You asked questions about my solo bass video “And I Crumble” – I answer some of them in painfully expatiated detail. I thought this might only take 5 minutes – it ended up at 16 – so If I didn’t answer your specific question it’s because time got away from me. Hit the comments and I’ll try – unless it’s too complicated – then next time!

Just like a DVD extra package – this video is for the uber-geeks and audio production peeps.  There may or may not be easter eggs, spelling errors, profanity and brief nudity.

Questions attempted : Reverb & production (this takes 10 minutes of the video), Altered Tunings (I show how to figure this shit out on your own), Where the hell I’ve been, and What I practice.

Some of these answers will satisfy – some will not. Such is the nature of life.

Everything I say is 100 correct. For me. Your milage may very. Proceed at your own risk etc…

I hope you enjoy! If you do – you’re probably an audio geek. Like me.

Unlike many artists – I’m not shy about self-promotion.  But I am  conservative about how much I promote my stuff.  Probably too conservative.  But let’s take a look at what happened.

Right now – the video has about 4450 views.  I don’t remember how this compares to the last batch of videos I released – but it doesn’t matter. That was years ago and up until last week I had all but vanished from the “solo bass scene”.

So even thought I’m not starting at ZERO – i’m not picking up where I left off either. Suffice it to say over the past 3 years I neglected ALL promotion of my bass music as much as I have neglected the bass itself.

MAILING LIST:

My mailing list is small – many that subscribed to me years ago have un-subscribed or changed emails. Here’s the general performance stats on the email I sent out promoting And I Crumble:

53% opened the email. 34% clicked a link (mostly to the video – some to my blog, some to my Bandcamp page )

6% emails bounced back.  Overall – not great.  My list is definitely is crappy shape after years of neglect and zero content.  Not surprising.

BLOG:

Similar story here  - my old blog had a nice little thing going  (before it broke) – but I stoped blogging and poof – all gone!  The new blog is growing steadily but still it’s quite small in terms of traffic and exposure.  I also have no real blog strategy.

The most viewed post on Beautiful Bass Blog 2:  Is there anybody out there.

Second most – by about half-  And I Crumble video post.

I supposed it’s nice to know my music is almost competiive with an angry sweary rant.

TWITTER:

1900 “followers” and a only handful of retweets about the video. I didn’t blast twitter a dozen times about the video but did post a link to the video more than once.  I also rewteeted 2 comments about the video – something I’m usually opposed to doing.Overall – Twitter contributed very little engagement with the video.

Next time I will probably Tweet about my music much more and see what happens. If followers drop – so be it – they aren’t really engaging with me anyway.

FACEBOOK:

Let’s start by saying I detest Facebook because the quality of content I see there is so consistently low-brow, banal, and thoughtless.  But it’s where EVERYONE hangs.

I have 2 pages – a personal page I started years before they started Brand pages and an “Artist Page” I added –  just because. I have about 1000 “friends” on my personal page – many of whom I don’t know and have never met.  Welcome to 2013!

My “Artist page has 420 “likes” – whatever that means – could be the same people on my personal profile for all i know. ( I hate having 2 pages and can’t figure out how to consolidate them)  Again, I don’t promote or consistently ask for LIKES.

That notwithstanding – it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Facebook engagement with my video dwarfs that of my Blog and Twitter combined.  Facebook sends more traffic back to my blog than any other source.  And it sent more views to my video from outside YouTube than anywhere else.  Fucking Facebook.  It can’t be ignored.

YOUTUBE:

Since the content was VIDEO and the video was release on YouTube I expected engagement there to be highest and it is – by far.  YouTube outperformed all other sources of views combined.  Engagement on YouTube is also far higher (comments / shares / messages/ replies etc…)

YouTube subscribers to my “channel” increased by over 120 in a single week after the video was released.That’s not really great – but no other social media touch point for me had as much growth – not blog views, twitter followers, facebook likes, or friend requests.

BANDCAMP / CD BABY / SALES!!!

This is where the rubber meets the road:  What kind of impact did the video have on music sales?Minimal.

Yes I sold a few copies of Outre on CDBaby, a few sales of Aphelion (with “And I Crumble”), a few more FREE downloads of my music and  Ash On Dust on Bandcamp.  Statistically, the activity this past week was virtually undetectable from the sales activity I normally see  - which is a handful of sales per week.

BASS SITES: TalkBass / No Treble /  Bass Musician Magazine etc…

As far as I can tell – And I Crumble got zero mention on any bass site or bass related community – so none of the plays / views / subscribers seem to be coming from that part of the interwebs.  (UPDATE: this is not true.  Bass The World shared the video on Facebook where it received almost 300 “likes” – certainly several hundred if not thousands of views came from that link. )

UPDATE 04/08 – online bass community NoTreble.com just posted about the video this morning – Jeff Schmidt is Back:

ok-  so as time goes on this point is getting less and less worth making.  The fact is-  the video is getting shared from numerous sources now and for that I’m deeply grateful.

LESSONS?

My social networks are largely un-engaged (except YouTube) – and I need to be far more aggressive in promoting my work on them.  If people un-friend or un-follow me – so be it – if they aren’t engaging with me – especially about my Art – I’m not sure why they chose to “friend” or “follow” me in the first place.  It would be more difficult for me if I felt my work was sub-par – but I don’t think it is.  So I shouldn’t be timid about making sure as many people that claim to be interested know when I’ve got something new available.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Amid all the stats and analysis it cannot be lost:  People from all over the world seeing & hearing my Art at their own convenience is of course what is truly special about making Art today.

Years ago – the first solo bass video I released was Little Sunflower – I don’t remember how I promoted it – probably Myspace and Talkbass. It started making the rounds at work and a co-workers commented how amazing it was that I could make a crude recording of myself playing a jazz standard and over 1000 watched it!

I guess I’m still a little amazed by that too.  While the “And I Crumble” video  is far from being the multi-million view viral videos YouTube is now built on – I’m still I’m very happy and grateful my little bass videos and the music they contain find and connect with people at all.

I’m curious as to what you guys think about this – I tend to be a “let the art speak for itself” kinda guy – but these days it seems even good stuff needs a hefty push.

What do you think?

I humbly present – “And I Crumble” - a new solo bass video.

Deciding whether to release this piece as a video or as a Bandcamp audio track for Aphelion involved 2 devils sitting on my shoulders each elegantly arguing a distinct point of view.

Devil One:
Where the fuck are the flashy tappy bass tricks, Groovetard? This video is gonna be soooo boring!

Devil Two:
You stupid fuck. Who the fuck listens to music anymore unless there’s a fucking video?

Hmmm. Solid points, both. Thanks Ladies.

Devil Two wins, video it is!

And I Crumble is one of several new solo bass pieces I plan to release this year. No time frame.

I hope you enjoy. Please share and spread if you do!

As always – I’m grateful for your for your ears. And eyes!

It all started with an Onion piece titled:

Find The Thing You’re Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life

http://onion.com/YGeLE0

Go ahead an give it a quick read. I found it hilarious.

Except, then I didn’t.  After I finished laughing, I had a sinking feeling the piece was almost too autobiographical.  I was laughing at myself.

While the piece goes to the extreme for the sake of humor, and most of the examples don’t specifically correspond to my life – the broad strokes definitely do.  All of my “Art” has been pursued on nights & weekends because more important things (like work) occupy the bulk of my “prime” time.

Most cutting to me was the part about getting home from a day at work after a 65+ minute commute and having nothing left in the tank to pursue my “passion”.

That happens to me more times than I can count. How did they know?

Not to mention the countless times in the morning when I felt inspired but instead of walking 15 feet into my home studio to create, I must hop in the car for a 45 minute drive into work. Nothing kills inspiration like 45 minutes in drive time traffic.

It would be too easy, and a mistake, to say the Onion piece is just a bit of comedy and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. That would dismiss the vital role comedy has in allowing us to face things we might not normally be able or willing to face.

When I read the piece I laughed.  But I also read a person trying to use comedy to get certain people to wake up. Namely me. I can’t be alone.

Acknowledging the truth that we’ve pushed our “passion” or “Art making” off into the periphery of our lives doesn’t subtract from the Art we’ve managed to create in that periphery. If anything – it elevates it.

Creating anything worthwhile is difficult and unlikely. And it’s exponentially more difficult when there’s a 12 hour section of every day where your “passion” or “Art making” is artificially blocked out by other priorities.

Of course this begs the question – what could our Art be if it were front & center?

What price would we have to pay to allow that?  And is it worth it?

]]> http://beautiful-bass.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=760 16 http://beautiful-bass.com/blog/?p=746 http://beautiful-bass.com/blog/?p=746#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:40:07 +0000 jeffschmidt http://beautiful-bass.com/blog/?p=746

The flip side of last weeks post about artists acting like big dumb corporations is the question of how we behave as consumers.

I’ve noticed in my own consumption that I tend to treat to all transactions equally – that is – with the same anonymous disregard for the maker as the maker is assumed to have for me as the “consumer”.

The exchange of money for product is the sum total of the transaction – it ends there.  That is the typical corporate / consumer relationship.

But there are exceptions. For me it’s the boutique or bespoke tools, gear, software, music, books – often made by a single creator working alone. Artists / makers . . . people, like me.

In the past I have treated those transactions with the same kind of benign disregard for their maker as the mass produced crap I’d buy at big dumb box store. While this “relationship” is efficient for the big dumb box store and keeps prices reasonably low – I think it cheapens the experience when applied to smaller one to one transactions – and most particularly “art”.

(I use “Art” in the wider Seth Godin framework-  meaning Art is anything that didn’t HAVE to be made – but was made because someone was passionate about it existing. This can be anything from painting, a song, a business, a charity…)

For the big dumb box store – a “sale” registers as all the feedback necessary to continue making that thing. And while the note in our inbox about a sale of our Art is just as meaningful to us as it is to the big dumb box store (likely even more so) – we Artists actually crave something more.

We crave some indication that the thing we made had some kind of impact on another person. That it touched, moved or inspired someone else. Of course the money is important. But I have often made it a proxy for the kind of “connection” and feedback I’m talking about.

So what can I do about it?

I can only take responsibility for my own part in all this. I have bought numerous indie created software, music, books and “products” that I have really enjoyed – but never told the maker how much I enjoyed their work. Yes, my money sent them a message of support (literally)  but it’s also just as important for those makers to know that their work helped me, inspired me, filled my creative tank… that it connected with another human. Money is great medium for communicating value in many ways. But it definitely feels too crude for this.

I will no longer be silent with the makers of things I enjoy. I will gladly share with them my appreciation for the stuff they make.

I hope you too can also take a moment to drop a quick note of appreciation to those that make things that connect with you.

It doesn’t have to be a lengthy analysis of why you like something. Just a simple – Hey, I dig this thing you made – thanks for making it!

Artists need to get paid for their work – but they also need to know their work is connecting. So if it connects – please don’t forget to let them know.

And if reaching out to that Artist seems too personal (perhaps they’re a fucking douche), maybe just tell a few friends about their work.

Pass it on.

word

If I may indulge for a moment – I recently went back and listened to the Ash On Dust music for the first time in quiet awhile and am happy to report I very much like it! That’s always been tough for me – I usually have issues with everything I make just after making it – but I’m really proud of our debut effort.

That said – I’m happy to report that NEW Ash On Dust music is currently in production. Just like the first batch – we’ll release a track at a time as they are completed. We have no timeline for completion – but I’ll post about here and on the face book & twitter-scapes. Here we go!

btw – we’re open to bringing in collaborators. I’m particularly interested in percussion/drums – but we’re interesting in any instrumentalist/vocalist. Only caveats being you have to be able to do high quality recordings of your playing – and actually LIKE the music we’ve already made.

Our new music will certainly be in similar sonic playground as Vol 1. While we’re interested in pushing the music into new places – we won’t be doing the blowing solos over changes type stuff that is already so common.

With that said – please reach out to me if your interested.

Our process is slow and will continue for months – so no rush.

Good stuff on the way!

I admit, I never really understood the Amanda Fucking Palmer thing. Her art wasn’t for me. But most great art isn’t for everyone – only the faithful fucking few! But how can you not respect Amanda for building something that touches people so much they actively support it – not just with money – but their time, effort even their homes! Amanda has shown there’s more to the “value equation” than the simple corporation/consumer exchange of product for cash. That corporate view is our dominant view. Amanda is indeed an outlier. But she’s also a canary in the coal mine. (that means early warning sign for you kids)

Clearly Amanda has developed a unique and deep connection with a group of people that willingly help her. And she has learned how to graciously accept that help. That is the part I’m most fascinated with. Getting past the stigma of accepting help and support. What stands in the way of that? Thinking like a Corporation.

Amanda talks of being yelled at to “get a job” by passing cars while she was a street performer. Implicit in that worldview is what she was doing wasn’t valued or valuable. But that’s not true. People put money in her collection hat. She would predictably make $60 on a Tuesday and $90 on a Friday. Pretty much what entry level fast-food and retail jobs in the US pay. But instead of learning how to follow directions and do what she was told (things valued by corporations) she was earning something the retail and fast-food drones won’t. An ability to build connections.

On the surface our culture still views following orders to serve mass produced, mass marketed barely edible food like products to morbidly obese people for $5 per hour as somehow more dignified than performing your art for “tips/donations” in a public space where no one HAS to pay you a single cent. But which do you think adequately prepares a person for “the future”? It used to be – hands down – the entry level drone job at McCorporation. But now – that path wreaks of futility.

We pound our chests and exalt “risk-taking” and “rugged-individualists” in this country – but only after they have succeeded. Only after Amanda Palmer raised $1.2 million from fans do we talk about her in a manner of respect and admiration. Only then does she get to speak to a room full of rich, mostly white business executives at Ted. But when she was busking in public spaces for “tips” they yelled “get a job”.

In our culture “THE JOB” is viewed as the expected & respected path to self-suffiency. Anything that depends on accepting Tips, Donations, Help, Support from others is viewed as weakness and beggary. Amanda told the story about a member of one of the bands playing with her feeling this way about taking donations from the assembled audience. There’s a culturally conditioned shame in asking for donations. It’s often considered charity – and that means “dependency”.

Dependency is a super-charged word in the US. It means not pulling your weight. It’s always assumed the “dependency” is on the efforts of others. I find this odd because having a job makes you enormously dependent on others, namely those running the corporation paying you. And let’s face it, those people don’t even like you! But since everyone does it – it’s viewed with respect. After all, we can’t all be insane … can we?  Shhh. No one is really supposed to answer.

The assumption is that if you have a job, meaning: reporting each weekday at 9am to your slot on the assembly line / cubicle  - you are valuable and are therefore granted a level of dignity the lowly “dependent” street performer doesn’t deserve.

But I actually think getting a job is the least “American” thing we can do.

Getting paid to take orders and do as your told isn’t brave, it isn’t risky and it certainly isn’t dignified. Going out into a public space with nothing but your imagination and trying to earn even minimum wage by moving random strangers? That takes huge swinging hairy fucking balls. That’s the stuff capital “A” America was supposedly made of.

I wrestled with all of this myself when the “Pay What You Want” music model started a few years ago. All of the sudden music was free. The old corporate-like method of “make product, put product in store, sell product to anonymous consumer, take anonymous consumers money, repeat” collapsed.

Something different is emerging. It’s more like put product out for free, allow people to pay for it if they want to.  Want to?  Why would someone want to pay for something they can get for free? They won’t. Unless they have a connection with the maker. And that means we’re no longer only concerned with just making great fucking art – now we have to be “likable” too. Shit.

The problem the corporate worldview has with cases like Amanda Palmer is that it isn’t reproducible. You can’t mass produce connection. You can’t mass produce gratitude or love. And that’s what makes Amanda’s art so fucking awesome – it is inherently human created on a totally human scale. Amanda is doing things corporations can’t do. And as artists this will be an increasingly important ability.

Music was just the beginning. Soon even physical products we now depend on corporations to anonymously and carelessly mass produce will be easily duplicated and “printed” in our own homes for minimal cost.

Will we give a shit about the faceless mega-conglomerate created product when we can print it for next to nothing?  When you don’t have to pay for something – why WILL you pay for it?

Once again it will be about connection. Please watch this video about 3-D printing. Think about what happened to music next happening to “THINGS”.

For “indie artists” and makers (and even those of us with “jobs” will soon need to go indie) the ability to make connections is going to be more valuable than ever .

UPDATE: March 3,2013  - Seth Godin posts a quickie I think is pertinent to this post.

Just about everyone is in the media now. If you’ve published something online, you know what it is to create and spread ideas.

Please give the remaining 5 paragraphs a quick read – always good stuff from Seth – a daily must read for me.

The definition of insanity: Not doing the same thing over & over and still expecting to get better at it. – me, bitches

Jiro Dreams Of Sushi

I finally got a chance to see the little documentary all my creative internet peeps have been talking about – Jiro Dreams Of Sushi.  

On the surface – it’s a simple movie about a simple man, Jiro.  Jiro is regarded as the world’s greatest Sushi Chef. He has a 10 seat Sushi bar in a subway station in Japan. He’s been making Sushi for 70 years. Jiro has dedicated his life to making Sushi very simply. But each time improving just a little bit.

Here’s a clip from the film.  The movie is streaming on Netflix –  maybe on other services too.

It’s worth the 84 minutes for anyone that pursues or appreciates mastery. The takeaway for me: In our culture of “want it all now” – we have largely forsaken mastery because it takes a very long time. We spend most of our time looking for the shortcuts and the easier less time consuming more “efficient” route.

Jiro Dreams Of Sushi reminded me of the dignity inherent doing the same thing over and over in pursuit of getting better at it.

If you watch the full movie you’ll see the level of detail to which Jiro gives his attention – not just the food, his apprentices, and his physical establishment – but his diners as well.

Truly inspiring and a wake up call to people content with mailing it in.  I was moved.

Enterprising Music – The Only Way is DIY 

A music conference panel discussion with Laura Kidd, Rich Huxley, Paul Bay and Steve Lawson.  It’s a great conversation about the realities of making your art “sustainable”.  In other words, earn it’s keep.

Steve, as many readers will already know is a solo bassist.  He’s been making his art, his way for many years and manages to do it without having to resort to insipid, soul draining “only for the money” type work. Steve  always has incredibly thoughtful observations in regard to art, commerce and the internet.  And this video – along with a few others on his blog are worth your time.   Bravo, more inspiration from Mr. Lawson!

Jesús Rico Pérez Covers Until You Don’t

There have been very few covers of my solo bass material. It’s not surprising.  I’m a lefty playing upside down stringing. I use piccolo gauge strings with custom tunings.  My material is technically challenging with unorthodox performance techniques.  It’s obviously not impossible ( I did it)  but it’s so idiosyncratic it isn’t an easy road for others to follow either.  So whenever I’m made aware of a cover of one of my pieces – I share it.

Here’s Jesus Rico tackles one of my simpler tunes – Until You Don’t. (original vid)  Nice job Jesus!

I’m always touched when people take the time to learn and perform something I wrote. Thanks to Zander Zon for sending me the link!  For those that don’t know Zander – please youtube him and discover his really beautiful solo bass work.

It’s a fascinating story – expertly told via my favorite medium – sound. Pop on some headphones and give this 18 minutes of your attention – it’s well worth it.

(note – there’s no profanity on the podcast – sorry.)

ps – there’s a :90 plea for financial support kicking off the podcast.  You can fast forward to :90 to skip it.  But just so you know – I support the show because it’s high quality stuff I can listen even years after it’s made and still be amazed by it.  Rare in radio – or any medium.
UPDATE:

Here’s 3 more segments of RadioLab specifically about music.  Enjoy.

Now it’s about being “Amazing”!

It’s pretty sound thinking. Because Amazing things spread so quickly on the internet – all you need to do – is be Amazing! Then people will find you. This is undoubtedly true. It’s Amazing how many Amazing things we’re exposed to each week.

For example – check out this vid – then continue.

Wasn’t that fucking moving? Dare I say . . . Amazing?

I first saw this video over a week ago. I was moved by every one of the 3 minutes and 40 seconds it took to watch it – and within a half hour – I completely forgot about it.

Only after seeing the video re-posted a week later on another site did I remember seeing it at all.

I thought to myself “oh yeah, I remember that video, it was pretty Amazing!”. Then I became sadly aware of just how quickly my Amazement had dissipated after I watched it. And this isn’t the only example. This kind of thing happens to me all the time.

This post isn’t about that specific video. It’s about how quickly I can forget about being moved, touched and Amazed. It’s about how quick and easy it is to move on to the next Amazing thing. And guess what – there’s always another Amazing fucking thing.

The internet isn’t a series of tubes – it’s a series of Amazing fucking things. One damned Amazing thing after another.

It occurred to me I was experiencing something entirely new: The Banality of Amazement.

It’s now so common to be exposed to Amazing things online it’s almost rote. If you’re connected to enough nodes on the internet – you will bump into Amazing things just about every day. Amazement bumping! And it’s almost entirely passive! We don’t even have to go out of our way to experience Amazing anymore. How can we hate that?

And because of this, I’ve noticed my appreciation of Amazing is far more ephemeral. My Amazement seems to last no longer than the Amazing thing takes to experience. Or, let’s be honest – consume. Maybe the glow of Amazement lasts a few minutes longer. If I’m lucky. But then it’s off to the next Amazing thing – totally forgetting the last Amazing thing in the process.

Amazement used to provide me hours and sometimes weeks of inspiration and reflection. I’d obsess over a single Amazing thing. I wanted to know how it was made, who made it, what was their inspiration, what was their story. Amazement often meant a deep dive. In that limited bandwidth world something Amazing was made even more Amazing just by the sheer rarity of it. Amazing seemed far more inspiring and had greater impact on me.

Becoming aware of just how quickly I can forget the all Amazing stuff I now encounter, I can’t help but wonder how the fuck my art stands a chance of having any lasting impact. But I also wonder about what’s next? If “Amazing” is post-”showing up” – what is post-”Amazing”?

For all the times I’m Amazed by the stuff people are putting out there – I’ve noticed it’s rare I’m Amazed more than once by a singe source.

Fuck Warhol and his 15 minutes bullshit. These days – everyone will be Amazing – once. Everyone reading this can put one Amazing thing into the world.

This Banality of Amazing – or the ephemerally Amazing is possible because the internet gives billions of people the power to publish and share both Shitty and Amazing shit with equal ease.

Just by law of averages alone – those that participate in this self publishing expression sharing machine enough will make at least one Amazing thing. It’s the one hit wonder phenomena spread out over billions of people creating a trillion works.

It allows each of us to sit here and graze on an endless stream of the ephemerally Amazing – like fucking cows munching on blades of grass. Fucking Moooo, bitches.

But in a stream of one damned Amazing thing after another – where is the space for fucking meaning? For lasting impressions? For inspired introspection? Should I raise the back of my hand to my forehead and lament aloud how this hyper-connected, short attention span, Banality of Amazing world we live in has killed meaning?

Fuck that shit. Meaning isn’t dead. It just got pushed up a level or two. Meaning is now in the Consistently Amazing. Amazing is table stakes for attention. Given enough attempts and time we can all be Amazing – once.Our purpose as artists is first to contribute our one Amazing thing. That’s the price of entry.

Consistently Amazing over time is the New Amazing.

Consistently Amazing over time is the stuff of legend.

Most of us will never make it past our one Amazing thing. But that’s how it has to be. It’s the rule of “exceptional”. Enormous steaming pile of shit, smaller pile of average, smaller pile still of Amazing, tiny fucking spec of Consistently Amazing. New shit is getting added to each pile every day – and it’s all a click away.

It would be easy at this point to ask “so, what pile are you contributing to? But that kind of faux motivational dare to go make something that doesn’t suck doesn’t work for me. Fear of sucking is usually enough for me to either work my fucking ass off – or not bother with it at all.

So, no uplifting “go get’em, you can be Consistently Amazing!” type end to this rant. I think we can agree that would be bullshit.

In recognition of my own ephemeral enjoyment of Amazing things – the challenge is to not let that kill my will to create. To still be willing to go through the necessary rinse, repeat process of making piles of shit, in spite of the fact that even if I reach “Amazing”, it’s likely to provide others only a few moments of transient Amazement.