Most every guitarist is constantly looking for that elusive ‘perfect’ tone. Great debates and occasional fistfights erupt over digital multi-effects units vs. analog stompboxes. What is the real truth? How can a guitarist get the perfect tone? Well, I can’t answer those questions for you but I can tell you about my search and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and my infrequent triumphs.
To play a show in the park…or at a festival, a band normally needs to play about 1 hour. To play in a night club or other similar venue, a band needs 4-5 hours of material minimum. Most bands play 45 minute sets with 15-20 minute breaks in between. Songs vary in length but a good rule of thumb is about 10 songs per 45-minute set. So in order to get a gig in the local pub which hires bands to play from 9:30pm until 2am, you’re going to need about 50 songs. __(’Read the rest of this entry »’)
How do you achieve success in the songwriting business? I can tell you how I did it. I know what you’re thinking right now; “Mark Teeters? I never heard of you…you’re not successful!”. But I am, in fact, extremely successful. I’ll tell you why and then I’ll explain how you can get there too.
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If you have written a song, you certainly want it to be copyrighted. There are many myths and legends surrounding copyrights and I’ll try to debunk a few in this article. First of all, if you write a song by yourself and no one paid you in any way to write it, you already own the copyright! US Copyright law states that as soon as you finish the song, the copyright automatically belongs to you unless it is a ‘work for hire’. A ‘work for hire’ means that you work for an employer who pays you to write songs or someone specifically commisioned a song and paid you to write it. In these cases, the employer or person who commisioned the song would own the copyright.
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Do you ever wonder where songs come from? Do they magically float through the air and the lucky, chosen ones grasp them and make them their own? Or are they delivered by the Song Fairy? Sometimes these answers are easier to believe than the actual truth. They come from a deep hidden place inside your own head…a place that even you may not be familiar with.
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