Starting A Rock Band - 10 Tips To Launch Your Music Career

By Brian Woeller

Starting A Rock Band - 10 Tips To Launch Your Music Career

There are few things more thrilling then standing on a stage playing an instrument or singing your heart out, while watching the fans below having a great time -- especially if a lot of them are of the opposite sex!

Yes, starting a rock band can be a lot of fun AND it can be profitable, if you follow a few easy steps while getting started.

1. The first part is getting together a group of like-minded people who want to play music together. Make sure the other people have similar interests, morals and don't smell too bad. You will be spending a lot of time with them, so you should get a long well with each other or you'll be spending more time looking for replacements than you will playing music.

2. Once you have the people in place, you need to agree on a style of music to play. If you have a songwriter in the group, you'll want to play those "originals." These are songs you will own, record and sell. If no-one in the group is a songwriter, you'll be playing "covers". When starting a rock band this is how most begin. Covers are other people's music that you like on the radio or from a certain era, or genre. (80s, 90s, or Classic Rock, etc.) While you can have a lot of fun and make a good living just playing covers, the real money and "rock stardom" come from playing originals.

3. Next, you'll need to think about where you want to play. Wedding bands are mostly cover bands with a very wide variety of music styles. Since the band is not the star of the show (the bride is) they tend to be a little more subdued. If you want to play a lot of loud music with lots of stage antics, you'll be playing at clubs and theaters. Corporate gigs are great, since they can pay a lot of money, but they tend to best suited for established "show" bands, usually with a female singer or two.

4. OK, so you've got the band together, you've learned the songs, now you're ready to go right? Wrong! Now is when you get ready to cash in on all the long hours you've spent learning your instrument and rehearsing with the band. This is where the band marketing and promotions come in. Think about the marketing of your band just like you would any other aspect of it. You wouldn't go on stage without your instruments, or a sound system, right? Well don't forget the marketing either.

Marketing Items You'll Need: Band Name Banner Promo Kit (Online) Web Site Auto Responder
5. Your band name will set the tone for your image. For example, if you are a heavy metal band, you'll probably want a name more like "The Devil Demons" rather than "The Cute, Fluffy Bunnies." Make sure your band looks and acts like your name name implies and relates to the music you play.

6. Get a banner made up at any local sign shop that you can hang up behind you wherever you play. I can't tell you how many bands I have seen and have no clue who they were because they didn't have a banner.

7. Next you'll need an online Promo Kit where you can store your band photos, demo music video of you playing, contact numbers etc.

8. Your web site should have info about the band, some sample photos, music demos, videos, etc. Be sure your phone number is there where someone can easily find it. VERY IMPORTANT - Be sue you have a place where someone can sign-up to be on your mailing list.

9. Which leads us to the Auto Responder. An Auto Responder creates a form on your web site so you can capture email addresses. It then stores them for you so you can automatically send out messages, or send them out whenever you want. This way your fans will know when and where you are playing. You can also send them notices of new music and merchandise you have for sale.

10. Be sure whenever/wherever you play that you have someone with a sign-up sheet getting people's email addresses. You will then enter them into your mailing list. I can't stress enough how important it is that you create this fan base. This list of people will be who you market your shows and recorded music to for a long as you want to make money with your music. Every show you do without getting these emails could be the difference between you becoming a hugely successful, professional musician, or just having a fun hobby.

Most aspiring musicians fail to succeed, not due to a lack of talent, but from a lack of knowing what to do. The difference between supporting yourself as a musician or having to live off macaroni and cheese is simply having the information you need, and then acting on it. You can get this information that wipes out years of "learning curve" and puts your music career on the fast track, by joining my music marketing newsletter at:
http://www.HowToPromoteYourBand.com

A hack guitarist himself, Brian Woeller now prefers to work behind the scenes, helping to promote musicians with "real" talent. His eBook, "How To Promote Your Band To Rock Star Status" (http://www.HowToPromoteYourBand.com) will jumpstart Your music and get you in the spotlight, fast.

Job Search Strategies - Resumes That Rock - Seven Tips For Creating a World Class Resume

By Jane Trevaskis

First, and foremost, remember than a resume is used to screen out, not in. It is used to reduce the foot-high pile to a manageable handful. And this function is usually performed by someone other than the hiring manager. So, your goal is to get past this step to the person who can actually decide to hire you. Most people create a resume at the beginning of their career and simply update it from then on. Now might be a good time to take another look at yours. Here are seven tips on how to best translate your accomplishments into a resume.

1. Start with a summary. I know you think of a summary as the ending of a document. Think of this more like an executive summary at the beginning of a proposal. Most importantly, it is the only part of your resume that is almost always read. It’s the portion where you talk about the scope of your career and those capabilities that won’t fit into a specific accomplishment bullet.

2. Focus on accomplishments rather than responsibilities. You want your resume to reflect the successes you have had throughout your career. It’s much more effective to say that you brought in 150% of sales goal than to say you were responsible for sales in the southeast region. Review your career and focus in on the Situation you were presented with, the Actions you took and the Outcome you produced.

3. Never more than two pages. Most people who see lots of resumes automatically discard any that exceed two pages. If you are a recent college graduate, one page is probably plenty, but more than two is a real no-no. The only exceptions are academia and organizations that are closely related to academia. Then it is frequently called a curriculum vitae (or c.v.) instead of a resume.

4. Make it easy to read. If it’s hard to read, most people won't even try. Beginning all sections of the resume with action verbs helps. You can find lists of action verbs specific to your profession from books in the career section of your local bookstore on just google the term “keywords” and you'll get more than you could ever use. People scan resumes, they don’t read them. Most people who read lots of resumes spend less than 10 seconds on the first pass through – and that’s the one when they reduce the number of resumes that will be read more thoroughly from, for instance, 100 to 10. So, scan your resume yourself to make sure that your points get across in a less-than-thorough read.

5. References available upon request – NOT. Everybody knows that references are available and, since you have limited space on a resume, you don't need to waste the space. But you do have to have identified at least six people willing to serve as a reference and be able to provide their names and contact information within 24 hours of a request.

6. Education. The degrees you hold are important but, if your major wasn't relevant to this opportunity, don’t mention it. If you are looking for a job in a technical arena and your degree is in art history, it's better to just skip it. And if your degree is more than five years old, the date doesn’t go on your resume. However, both the institution you attended and the degree you earned are very important.

7. Optional Sections and Addendum. The final section of a resume is where you put those other parts of your background that are applicable. This section could list certifications, memberships (both professional associations and applicable volunteer involvement), awards, military experience, or technical skills. If you have an overload of one kind of optional information (patents, publications, technical skills, etc.) it can become a one-page addendum that you won’t give to everyone. However, an addendum must focus on only one subject – it is definitely not a third page of your resume. One addendum per resume.

Now, take a look at your current resume and spruce it up with these tips.

With your permission, I’d like to offer you a free report: Action Verbs for Resumes. You can download it by going to http://www.acatalystinyoursuccess.com/Report_Action_Verbs.html

If you would like to hear more about resumes and the other tools you need to conduct a successful job search visit http://www.acatalystinyoursuccess.com/Career_Home_Page.html
From Jane Trevaskis and Success-Catalyst.com