http://www.broadjam.com/jeremiahcraig

Mike goes through the Account Settings and My E-Mail Settings and how to change your e-mail notifications fast!

Music is a contact sport. Especially in the big leagues.

Great players like to play, and they like to win. They run the ball as hard as a Green Bay Packer. They crave the applause that comes with victory. The audience might change, but the goal remains. A great player knows she’s a badass and wants to hear from those who matter that they also know she’s a badass.

Play on a team? You bet, as long as the teammates advance the ball. But great players will not suffer fools who stumble, fumble and lag behind.

You want to play in the pros? You see yourself in the big leagues?

Then I have one word of advice. One word. Do this, and you’ll be ready. Don’t, and you’ll be a poser.

The word? Practice.

Yes, I said practice. Practice daily. Practice when you want to do something else. Practice when others invite you to do something else. Practice when you don’t want to. Practice until you can’t stand it, and then practice some more. Practice until your neighbors scream and your fingers bleed.

Or be content holding your instrument while posing before the mirror. And forget about the big leagues.

When I was a teen, I spent hours every day picking up the needle and putting it down on the vinyl at an earlier spot to learn every lick Chris Squire recorded. Then I pushed rewind, play, rewind, play, rewind, play to burn Stanley Clarke into my brain and fingers.

And I was a lightweight. Even lazy. In a 1954 radio interview, Charlie Parker said that he learned the horn by practicing 11-15 hours a day for a period of 3-4 years. That effort so trained his brain and fingers in the mechanics of the horn and harmony that he could, once on stage, “forget all that and just wail,” as he put it. Indeed. (Parker starts playing at 1:13 in the video.)

People today want what they want fast and short. 3 steps to greatness! 5 keys to ultimate victory! 7 must-knows to get everything you want with minimal effort! (I borrowed from the impulse when titling this blog post.)

Ignore that silliness. There are no shortcuts to get you to that place where you stand on a stage, someone counts off, you start to wail, and everybody in the room does a double-take.

You want that experience? You want to play in the big leagues? Practice. End of story.

Rings true to me. And you?

This guest post was written by Broadjam artist, Kyle Henderson, who plays soul and blues, classic and original. He spent the ’80s as bassist and singer of MTV faves The Producers. He now lives in Madison, WI, where he teaches, blogs and performs. You can listen to his latest album, Life Goes On, on his profile page.

Mike goes through and shows you an inspirational page where you can take a look at the variety of talented Broadjam artists that have had their songs placed through submitting to our opportunities!

We’ve made it even easier now to join Broadjam, do it in one click with Facebook login!

Broadjam artist, Troy Castellano, playing live in the studio, a song dedicated to his sister Melanie, who lost her son to a tragic car accident on December 24, 2011.

http://www.broadjam.com/troycastellano

Mike goes over a quick review of a page that you’ll find invaluable if you submit music through Broadjam.
http://www.broadjam.com/delivery/info.php

Mike from Artist Services talks about Broadjam’s unlimited media policy – songs, photos, AND videos!

Travis from Broadjam Customer Service goes through how you can see all the opportunities you’ve submitted to, as well as the selections!

It was the night of the Grammys, and zero hour approached. Remote in hand, I scrolled. “2012 Grammy Awards” appeared in the menu, but I scrolled some more, aimlessly selecting a rerun of Law & Order SVU I’d seen a dozen times. I kept up with the Grammys’ doings on Twitter and Facebook, but I couldn’t bring. Myself. To watch.

How come? It’s not my age; this year’s Grammys featured no shortage of greats from the past. It’s not my musical taste, which has seasoned and broadened with time. It’s something much more complicated: my history and its meaning to me.

I had a taste of the success fully digested by Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen and recently savored by Adele and Bon Iver. But I blew it. I got screwed out of the money I should have made from selling about half-a-million albums with ’80s pop band The Producers. And I quit. Too early.

So watching the Grammys is, for me, an exercise in self-loathing. Whether well- or poorly performed, every note sung by every artist doing well enough to warrant a Grammy appearance beams from my television directly to my brain and screams “LOSERRRRRR!” My heart pounds, my throat tightens, my mouth droops, my eyes glaze. My command of English fails utterly, replaced by grunts, groans and whimpers.

Now, by most reasonable measures, I’m not a loser. I’m a senior editor at UW-Madison. I have an advanced degree in my discipline. I’m good at what I do, and I enjoy it. I just recorded an independent album of 12 original songs, and I’m singing better than ever. I’m not wealthy, but I do OK, which is more than many can say in these troubled times.

But my experience with the Grammys isn’t rooted in reasonable measures. It’s the cry of an artist’s heart who knows it’s over and I’ll never matter and I sing better than any of these clowns and no matter what I do nobody cares and it isn’t fair and what happened and how did I let it happen and why did God let it happen and why am I cursed and what did I do to deserve this and it’s my own goddamn fault and I blew it and yes I am a fucking loser …

I share the emotionality not to earn your pity but to borrow your ear. I’m a cautionary tale for aspiring artists and future celebrities. So let me focus your mind on three lessons you can learn from my experience.

1. If you’re not great, dial down the dreams and enjoy the experience.

I realize that the meaning of great is person-relative. But assess with rigorous, punishing realism whether you have something unique and uniquely entertaining as a performer, player, songwriter, storyteller.

If the answer is no, do your very best to turn down your dream dial – the one regulating your expectations and hopes. Continue to write, to book gigs, to record, to enjoy. But do your best to focus on the experiences and enjoy them.

2. Learn enough about the business that you’re able to smell bullshit.

Bullshit abounds in every business, but the music business seems especially well fertilized. Your only defense is knowledge.

Had I known 30 years ago a simple distinction between mechanical and publishing royalties – the former are recoupable; the latter are paid immediately – I would have received around $250,000 that I neither saw nor knew enough to demand.

Gird up your loins with knowledge of the details, or prepare to be reamed.

3. If you’ve got it, stick with it.

If you’re convinced that the answer to #1 is yes, and if you’re making progress, stick with the plan. Steady as she goes. Groove. Cruise. Don’t quit. Don’t make big, unnecessary, impulsive changes.

If you’re in a band that’s receiving and exploiting opportunities and you decide that your killer drummer’s hygiene habits annoy you, spray some air freshener in the room and keep going. If you’re an Americana solo artist and getting some attention, don’t switch to electronica because you heard a song you really liked. Keep at what’s working.

Trying to make it in the biz? You must be great, and you’re going to need a lot of luck. Luck is out of your control; she must discover you. But educating yourself and remaining steadfast will help you recognize and embrace her when she enters the room.

This guest post was written by Broadjam artist, Kyle Henderson, who plays soul and blues, classic and original. He spent the ’80s as bassist and singer of MTV faves The Producers. He now lives in Madison, WI, where he teaches, blogs and performs. You can listen to his latest album, Life Goes On, on his profile page.