There are many resources to reach new audiences with your music...be sure to take advantage of them all
If I had a nickel for every time some-one said to me, “You never write about my band,” I’d have a sock full of nickels with which to beat the next person who said that same thing. I have been told that I only write about my personal friends (not true), that I must be getting paid off somehow (not true), and once I was even accused by an angry young man of sleeping with the lead singer of a band I had written about the week before because, “everybody else is!” Also not true (the bit about me sleeping with the singer, I can neither confirm nor deny the other part.)
In response to this I eventually wrote a piece in which I pointed out what I really am to musicians here in the area: I am a resource. That’s a mighty important word, consider it again; a resource. In the struggle to get your band out there in the public eye, to let people know who you are and what you do (beyond the scope of your immediate friends and family) I am just one more tool (heh, tool…) in your bag of tricks to help make you successful.
I’m not saying the money, hot cars and monstrous respect and power I gain writing for The Pulse isn’t a consideration, but my main motivation is, and always has been, to help grow the music scene I have come to love in a town that didn’t really have one when I came here 24 years ago.
What I’m on about this week is that as much as it seems like the odds are stacked against you with bar owners who try to stiff you, complacent crowds, and rival bands that trash talk you when you aren’t around, there are people who want to help and those people should be rightly considered resources and you should be using them to change the odds a bit and give yourself an edge.
A particularly huge resource in Chattanooga right now, and one I feel is probably being underutilized, is SoundCorps Chattanooga.
It has only been 14 months since Stratton Tingle announced, “Our mission is to make the market bigger and stronger from within and without,” and he and the other behind-the-scenes crew at SoundCorps have been working tirelessly ever since to make that mission a success. It’s a resource, kids, and a particularly broad and useful one.
Whether you’re looking to hire a musician or a musician looking to get hired, SoundCorps is a one-stop shop for all things music in the Scenic City. Lighting, sound, recording, engineering, venues, legal advice, professional advice, and a host of other useful things that were once hard to come by, all gathered together under one tent.
Some upcoming events worthy of note:
· February 4th is the deadline to sign up for this year’s Road to Nightfall competition, a cherry gig with fantastic exposure. Go to gigcityproductions.com today to put yourself in the running.
· The next Craft Masters class is scheduled to commence on February 13th. Craft Masters is an eight-week course on the music industry and let me tell you, from an (ahem) older gentleman’s perspective, week after week I see incredibly talented younger musicians who haven’t yet caught on that the music business is a business and that all the effort and talent on the stage is only half the picture. This course can give you a jumpstart on an education too many us spent 20 or 30 years learning the hard way. Go to the SoundCorp page to get signed up now.
· Likewise, TakeNote Volume 6 will be happening at Granfalloon at 5 p.m. on Feb 27. A panel of industry experts will answer questions and offer advice for taking your act to the next level.
· Finally, Sidewalk Stages auditions will be held on March 25th at the Brewhaus side patio at noon. Sidewalk Stages has been one of the most successful and popular programs to hit Chattanooga’s music scene since…ever. Change your strings, shake off the dust and get out there and be heard.