Spirited Irish Fiddle with a Global Twist - Cady Finlayson - Blog

Music Success in Nine Weeks: Blog Challenge Week 4: Social Media for Musicians

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:46:18 -0700

This week was the real challenge because I was traveling and getting used to a new phone. I guess I'm not an early adapter, but I finally got a phone that can do internet and all this social networking that is outlined in Chapter 4 of Ariel Hyatt's, "Music Success in Nine Weeks". I have to confess my 8-year old nephew helped me figure out how to turn the phone on and off....

So forging ahead, I started working on linking my social networking sites (did you know you can go to tinyurl.com/selectivetweet.com and choose which tweets go to your facebook?). A lot of the chapters talk about the importance of social networking and getting on flickr/twitter, etc. and I am convinced of that now. going full-steam ahead and starting to enjoy the online aspect.

Twitter is my favorite because it's quick and to the point.
and it works! Here's an example. Last year I was in a coffee shop in my neighborhood called Naidre's. I had signed up for twitter at the time, so I had an account but didn't really know what it was or what to do with it. So I'm buying my salad to-go when I hear someone ask "Does anyone know what song that is playing on the radio?". I turned to see Derek Sivers (music business expert and original founder of CDbaby - now involved in sivers.org) who I had met once before at a music conference. I didn't know the song but I introduced myself and he asked about my website (fiddleandguitar.com). Then I left. When I got home just ten minutes later, I had an e-mail from a great guitarist who teaches at my school (Pat Bianculli_. who apparently follows Derek on twitter. Pat wrote and said, "I read about your website on twitter". I live in New York City, and at this moment I felt like I lived in a small town. THAT is the power of twitter.

So now that I'm convinced, this has been a week to link everything and you'll be seeing more of it on all my sites (follow at twitter.com/celticfiddle).

I also had to chance to share the Music Success book with my father, who will be starting his first blog (about the upcoming revised edition of his Chemical Engineering book). We skipped ahead a little to chapter 5 which is all about blogging - and really there is tons of info that applies to anyone, not just musicians. We both got in the brainstorming mode, and now I'll be writing some tunes to accompany the blog - all with Chemical Engineering themes and titles. You see what happens when you get the mind thinking in both the creative and business sides !

FIVE SUCCESSES
Lastly, I continued with my 5 successes every day. Vita and I are being interviewed on the Backstage Gourmet (August 9th) and will be sharing Vegetarian recipes, so my sister and I measured everything out for a really tasty recipe that uses Quinoa.
Healthylife.net at 1 pm Pacific time (4 pm East Coast time) if you want to listen live.

I got my Dad on the writing-down-five-daily- successes too, but was a little concerned when it was only 10 am and I found him scribbling his 5 successes already. I seemed to have missed the efficiency gene there.

In conclusion, Chapter 4 of the book confirmed that I was on the right track (doing all the media sites) but helped me to link them and USE them in new ways.

Music Success in Nine Weeks

Music Success in Nine Weeks:Week 3 of the Blog challenge

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:54:28 -0700

I've been doing this blog challenge on my celticfiddle.blogspot.com site. Basically it's to read this book and do everything it says and blog about it. Here's the blog from week three.

Optimizing your website
It's week three in the blog challenge and the habit of writing down 5 successes every day is really helping me focus on my goals. One of my non-music goals is to get in shape and today I woke up early (by accident) and decided to check out the 8am ballet class at the Y. If you know me, you know I'm not a morning person and need at least one cup of strong coffee to even get dressed -so the fact that I was attempting bar exercises in a ballet class at 8 am would probably be my biggest success of the week. I have to say though that just stretching and doing bar exercises is a really nice start to the day.

So the Chapter of the week (Chapter 3) is all about "Optimizing Your Website": how to Capture Fans who are landing on your site, making your websites consistent and making them something people will want to visit often.
Ariel suggests offering a giveaway to people who sign up for the monthly newsletter. Luckily Reverbnation makes this very easy with their widget, and so now...drum roll...when you go to our fiddleandguitar.com site and sign up for the newsletter, you will receive a free MP3 instantly. (and we will never sell or give out your name).

For the future, I'm thinking of giving fans some mp3s from live shows. There are some electric moments that only happen live and my Zoom recorder does a pretty decent job of capturing them. For now though, I chose a giveaway track from the Electric Green CD, and this one features Vita on the wah pedal. I think this track (Itchy Fingers electric) would be good in a cartoon.

I'm still trying to make ALL the websites consistent. The twitter/youtube/myspace are purple but I haven't found a purple option that works for me on the fiddleandguitar.com site (THIS ONE!). It's like when you look at bathing suits and they say, "This one is for people with hips, this one is for people with short legs, this one is for people who need a bust". Well sometimes the categories/choices don't exactly fit what you're doing (what if you need ALL that in a swimming suit?). So I'm thinking a little more on this.

Music Success in Nine Weeks
Posted by celticfiddle at 11:57 PM 0 comments

Celebrate Fairfax: Video footage of Cady and VIta in Virginia

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:51:17 -0700

Cleveland was so much fun that I decided to make a video about it...stay tuned, the editing takes a while, especially all the bleeping. I have footage of the parade, the Pipe Tattoo at the Public Auditorium, lots of bagpipe moments, and exclusive interviews with the Police Pipes and Drums.

Vita and I went to Virginia for a festival called Celebrate Fairfax. Here's the video! Watch after the opening credits for my latest coffee recommendation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5L8r_eXSDk

Upcoming shows Windmuller Park with the full band and Brooklyn Borough Hall for a lunchtime concert, right by the courthouse where I wrote my tune "Jury Duty Waltz"...
It's all on the showdates page.

Countdown to Cleveland: Pipe Band Tattoo

Tue, 04 May 2010 20:48:45 -0700

It's one of my most favorite gigs of the year, playing for Police Memorial Week in Cleveland with the Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County. We stay right by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and this year I'm going to bring my video camera and do a video diary of the events. There's a parade, memorial service, parties, barbecues, the big concert (Pipe and Drum Tattoo), the swap meet where I work on my car collection, and then the best of all, the mass pipe bands where they all join together and march back to the hotel.

Everybody's in kilts and by the end of the weekend it looks totally normal....
first rehearsal is tomorrow night....

March Madness: St. Patrick's Day and Beyond

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:40:19 -0700

March 21st 2010

Today is the Brooklyn Irish parade, and four hours later I still hear a few pipes and there is a lively crowd outside Farrell's Bar. The funny thing about Farrell's is that the police give them police barricades so the people can stand on the sidewalk with their beers- the bar is a small place after all. It looks like one of those red velvet rope lines at those exclusive clubs except everyone is loud and cheerful (and wearing all sorts of green).

This week has been a busy one for gigs. Last night I played at Sotheby's Auction House for a Gala Auction that the United Nations School was doing. They were auctioning off all sorts of items, including cleats from famous baseball players. I went right ahead and bid on those for the starting bid of $7,500 (not really!).

Then the night before, Vita and I had a very enjoyable gig at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, playing in their lobby series before dance show Classic Pilbolus. The acoustics were so nice there (even in the lobby) and we enjoyed the audience there as well. Plus did you know the train goes RIGHT there?! I took the Path train to Newark Penn Station and they have another light rail that stops right in front of the hall. Now that I know that, I may even go to concerts there, it makes NJ seem very close!

St. Patrick's Day was a crazy busy day, but my favorite moment was captured on video - since I just got a ZOOM Q3, I used it to take videos of the pipe band. The Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County (that I play for now and then) made an appearance at a bar just 4 blocks away from my corporate gig, so I met up with them there. You can check out the video on our youtube channel....
the channel is www.youtube.com/moulou6

Exact links:
Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County on St. Patrick's Day 2010

and if you haven't seen our new Electric Green promo video, here it is...