious job. Sometimes I’m afraid of that.”
How can musicians stay strong? “Believe that no matter what you can change yourself every day. There’s not one way only. You have many options. You have to take just one step every day. And step-by-step you can start things that lead to your passion. And keep doing something else to make money until the day you can leave and just follow your passion. It’s very important to follow your passion whether it’s your job or not.”
Check out Giorgia Fumanti and listen to an artist who refuses to follow the rules and does the music she loves successfully.
You may not like knowing how few people are actually opening the links you send but it’s info that’s important. And as your numbers increase, you’ll know you’re doing something right and gaining support. Good or bad, you need to keep track of whether or not people are checking out your links. http://bit.ly
7.
ASK DAYLLE:
“
My lawyer offered to represent me as a manager too. Is this a good idea?” The quick answer is no. It’s a conflict of interest. Who will negotiate the management agreement? Your lawyer, who is also your manager! There can be several conflicts of interest when you use the same person to represent you and negotiate agreements on your behalf. That said, people do use one person in both roles and it can work.
While I recommend having both a lawyer and a manager, if you feel your lawyer will manage your career well, set some boundaries. Have another lawyer review the agreement between you and your manager/lawyer. Make sure you’re on the same page. Talk to others who use the person for both functions. I still prefer having 2 people since it gives you double the advice and potential for contacts and perspective. So make sure you completely trust your lawyer and believe in his or her ability to manage you as well. I knew a singer /songwriter (who I’ll call Steve) years ago who lived for drama in his personal life. He believed that unhappiness, heartbreak, depression, etc. made him a better songwriter. I asked him what kind of songs he wrote when he was happy. Hmmm… He’d never been happy since he felt that negative emotions fueled his creativity. I’ve also heard many musicians claim that only by doing drugs or drinking a lot could they write great songs. Yet that might also be all they know and assume they need to write great songs. Happiness fuels my creativity, along with a clear head.
The above beliefs, which I call creativity crutches, are an excuse for allowing negative or unhealthy behavior to take over your life and/or a lack of faith in your ability. Steve mainly wrote unhappy songs. I write happy ones. Yet Steve didn’t know what he could do with a clear, joyous head. That inspires my creativity more than any negative emotion, drug or drink could! Creativity comes from within you. If you’re creative in one state, you can be creative in another—IF you’re willing to believe that.
I suggested that Steve work on becoming happy, just to see what he could do but he was too scared and continued to get involved with women who’d hurt him. Tina Turner said, "Sometimes you've got to let everything go - purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything - whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out." When you nurture yourself as much as possible—your mental and physical well-being—your true self takes over and can lead you to the best manifestation of your creativity. Until
the next issue.....
Keep
your passion strong,
Daylle http://www.daylle.com
http://www.idontneedarecorddeal.com/
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By Andrea Wolper
