2/1/2013
The era we live in is the realization of the oft-quoted Field of Dreams mantra, "If you build it, they will come." And through this process of online-social-presence-building I'm fast-coming to see the amazing attainability of the dream-of-the-artist: to get my work to as many people all over the world as I can.

There's one thing about our referenced movie quote though--you can't just build it, you then have to maintain it, browse it regularly, keep your eyes open for the next way to grow it further.....

I started to get into the habit of updating photos for each of my 'online social/business outlets', fine-tuning my website, thanking people for "Likes"/"Follows", and perusing my twitter feed. I initially "followed" about 250 people/organizations on Twitter. Most were famous people whose music/talent I liked, many were Boston University groups, and some were also actual friends of mine. (I've since scaled that list way down to about 45 people/groups..)

One of the people I followed was Kelly Clarkson cuz she can sing!!! One day when I was scrolling through the twitter feed, I saw a post from Kelly Clarkson that said something to the effect of "...I'm so excited to be a part of the Grammy Amplifies Project, and artists should submit their songs now."
A panel of established/famous artists would listen to submissions, and ultimately choose winners. My initial understanding was that winners would get their music played during the Grammy Awards Ceremony on February 10th. (I think actually, the Grammy organization will promote the winning selections with professional video production and  heavy online promotion via Twitter, etc.)

WHOA!!!! That was just the kind of opportunity I was lookin for--

As soon as I got home, I went to the Grammy Amplifies site, started putting my profile together, and uploaded my newest, favoritest song, "You Come Around" (I only need people to hear it to Love it...) Submissions would also accumulate points by the amount of "listens" each song got, and by re-posting the link on their own Twitter or Facebook page. So my next job was to Promote, Promote, Promote........................I started posting the link to my Grammy Amplifier page on Facebook and Twitter and asking Friends, etc., to go to it and listen. And wouldn't you know, the response was overwhelmingly supportive. & it also made me think of one of my favorite quotes:

                  If you don't ask for it,
                  the answer will always be 'No.'

Well, 1,074 votes later, I still haven't received that email saying that my submission has been chosen as one of the Winners, but I did get my music heard and supported by 1,074 people that would not have heard it otherwise. We'll see, and in the meantime...ONWARDS -->-->-->
Go to MrNcrdbl's Grammy Amplifier page...

1/26/2013
I'd been looking recently for a song to cover, but was havin issues finding the 'right' one. There are a billion songs I Love and would Love to tackle. But which one? It has to be Beautiful and lend itself to the way i approach my vocals, etc.

Well, one day Kelsey & I were listening to one of our Pandora stations, and I heard a song that sounded really soft, with only a single voice and a guitar, but then there was an awesome vocal counterpoint that broke out of nowhere--it was quirky and I had to Shazam it. Turns out it was Crosby, Stills, & Nash and the song was called "Lady of the Island."

I don't remember ever having heard this song before (though I may have), but I Loved it, and so I put it on my iTunes "car" playlist. Unfortunately, didn't really get a good chance to enjoy the latest version of this playlist for all the other things I needed to take care of. So I was psyched for Friday, the 25th, when I was goin to see Ben Cote's band, 3 Mile Island, in Plaistow, NH. On this ride, I'd definitely get a chance to chill with all the dope music on that playlist. I was pumped when the song came on and told Kelsey to check it out--it was just so Beautiful. All of a sudden, a Eureka moment--i said, "Hey!!! I need to do this song."

The next day I had to accompany one of my students to the district band auditions. As I was getting ready that morning, I listened to the song on repeat about thirty times so I could learn it. In the car on the way to the auditions I listened some more. On the way home, still more listening/studying....

When I got home, I got set up in my music room, and asked, "How am I gonna start this? Where am I goin with this?" Finally I worked my way through the arrangement musically (grueling details in another blog) and the lead vocals, when it hit me that I needed to play the contrapuntal vocal part on my trumpet instead of singing it. I'd learn 'verbatim' what the two parts did and reproduce them.. panning, uneven rhythms and all. And when all that was 'finished' I found the 'beat'--a beatbox.

Pleased with where it all ended up, I quickly opened iMovie, added the song and several promo pics and uploaded the video to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9LB4keancg
"LADY OF THE ISLAND" SONG CODE: L21835; WRITTEN BY GRAHAM NASH; PUBLISHED BY: SONY/ATV SONGS LLC OBO NASH NOTES; LICENSED BY THE HARRY FOX AGENCY, INC. LICENSE NO.: 1165434076 ON 1/27/2013

***I've been making notes for the upcoming video that will realize this song the way I see it...

12/31/2012
It's New Year's Eve, and tonight I have the honor and privilege of joining Joey Scrima's Big Band for the night. Two of the guys in my wedding band (One Step Ahead) also are on the gig. It's gonna be a fun night.

When I get to the gig (St. Anthony's Club in Woburn, MA) I meet one of the guitarists on the night, Ben Cote (facebook.com/3mileislandmusic). He's a young kid, 17, with a great attitude & I hope he can play..

Well, turns out this kid can shred like crazy, & throughout the night I throw solos his way cuz he rules!!!

After an awesome New Year's Eve with an awesome band and my Beautiful Wife,
I caught up with Ben on Facebook and was impressed at the work he and his band had already put into building their online presence–this was the spark I needed: it was time for me to go full throttle towards creating my own online presence for my own music, which I believe in with every fiber of me. So I made it. MrNcrdbl's Ncrdbl website...

12/10/2012
I recently finished writing/recording this new dope song and one of my old students said I should put it on Soundcloud or Bandcamp.

I went to my MrNcrdbl soundcloud account, cleaned it up and added my new song, "You Come Around" to it. Soon after I looked at the Flavors.me account of a pretty awesome singer (Danielle DeBenedict), and saw that I could make my own–and so I did.
Go to MrNcrdbl's flavors.me site...