Week 132: To gig a lot or not to gig a lot? - That is the question!

Hi Music Lovers,

Despite the 1st gig being sold out and a great success, I forgot to collect email addresses. It also makes me think of the work and preparation that proceeds a gig. If I really had to think about it, I'd want to gig only once a month!

Why? Because it does take up a permanent part of your brain. We have other obligations and work, like paying the rent or the dayjob deadline that puts us under pressure. At the same time. I ask myself, did I practice enough?, was I prepared?, Am I going to get everything done before the gig?, will I have to drop things? I'd much rather be chilling out near the seaside and writing songs:)

This kind of thing leaves us mentally exhausted and really wanting to focus on the music and performance only. But in these early DIY days, no such luck! That's why I'm going to limit the number of gigs over the summer, so I can work and save up... to have a few months free to focus on a strategy for making the most of the performances, less as gigs and more as special events. 

This includes having professional photos taken and High Quality video, streaming live, flyer design, recording live, good lighting, something more theatrical... etc

Follow developments this summer... maybe festivals or traveling. Keep in touch & let me know if you plan to come to Barcelona.

PLJ
Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 131:Building A Mailing List. NEW VIDEO. Free Download. House-Parties.

Hi Guys

I'd like to thank you for showing interest and despite the rain, coming to my 1st official gig at Pipiolo bar! It was wonderful to have a full house in such an intimate atmosphere. I hope that those that couldn't make it will get to the next gig.

I have a local mailing list which I'm building to inform music lovers of gigs, local venues, local bands I'm collaborating with. Please sign up on www.redeyezack.com. Or JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
Our monthly Newsletter also has the latest news of Gigs, videos, new songs, competitions, free downloads.

I'd very much like your support & look forward to performing new songs for you.

I'm looking to do Non-Traditional gigs & Houseparties. Drop me a line if you know any unconventional venues or you'd like to help me organise a gig for your friends. Email me at: redeyezack@gmail.com

My first free gig was at Teteria Salterio. At the end of the gig I collected a dozen email addresses. It's important to build a local following as the internet attempts to make us all global right from day one. I still need time to develop the craft of songwriting and performing live in front of a local audience. That's why I've chosen to play at small locations, house parties. 

By playing these, I'll be able to get real feedback on the songs and interact with the audience. Afterwards it may be possible to organise a gig in bigger venues, but they usually want you to rent the venue & bring people. 

As an artist starting out, this is too much to expect. I'd rather play a free gig in a place where the venue have their regular clients and bring people so I can expose my music to them, rather than paying to rent a venue and wondering if I'm not going to be able to bring enough people (thereby losing money).

One way to build a fanbase is to offer a free exclusive download in return for an email address. I've just added this to my homepage (see link above). 

This summer I'll be keeping you in touch with my travels, as I look for festivals and start recording my 1st EP.

Let me know if you have plans to visit Barcelona! :)

PLJ

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 130: Getting Paid Gigs

Hi Music Lovers!

After last weeks free gig at Teteria Salterio (Teahouse) I realised I could perform without a mic and amp in front of a small friendly crowd for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It wasn't just about steaming through the songs like a train. I got into a comfort zone and a rapport with the audience and even read some poetry.

My second official gig is at Pipiolo this weekend. It's a place known for six nights of singer-songwriters every week.  It's the biggest of the small places I've elected to play and the 1st paid gig. Just 3 Euros at the door!

I've also set up at Ticketea.com, an online system where people can purchase tickets in advance for all kinds of events and venues can scan printed tickets or electronic tickets on mobile devices to validate the tickets. It was fun figuring out how the system worked & will come in handy in future.

I've started rehearsing with a few different people and hope they will join me onstage  for a few songs each.

The other group sharing the billing are POOL, playing as an acoustic duo of Gilles Estoppey on piano and Claudia Steccato on vocals.

I'm planning a few theatrical elements and would like to add some surprises to each show. I've been looking into guerilla marketing and used recycled train tickets to write my address on last week and hand out to the audience. I also collected email addresses at the show.

I'm working on new songs too, just to give some surprises and something never heard before, even on my website.

PLJ
Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 129: Creating A Setlist

Hi Guys!

Well I'm pleased to say I managed to play for 1 hour and 20 minutes with about 11 Songs  at my first gig last Thursday at Teteria Salterio.

I started rehearsing last Monday and put a setlist together. Its important to change the key and pace of the songs. I kept the singalong songs till the 2nd part of the performance so I and the audience were both warmed up. I started with 2 completely unknown songs never heard before. 

Feel free to listen to these Red tracks by following the link:

• What Do You Feel
• Who Knows What You're Going To Be
• Summertime & Smile
• Hold Me & Flying Free
• The Purpose of Existence & RadhaKrishna
• Two Sparrows
• I Can't SleepTonight
• 21st Century Man & Satisfy My Soul

Then I introduced a poem called Sweet love and asked for a volunteer - Giulia to read some selected parts with me. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to use the microphone and amplified that I had brought along. So it was a completely unplugged performance. Luckily most of the people sitting close were friends and they were very silent during the performance of the quieter songs like Sofia's Song. 

I gave a short introduction to each song, about where, how or why it was written. I decided not to keep regular time for a lot of the songs and improvise some intros and outros, with some breaks in the middle for teaching the audience some of the melodies. I finished on two very melodic and catchy songs.

Overall the gig went well. It was a calm and chillout atmosphere and I think the music reflected that.

Next gig is Saturday May 4th at Pipiolo. I look forward to seeing some of you there!!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 128: The First Concert

Hi Music Lovers!

Gig at Tea shop. Milestone - 5000 views on this Blog. Wanted - Acoustic Guitarist & Cajon player

. 

It's been a sunny start to April and I'm rehearsing for my 1st gig on Thursday April  18th at TETERIA SALTERIO. I've dug up some old acoustic songs that have never been heard before. They have a folk element and story-line with characters, I thought it would be a good idea to present them at my 1st acoustic solo gig as RedEyeZack. See more info on this reverbnation profile page.

I'm excited about playing to such an intimate group of friends in a very sweet location. I'm a bit of a tea man myself, so what better place than a tea shop to make your first gig as a solo artist.

I've started checking out other places I could play and in the meantime I'm looking for other musicians to jam with and accompany me with these original songs. Another acoustic guitar or Cajon. Please send me an email at redeyezack@gmail.com if you are interested.

The other thing I've just noticed is 5000 views on this blog. That's since I started in October 2012. I've managed to post regularly every week since then. 

Enjoy the sunny weather in Barcelona. If not, get yourself over here!!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 127: Starting to Gig - Pipiolo Bar

Hi Music Lovers!

I've got my first paid gig at PIPIOLO on May 4th! I will be sharing the stage with POOL. It's a small, cozy place for an intimate evening of acoustic live music. Here's more info and a slideshow of our evening at the bottom.

https://www.facebook.com/pipiolo.bar

Last night after our Pink Floyd Jam session, a small group of us headed off to meet up with other friends in a music bar called 'Pipiolo'. Jose had brought along a producer/ singer-songwriter to introduce me to & I was there to meet the music organizer, Gemma to see if it may be a good place to start my small performances.

The tiny door at Pipiolo - C/ Balmes 113 had a guitar fretboard as the door handle and we stepped down into the cozy bar. The friendly staff took out guitars into the backroom which was full of more guitars! There were 3 musicians playing covers booked and 1 by 1 they came to perform a set of cover songs. Before the evening had finished we discussed the possibilities of organizing a gig for RedEyeZack for May. 

Pipiolo have music every night of the week from Tuesday to Saturday. From 10pm to midnight it's singer-songwriters with their own material and from midnight onwards it's covers groups. It's a small cozy place, 

people chat during cover performances so it looks like a good place to practice. I will visit a few more times in the week to get a feel for the place and how different the crowd are for the singer-songwriters.

Have a great week & catch up soon!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 126: Venues & Gigs

Hi Music Lovers!

It's been a busy month. I've moved to an ideal location next to the Arc De Triumph in Barcelona. I've got two gigs booked, one for April 18th and the other for May 4th. I will be preparing an acoustic set for both gigs.

Concerts

Sell music on Amazon at ReverbNation.com

Covers Band Project at BAMM

The covers band is developing well and we now have 9 songs under our belt. Here's the selection of alternative songs for female vocals too, so we should have a full set ready soon.

Original Playlist covers that we are attempting

Social night at Sala Monasterio.

Thursday nights is free Blues Jam Session from 11pm till about 2am! Narani our vocalist from the BAMM Pop/Rock Coversband had just graduated in Mathematics and it was a good excuse for a party.

We caught up with Larry Smith who played a set of rocking songs. Some old friends, new ones and a great friendly atmosphere.

Checkout Larry's awesome guitar playing in this slideshow

Spring is here and we're planning to do some acoustic rehearsals in the Citudella park.

Have a great Easter holiday and looking forward to playing live for you from April!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 125: Finding Local Musicians

Hi Guys!

I recently met up with Alexis (who I've been trying to meet up with since Xmas). He's outside Barcelona. He's been playing lead guitar in various bands for five years. I'm going to check them out soon. He was kind enough to come into Barcelona to meet me. Later Tatiana joined us. 

Last July Tatiana and her colleagues from Lampli organized a music festival called Petit Burg Festival ( a small format, I was there for the weekend and it was great, located in a lovely place up in the Pyrenees mountains, in Burg Village, they combined music with theatre, workshops etc..it had great local success) . I had seen a few videos of artists called ANÍMIC filmed performing on a bridge in the countryside. She also writes a blog about music, so it will be interesting to exchange ideas.

My blog has just had its most successful post 'technology as an accelerator'. With over 750 views, it's also pulling up another blog about looking for small venues. Traffic has increased 10x since I started in Sept 2012. I'd like to embed the blog on my own website- www.Redeyezack.com to get music lovers to explore the songs on the site and get involved in the Barcelona community scene. It's a bit tricky and I'll have to look into RSS feeds.

POOL - EP Release Party!

It's important to support musicians you know that have a similar passion for music as you do. And it's interesting to know local bands who are active and releasing material. So, then at 10pm I headed off to continental and met Gille's band POOL on a street corner giving out last minute flyers! Well done guys... 5 euros to enter on a Saturday night, a drink or beer around 3.50e and 6e for a spirit drink. Lighting of the bar was cool, just great for low light colour photos. I loved the luminous paintings of cool celebs.

POOL played 2 songs before starting my favourite 3rd track with the funky electric guitar part played by Gilles on Piano-synth. It was a bit  chilli peppers- give it away/pearl jam-alive/lenny kravitz  with
guitar riff played on keys... Awesome and got the crowd going!

Checkout Claudia's sultry vocals on Pool's song 'Crazy' in this video slideshow.
POOL are:
Claudia Steccato - voice
Gilles Estoppey - piano / rhodes
Pau Sala - electric bass

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Week 124: Content Is King & Making Easy Slideshows

Hi Music Lovers!

Well it's been a difficult week with the change of climate and my allergic reaction to the change of season which became a cold, as well as having to visit the dentist twice this last month. Thank you 'Paracetamol & Antihistamine'. As my doctor in Istanbul once said, "If you don't take medication, your flu will last a week... If you take medication it will last 7 days...! But taking it will help you tolerate and work better". Thanks Dr.Birgul!

On the work front, things have been slow but I feel positive opportunities around the corner. I've spent the time resting and studying, preparing a blog and new English courses for the spring and getting ready to take my students to Brighton this summer for English courses.

On the music front, I've made some slideshows for two songs that are not very visible on my website: Sofia's Song and Living a Lie... I'm posting them here for you to get a good look and listen. It's important to create content to give more exposure to songs with visuals. Mainly due to the growing influence of YouTube for discovering new music.

I've also added individual pages that allow you to 'rate this song'. You can also see the Stats of how others rated the song from 5 (I love it!) to 1 (Poor).

I'm looking into 'screen capture' software so I can show you exactly how to make the slideshows in a DIY training video (coming soon). Making slideshows is an easier way of getting a video of a song up on YouTube without the production expense of making a video clip. In future I may have a go at a storyboard of photographic stills using models/props/lighting effects etc... Any of you that would like to collaborate, please send me a email at zackqureshi@gmail.com

It finally took me about 20 minutes to put a slideshow together. The first time I remember it was 2 hours or so! Once you learn the software you intuitively know it's possible to cut and paste repeated actions. So I learned that I could 'highlight/select' all my photos and add an 'effect' to them as a 'batch' and do the same for 'transitions'. The effect I generally use is 'Ease In' It creates a gentle zooming-in effect. The transition I most commonly use is 'Fade' because it is possibly the smoothest transition between photos. There is also an automatic slideshow generator that adds effects and transitions but I will reserve that for more energetic up-tempo songs.

All the slideshows here were made using 'Microsoft movie maker', so when you're happy with your slideshow, just click 'publish' and wait for it to convert the format and generate a version compatible for the web. Then 'upload' to YouTube.

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Week 123: Covers Progress

Hi Guys!

I was at the Nike FlyKnit product launch this week. It was a beautiful structure and a great piece of engineering. Looks like a great place for a private party. I gonna get me one for my garden! Very interesting promotion, great branding and lots of money to do things properly :)!

It was a productive week for the Pop/Rock CoversBand Project

Songs Practiced:

One Key: C (Original)

Wonderful Life: (Original Em), key Gm (Play Em on 3rd fret)

Mad World: (Original Fm), key of Gm (Play Em on 3rd fret)

Light my fire: In original Key of Am.

We arrived at El Patio Studio at 9.15pm. It was the first time I had seen Luis and we went down to the basement. There were 2 small rooms, a medium sized room and a larger room with a sofa.

The studio was well equipped with amps, cables, mics and mixer.

We set up the mics and positioned the instruments in a circle. By 9.30pm the others were arriving and we began with our first song- One by U2. We played round and round with chords to the verse, Am D F G for 10-15 minutes taking it in turns to enter. I started with the acoustic guitar for 4 bars, then Sheera entered with Ukulele, 4 bars later Luis started with Clean Electric guitar. Then Gustavo came in on the drums, Dom added more rhythm on acoustic guitar 2, Carolyn created bass notes on her trombone, Miquel entered with Acoustic guitar 3 and finally Narani began with the first verse.

We then worked on the chorus C Am F C & finally put the whole song together. It was great because everyone was listening to each other and playing steadily.

2 hours went really quickly and we also did; Light my fire (the doors), Mad World ( Tears for fears), Wonderful Life (Black).

We shared the cost of the large room which was 17e/hour, so it worked out about 3euros each. Much better than going to play in the music bar, cheaper and more productive. We are planning to put a set of 15 songs together then start looking for small venues to make some fun gigs. Great way to join in, sing in English and learn words to great songs.

We look forward to seeing you at our first concert!

Zack & Members of Pop/Rock Coversband at BAMM

Miquel - piano/guitar

Narani - vox

Gustavo - drums

Luis - Electric gtr w/effects

Dom - Rhythmn Gtr

Carolyn - Trombone

Sheera - Ukulele

Tony - Guitar/Vox

Manel M - Acoustic Guitar 2

Guests Singers: Ester Galeote & Elena Mendez  Jose Galeote

Other songs: (Click o song for YouTube video link)

Wicked game (Chris Isaak)

1. Mad World Tears for fears

2. My Immortal Evanescence

3. One U2

4. Stand By Me Ben E. King

5. Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay Otis Redding

6. Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd

7. Wonderful Life Black

8. Wonderwall Oasis

9. Light My Fire The Doors

10. Another Brick in a Wall Pt2 Pink Floyd

11. Hey Jude The Beatles

12. Fields of Gold Sting

13. California Dreaming

14. Angie

15. Mrs. Robinson/ The sound of silence

16. Every Breath You Take Sting

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Week 122: Setting up a Pop/Rock Coversband at BAMM II

Hi Music Lovers!

We had a fantastic evening of live music at El Nostre Raco, (C/ Boria 22, Barcelona, ES) the other week! There was a surprise in store for us too... It made the evening an experience & surprisingly more interesting as well.

Making A Pop/Rock Covers Band

We were about 12 people, 6 musicians and 6 listeners who doubled as our audience & singers. They helped us to select 15 songs from a list of around 50.

We separated into 2 groups. Musicians and audience. We made 2 seperate

lists and then compared them.

Here are the songs the musicians collectively selected: (Click on song for YouTube link)

Another Brick in a Wall Pt2 Pink Floyd

Light My Fire The Doors

Mad World Tears for fears

One U2

Stand By Me Ben E. King

Wonderful Life Black

Wonderwall Oasis

So we started by giving a preview of some of the songs by singing

them. After about 3 songs, a party of about 15-20 people arrived with

5 or 6 classical guitars!

They were a flamenco group called Tuna! Apparently it was their 20

year anniversary party of when they first started the group when they

were jamming  in El Nostre Raco.

They were very loud so we couldn't hear ourselves play. We quickly

selected the next song and began as soon as they had finished. Then

when we finished, they began... It was very funny and like a battle of

the bands! They joined in with our songs and we joined in with theirs.

People have been playing at el Nostre Raco for 37 years.

Related article: Week 118: Setting up a Covers Band

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