You know, life is kind of funny. You never know where it’s going to take you. As you all know by now, I’m kind of looking to find myself these days. I’m into way too many things, even though I enjoy doing them all, and sometimes I get a little scattered, but every once in a while I manage to stumble into something that isn’t just fun but profitable as well.

Just the other day, after writing for myself most of my life, I decided to put an ad in the Warrior For Hire section of the Warrior Forum. I figured what the heck. Maybe I can pick up a few bucks writing something other than C, A minor, F and G.

Anyway, I get a very unusual request. Somebody who I’ve known for a very long time now wanted me to write a humorous piece. Now, I’m not exactly the funniest guy in the world as you can probably tell by my self loathing and constant pity parties I throw for myself, but I figured I’d give it a shot.

Well, to make a long story short, I wrote this editorial piece, kind of like in the style of Louis Black from The Daily Show, and my friend said it was genius. You had to see the smile on my face when I read that remark.

And it got me to thinking.

I’ve been a musician since before Reagan got into office. Music has been my whole life for so long that I can’t remember even doing anything else. Where did this non musical writing talent, that ironically has made me more money than my music probably ever will, come from?

And that got me thinking some more.

When I was a kid, I used to write little short stories and plays. They weren’t any good. I mean how good can a 10 year old kid who’d never seen anything outside of his own backyard write? But it was something I enjoyed. And there was a time I guess I considered doing it for a living.

But then I grew up and wanted to be a sportscaster, DJ, actor and God knows how many other things until I finally went to college and became another unemployed, educated bum. It took me a whole year to get my first job out of college and to do that I actually had to go back to school and get yet another certificate in programming computers. Talk about something I never intended to do.

Fast forward about 25 years and I was at a job where I was doing, you got it, tech writing. I tested software and wrote up documentation for it so that people could use it without taking down the North Eastern power grid.

Today, I realized that I’d been writing something for almost all of my life. If it wasn’t music it was plays, poems, novels, short stories, and yes, even software documentation.

And while all these things are quite different, they all have something in common…a beginning, a middle and an end. And each part serves a different function.

Take documentation. The beginning is essentially an overview of the software itself. It tells the end user what they’re going to learn in the rest of the document. The middle is the meat of the documentation where they actually get the instruction of how to use the software. And finally, the end is the summary or maybe instructions on who to contact if you have any questions or problems with the software. It might even include a sales pitch for other related software.

Music isn’t really any different. Your intro is the beginning. Now, some songs, like “Hey Jude” don’t have intros. But these are the exceptions rather than the rules. After the intro you have the meat of your song, which can be of many different forms such as AABA or ABAB and so on. And finally, you have your ending. Some songs have very short endings and others, like the song “We Are America” have very elaborate “over the top” endings.

This is all kind of like life, which also has a beginning, a middle and an end. The problem with life is that you may know when your beginning was (mine was November 11, 1957) but you really can never tell when your middle is and certainly when your end comes. I’m going to be 57 this November. I could have a good 30 years left or I could be gone by this time next year. I have no way of knowing.

And that is why we have to make the most out of every single day of our lives. Because once it’s over, it’s over. There are no do overs. There is no going back in time. We don’t have a Tardis. We can’t regenerate.

So while I’d love to be creating music that people can enjoy, I realize that there is more to writing than music. And with that realization, more ways to earn a living through your writing. And if writing is writing, what does it really matter what you do as long as you’re doing something that you enjoy? More importantly, since we all have to eat to stay alive and have to buy food to eat and have to make money to buy that food, we sometimes can’t be choosy about what we do to make that money. I certainly can’t.

This doesn’t mean that I stop writing music. Not even close. There are enough hours in the day for me to write my music and do the things I need to do in order to put food on the table. Truth is, I’ve been doing that my whole life. I’ve hardly made $10 in my whole life from my music, not counting when I used to play drums in a band. Long story.

Point is, music can be a hobby, like mine has pretty much always been if I’m honest with myself. And that’s okay. In fact, it may be better than okay. It may be the best thing that could happen to me.

After all, when something becomes a job, no matter how much you love it, it’s still a job.

Music should never be a job.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Okay, it’s been a dog’s age since I’ve actually talked about music at this site so let’s end the pity party, send the violin player home and get back to talking about what this site is about…music.

Have you ever actually BEEN to Audio Jungle? Yeah, I know…stay away from the music content farms. I never even considered putting my stuff out there. But as you know by now, times have been tough for me financially because of the bastard named Google and some bad chicken salad.

So the other day I went to Audio Jungle just to check out some of the “artists.” I figured that maybe there might be a few with a sale here and a sale there.

Boy, was I ever freaking wrong.

If you take a look at the top sellers, there are some who have sold thousands of copies of their royalty free tracks. Weekly sales for some of these folks are astronomical. I was honestly stunned out of my birthday suit. Or is it into my birthday suit? Whatever.

Anyway, today I’m going to actually start to listen to some of the bigger sellers. Why?

Okay, here is a marketing lesson for all you wannabe royalty free music producers.

For starters, and I didn’t know this, Audio Jungle has to approve your track. That’s right. You just don’t upload it and that’s the end of it. If it doesn’t cut it, it gets rejected just like the cat rejects your sloppy leftovers.

Point is, your music has to be really good. How good? Ah, that’s where scoping out the competition is so important.

But exactly what are you looking for? What’s going to give you the best clue as to what you need to do in order to get YOUR music sold at the site? Well, here are a few tips to get you started. If you take these to heart, you’ve got a good shot at actually selling some music.

First thing you want to do is check out the top selling genres. Like it or not, some genres are going to be more popular than others. If you write party music for the kazoo, I seriously doubt you’re going to have many buyers.

What I’ve personally noticed is that movie trailer, or cinema type scores, are very popular. I haven’t had the time to actually check out the quality of these scores but if there is an approval process, I’m going to bet that they have to be pretty darn good. So let’s get to the quality part. What exactly do you look for?

Let me start out by saying that “good” music is subjective. Not every “great” piece of music is going to come off as such to every individual. But, and as much as I hate to admit it, even genres that I don’t like, such as rap, have excellent productions. When you hear something on the radio, it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in somebody’s garage, even if it was recorded in somebody’s garage. Music that gets played, bought and sold is, for the most part, well produced.

And it’s also well played. You won’t hear timing mistakes or wrong notes. Oh my God, that would immediately get you banished to “don’t ever submit another piece of music here again” land so fast it would make your head spin. No, the playing has to be near flawless.

What about the sounds? Well, most movie trailer music that you’ll find at these music farms are produced on the computer. The sounds we have available to us today are nothing short of amazing, whether it be the blistering synths such as Omnisphere, Massive or Zebra 2, or the pristine samples of symphonic libraries like East West Quantum Leap or Vienna.

This stuff just flat out sounds amazing.

And the DSPs (EQ, reverb, compression, etc.) available are better than what was available back in the stone ages of rock and roll. Even the free processors sound amazing. Okay, at least some of them do.

Point is, the sound is very close to what you hear when you got to the movie theater. Maybe not quite, but these guys are working in $100,000 studios. we’re talking about $300 DAWs and maybe a few grand worth of equipment.

But there is something else. And this is the one thing that so many people leave out when they’re creating their royalty free tracks. Know what it is? Okay, I’m going to tell you.

Personality. Something that makes the whole package uniquely you.

I have been told by numerous people that I sound like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Pet Shop Boys and on and on. Notice that these are all English groups?

News flash.

I am NOT English. No offense to you chaps overseas. The Brits are swell people. At little stiff and I don’t always get their humor, but a fine bunch.

But I digress.

Point is, I have made a style for myself that, for whatever reason, comes off as British Invasion (when I do vocals). I’ve lived with this label since 1979 and I embrace it. It’s what makes me uniquely me. An American who sounds British.

Isn’t that a kick?

You have GOT to find someway to make yourself stand out from the crowd because it is a BIG crowd out there. You’re just a very tiny fish in a freaking monsoon. The competition will eat you alive if you don’t have something that makes YOU uniquely YOU.

Am I saying that you should now consider content farms like Audio Jungle? No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that, according to my research, there appears to be some potential there if you’re very, very good. Are you that good? I have no way of knowing and self evaluation is a bitch. Trust me, I know. But if you think you’ve got what it takes and you don’t yet have the SERPs bringing people to your site in droves, you might want to consider submitting a few tracks to Audio Jungle just to test the waters.

Because you never know.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

So I finally heard back from the person I contacted about possibly creating synth patches for. In a nutshell, I was told that they’re not what he’s looking for. End of story. So after getting knocked back down to the ground, I got up, dusted myself off and I’m moving on.

It’s not easy to do, trust me. If you’ve ever been in a similar situation you know how demoralizing and frustrating it can be to be told that your work just isn’t good enough. With very few exceptions, it’s been the story of my life.

This is more a psychological pep talk than anything else because if you think I have the magic keys to the kingdom of success, you’ve come to the wrong place. The only thing I can offer you is some advice on how to rebound from setbacks mentally. As for what to actually do with your life, that’s in your hands. I’ve got my own headaches.

First thing you have to do is forget the past. Don’t dwell on it. Yeah, you’ve had bad breaks. We all do. Get over yourself. There’s somebody out there with worse problems than you.

Oh no?

Just the other day I was reading about an Illinois news anchor who reported on the air that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has 4 to 6 months to live.

Still think you’ve got it worse?

Moving on.

Next thing to do is take stock of yourself. What skills do you have? What do you REALLY have to offer others? Don’t limit yourself to listing only things that you’re an expert at. Most of us aren’t all that great at anything if we’re honest with ourselves. If you’re waiting to get so good at something that you’re the best in the world doing it, you’ll be waiting until hell freezes over.

After you’ve made your list, go through it. What interests you the most? What interests you the least. A lot of people say to just pick something that will make you money, no matter how much you may hate doing it. I don’t believe in that philosophy. If you hate doing something you’re not going to be very good at it. Eventually, you’ll get sick of doing it no matter how much money you’re making. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing you’re only making things harder on yourself.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t take an odd job here and there to make a few bucks to pay for some software that you might need for your business. If you’re in the royalty free music business like I am and need that new VST to make all the cool hip sounds, you may have to do something, anything, in order to pay for it if you’re broke. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve done to make money this year. No, nothing illegal or immoral. Just stuff that you’d probably never guess in a million years. Point is, you do what you have to do. But you don’t make it a business if you don’t enjoy it to some degree.

After you’ve gone through your list of skills, you pick one. It’s very hard to juggle multiple things, especially when you’re just starting out. Pick one thing. Personally, I’d pick the one I’d enjoy the most but that’s just me. You do want to make sure that there is at least a market for this thing, whatever it is. In other words, are there people out there spending money on it? If not, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of frustration trying to sell something that nobody wants.

You will then need to research this area. See exactly what it is that people want. Scope out the competition. What are they offering? Can you offer something better or at least as good? Can you maybe offer it for a better price? You don’t want to work for slave wages but if you can undercut your competition, that might bring you the budget minded customer.

Of course you can always go the other route. You can offer a product or service that gives more than the competition gives and charge a premium for it. Of course it better be rock solid and really blow the competition out of the water as far as quality. Otherwise you’re going to have an expensive product or service that nobody is going to buy.

Finally, when you’ve decided what it is you’re going to do, the next step is to do it. That means going through the entire creation process in detail. Don’t leave out anything. That includes not just product creation but also marketing the product. Just because you put something on the Internet doesn’t mean people are going to find it. The Internet is a big place. Without advertising, you’re sunk in the water.

Now, advertising itself is a whole other animal. I used to be very good at it but have really fallen out of touch with the times. Had I not, I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in. So you’re on your own there. But you will probably want to concentrate a lot on social media marketing that I know nothing about. That’s where everybody is today; Facebook, Twitter and God knows where else. Social sites are where most people on the Internet now hang out. Even my wife goes to Facebook almost every single day.

One last piece of advice. You will want to keep up with changes in the industry. Don’t do like I did. I didn’t keep up with things and it cost me, big time. The Internet changes almost daily. What worked in 2013 may not be working today. At least not all of it. If you bury your head in the sand, you’re going to get buried by your competition.

I wish I could give you a magic pill to take for all this, but I haven’t found that magic pill myself. All I have to offer is some sound advice from somebody who has been through a lot.

But most of all, whatever happens, whatever goes wrong, whatever blows up in your face, when you get knocked down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.

Otherwise they just might find your cold dead body buried in the sand someday.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Sometimes I wonder if I’m totally wasting my time writing these little articles on a daily basis. Does anybody even read them? And then I realized a few things that I’m going to share with you today. And yes, they do relate to making music in an odd sort of way.

Essentially the question I’m asking above is if anybody notices anything that I do here? After all, this site is just one out of the millions of sites on the Internet and not a very popular one at that. I get all of maybe 500 unique visitors each month. But 500 is not zero. That means there are 500 in this world who may actually care about what I have to say and may actually notice.

Okay, so what has this got to do with music? Well, everything really.

When you create a song, unless you’re a total narcissist, you do so for the enjoyment of others. I know I do. And when somebody is listening to your song, you really have no way of knowing, nor any control of, what part of the song they’re listening to. Maybe they’re fixated on the drums. I have a friend who is a drummer and that’s what he listens to. Maybe they’re a singer and they fixate on the vocals. Maybe they’re into harmony and really digging the chords you use. Or, if they’re dull and boring, not so digging them.

Point is, when you create a song, just because you think a particular part of that song isn’t all that important, like the drums or the little woodblock in the background, there are people out there who are going to notice. And if that part is out of place or not well done, or whatever, it’s going to take away from the rest of the song. There is no getting around that. A song is only as strong as its weakest link.

And you know what? I’m probably more guilty of this than anybody. When I submit songs to publishers hoping to get a song contract, the last thing I should be doing is singing these songs. Why?

Because I can’t freaking sing.

Oh, I can carry a tune. But that’s about it. I am NOT a singer. Emphasis on the NOT. And you know what? It kills me that I can’t sing because deep down inside I want to BE a singer. Yeah, it’s always been a wish of mine. Singers get all the attention in rock bands. Look at David Lee Roth when he was with Van Halen. If you’re a singer, you get all the girls.

But I can’t sing. And my voice ruins every single one of my songs no matter how good they are.

Now, in my defense, I really don’t have any other options. I can’t afford studio time. I can’t even afford to go out and hire a singer to come to my home. I have to make do with what I can do. For this reason I don’t really do any vocal recording anymore and have concentrated solely on instrumentals, thus the reason for this site.

You can make arguments that my writing is awful and my playing is even worse and that I shouldn’t be making music at all. That’s a fair criticism. I know I’m not the greatest composer and performer in the world. If I was, I wouldn’t be putting up royalty free music sites. But music is my love and dag gummit I’m going to do something that has something to do with music even if I end up broke and on the street. Well, the broke part I’m already at. Hopefully, my wife won’t let the on the street part happen just yet, though I do have a bag ready to pack my clothes into.

Sure, it may be an exercise in futility if you’re just not good at something. But if that something is something you just have to do, well, then at least do it to the best of your ability. That means you can’t be lazy. You can’t listen to your drums, know they’re not that good, know you can do better, and say to yourself, “Eh, who’s gonna notice?” Trust me, somebody is going to notice.

True story. I wrote a song once called “Dance Of The May Flower.” Get the little play on words there? Anyway, a friend of mine who was a drummer listened to it and said the drums are all wrong. Now, I didn’t hear it but then what he did while the song was playing was he tapped out the beat on the table or something. I don’t remember exactly what it was. Anyway, I listened to what he was playing and it sounded so much better. It made the whole song sound so much better. Just a lousy tapping on the table made the song sound better.

It is not an exercise in futility when you listen to your music and do something to improve it. Somebody out there is going to notice and appreciate it.

So when you write and record a song, this is what I want you to do.

First of all, when writing it, make sure every word and every note counts. There are no throwaways. The recent songwriting course I just completed and scored 102.8% on taught me that.

After the song is written, I want you to carefully plan out the arrangement. Really think about what instruments would do your song the most justice. If the song doesn’t want drums, don’t put them in there. A recent song I just did has no drums and it was perfect without them.

When you record the song, play it as best as you can. If you can afford to hire musicians, do it. If not, don’t mail it in. Give it your all.

Looking at your finished product, you’re going to notice something. It’s going to be better than anything you’ve done before it because you took the time to slave over every part, every detail.

And people are going to notice.

They really will.

An exercise in futility?

Hardly.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Know what’s funny? A lot of people walk around scratching their heads wondering what it is that they have to do in order to please the buying public, regardless of what business they’re in. Here’s a novel concept.

Why don’t you just ask them?

If you recall from the other day’s article, I think I was telling you about a possible joint venture with another person in regard to creating synth patches. Well, I sent him some samples and he very politely told me that they’re not what he’s looking for; that the patches were too “basic” for his demanding needs.

Fair enough.

Now, I could have just let it go at that, but I didn’t. I wrote back to him and I asked him to send me some samples of what he IS looking for. And then I said, “In fact, tell me what libraries you recommend and I’ll buy them from you.”

He could have ignored my response, since he wasn’t thrilled with my initial work, but something about my determination and my willingness to even pay him to learn what needed to be done must have impressed him. He sent me a couple of emails with links to two of his packages. I wrote him back telling him that I didn’t feel right about just taking these and asked for his PayPal address so that I could at least send him a donation. I’m sure that must have made an impression as well.

Pleasing people is really easy. Just give them what they want. Once I’ve heard the kind of sounds that my future partner is looking for and duplicate them, more or less, in another synth (I’ll be programming in Zebra 2) I’ll have a product that he’ll be more than happy to sell. Not only that, I do all the work and he gets 50% of the profits. You can’t beat that deal.

This philosophy works in any business, especially in music. I don’t care what kind of music you’re into or what field of music you’re into.

If you’re a solo performing artist, say in the country genre, you need to first listen to country music…a lot of it. Especially from artists with similar styles to yours. Look to see how popular they are on the charts. Do they do a lot of touring? What kind of image to the put out to the public?

Now, here comes the hard part. You want to be just like this person but different. You want your own style. Maybe a certain kind of look. It will certainly help, especially in country, if you have a very distinguishable voice. Have you noticed that the biggest country singers have the most recognizable voices? I can tell John Michael Montgomery or Randy Travis from 10 miles away. They sound like nobody else, especially good old Randy.

What if you’re a music producer? Same thing. You want to listen to the genre that you produce music in. What does it sound like in general? What kind of ambiance does it have? What sounds does it use? Are the specific ones that are staples? For example, the trance lead in trance music or the wobble bass in dubstep?

Okay, hard part time again. You want to sound the same as what’s out there but different. How? Maybe you create a different kind of trance lead or wobble bass. Put a spin on it. Yes, you need to be creative. Straight copies of acts or sounds won’t cut it. You have to have something that’s unique. And that’s why so many people fail at this business. They’re just a bunch of “me too” acts that don’t stand out from the rest.

Do you know why prog rock died in the late 70s? Because all the bands started sounding alike. There was no great distinction between acts like there was between groups like Genesis, Yes, ELP and Kansas, four of the biggest that sounded nothing alike. Same thing happened with southern rock after Skynyrd. Being a southern rock band was like death after a while because they all sounded the same.

You’re not going to get anywhere in this world being a “me too” artist. But you do have to be identifiable. It’s difficult to do something totally new and be accepted. The irony is, people don’t like drastic change. Give them something new as long as it’s familiar. That’s why this business is so tough.

Of course you have to have talent. That’s where I think I have my biggest problem. I have always been told my music was different and even quirky. But my talent only takes me so far. It needs to be more refined or what people would call slick. Or, as my wife tells me, “Steve, you’re just not cool.” No, I’m not. I’m the stereotypical nerd. Always have been ever since I was a kid. Nothing has changed at age 56 going on 57 in exactly 2 months from today. That’s why I so admire people who are really cool and do really cool things, especially if they’re musicians.

But even these really cool people with their slick music are giving the buying public what they want. A lot of research goes into discovering what the buying public wants. It doesn’t just fall into your lap. And yes, sometimes you have to take some educated guesses. And yes, a lot of times the buying public is just force fed a certain “thing” until they have no choice but to accept it. That’s something else I could write a whole article about and just might someday…how the corporations brainwash us into buying into today’s “sound.” This practice goes back a long way.

So what are you going to do? If you haven’t made it yet and really want to are you going to start doing your research? Are you going to listen to acts or producers like yourself to see what they’re doing? Are you going to spend your time trying to come up with your own slant once you’ve done that?

If you do these things, you will absolutely give yourself the best chance of making it in the music business.

Just ask John and Randy.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

So I’m sitting around my house waiting to hear back from this guy to learn whether or not I have a new career in creating synth patches. It’s nerve wracking. It’s like waiting for the governor to give you a pardon. And if you know anything about our governor (I live on NJ) you know that’s NOT going to happen.

Patience. It’s one of the hardest things in the world to have. My wife told me that her father has this saying. “Patience is a virtue given by God and abused by man.” How true this is.

So how do we do it? How do we practice patience? Like anything else, it’s not just going to come. Human nature, being what it is, we want everything and we want it now. Oh> Perhaps you never saw Willy Wonka?

I’ll be perfectly honest with you. I’m not the most patient person in the world. I have gotten better over the years but I still have a long way to go. It’s something I have to practice each and every day.

How do I do it when it comes to writing music or creating synth patches or whatever it is I’m doing that has something to do with this crazy business? Well, here’s a few tips that might make your music business a little less stressful for you.

First thing you have to understand and remember is that nothing in this business happens overnight. Do you have any idea how long it takes somebody in the music business to make a record? There are stories about some groups having taken a year or longer to make a record. Some songs were put on the back burner for years until just the right time to release them. Talk about having patience.

And that’s one of the reasons why it’s so hard to make it to the top of the music industry. So many people just rush their product out there before it’s ready while the professionals take their time and only put their product out there when it’s perfect. That’s one of the reasons why these people have made it. They have patience. They don’t release a song or an album until it’s darn good and ready. Yes, talent helps. But talent can’t overcome a rushed out product.

Once you understand and accept the fact that the professionals take their time with their music, it might make it a little easier for you to do the same. After all, this isn’t a race. You don’t win any prizes for being first. Not if being first puts out a product that’s a piece of crap. Now, being first and having something great is another story. But greatness can’t be rushed. The pros understand this.

Another way to develop some patience is to force yourself to make checklists. Whenever you start a new project, write down all the things that you need to cover in undertaking that project. Don’t leave anything out, no matter how trivial the activity may seem. Sometimes it’s the little details that make all the difference in the world.

For example, let’s say that you have this idea for a new song and you hear this specific sound for it in your head that you know would be just perfect for your idea. You go through your bank of sounds in your synth but you just can’t find it. You still hear it in your head though and you can even describe it.

You now have two choices. You can dive into your synth and program the sound yourself. If you’re not an expert programmer, you might have trouble doing this quickly. You may need to actually slow down and take your time. Now, if you have no programming skills then your second choice is to hire somebody to program the sound for you. That’s also going to take some time in finding somebody. You want to hire somebody who has experience programming the kind of sounds you’re looking for. You’re going to want to hear samples of their work. Maybe they’ve already programmed something that will be perfect for what you’re looking for.

Of course there is a third choice. But this requires a lot of patience. You can look for third party patches that sound like what you’re looking for. That means you’re going to have to listen to tons of samples to find something that’s even close enough so that maybe you can tweak it once you’ve gotten it. Ever wade through a ton of synth patches? That’ll teach you patience.

Ultimately, slowly and carefully going through all these steps is going to bring you the best results. If you rush and just pull up any old patch because it’s “good enough” you’re not going to have the best sound for your song. You’re going to be settling for second best. And in this business, second best is not good enough. Not when you’re competing with the best in the industry.

Right now, I’m having the hardest time in my life being patient because I’m broke. When you need money and need it right away, patience is a difficult thing to have. But it’s still important.

So what do you do when things get that bad?

Here’s what I do.

I keep busy. That’s right. I keep busy. I don’t sit around worrying or waiting for somebody to get back to me like I’m going now. I work. When I work, the time goes by very quickly. And to make sure I’m always working, I make a schedule and I stick to it. I discipline myself to do this. Eventually, I’ll get news about my new venture. It’ll either be a yes or a no. My sitting around waiting and wondering and worrying isn’t going to change that. So I work and what will be will be.

Yeah, it’s not easy. Nobody ever said it was. But it works. Maybe something else will work for you. Whatever it is, find it.

Because patience is a virtue.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Eventually something is going to stick to the wall. No, I haven’t lost my mind. There is a very definite reason for this article. It’s mainly to give hope to those of you who are struggling to get by. The story you’re about to read is true. No names have been changed. My life is an open book.

By now, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I’m broke. Oh but who isn’t these days. Yeah, I fell on hard times and now I’m digging myself out of a very big black hole.

Anyway, the other day I wrote to a guy who happens to make synth patches. If you recall, I told you that I was thinking of getting into this business. I didn’t know where to begin so I contacted a guy who I had run into online through one of his videos. He seemed like a really cool and upstanding person and also a lot of fun to watch do his little tutorials on creating synth patches.

I figured what the heck. Maybe we could do something together. I’ve got a ton of synths. I’m sure I can make a bank of sounds that he’ll like enough to want to promote with me as a joint venture. So like I said, I wrote to him.

Well, this morning I received a reply in the email. Essentially it said that if my stuff was good enough that we might have something.

So there you have it. The rest is all up to me and my skills. If I’m good enough I might be able to dig myself out of this hole I’m in. But it’s still going to come down to my own skill.

And that’s the way it should be. I’m not looking for favors. I want to earn my keep. And if I don’t cut it then I shouldn’t earn my keep.

This is the part that I’m sure a lot of people aren’t going to like.

See, a lot of people think the world owes them something. My wife, who is a high school teacher, runs into this every single day in her class with kids who want to be passed just for showing up. What they fail to realize is that when they get a job, if they get a job, their boss isn’t going to pay them just for showing up. They’re going to have to do some work.

It seems like the word “work” is indeed a four letter word today, literally and figuratively. Very few people want to do it. Me? I love working. I’m up at 6 AM (sometimes earlier) and sometimes work right up until bed time. For me, work is fun.

And that’s how it should be. You should enjoy what you do. It shouldn’t be a labor but a labor of love. But I’ve gotten way far off the subject of this article…slinging hash at the wall.

I can’t tell you how many things I have tried since my business collapsed. This site was the first of those things. It has been a dismal failure. I’ve sold all of two tracks of music. Most of the stuff just gets pirated.

Then there is my exercise dance beats. Turns out there probably isn’t much of a market for this product and if there is, I haven’t found it yet. That one has been a real big disappointment.

And there have been other things. So far, nothing has worked. But now there seems to be a glimmer of hope. Oh don’t get me wrong. I’m nowhere near home free. I have to show that my sounds are up to snuff. And as this person has told me, it’s not about programming skills. It’s about making sounds that people want to use. If I can do that, I’m probably home free.

Point is, I never gave up. I figured if I threw enough things at the wall, eventually something would stick. And even if this particular venture doesn’t work out, there will be others. I’m always keeping my eye out for things. Which brings us to what you need to do if you want to take advantage of opportunities.

At the top of the list is keeping up with trends. You must keep up with the industry. What kind of music is being created today? What kinds of sounds are they using? Does each genre have it’s own sound set? Do you have the skills to take advantage of the trends? If not, can they be learned quickly? Are you willing to get trained if you have to?

In addition to keeping up with trends you need to constantly look out for opportunities. For example, what I did when I contacted this person. I saw that he was in the business, watched his videos, made a note of his style and what he was doing and then looked to see if any of that was something I could fit into. While nothing is certain, this one has a lot of potential. In fact, it will ALL come down to MY skill as a programmer of sounds.

But I had to be the one to keep my eyes open for the opportunity. Nobody is just going to drop something into your lap. For one thing, nobody knows you from Adam if you’re first starting out. You may be the greatest composer in the world, but if nobody knows you exist, so what? You have to put yourself out there.

I put myself out there every single day. Some days I make a dent and others not much of one. But I never stop. And when I need help or advice, I ask. Don’t be shy. If you’re stuck on something, nobody is going to know unless you tell them. It’s a big world and we’re all just s small part of it.

Yes, if you sling enough hash…eventually something is going to stick.

When it does…take advantage of it.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Somebody posted an old video of the Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s On First.” After all these years, it’s still funny. Some things never get old. Some things are always great. So let me ask you a question.

What about your music?

Do you think anybody is going to be saying that about what you’re writing, say 25 years from now? Heck, are they even saying it about your music today?

Now this isn’t a put down of your music. I honestly don’t know anything about your music. But I’ll be happy to listen to it if you’d like. Just send me a YouTube link or something.

My commentary is on the music industry in general. It seems to me that there is very little “Who’s On First” quality material these days. A lot of it is pretty much here today and gone tomorrow. We’re always searching for the new thing. Old gets old pretty fast these days.

Why do you think that is? I mean just look at the Billboard charts the last 10 years. How many artists were hitting the charts in 2004 that are still around hitting the charts today?

The truth is, there aren’t a lot of acts like The Stones, The Who and Led Zep, who actually stuck around for a while. Even The Beatles, who broke up in 1970 after just 6 years of huge success, stuck around as solo artists for many years after.

But the truth is, longevity in this business has never really been the norm. Not when you compare it to the classics of hundreds of years ago that are still being played today. And no, I’m not a classical music snob. I love rock and electronic and all that stuff. But most of this music just seems so disposable.

When are we going to have a true Bach in popular music?

Maybe we won’t. Maybe that’s not the point. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe we’re talking about something that, because of the nature of the business itself, isn’t even possible. And as nice it would be to know that your music is still being played 300 years from now, how important is that really?

Well, if you’re going to have kids and you want to provide for their future then yeah, it would probably be nice for you to have a catalog of music that kept earning royalties for generations to come. But how many people actually have that kind of success?

But okay, let’s forget about the business end of it for now. Writing music that’s going to keep your family in furs and mink for centuries to come is probably a long shot. But what about the quality?

Yeah, I know…quality is subjective. We’ve already worn out that subject in another article I wrote. You can find it somewhere on this site.

But if you don’t care about the quality then just what is it you do care about? I mean as far as I can tell, there are only two reasons for writing music.

1) You are a musician. You don’t care about money. You just want to write the best music you can possibly write. Your art is everything to you.

2) You’re trying to make money.

Now, you can want both. These are not mutually exclusive. However, they can get in the way of each other.

Here’s why.

To make music that you can be proud of is actually very easy to a degree. You study your craft. You work hard at it. You try to perfect it. That’s how you write good music that you can be proud of and maybe other people might like. Yes, that takes some skill, but it’s relatively easy unless you simply have little or no talent.

But making money? That’s a whole different kettle of fish. See, that’s where talent and great “art” may not be enough because now you’re at the mercy of the whims of the buying public. This is where art, more often than not, takes a back seat to what’s in. Many times, if you want to make money (and I’m talking about big money) you have to make compromises. You have to cater to the sound of the era in whatever genre you’re writing for. It may even mean that you have to pick a different genre because the one you prefer is no longer popular.

Think I’m kidding?

Try writing a prog rock song with a 7 minute drum solo in the middle of it and see if you make number one on Billboard today.

So, you sometimes have to compromise. Question is, can you do that and still make great music?

Well, that’s certainly easier to do if the great music you love to make just happens to be popular as well. But if it’s not, well, that’s when you have to start bending a little.

And some people just can’t bend without breaking in two.

See, I freely admit that at this stage of my life I would write just about anything to make it big. Art no longer matters to me because my future is uncertain to say the least. I need money and I need it pretty bad. So tell me what I have to write and I’ll write it.

Oh wait, isn’t that the royalty free music biz in a nut shell? Client hires you to write some kind of tune for a video and you write the kind of tune that they want? Yeah, that’s the royalty free music biz.

Sorry to burst your bubble if you’re in that particular business and you thought you were creating art. You’re job is to get the viewer of the video they’re watching to stick around because that intro had a real catchy beat and cool synth lead.

Or whatever.

That’s your job as a royalty free music producer. It is NOT to make great art.

I have come to terms with this. I had no choice if I wanted to keep a roof over my head.

See, I’m no J.S. Bach.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

Okay, imagine this. You’re sitting in front of your computer and you’ve got your DAW open. Somebody just said to you “Write me some music. I don’t care what it is, how long it is, what instruments you use, how fast or slow it is” and on and on and on. In other words, they’ve just given you free reign to do whatever the heck you want.

What do you do?

A lot of people just sit in front of their computer starting at their DAW screen and go “Duh!”

Truth is, sometimes when we have free reign to do anything we want, we’re actually making things more difficult for ourselves because we have no restrictions.

Why are restrictions important? Why are they the one thing that actually makes the job easier and not harder?

Because restrictions make us focus and focus is the key here.

Just the other day, I had completed most of my new daily schedule and was up to the part of my day where I had to write a song for this site. Now that’s a pretty broad task. Write a song for this site.

If you take a look at the list of genres that I cover at wagsrfm.com you’ll see that there are quite a few of them from rock to pop to classical to orchestral to dance and electronic to even ethnic music. So what do you think it was like for me when I sat in front of my DAW trying to think of what track to create for my site the other day?

Exactly! It was as if somebody had just said to me you can have your pick of any high priced model in the industry to go out with for a night. Go ahead, choose one!

Not so easy is it? No restrictions make for one heck of a time trying to pick somebody.

But what if they said any “blonde” model?

Okay, now we’re narrowing it down some. We can eliminate all the brunettes, redheads and gals with purple hair.

What if they further narrowed it down by saying “Only girls between the ages of 22 and 24 and between 5’11” and 6 feet tall?”

Now we’re getting somewhere.

And we can keep piling on restrictions until eventually we get to the point where we’re left with only a few choices.

One of the worst things anybody can say to me is “Do whatever you want.” Really? Do you hate me that much? Can you at least give me SOME idea of what you’d like?

Imagine you’re trying to decide on a Christmas gift for your wife or husband and you’re trying to maybe get some hints as to what to get and the only thing you manage to get out of them is “Oh honey, I don’t need anything as long as I have you.”

Downright infuriating, that’s what it is.

That’s what it’s like when you’re trying to make music and you have free reign to do whatever the heck you want.

So then what DO you do when you’re actually confronted with that sort of situation where you really CAN do whatever you want and there is nobody around to give you any restrictions?

Well, the answer is quite simple really.

You give YOURSELF the restrictions.

Now I know, this sometimes goes against the grain but it’s really your best friend.

But how? How do you go about giving yourself restrictions?

Well, there are lots of ways. I’ll share a few that work for me. You’re going to have to find your own way to battle through the “OMG I don’t freaking know what to do” phase.

One of my favorite things to do is use my little random generator. Now, I don’t actually have a random generator program built specifically for writing music. I’m not even sure if one exists. What I use is Microsoft Excel and it works great. There is a command that you can put into a cell that looks like this.

=INT(RAND()*5)+1

Let me briefly explain the formula. The INT stands for integer. So that’s what we’re creating. RAND is the random function itself. The () is what you put right after each function in Excel. The *5 means we multiply the random seed that we generated by 5 and then the +1 means we add 1 to it. Why do we add 1? Because we want a number that is at least 1. Since RAND can generate something like 0.1874 and multiplying that by 5 would give us something less than 1, by adding 1 and converting it to an integer (whole number without any decimals) we get at least 1 and no higher than 5.

Now, the next step is to create a table that corresponds to each number that we could get.

So let’s say I had 5 different musical genres that I wrote for.

Pop
Rock
Classical
Orchestral
Electronic

If I generated a 3, I would work on a classical piece because it was the third one in the list. If you had 6 genres you wrote for, you would change the formula to this:

=INT(RAND()*6)+1

And so on. This way, you can tailor your formula for as many options as you had to choose from.

Sometimes I can’t even choose which VST to use for a song. Know what I do? You got it. I have a list of every VST I own that makes music. Okay, I do have to update it with my newest purchases, but it’s pretty up to date, Some of the formulas are pretty up there in numbers.

This will work for anything. It takes all the decisions out of your hands.

Another thing you can do to restrict your musical selection is turn on the radio and say to yourself that the first song you hear is going to be the style of music you’re going to write today. That will really narrow things down.

Of, if you live with somebody, write down all your choices on a piece of paper. Number them from 1 to whatever. Then ask the person you live with to pick a number from 1 to whatever. Whatever number they choose, that’s what you do.

Don’t get angry with them if they pick a number you don’t like.

When confronted with the choice of many choices, and you have no real restrictions, make them yourself. These are just a few of the ways you can do that.

I’m sure you can think of others.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim