I am blessed to be invited to co-teach a class at the 2011 Taxi Road Rally with my dear friends Matt Hirt and Dave Walton. This will be the third year we have taught this class, which was born out of a thread on the Taxi Forum.

My presentation will contain material from this blog post and my hope is that folks will be inspired to come here and post comments on their own experiences with their own 5 Year (or whatever is their time frame) Plan.

I should mention that I am in year 7 of my 5 year plan, having started seriously pursuing a career in composing for media in 2004 after many years of gigging and producing and being semi-retired but always musically active while working in a corporate day gig at a bio-pharmecutical company.

The 5 Year Plan is a map not a GPS

A map is an overview of the territory, and if it’s a road map, shows the various routes and gives the lay of the land. A GPS gives turn by turn directions which don’t necessarily take into account the terrain.

A 5 year plan is a journey that has many twists and turns in it and cannot be planned out to the very last detail because inevitably something will change along the way. A 5 year plan cannot be fixed because it involves so many variables and outside influences. Course corrections and route changes are the norm in a 5 year plan. Stopping to check the map is a common occurrence on the 5 year plan journey and sometimes stopping for weeks months or years in one interesting place is not unusual.

A 5 year plan by nature starts with a very high level overview of the territory and as one begins the journey, one begins to learn and the more one learns, the more adjustments must be made in order to stay headed in the general direction. As one gets further along the path, things that are learned along the way, if applied well and consciously, can begin to straighten the path and help the traveler to make better decisions.

What the process of a 5 year plan and a GPS have in common are that when one diverges from the GPS’ proscribed route (try turning left when the GPS says to turn right), the system must re-calculate the route by taking into consideration where you are now as opposed to where you want to go and issue a new set of instructions. This happens often on the 5 year plan.

A 5 year plan is not really a 5 year plan, but rather a life long journey. It’s convenient and easier to manage 5 year intervals, but really this road is full of twists and turns and the clock is reset every time a new milestone is reached.

A 5 year plan is an individual journey. Each person has their own pace and rhythm. Don’t be distracted by someone else seemingly moving faster or slower. In fact, spending too much energy on them means that you aren’t focused on your journey. If you were, you probably wouldn’t notice their pace and if you did, it would be an inspiration rather than a source of self doubt.

Things to keep in mind before starting on the journey:

(Reminder to myself: You teach what you need to learn the most which is why I am thankful to be sharing this material!!)

Philosophy:

This can also be Vision Statement or Company Motto. Ask, “what is my vision for my business and career?”

Goals:

Long and short term goals crucial. Make them achievable but have them stretch a bit too. Goals should be flexible, not held rigidly. Be willing to change, be agile in thinking and actions. Goals are directional signs, not fixed objects. Example: X songs per year = x per month = per week. The first year I set this goal, I didn’t make it, but the fact that I set it made me write more than I would have if I didn’t have the goal. What I learned by working toward that goal was valuable.

Networking:

Possibly the most important skill to be developed. The gift that keeps on giving. Life is so much fuller when interacting with supportive friends and colleagues. The key is to be yourself. Some of the best advice I ever heard was from Ron Jones, composer of Family Guy and Star Trek Next Generation: (paraphrasing): Become friends with people first, without an agenda and let the business grow from there. Dan Kimpel’s book and Road Rally class were a big turning point for me in my development.

Relationships: The true wealth of a composer. Don’t underestimate the support system of fellow composers. Friends help friends, and referrals are a gift from the heart. A referral from a friend is an honor because they are putting their reputation with their client on the line, so a bond of trust has to be there before a recommendation is given.

Collaboration is another side benefit of relationships as well as having composer friends that are players as well. Someone that plays an instrument that I don’t and is also a composer means that we can collaborate and also trade session work.

Attitude:

Self assessment: Are you a glass half full person? A glass half empty person? Are you easy to work with? Collaborative? Deliver on time? Low maintenance? Do you value others and respect their feelings? Can you receive feedback? Can you say yes? Can you say no? Are you willing to learn?

Knowledge:

Know the business. Know thyself. Continual learning. Do you know where you stand in the business? Are you willing to learn where you are in the business?

Chops:

Writing. Playing. Production. Business. Networking. Relationship. Chops are developed through practice, Developing chops is a process of repetition while staying open to learning.

Consistency:

Doing what you I say I am going to do. Delivering quality 100% of the time.

Efficiency and productivity:

A process of constantly refining the work flow.

Examples: templates, taking notes throughout the day when ideas come in, defining the form of a piece ahead of time (ie: placing a marker at the time limit that the client is asking for), limiting the palette, deciding on the palette ahead of time and sticking to it, learning key shortcuts for often used tasks……….

Business organization:

Have commonly used contracts ready (work for hire, co-writing, etc.). Have a system for managing finances and writing invoices, etc. Develop a time management system (one that works for you). Have a system to manage contacts and the all important follow up.

My Long Term Goals and LIfe Lessons:

I’m probably not as good as I think I am: For me this is about staying humble and open to learning. Beginner’s Mind attitude (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, a book by Suzuki). Cultivate and maintain a childlike wonder and openness. Keeping an open mind.

Balanced Life: This is a big challenge for me as I tend to work much more than I play. Health and family nurturance must be a priority.

Diversify: Attempt new styles and genres, grow through collaboration.

Live Players: The new “black” in production music and other types of media music. Every seminar I attend, whether it be game music or production music, the theme seems to be “live players add that extra something to a production”. Even one live player on the melody will bring a piece to life, even if everything else on the production is MIDI and/or samples.

Thanks for reading and if you attended the class at the Rally, thanks so much for that. Feel free to comment and share your own journey and let’s support each other. We need the support in this crazy business in these times we live in. Love and Blessings and all the best on your journey!!

Resources:

Class Agenda handout:

TaxiRRClass5yearPlan_HO

Dave Walton’s notes from the class:
Taxi Rally 2011 Royalty Presentation

Great article in Electronic Musician by friend and fellow journeyer Katilin McGaw: social_networking/master_class_launch_company/

The ever inspiring and fabulous Dan Kimpel: http://www.dankimpel.com/

Must read music business book written by an attorney in layman’s terms:

http://www.donpassman.com/allabout.html

Great book on publishing:

The Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, a classic:

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

There’s been a time lag since my last blog post, mostly because I went out of town for Thanksgiving and also because I had to get the room in the house that used to be the studio cleaned up before starting real composing work at the new studio (yes, dear!).

So now I’m about 80% done with the setup of the studio but I have it set up so that I can work, and the rest of the setup is the analog and digital FX rack which I will do as I go. Also I will be installing some shelving and at the same time installing the last two absorption/trapping panels.

I had to shift some things around more back to the original idea, which is to have the speakers on stands. That just gave me more room in the corners to stash some of the bins with cables in them. When I get the shelves up, I may move the racks back into the corners and put the speakers on them, but for now it’s working our well and facilitating the rest of the wiring I’ll have to do.

I also decided to move two of the audio interfaces over to the FX rack, which means I don’t have to run audio snakes between the racks. I will basically just need to run the AudioWire cables from the racks to the computer, which really cuts down on the wires strewn along the floor! Woo Hoo! I also bought a 4 space rack and put my Coleman monitor controller, Benchmark D/A and Lucid clock in front of me and above my keyboard controller. It’s easier to reach and gives more flexibility with the placement of the racks going forward.

The corner traps are from Ready Acoustics. They are their DIY kit which comes with 3 sheets/ea. of OC 703 rigid fiberglass panels, a “bag” made of acoustic fabric that slides over the panels and a second, smaller piece of fiberglass in a bag that goes behind the main panel into the corner. I made two of them and hung them using their hardware. It really tightened up the bass and the stereo imaging is amazing now! Here’s the corner trap kit info:

http://www.readyacoustics.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_11_15&products_id=30

This is the left speaker with the corner trap behind it.

This is the right speaker and another corner trap.  This trap goes over the window a little bit.  There’s another window outside of this one and so there’s natural light but no fresh air!

Here’s the nerve center with the controllers.

Here’s the rack on the left with the Receptor, Vision DAW computer and the Carillon computer.  The Receptor GUI is displayed on the screen.  Not a great shot, taken with my iPhone.

Here’s the writing desk area to the right of the nerve center.  Notice Winston sleeping under the desk.  He’s very comfortable in the new studio!  Woof!

I’m still working on integrating the Muse Receptor into the workflow.  It will take a bit of time as I really have only been working in the new space for one day.  So far things are working out well but there’s always something more to do!

Part 4 will be after the shelves are put up and after I’ve had a chance to work on some more music and try some mixing in the new room.  Stay Tuned!!

Well, some things have changed a bit in the layout, but overall it’s for the better.  My friend Tom helped me move a couple of heavy things in and he had some good ideas about making the place more conducive to creativity with more of a feeling of space.  Gone are the speaker stands and the large keyboard stand.  The equipment racks will now be the speaker stands and I’ll get an X stand with a second tier for the extra keyboards.

Here’s the back of the “audio rack” with everything installed and just beginning to wire up the power cables.

Here’s the listening/mixing area (the nerve center).  Note the speaker on the effects rack.  Above the 88 key CME controller are, from left to right:  Novation SL MK2, Euphonix MC Control, Native Instruments Kore 2 and behind that a Focusrite Liquid Mix.

Here’s a view of the left side of the “nerve center”.  The audio rack is being used as a speaker stand here as well.  The positions of everything will need to be tweaked to get the optimum placement, particularly of the speakers.  Plus more wiring is necessary to get the two racks interfaced.  Visible in this photo from top to bottom:  Event Project Studio 8 powered speaker, Logitek Ultra VU digital audio meter, Benchmark D/A converter and Lucid Clock, Coleman Audio M3PH Mk 2 monitor controller, 4 MOTU audio interfaces (24i, 2408 Mk1, 2408 Mk2, 308), MOTU Midi Time Piece AV, Muse Receptor 2 Pro.  Also Ultrasone headphones next to the speaker.

Top view of the “effects rack”, which also holds the right speaker.  From top to bottom: dbx 386 stereo tube mic pre with digital out, Funk Logic Digilog Dynamicator, Lexicon MPX 550, Electrix MOFX, Line 6 Filter Pro, Line 6 Echo Pro, dbx 160XT compressor, Dave Smith Evolver synth.

Bottom view of “effects rack” with drawer holding Evolver pushed in.  Below Evolver: MOTU Midi Time Piece MK1, 3 patch bays, Samson amp for Avantone mini monitors, Monster 2500 power center.

As you can see, more work needs to be done to get the rest of the racks wired and placed properly for optimum speaker placement, but I was able to play some audio and do some requested alt versions of a piece for a library client.  By the end of the year I expect it to be fully functional and will continue to update the blog with the progress.

I’m moving my composing studio out of my house and into a small 10X10 room in a rehearsal facility about 5 miles from my house. I thought I’d post some photos of the work in progress. I’ve been moving and setting up for a couple of days now and am just at the point where I can start thinking about doing some wiring of my main rack so I could actually do some work if I needed to.

Here’s the view from the hallway looking into the empty room  It’s nice to have some natural light!

Here’s the left corner of the room (the window is on the right).  I call it the left corner because I’m going to be putting my computer monitors and 88 key controller facing this wall.

Here’s a bass trap in the back corner of the room

Here’s my computer/keyboard desk with the speaker stands.  One stand is upside down in this photo.  I was trying to get the carpet spike to screw in!

Here’s my acoustic “cloud” above the listening position.  I’m creating a reflection free zone.  Eventually (by early December), I’ll have two 6 inch thick bass traps in the front corner, 2 more 4 inch thick absorbers on the side walls, and another 4 inch bass trap on the back wall on the wall/ceiling junction.

4 Auralex T-Fusors on the wall behind the listening position to create a diffuse sound field so that the sound that reflects back to the listening position will be reflected more randomly, thus avoiding comb filtering and making the room sound a bit more live and less like a little 10×10 closet!!

A little writing station below the keyboard stand.  Things are starting to feel a bit cozier.  Note the red curtain on the window.  This is to the right of the listening position.  It’ll be great to have a writing desk to do preliminary sketches.  Above that will be a Roland V-Synth, a vintage Korg Prophecy, a mini version of a Korg MS20 and 2 portable keyboards, one of which has been “circuit bent”

Finally I moved my “audio rack” into the studio.  It has all my MOTU audio interfaces, 2 MOTU MIDI Time Piece MIDI interfaces, a Logitek digital VU meter which shows peak and average at the same time, a Lucid GenX 6-96 clock and a Benchmark D/A converter (to be installed next to the Lucid)  Still need to install my Carillon Audio PC, Vision DAW audio PC, Muse Receptor 2 Pro and a Coleman audio M3PH MK2 monitor controller.

That’s all for now, more to come!!

Musings on 2010 Taxi Road Rally

This year�s Taxi Road Rally (their yearly free for members convention) was especially good. This was my sixth Rally and they�ve all been quite awesome but for some reason this one seems to have been my favorite so far.

It could have been that the Taxi staff was smiling a bit more this year than I�ve noticed in the past. They�re great folks but the strain of putting on the Rally didn�t seem to be showing on their faces as much this year, and that�s a good thing! Great work folks! Thanks!

It could have been meeting all the folks I know from before and the folks I only knew from the forum. People came from something like 31 countries and I met some of them for the first time, even though we�d been chatting for over somtimes years on the forum. Great stuff!

Of course every Rally is about networking and this one was no exception. The opportunity to meet with others who are on the same path and trade stories, tips, tricks and just plain laugh! The potential opportunity to meet and rub shoulders with music industry pros who just might contact you is a cool feature of the Rally. It doesn�t happen to me every Rally but it happens to someone. I believe that when a person is ready, the opportunity presents itself. Pushing (or being pushy) usually doesn�t work well, particularly in the music business.

There were two themes that seemed to present themselves in different ways this year:
1. Generosity
2. Play to your strengths

Generosity was out in force this year. The question comes up from time to time: �Why would anyone share their knowledge with folks that are ultimately their competitors?� My answer is in two parts and goes something like this:

1. I�ve been studying and playing music intensely for my entire life. I don�t get the chance to share that in my day to day life (other than composing, of course), and, like most composers, I work alone in my studio. So by the time I get to the Road Rally, I�m ready and excited to share with and learn from my studio dwelling, hermit composer colleagues.

2. Sharing knowledge raises the value of music as a whole and the value of composers/songwriters to the music business. If we, as a group, are great writers and really know the business, we can eventually charge more for our time, and even if we aren�t getting paid up front, we will be more valuable in the eyes of our clients. If the quality of music is raised overall, even a simple piece in the background of an infomercial, it benefits the lives of everyone that hears us. I believe that we hold a great power in our hands as composers and songwriters, and we need to learn to harness that power for the good of all. With great power comes great responsibility. I am a humble servant to that power, and I want to be a part of raising the quality and value of music so that more of that high quality is experienced by the world.

Playing to your strengths (could be subtitled Play to your strengths while you�re developing other strengths):

We all have music that we write that is in our comfort zone or our �wheelhouse�. When we write it, it sounds great consistently, hopefully it reflects our passion and our ability to communicate through music. This will translate directly to the audience and more importantly to our clients. If you were at the Rally, you probably noticed that most of the pros that were on the panels were very musically literate and passionate about music. They have probably heard more music than we will hear in a lifetime and they can smell when it�s not right. As a media composer, it comes with the territory that we are versatile in several styles and of course, no one is a master of all styles, but we ultimately should have several styles under our belt that we can pull out if necessary. But my idea of playing to your strengths is, when putting your music out there, put out what you do best and work on that stuff that you want to do and get it to the point that you can put it out there with total confidence. I hear a lot of folks dipping their toe into the orchestral realm without really having a strong footing in the orchestral genre and really not having the sound of a real orchestra in their ears. Basically it�s about putting your best foot forward at all times while working in the background on constant improvement and learning. If you are a die hard rocker with an interest in orchestral music then spend hours with classical music and orchestral film scores on your iPod instead of rock. You probably have enough knowledge of rock music to get you through a lifetime without ever listening to another recording of it, but do you have that same level of knowledge of orchestral music? Probably not unless you studied it in school and even then you might be rusty. So create those killer rock tracks and get them signed while you�re honing your orchestral chops.

I can�t say enough about the folks I met and the friends, old and new, that I was able to talk to, laugh with and yes, stay up way to late with! I won�t even try to name them all, but suffice it to say, you are in my heart as I write this.

Road Rally 2010 will go down in my history as the best so far. And they keep getting better so sign up now for next year!!

Love and blessings!

Mazz

This topic has been coming up a lot lately and also I had the opportunity to hear about this from some of the bigger libraries recently and thought I’d weigh in on it.

In my experience, most non-exclusive deals are also re-titling, where the library creates a “derivative work” simply by giving your piece a different title. Now they control the publishing for that music under that title, but the exact same music can still be marketed to other libraries under a completely different title with that other library also controlling the publishing (same music, different title)!!

I’ve also seen contracts where the music is signed to be exclusive in the markets that the library competes in but the piece can still be sold by the artist on their CD (itunes, etc.). This seems OK to me as long as the artist is going to be on the ball enough to refer any requests for licensing the music (someone hears it on itunes and wants to sync it, for instance) to the library that owns the rights for synchronization.

Then there’s exclusive, which is totally fine with me. (Keep in mind that I’m an instrumental composer with an ever expanding catalog of music, not a songwriter with a much smaller catalog. I’m not going to speak to that because it’s a different kettle of fish altogether, IMO.)

With exclusivity, both the composer and the library have more skin in the game. The library is probably more picky so if you get in, you’re smarter than the average bear, and the library owner places more value on their catalog because you can’t get this stuff anywhere else. That’s good for everyone, even the clients, because they would also like to think they’re getting something special. Everyone likes to think they’re special, right? You can’t go to some online library that takes anyone and find this quality of music. That’s what makes it special. (the next level up is getting hired by a library to create a collection for them, which means they have even more motivation to push your stuff!!) Remember, a lot of these libraries have excellent relationships directly with supervisors at networks, etc. They also have a quality standard to uphold and having pieces that no one else has is a great selling point.

At the beginning of my foray into library music, I signed a few pieces with a couple of different places, but I started looking into it more and talking to composer friends and discussions here and elsewhere, and I made the decision to treat every non-exclusive deal as an exclusive deal. I intend to write several hundred pieces of music in my career so it’s more important to me to have a diversified catalog in several excellent libraries than it is to have a small number of pieces in lots of libraries at the same time.

Let’s not forget watermarking and fingerprinting technology that is right around the corner. Whatever technology gets generally adopted, it will be possible to detect any piece of music by it’s unique signature, which will obviate re-titling, because that piece of music is really just one entity, not a bunch of titles referring to the same music. Re-titling will eventually go out the window, I predict.

So what value do you place on your music? You might actually be doing yourself and your library clients a disservice by placing your pieces in several libraries at one time because it will end up competing against itself and instead of making a nice sync fee, it might lose out to itself to a lower priced library. Same piece gets lower price because it’s in more than one library? Doesn’t make good business sense to me.

Think about it.