Check out this Blog from a special Guest Blogger!

Tips for Entering the Music Business - For Vocalists and Musicians

Musicians have entertained others throughout nearly all of recorded human history. Bards and troubadours once traveled from town to town to play for anyone who would listen. In contemporary society, these entertainers contribute to the economy as recording artists, session players, and commercial musicians. Some instrument players and vocalists tour the world playing tunes like bards of yesteryear.

Since there are so many ways to pursue a musical career, artists often find it challenging to select a niche and begin attaining the necessary contacts to get gigs. However, this is a crucial first step; a musician must discover his or her own unique path to artistic expression.

Choose Your Field of Discipline

Initially, vocalists and musicians are set apart by their chosen spheres of specialization. For example, vocalists must learn different skills than guitar players. By choosing to specialize in a particular instrument and style of music, you can also start identifying the social contacts that will be crucial for getting gigs.

After you have attained proficiency and specialization in your chosen instrument, you are free to focus on building a unique voice. The best musicians have styles that match their personalities.
Additionally, your skills will need to be applied to a specific area of the music business. Do you want to help songwriter’s record demos? Do you want to be known as a recording artist? Are you comfortable with touring? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself before building a portfolio.

Demonstrate Your Skills

Once you've identified your goals, it is important to demonstrate your skills to other musicians. For example, many free social networking sites allow you to upload pictures, a biography, and music samples. You should use these services as a type of press kit to present your skills to other musicians. Watch the classified ads in the local newspaper to identify like-minded tune smiths. You also may have success finding people to work with on online services like Craigslist.
For your pictures, it would be wise to present a combination of professionally filmed photos and live performance or studio shots. If you don't have great writing skills, look to friends to find help putting together a biography. You should provide recorded samples of your work as well as a live video. By including both formats, you will be letting potential colleagues know what you sound like on record and how well you can play live.

Stand Your Ground

Don't let detractors talk you out of your decision. Once you have chosen your niche in the music industry, the primary objective is to cultivate contacts and build name awareness. Both of these objective can be accomplished by promoting social media profiles online and by attending lots of local shows. Every contact helps when you are first starting your career.

Although the music industry has been undergoing a fairly serious market correction, the internet actually makes it very easy for a new musician to get his or her name out there to the public. The internet significantly improves the ease with which one can find colleagues in the music industry.

Author Bio

William Okoli, a music producer turned journalist, now spends his days helping others reach success through music. Not everyone can pack a stadium of ten thousand fans, but if you have a passion for music, you have a career ahead of you. Visit TheMusicPush.com to learn more.

LeVel Thrive 8 Week Experience!

Welcome to my website and the Thrive Experience! I was introduced to Thrive by a close friend and fell in love with it. I was so energized, that I wanted to do the laundry, vacuum and clean the house, play outside with my kids, and run all my errands. I felt the energy within less than an hour of taking the supplements (which you only have to take once a day, first thing in the morning! SO EASY!), and the 24-hour patch (my personal favorite product) is a constant release of everything you'd need for a successful weight loss program. 

Sure, this all sounds like another hoax, I'm sure, but i've tried tons of different diet fads, and this is the first stuff to make me actually feel like it's doing something. I haven't been on it long enough to see major results, but I already FEEL them, and that's the most important thing! I've never believed in a product enough to promote it, but I'm telling you that this could change your lives and the way you feel about yourself. 

The supplements are made for the separate needs of men and women--they even have couple packs! And if you sign up for auto-ship, you receive a discount on the products.  You can purchase the products in packs that come with all of your weight loss, healthy living needs!  If you want to try it out or have any questions, please contact me.  

I would never try to sell something I didn't believe in, but I'd been in a little bit of a workout hiatus--just doing Yoga and slacking on the cardio, but now I have the energy to do both!  And the product literally makes me feel like I have more time in the day. (Maybe it's just because I'm getting things done quicker!)

So go here or click the link above to check out the website.  Watch the videos, read about the products, and feel free to contact me (even though I may be a complete stranger, I love customer service and helping people, so I'm here for you!)   

e-mail me at kristinam0530@gmail.com and I will respond to all your e-mails ASAP

Broken Toe...OUCH!

So, I thought that I would be able to get back into Hip-Hop Abs within a week of my breaking my two baby toes, but it hurts a little more than I expected; low-impact Yogalaties is all I've been able to handle.

I'm really upset because I only had one week left of Hip-Hop Abs, but in a couple weeks when my toes are completely healed, I'll start Month 2 over!  I was starting to see awesome results, and I wanted to see where the end would take me, so I'm not giving up!

However, I'm not posting the calorie burn results of week 3: my maximum heart rate and my weight on the heart rate monitor were off, and thus my calorie burn was off; since I didn't finish it anyways, I figure the first 2 weeks' results is a good help for those of you wanting to try it out!

Hip Hop Abs: Month 2 Week 2

So here are my weekly burn results!

Fat Burning Cardio 2 = 527 calories and 1 min of fat burn
Ab Sculpt 2 & Hips, Buns and Thighs = 574 calories and 8 min of fat burn
Total Body Burn 2 = 506 calories and 4 min of fat burn
Fat Burning Cardio 2 = 527 calories and 1 min of fat burn
Ab Sculpt 2 = 343 calories and 2.5 min of fat burn
Total Body Burn 2 = 542 calories and 1.3 min of fat burn

Hip-Hop Abs Month 2/ Week 1

I finally received my Hip-Hop Abs in the mail so that I could get started on month 2.  Here are my results for the first week of Level 2. (My advice is to definitely start with level 1 because level 2 gets pretty intense--i think it skipped from beginner to super advanced!)

Fat Burning Cardio 2 = 518 calories and 1 minute of fat burn
Ab Sculpt 2 = 351 calories and 4 minutes of fat burn
Total Body Burn (level 1) = 524 calories and 3 minutes of fat burn
Fat Burning Cardio 2 = 540 calories and 4 minutes of fat burn
Fat Burning Cardio 2 = 558 calories and 2 minutes of fat burn (my max HR got to 201!)
Ab Sculpt 2 = 330 calories and 2.5 minutes of fat burn

I started out at 130.5 lbs and ended the week at 129!     KEEP PUSHING!!!!

Waist Trimmer

Check out @BeFitMotivation's Tweet: https://twitter.com/BeFitMotivation/status/443235157907357696

NO GYM NECESSARY!!!

I finally got my Hip-Hop Abs in the mail and yesterday, I started Month 2.

First off, I want to say that a couple days ago, I thought I'd go to the gym (I usually don't like gyms, but I get a free membership where I work, so I thought, why not?) and compare the results of my heart rate monitor to the results the machine gives you.  Well, it was crazy accurate on my heart rate, but the elliptical machine told me I burned 30 more calories than what my heart rate monitor said! That's enough of a difference to matter to me.  So, I wanted to let you all know to not be fooled by what those machines at the gym are telling you.  You all know by now, that I've lost all my weight working out at home, so you don't need some expensive machine or expensive gym membership or expensive personal training session to get the results you want--all you need is MOTIVATION!  SO GET TO IT!!!  WOO!!!

Now on to emphasizing my point of no-gym-necessary weight loss: yesterday, I did Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio Level 2 and I burned 200 more calories in those 42 minutes than I did during my 40 minutes at the gym!  Way to go Shaun T!  (However, level 2 should really be more like level 5--it's intense! So don't go into it without doing month 1 first!)