The LyPhyS Music Blog

Are you stagnating? Are you between projects?  Are you needing a creative pick-me-up?  It may be time for a collaboration.  Why?  If you've been fortunate enough to have a successful, fulfilling experience in working with others like this before, you don't need an explanation.  You already understand that it gets you into a new mindset, helps you learn some new tricks, jump-starts your creativity, helps you interact with new artists, and increases exposure to new fans.  If you haven't yet, or your recent collabs felt stale, you are missing out. In a recent post, I discussed valuing yourself.  You need to have this in mind for your collabs as well.  If this is a free project, determine what amount of your time and energy you are willing to put forth while weighing the benefits.  Personally, I find taking a few hours here and there to interact with fellow artists gives me some breathing room and a chance to explore new techniques and ideas wh...

No, this isn't about pipe organs or Hammonds, although in spirit, this posting could apply.  "Organ Harvesting" refers to stripping a perfectly good guitar for parts and selling pieces at a markup.  Not sure that this is an official term, but it sure fits.  It makes me sick to my stomach when I'm searching for NOS parts or legitimately removed parts and come across a beautiful guitar body, stripped of everything that the owner could manage to remove, and a description along the lines of "Played great before parts were removed."  Then why the H-E-double hockey stick did you remove those parts???  As a person who owns a few beat-up, vintage beauties and has acquired them in various states of disrepair, I have to look very carefully to not find a guitar that has been harvested.  I also have worked closely with a luthier that has shown me time and again the damage that has been done by people removing or replacing parts on vintage guitars. Why don't I like...

After a rousing discussion among some Twitter peers, I've decided to tackle an angle of the value of music.  Now, as I often do, I'm going to remind you that I do not believe in subsidizing everyone who believes they are an artist.  No one forces any one person to pay any one artist.  I'm not asking you to buy my CD just because I worked hard.  I'm not telling you to give me five or ten bucks because I think I'm talented.  You don't have to be a superstar to have your music valued and make a living from it, but you have to work for it and have something people want.  Does that mean every single artist out there deserves to make a living from art?  No.  Not in the least.  Not every start-up business has a right to succeed.  If your music isn't something that anyone wants, you're SOL.  That's the way it is with any product.  So how do you convince people that not only is your music something they want, but something of value? F...