So you’re finally getting good at your instrument and you have the equipment and the music to follow. Maybe you have gigs and places to play at. What do you do to get to the next step? How do you now use all of the time that you have put into your art and start climbing up the music industry ladder? What is one of the easiest things you can do to start getting better music business connections today? Enter the 21st century press kit....

What is a Press Kit and Why You Should Have One.

You’ve probably heard this term thrown around a bit. A Press Kit is a digital and hard copy representation of your career as a musician. It’s very similar to a resume, it represents what you have done, the places and venues you have played, the people you have worked for and with in music, and your upcoming gigs in the near future. Musicians need Press Kits to send to management companies, record labels, gear and instrument manufacturers for endorsements, larger venues etc… This helps these people get to know you and earn your trust as a musician. They want to see what you have done and in a sense how big you are and what you can do.


What a Press Kit Should Include

Cover Page – Who are you? This is the first image people will see of you and or your group. A nice cover page has a professional quality photograph and font. It should grab their attention and say “I’m different, read further…”

The One-Sheet – This is usually the first page in a Press Kit. It includes your website, contact information, pictures of the biggest places and events you’ve played at (flyer images of those shows). Careful not to clutter this page, 2-3 of your biggest shows will do. The discography is also on this page, which are the albums you have done and/or tracks you have recorded on. Include pictures of the albums, dates, and titles. You should include a section on this page titled “Shared the stage which such artists as” which lists all of the musicians you have performed with – bigger names first. Include on this page any endorsements you have.

Biography – This is a brief history of you. Where and when did you start? Nothing too long winded because you want to avoid any way of losing the reader’s attention. The bio should describe your greatest achievements and how you got to where you are today. Talk a little and outline your releases, tracks you’ve done or worked on. This page is what hypes you up a bit, no lies, just words crafted to express the best out of you and your career no matter how short you’ve been a musician.


If you are making a Press Kit for a band or musical group, you might want to include short and a separate bio for each member. Outline each person’s greatest achievements and let the reader know “Hey, this group is made up of some great musicians”



All in all remember that a Press Kit represents you. If you sending these out to more important folk like record labels, consider getting it printed and packaged nicely. Keep in mind ways to make yourself stand out because the music industry gets Press Kits all of the time, sometimes hundreds a day. Revise, revise, revise until it is perfect!  Here's a pretty cool e-book/DVD on presskits that will also help you out
The Art of the Press Kit

Enjoy your endorsements and future gigs!


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What does your practice space look like?  I'm referring to the space, room, or area that you sit down and practice your instrument. Is it messy or is it clean? Does it have art hanging on the walls and various other furnishments that inspire? Is it bland and detrimental for you to succeed in efficient practicing?

For a practice space to work for you, to allow you to be the most efficient musician when it comes to practicing, it has to be clean and void of all distraction such as clutter and garbage. One reason why this is necessary is that clean rooms, even nicely designed and furnished rooms, lead to better inspiration of the human mind.  Why do you think big corporate companies hire expensive Space Planners and Interior Designers?

Setting up your Practice Space:

Pick a room, if not already done, to start your practice routine in - every day. Set up your gear and instruments, and make sure that it is somewhat devoid of sound coming from other places - i.e. family, friends, pets etc...

Set up a workstation, a place to keep your sheet music, documents, music and industry magazines, and lesson notes. Organize this area.  For example, if you are looking for, let's say, a book on Modal Jams and Theory you can find it quickly without ruining the flow and groove of your practice regiment.

If you have a computer in this room, or a stereo or nowadays an ipod then this is ideal. This is a place where you can bring up jam tracks or recording software to practice too. Such as when you want to practice improvising in various keys or the original key, you can bring up a jam track or record some chord progressions quickly and easily without having to dig around.

Set up the place in which you sit and actually practice your musical instrument. Make sure you have a good sturdy music stand and a spot to place your metronome. It should be close to where you keep most of your sheet music etc... The key here is to make sure the flow of your practice routine is as uninterupted as possible.

Hang some magazine pictures of your favorite and most inspirational musicians on the walls.  Any art that you like would work too. Anything that inspires you - color, photos, sculptures. But make sure it is clean and neat.

When you walk in to the room, close the door and put your belongings somewhere away from your main station for practice, leaving the room as neat as possible and free of distraction. Turn your cell phone off! Neat as possible can not be any more important!

Those are the first preliminary steps for setting up and maintaining a great, inspirational, and work friendly practice space. Practice makes perfect and allows us to become the best musicians possible, thus having a room filled with distractions - be it noise, garbage, clutter, clothes etc... - can easily throw us off track from our musical goals.

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I’m going to share a sad truth right now. A truth that you will be able to use to your advantage. Most musicians disregard punctuality. I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve encountered that are repeatedly late to things. Late to rehearsals, late to pick up times, late to meetings, late to gigs, etc. The list goes on and on. If you had a day job you sure as hell wouldn’t come late to that because you’d be afraid of getting fired. Well, I have news for you. It’s a quick way to get fired or never rehired in the music business too.

It’s a huge problem. It’s seems like common sense that the people who mostly hire us are business oriented. Businessmen respect time and in general are not late. It’s important to remember that in business time is money. Therefore many people equate a lack of a respect for time as a lack of respect for moneymaking principles. People with gigs aren’t going to want to work with you.

Now, here’s the good news. Just by following the simple act of showing up on time you’ll immediately increase your reputation for professionalism. People strongly take this in consideration when hiring again. This is huge!

In the regular 9-5 world if you show up on time all the time it’s expected. In the music business world you’re considered reliable, honest, trustworthy, and a consummate professional. Even other players will look up to you. These are rave reviews that any business would die for. It’s almost comical how easy this particular skill is.

Better yet my friends….try always showing up 5 minutes early. You’ll get the reputation of a saint. I learned this lesson the hard way.

There was a period of about 6 months when I was the first call guy for a booking agent in town. He had a contract with several of the top restaurants (all owned by the same owner). I showed up to these gigs early, well dressed, and musically prepared. Until one day I was running a little later than usual. Instead of showing up way early like usual, I showed up 15 minutes before the gig. I setup my gear quickly and was playing at the normal start time.  Although, I was a bit stressed in the beginning I felt the gig went without a hitch. Well, to make a long story short I was wrong. I was paid for the gig but was never called again afterward. I needed to get to the gig earlier and the restaurant had a reputation of elegance and charm. My rushing around for that 15 minutes wasn’t the image they were trying to sell. It was a hard lesson to learn but one that ultimately was great for me. I learned early on how important time is!

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If you’re like me you’ve spent an absolute absurd amount of time working on your music and getting your playing together. Good instruments are essential to help transfer the sound and depth you've worked so hard to acquire.  It's only fair to your audience. I don’t care how great of a player you are it will diminish your sound and your message playing on below average gear. Why would you ever want to do that? I try to get the absolute best gear I can afford.

For example, keyboards that have poor internal sounds, guitars that have warped necks and cheap wood, drums that have cracked cymbals, flimsy shells, or cheap snare drums, cheap microphones. These things are all a no no. It’s also important that you maintain your amplifiers and all the electronics on your instrument. If you’re a guitar player change your strings regularly and have a back up pair just in case. Drummers make sure you have enough sticks for the gig and change your drum heads on a regular basis. Make sure you also have good cables and some backups if you can. It’s also really important to have some good cases to protect your instruments. This is your means of income and if you don’t keep your instruments in shape you can’t make money! I like to eat don’t you?

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Although you can get by in this business without reading music it becomes a crutch, is impractical, and limits your gig options greatly. Most people have to be even more developed in another area of their musicianship to make up for a lack of reading skill. It’s similar to your 5 senses. If one of them is weaker or non existent then you’d have to be even stronger in your other 4 senses to survive.

For those of you who don’t read music please keep this in mind. Learning to read music is very easy. I’ve taught people with no prior musical experience to read music in 1 hour. I repeat…1hour. There is no excuse for not being able to read. If you insist on leaving this skill undeveloped your limiting your money making ability considerably.

A more advanced but really essential skill is the ability to sight read. Sight reading is being able to read down pieces of music that are put in front of you the first time you see them. There a many gigs available for people who can sight read. In fact I venture to say if you can sight read there will always be financial opportunities for you in music. Here is just a small sample of gigs that I’ve done specifically using my sight reading skill. I’ve played at churches/temples, played for choirs, played for dance classes, accompanied singers, played charts in band/corporate gigs etc. etc.. I won’t even get into all the studio work available for accomplished readers. Sight reading and some basic marketing equals payday.

Here’s some good news for those of you whose reading is not quite what we want it to be. Contrary to popular belief good sight readers are not born they are made. It’s a learned skill and can be practiced. Just like anything else if you practice it daily it will improve.

How to practice sight reading
So, how do you practice sight reading? Put a metronome on at a speed you can read a piece clearly on without stopping. I repeat don’t stop no matter what. Even if you leave out many notes as long as you keep form and rhythm your improving your ability. Read through it a couple more times each time trying to look ahead and pick up a couple more notes. Do this everyday and slowly progress to harder music.  This simple task repeated daily is all it takes.  Guaranteed improvement.

Jaco Pastorious (one of greatest electric bass players ever) was considered by many a virtuoso and a rising star when he decided he wanted to become a great music reader. He started at ground zero and read through kids books in the beginning. Even though he was a world class talent he didn’t allow his ego to get in the way with developing the skill he desired. With focus and daily practice Jaco became a great reader. You can too!

Tip: Take a “sight reading”lesson with somebody on your instrument who is a great reader. Watch how they approach things. Pick their brains. I did that myself and the $50 lesson paid off a thousand times over.


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I'm excited to announce that we've completed the final round of filming for my upcoming Chicago Blues Piano Instructional DVD.  Shooting the footage was a blast but I couldn't believe the amount of time and work required!  It was all worth it though.
       We'll be starting the editing and post production phases of the DVD in the upcoming week.  I'm just thrilled with the way it's turning out so far.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Ability to arrange

Back when I was at Berklee there was a girl there who seemed to get all of the top gigs around. I’ll call her Jane for privacy reasons. I kept on hearing about Jane and seeing her everywhere. When I finally got a chance to see her play I didn’t understand the fuss about her. Jane seemed ok but nothing about her blew me away. Finally, one day I approached one of the artists she played with and asked them point blank why they chose Jane to play keyboards as opposed to the hundreds of other talents who could play circles around her (like me!!). Her answer blew me away and now I’ll share it with you.

She said, “Well, I wrote my song with the melody and lyrics but Jane was the one who really turned it into a force and a real piece of music. She wrote all the instrumental hooks and brought the song together as whole. Every note counts with Jane and now my songs have identity throughout.” So, I said in response, “You didn’t hire Jane for her playing?” The response was quick, “Well, maybe a bit but really I hired Jane because she is sort of like my arranger and my hit maker.” Wow…I walked away stunned. What a great lesson!

That particular conversation completely reformed the way I approached gigs there after. Here’s the overall concept I learned. Most of the time artists who hire you are asking you to not only play an instrument but more so to help their song’s identity. So, I take these concepts into consideration when I’m playing a part.

What’s going to make the particular song you’re working with different or identifiable? How does the particular parts you’re playing relate to the song as a whole. Is it cohesive with the other instruments? Does it match the style of the song? Is it a verse idea, a chorus idea, a bridge etc. etc.? In the vast majority of popular contemporary styles every note is accounted for and carefully placed. We need to think like an arranger when we play. How jazzy, or complex, or how fast our licks are doesn't matter. What does matter is what we play adds to the songs, creates identity, and improves the song as a whole. Once I understood that concept I started appealing to lots more artists and frankly I had more gigs and made a lot more money.

On a related note as your skills improve in this area you can actually get hired to just arrange for an artist. I’ve had several gigs where I was hired to create arrangements and tracks for artists. I didn’t even play keyboards on them. When you arrange you take a bare boned initial idea and build a whole song. Often times I’ll write guitar parts, bass parts, drum parts, horn parts, string parts, keyboard parts, etc. etc.

There is a lot of money in this particular aspect of the business. Especially, if you get some producer credits on the track as well. So, how do you get arranging gigs? Well, having a good demo of songs you’ve done really helps. You can present this to an artist so they can get an idea what you can do with a song. Another thing you can do to build a resume is offer to do a track for free in exchange for free use of the track on your demo. From there it’s all about meeting people and letting them know what you do.

Tip: Learn the basic functions and registers for all kinds of common instruments. For example, understand how to notate drums. Learn the transposition for horns, learn highest and lowest notes on an instrument etc. Learn what are the basic rhythm patterns that create a style.  Everything you learn about music will help you.  Build from there.

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