Fishing

[tacotortoise]

I don't like directly asking for help, but my indirect requests have met with little response so far. I really need feedback on my efforts at being a professional musician, both online and in the flesh:

If you have been to my website, what do you think of it? Is it easy to navigate? Is there some functionality or content that you feel the site

Comments

Okay...

[ratatosk]

There were actually things I meant to tell you but forgot. This is probably only part of it

Website

[ratatosk]

Okay, LJ ate my last comment, so I'm going to break things into smaller chunks.

One of the most interesting things on your website at the moment, to me, is the blog. It has very few entries. The effect of this was to get my attention and then get me distracted and reading Alex Ross's column archives instead of browsing your website. But the blog is interesting enough that I subscribed to the syndicated feed on my LJ.

You should learn to talk a lot. Here's why:

1. It reminds people you exist.
2. It keeps them entertained enough to be paying attention when you have something to announce which you want to be sure many people will read (e.g. concert dates).
3. It lets you educate people about your music specifically and sell yourself in the process.
4. It lets you educate people so that the kinds of music you like will have larger appreciative audiences.

Posting this and continuing on because I'm scared of LJ eating it...

More on blogging

[ratatosk]

I think musicians and composers can only succeed by getting people to have personal relationships with music, and not just intellectual interest. I think you should do a lot that results in giving people the answer to the question "Why is this music exciting/interesting/meaningful?" A good way to do that is to describe your personal relationship with it. Only you can know how to do that for yourself. My advice is to spend time _playing_ music you like, and then work on articulating what you like about it. Talk about other composers freely, but then tie them back to you. Make it personal.

Again posting this while I think, so LJ can't eat it.

Very short note

[ratatosk]

1. Do not assume that people who know and enjoy jazz or blues are able to make any sense whatsoever out of modern classical music.

2. Do not assume that people who know and enjoy modern classical music are able to make any sense whatsoever out of jazz or blues.

I think climbing this mountain is no problem as long as you don't start up it thinking it's a small hill.

Another short note

[ratatosk]

I didn't get to go to your first recital, but it sounds like it went well.

I think I'd prefer to see a mixture of you performing your own work and having other performers do so. This will:

1. probably make you less nervous
2. expose more people to your music by getting them to play it
3. initially, at least, draw larger audiences as each performer draws in different pools of people
4. get people out in public playing your music and looking like they are engaged with it
5. allow you to work with a larger palette of pieces when putting together the concert order, if only so that you can keep attention spans longer

A side effect of this is that it encourages you to write more music for other people to play, which will get you feedback from musicians. It also gives you excuses to call upon your friends and contacts to be lab rats remember you exist participate in your exciting rise to stardom have fun with your music. Imagine a world where you have people over once a week to try out new music.