How to Make a Million Dollars Playing the Guitar by classical guitarist Douglas Niedt is a new book offering entrepreneurial advice for musicians. The book is 365 pages in length and can be purchased from www.milliondollarguitarist.com for $19.95.
The title sounds a little too good to be true doesn’t it? Normally, it would be easy to discount a book with a title like this, but knowing that Douglas Niedt was the author I was excited to read it and confident that it would offer substantive information that musicians could use in their careers.
The first thing to understand is what this book is not. Niedt does not promise to make you a better guitarist, a famous musician, or even a millionaire (one who has a net worth of one million dollars or more) in his book. What he will do is make you think long and hard about whether you wish make the commitment to become an entrepreneurial musician, and offer lots of good advice on how to begin and grow your business so that you can make a million dollars or more over the course of your career.
Niedt covers a lot of ground, but most of the book can be divided two distinct concepts: entrepreneurial thinking and understanding common business practices. These two concepts are seamlessly woven together throughout with the earlier chapters generally discussing entrepreneurial thinking and later chapters relating more specific information about business practices that apply to musicians.
Throughout the book, the author reflects on his own life as a student, performer, teacher, and businessperson. He also incorporates many anecdotes that illustrate typical challenges that have been overcome successfully by famous musicians and businesspeople throughout history.
“Do you really want to do this? Do you have what it takes?” asks an early chapter. A short survey will help young people who may have big dreams but no realistic idea of what it means to be a musician to put things into perspective. After each survey question, there are reality checks that will encourage the reader to reflect on their attitudes and expectations about a career in music and whether or not they possess the drive and self-discipline to succeed. I find that Niedt strikes just the right balance here. He is careful not to discourage the reader but is very realistic about the sacrifices that must be made in order to make a living playing music.
The first two sections of the book include several essays on topics such as: keeping a positive attitude, setting goals, evaluating oneself, choosing an educational path, how to get along with other people, and more. These chapters are definitely motivational, but also make good business sense for anyone who wants to be self-employed and stay optimistic in the face of adversity. This section also includes two of my favorite chapters: “Talent is Not the Answer” and “You’re a Failure – Congratulations!”
As the book proceeds, more in-depth information about what it takes to be a self-employed musician is explored. Advice is given on virtually all aspects of setting up a business as a sole proprietorship or LLC, recording your own CDs, building a website that will help you sell your music, knowing what to charge for shipping, maintaining a database, understanding tax laws and much more. The chapter on maintaining a database was particularly a good one for me as I am always trying to find a better way to organize my records of students and business contacts electronically.
Most of the business information passed on in the book I already know. I’ve learned it along the way from colleagues, teachers, tax and financial advisers, and friends. Some things I found out through my own research. Almost all of it was learned after college as I struggled to establish myself as a teacher and musician. I can only imagine how much easier my path may have been with a book like this one to guide me.
Douglas Niedt has written a book that every young person aspiring to a career in music should read. I will definitely be recommending it to many of my students and their parents. It paints a very clear and realistic picture of what the career of a professional musician looks like. If you are starting a career in music or know someone who is, this is required reading.
Finally, if you are not a guitarist, you’ll still want to buy the book. Doug may be targeting guitarists with his title, but the book is not about playing the guitar, it’s about being an entrepreneurial musician. All of the information inside is equally applicable to pianists, saxophonists, trombonists, etc. I’m guessing it will take a trombonist a little longer to reach the million-dollar mark, but that’s another story.
Doug has several videos related to his book on YouTube. Here’s a sample:
50 Blues Guitar Licks You Must Know by Jeff McErlain is a new offering from TrueFire.com designed for intermediate to advanced blues guitarists wanting to spice up their vocabulary with some of the tastiest and most traditional phrases in the idiom. The course is available in a variety of formats with prices starting at $19.00.from truefire.com.
Working through the 50 Blues Licks course is a bit like a attending wine-tasting with an expert sommelier. Instructor Jeff McErlain’s hand-picked repertoire of phrases challenges you to break out of that good old minor pentatonic box using techniques such as: tremolo picking, double-stops, sixths, octaves, chromaticism, and diminished lines, and more. It includes not only solo ideas, but grooves, turnarounds, and tasty comping ideas. Although there are some slick licks included, these licks are generally not the flashy technique-oriented phrases but richly expressive musical concepts that will lend a sense of depth and sophistication to your playing.
As Jeff demonstrates each lick he takes time calls attention to the specific nuances that really make the music happen. Details on specifically how to bend, slide, or vibrato are not left to chance. I appreciated this attention to detail, especially as it relates to quarter-step bends. I find that those little in-between bends are often difficult for students to dial in, but usually get glossed over by instructional materials. Here, Jeff does a great job of highlighting exactly when they occur and what they should sound like.
Jeff will often relate a bit of history on how a lick has been used over the years. For example, the very first lick is based on Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone” blues. It’s a groovy riff to be sure, but Jeff reminds us that this riff has been recycled several times to become the basis for “Catfish Blues” and “Voodoo Chile” by Hendrix, “Still Alive and Well” by Johnny Winter, and even a section of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. This really gives a sense of the blues as a living music that continues to evolve. I also think it also gives guitarists permission to start creating their own music using the motif as a springboard.
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How to Play the Music of Stevie Wonder by Adam Rafferty is a fantastic new release aimed at fingerstyle guitarists wanting to hone their chops and add some R&B and funk to their repertoire with arrangements of the Stevie Wonder hits “Superstition”, “I Wish”, “Overjoyed”, and “Sir Duke.” The DVD/booklet sells for $34.97 at www.adamrafferty.com.
The DVD lasts just under two hours and Adam spends between 20 to 30 minutes teaching each arrangement. The video begins with a short introductory segment in which Adam encourages guitarists not to be intimidated or frustrated with the complex material presented in the video. He then briefly talks about what he calls “learning how to learn” and describes four specific stages of the learning process that students will encounter while working through the pieces. Adam adds that he continues to practice these pieces often and that he too is still fine tuning his performances!
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LJI Functional Jazz Guitar by Ed Byrne contains 255 pages of concepts and exercises that will help guitar students develop the skills needed for playing in a jazz group. Includes specific cadence & blues comping patterns, guide tone & bass lines, rhythms, voicings, and licks. 185 pages of inter-related sound files are included. The e-book with included sound files sells for $39.95 at byrnejazz.com. Hard copy is also available.
My last book review was Jazz Guitar Etudes by saxophonist Greg Fishman and now I have a review of LJI Functional Jazz Guitar by Ed Byrne who is a trombonist. Ed has performed and recorded with most of the jazz world’s leading musicians and is a trombonist, composer/arranger, and educator who has served on the faculties of Berklee College, Baruch College, University of the Arts, Greenfield Community College, and the University of Rhode Island. Many of his pupils have gone onto high-profile careers: Kenny Werner, Abe Laboriel, Chip Jackson, Freddie Bryant, Mark Elf, Papo Vasquez, and Gary Dial have all studed with Ed.
Functional Jazz Guitar (FJG) states in it’s preface that it “does not attempt be ground breaking.” Instead the text focuses on having the student play through the basic cadences and blues forms in every key. This is the quintessential material of jazz harmony that, once internalized, will allow the student to “be able to play real jazz with others.”
The examples in the book are what I’d call real “meat and potatoes” material: simple, powerful tools that sound great and are foundational rather than trying to be clever. Students working with the book are guided through dozens of exercises that demonstrate the use of embellished guide-tone lines and various comping patterns including major and minor ii v i and blues cadences in all 12 keys. Learning all of the material within and FJG and applying it to standard tunes would give the guitar student a mastery of their instrument and the solid foundation of harmonic understanding necessary for jazz playing and creative improvisation. The book includes 18 files in MP3 and Finale format to practicing along with. Vist Ed’s website to view sample pages and sound files.
FJG also has several pages of advice, observations, and reflections from Ed on topics such as ear-training, transcription, sight-singing, reading lead-sheets and more. Although the strength of the of the book is in its’ musical examples, these comments by the author add even more value by suggesting further uses and activities for the included examples.
As you can probably tell, I really like this book and I’m also a big fan of Ed’s Linear Jazz Improvisation Method books which would be a natural next step for students who have mastered the basic concepts in FJG. The only misgiving that I have about the book is that it is entirely in standard notation and I fear that the lack of tablature may scare off intermediate-level guitarists who don’t read well – just the demographic that needs this book. Since the goal is to master the included material in every key and across the entire range of the instrument, the use of standard notation leaves students open to explore all range and fingering options for themselves. Guitarists, if you need to work on your reading FJG is the perfect book to struggle through. Most examples are not too difficult and and you’ll be a better reader to boot!
So, what’s up with all of these books that are targeted toward guitarists but not written by one? I can’t say if this is the start of a new trend, but I think that many music educators have recognized that there is a huge marketplace full of egghead guitarists and that we do like to buy instructional books and videos. Is it a problem that the instruction is coming from a non-guitarist? In the case of jazz and jazz improvisation, I’d have to say no. Because jazz is a language spoken by all instrumentalists, any musician that can speak the language has something to teach you. Also, because a non-guitarist may not be familiar with all of the technical aspects of the instrument they can help you to focus on the Big Picture. So, instead of worrying about the particulars of fingerings and picking techniques they can help you make sure you’re in tune, in time, swinging, making the changes, and providing adequate support for the rest of the ensemble. This is what LJI Functional Jazz Guitar is all about!
If you’ve used this book – or any of Ed Byrne’s books on improvisation – please leave your comments below.
