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How to Get the Pro Deal at the Corporate Music Store

This little segment is by request from Juan Ruiz who is the founding member of the So. Cal. Band “Miel“. BTW “Miel” means sugar in Spanish. And I’m going to give them a plug too because I think they sound really good! www.myspace.com/miel Tell him Jeremy from free musician says hi. Lol! Now on to the real stuff.


So you walk into a Guitar Center or a Sam Ash….You want to buy something and you hear the guy next to you telling the sales guy he gets the “Pro Deal”. WTF! What the hell it the pro deal? How the hell is the guy next to you getting some kind of magic hookup? And most importantly who the hell is this guy? The answers are simple. There is no “Pro Deal“, anyone can get the hookup, and he is most likely nobody. Back in the good old days, the retail market had gigantic mark ups. Now a days, its not the same story. Thanks to the internet and company competition the prices have all come down vs. cost. However, like everything else things get more expensive. What does this all mean? It means you can still get a deal! You just have to recognize a good deal when you see it. First thing is to get a reference as to what things cost. Hop on the internet and look at the best deals including the “B stock” items. Froogle.com is a good place to look for pricing. After you have this list of normal to crazy pricing, its time to head down to the music store. Try to “grind” the first guy you see in the department that has the item you’re looking for. Never show him your prices! BTW at Guitar Center “grind” is what they call bargaining for a lower price. Ok, so when he does his salesman dance and tries to get you pay full price, tell him you were at the other company’s store. For example, you’re at Guitar Center, tell him you went to Sam Ash last week and they were going to hook you up. Tell him a price that is about 20% below the cheapest price you found. Now you have him thinking.


So now he’s got his back against the wall! Think about his perspective. You can go on the internet and just pick the lowest price and so be it, but when you can go down to the other company and give them your money…that is failure. Today there is nothing the retail brick and mortar stores can do about the internet except to compete on service and price. Whatever. At the same time they do well with customers who like to have their guy, or need information about all the products offered. This is where they go head to head with the other brick and mortar stores. They want to be your guy. They want to have the answers for you. This will keep you coming back instead of going on the internet or god forbid…the other company. Another important fact to pay attention to is most of the stores are on commission. Not all of them, but most of them are. If this guy lets you walk out the door after mentioning their competitor he knows that he likely isn’t going to get the sale. You’ll either go back to their competitor or talk to someone else in the store.


He’s going to do whatever he can do to get you to take it that day. Maybe what you told him his competitor would do is below cost. He’s not going to lose money for you, but he’ll get the price a lot lower than you would get otherwise. He’s going to usually go about 10% above what cost is. Try to “grind” him down a bit more, but the price he comes back is a good price if he won’t go down any more. Remember he is trying to impress you with a price that will make you buy it today.


Once you get the price…buy it. If you go in and “sport grind” just to see what you can get gear for, you’ll get a bad reputation in the store and they won’t do anything for you. They aren’t going to let you waste their time, and they aren’t going to bargain on price for you. In their mind, why would they bend over backwards for you when you aren’t going to buy anything anyways?


Ok, so you bought it! Sweet! You got a great deal and this guy knows you. Let him be your guy unless you think he is an idiot. But once you get someone who will deal on price and knows their gear, stick with them. They will appreciate the loyalty and if you are a nice guy they will want to hook you up just because you aren’t a pain in the ass. The nice part is the hard work is done. You have an established relationship with someone who knows you get the deal. Stick with them, but check prices before you shop so you can still have a good idea about what things go for. He’s always going to try to get dollars out of you, but he’ll always start out with a hookup price that’s pretty good! On a side note, if you like your sales guy, throw him a bone! Let him hook you up and make a buck off of you every once in a while.




Jeremy Gift




Free Musician

Maybe you’ve heard, vintage gear can be really, really expensive! So is it just the hype or is it really worth the price? That depend on what you want in your guitar or amp or basses or whatever the gear is. I’ve played plenty of vintage Gibsons and Fenders, and a good pile of the 60’s and 70’s Japanese guitars. Since there are really new Teiscos and Kuwai guitars to compare, I’ll speak of the guitars I’ve done a “A B” test on. Say a 1956 Gibson Les Paul vs. a 1956 Gibson Les Paul reissue. There are some things that time can change on a guitar that manufacturing techniques can’t. For instance the wood tends to dry out as it ages. As this happens the body resonates easier when its lighter but still has the cellular structure of the wood. End of the day it means more sustain. In my opinion more sustain is better, and most people will agree with that. Pickup are a little different, as they age assuming they are wax potted the wax loosens up and one they feed back a little more, and two which is the important part they get more dynamics to your amp. Sweet!


So now we are on to the magic part of selecting a guitar…the neck. When you find a neck that feels right its such a good feeling. It moulds to your hand like it was built for you. This happen every once in a while these days because the necks are very standardized. On the vintage gear there was a lot more variety in the manufacturing. Some companies have necks that are all the same so if you find a PRS neck you like, you will always find a neck you like. If not…too bad. So for me viva la difference, but I’m not everybody. You have to make that decision yourself. I really liked a neck on a $45,000.00 Les Paul recently, while the reissues of the same year feel a little large to me, so pay attention to the right feel.


Amps are a question of two things: Speakers and Electronics. Most of the earliest amps were hand wired and they used very good components that in some cases aren’t being manufactured today. For example the Marshall Jubilee amp used the Drake transformers which today aren’t available. In an amp, the transformer makes a huge difference in tone, so make sure if you are buying a vintage amp you are getting what you are paying for. For hand wired amps, they are very easy to work on, and because of this you have to make sure the components are all original or at least period correct. Tubes aren’t as important because if you play your amp regularly, you get about a 5 year shelf life out of them. Vintage NOS (New Old Stock) tubes are an ideal change for a vintage amp, but are getting to be difficult to find. Get as good a tubes as you can. Some of the features the old amps don’t usually have are things like, high gain, 4 channels, effects loops and a couple modern features that may make you choose a newer amp versus a vintage amp.


On to speakers…Broken in speakers tend to be more responsive than new speakers. You can’t fake the playing time that goes into a speaker. Now there are some speakers that you might like over others and that’s fine, but head to head with the same model speaker, the older speaker usually wins. Make sure the speakers aren’t blown though. An old cab with new speakers sounds about the same as a brand new cab. So find the sound you are looking for and you might find it in a new cab or combo amp…Great! It’ll be a lot cheaper than a vintage tone monster. But if you find it in a vintage Fender bassman for instance be prepared to pay for it.


So happy hunting and good luck on the quest for the perfect tone! I’ve got my eye on a 1955 Gibson Les Paul jr at the moment. Unfortunately, they want $11,450.00 for it. So, at the moment I’ll stick to my 1976 Les Paul Custom and a few other choice guitars in the collection. BTW eBay is a great place to check street value on vintage gear so get an account and look at the completed listings. That shows what they actually sell for.


As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns…Hit me up!


Jeremy Gift


Free Musician

Say at this moment you don’t have a band together, but you really want to pull this band thing off. What do you do? Take a moment to envision what kind of band you want to have. Think of the different parts you want to have in a song. Do you want two guitars or just one? Do you want keyboards, a DJ, percussion, trombone? These days, the easiest thing to find is guitar players. Take a look at a Guitar Center, or a Sam Ash and you will see how the breakdown goes. Pretty much you can break it down by square foot in these stores. Tons of guitars, then basses, then drums, then keyboards. The DJ section is a little harder to gauge, but the DJ that want to join a rock band are a little slim. No trumpets, no sax, no school band gear in general. So if you are in the ska genera, make sure you hit up the smaller music stores in your area that carry the brass and woodwinds.


So we have the breakdown. Hopefully, you are in one of the hard to find categories of musicians. It will make finding the whole band easier. If not, start with a few basic steps: Post on bulletin boards in music stores. Ask your friends. Hop on Craigslist.org and put a bulletin up at least once a week till the spot is filled. This is the hard part…you have to have tryouts for these spots. As part of the tryout you have to hang out with them. If you have friends that play instruments, start with them. You know you like them already. Having a band is like marrying five people. You can’t do it yourself, so check your ego at the door. Be careful about other people and their egos as well. There is a balance in a band, you have to have leadership, but everyone has to have some say in decisions. Everyone has an ego and to some degree its a good thing. Imagine a front man that is super shy on stage…Shitty show! So you want someone with enough ego to put on a killer show, but not so much that they kill the band.


Cut your losses! If you have a rehearsal with a new member for instance, and he has no mojo. I’ve been there a million times. You jam with someone and it seem like they are playing a different song than you are. In my mind I always think WTF is this guy thinking…is he really playing this and thinking its good? Keep them as friends, or not, but don’t have them in your band just to have someone there. It will never work plus its harder to get rid of someone after a few months than a few days. Hell, I’ve had my family giving me shit about letting a band member go because “He’s nice”. I don’t give a shit about that. If there is no mojo, there is no mojo. Pay attention to the all technique guy as well. Its great to be a great player, but if you have no heart for music, you’ll never write a great song. In fact, usually the songs end up sounding like whatever they just heard on the radio, or worse, it could sound like one of your songs you are working on. Ok, as much as I won’t be in a cover band, I still have to go into it. Especially at this point. If you are getting a cover band together…get the all technique guy. Get the guy with not an original musical thought in his mind. These guys will nail the songs exactly like the original artists. They will be happy about learning new songs that everyone knows and enjoy it much more than the guy who hate tab and only sort of learns cover songs. If you guys can hone in on an artist, you can really make a ton of money in a tribute band.


Back to original bands. So you get the basics of your band and now you can get at least basic parts together on some songs. Nice! It gets easier to do tryouts the more complete you are as a band. Try to get at least a few songs down with the members you have. If you take this step it will easier to compare the different musicians you are trying out. Remember the guy who learns the parts the fastest isn’t always the guy with the most mojo. Get the guy with the most mojo. Even if you write all of the chords of a song, a drummer or bass player can still make the song. Think of it like building a nice house. You are letting someone else decorate it and do the landscaping. Ugly wall paper can kill a beautiful house. Don’t let your house be too plain either, style is mojo.


Ok, you have everyone you need to play the parts. Great! But you still have one last piece to the band puzzle. How do they look on stage? A great player may do a horrible job on stage. If it looks like you are practicing on stage you won’t be doing a very good job performing. Record a rehearsal or two if you have a camera and play the rehearsal like you are playing a show. If after practicing like you are performing and you still have guys who can’t put on a good live show…cut your losses or get them on the ball and really really work with them. At the end of the day, if they can’t do it, they’ll never get it. Most of the time the performer is in you or not.




Good luck and happy hunting!


As always, questions, comments, concerns…hit me up!


Jeremy Gift


Free musician

So you have a band! Great start. So now you have to get out and gig. Without getting out and playing, you will never get a fan base and you will never take it to the next level. Step one…Get a myspace page, or any other page on the internet where you can put your music up. This is very important to give the people booking you at their establishment some reference on what you sound like and where they should put you into the lineup. Its also good for you so you can see what you’re up against. You want to get in where you play with other bands that may have fans that like you as well. To get started, go down to your local music store and ask the guys that work there where a good place to play is. Usually these guys have a good info on what places pay or where would be a good crowd for your band. So contact the venue and find out how long the set is. Normally, you get a half hour to an hour to play. Still find out so you can make a set list that fits the time slot. Remember when you play live the tempo magically ends up faster than rehearsal. Plan a few extra songs so you can fill in if you end up with extra time. Too much is better than not enough.


Personally, I like to know what kind of space you have to set up as well. The rig may have to get smaller if you have to fit into some corner of a dive bar. BTW if you don’t have a big following, dive bars always have people and can be packed weather you have a ton of fans there or not. If you have a video camera and a friend who is willing to record you guys I highly recommend getting the video. Its amazing to see what you guys really look like on stage. It will really help on gig number two. A word of warning…at gig number one you may run into the guy in the band who wants to be a rock star, but when it comes down to it, they flake. With vets, you don’t have to worry so much, but if its your guys first show, get ready. It could be a real surprise. Talk with your band about what you guys want to do on stage. Your look and presentation should have an impact. Make it mean something when you play.


Ok, so you have the deal at this place you are playing and you guys have a set list and some extra songs. Time to do a trial run on set up and tear down. If you have a complicated rig, you might have to cut some of the gear out of the live rig if it takes too much time to set up and tear down. Typically, you get fifteen minutes to do set up and tear down. Big tip: Make sure your cables are not tangled. If you have to use cable ties or tape, get them user friendly. Worst thing is to have the crowd waiting for you to set up while you are cutting into your playing time. A lot of times, if you are fast, you can play a longer set! Its kind of obvious, but you have to have transportation that will fit your gear.


There are a few kinds of gigs you can get. Paid…killer! Pay to play where you have to sell tickets for your gigs. Showcases, which usually are after you have been playing for a while and you are trying to get label interest or a slot on a tour. Backyard gigs that can be very rewarding for getting a local following. Finally, you can just go and play for free at a local venue. What is better? I think I would rather test a new band at a local venue. Your friends can be a real driving force for your band and you should at least try to get a few gigs before you present to your friends. You want to give them a great show and really make them dig you so they will spread the word. If you have a CD, give as many as you can out. When you have a really good looking and sounding package for your CD, then yu can sell them. Nobody wants to buy a CD that has bee hand written and in a CD slip. The CD might just get them to come back to see you again though. Put your name and URL on the CD and if you can put a song list on them. You want them to sing along at the next show or at least know the songs. Tell them to make copies as well. Free advertising is always good!


If you have a budget, or not, check out my post “Stage Show vs Recording vs Both” It’ll give you the steps to build your band from ground up. First thing is first though, get your band tight! Get comfortable in front of a crowd, and make sure you are performing for them. Entertain them! If they have a good time, they will be back for another show. As part of the entertaining, try to hang out after the show and talk to the people there. If they like you and you are personable, they will be much more likely to come back to see you again.




As always, questions, comments, concerns, hit me up. And if you liked the post let me know. BTW, if you have any topics you want covered, we are here for you. Ask away and we’ll see what we can do.


Jeremy Gift


Free musician

So you got the band. You got the songs. You got the gigs. Now what about the merch? If getting on a tour is the goal for your band, or if you just want to make some money at shows, merchandise is the way to go! One, it makes you look more professional, two it can generate cash flow for gigs, and three it helps build the band as a “brand”. If you’ve ever opened for a headliner on a national tour, you know they have a booth set up with a tone of merchandise for sale. Everything from CD’s to buttons to t-shirts. Why? Because that’s how they afford gas to the next show. Unless they are the Foo Fighters, they most likely aren’t making a ton of money on their CD sales in retail locations. So they are hustling at every show. You should do the same. Weather you need to pay for the gas or just need some strings, every piece of merch that goes out has your name on it and when you can get people to wear your shirts around town, you can bet people will come to see you just out of curiosity.

So should you DIY or have somebody do it for you? The answer depends on what you can figure out yourself and how much you’re going to use it. As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t ever recommend buying the gear to make t-shirts and sweaters unless that is going to be your day job. There is a fairly large investment of time, space, and money. Buttons however are a different story. For $200.00 to $300.00 you can pick up a button press that will do everything you need and its really easy to punch out a ton of buttons. The nice part about doing it yourself is flexibility. You can have a large amount of styles of buttons without a huge change in time required to make them. Remember, you never know when someone will see something that they can’t live without! Same goes for apparel variety, is the spice of selling them shit!


Now you have to sell CD’s. That at the end of the day is the whole point…or getting chicks. I forget, but anyways you need a CD. Rule is a good looking demo is better to sell than a crappy looking polished recording. Once they get home and listen to it the polished CD is by far better. So basically you need both. How to get it depends on time and your skill level. Recording it yourself has more than just the CD as a benefit. You can also record songs or pieces of songs to work on it. You can take your time on the mixes and really experiment around with your sound. Cost usually ends up being more than cutting one CD after you get a whole studio full of gear, but you can cut as many CD’s as you want. If you guys are tight and can really lay down some clean tracks in a studio, you can do a good sounding demo for fairly cheap. They’ll do the mixdown and give you a CD you can have mastered and duplicated in an attractive package. (Don’t forget to get a barcode if you want to get it into retail locations) Either way is fine, as long as you end up with a good looking good sounding CD. If it still looks like a demo, no one will buy it. Just a little warning if you are trying to sell CD’s with hand written sharpie on them. Pay the money and get the logos and covers printed. You’ll sell a ton more CD’s.


So back to apparel. T-shirts are the first thing you need to get together. Various sizes in one style is ok to start with, but if you want to build your band and sell some gear you need to get more than a t-shirt. So most girls like girl shirts, and they usually look better in them than a regular guy shirt. Get the girls to wear your shirts…if the girls go, they guys will go. Get a few designs going with your bands logo in a few different but instantly recognizable styles. Think the Rolling Stones “mouth” or Aerosmith’s wings logo. Something you can lay out many different ways that will represent your band. IMPORTANT! It has to look cool enough to make someone who sees it want it without knowing who you are. Style! Style! Style!


So, at the end of the day sell whatever will sell and put your logo on everything. Boxers, lighters, key chains, whatever. But before you invest a ton of money on a large quantity of merch, test it out in a small quantity. You don’t want to get stuck with $2,000 of watches that won’t sell till the price is $0. Be careful till you know it works. Just because one person asks for it doesn’t mean everyone will want it. Once you know something will sell, get large batches of them produced. Usually you can get quantity discounts on most things you have to get manufactured, and price shop! I hate seeing friends getting ripped off on merch when they could have done a google search and spent 5 minutes price shopping and saved 50%.


Good luck out there and as always, let me know if you have any questions about this subject.


Jeremy Gift
free musician

If you play live, at some point you realize your stage show has a lot to do with your credibility. However, you need to record a CD and have it sound good. So what do you do? You can spend a small amount of money on a guitar that will be playable and then spend a small fortune making it sound good enough to record, but then you have a guitar that may not be taken seriously on stage. You could also spend it some cases a lot less and have both. It really depends on what the budget will allow. First step is to prioritize your needs. Say you are just getting started and you need a PA an an amp too. You may need to just get a guitar. The good news is most people can’t tell the difference between a Mexican made Fender strat and an American strat. In this case it might be good to go a little lower on the quality of guitar. If you are into the humbucker sound, go with a Ibanez, Jackson or Epiphone. They all have recognizable shapes and will cut it with the “good from far but far from good” idea.


Now say you have been playing for a while and have saved up a little money for a demo CD. With a pickup change you can get a lot better sound out of your guitar for less than $200.00. You’ll still be playing a lower end guitar, but you will have a much better sounding CD. Live, the audience for the most part won’t be able to hear good tone, but in the studio, it makes a big difference. Hopefully you can get hold of a good tube amp for the recording, and a lot of studios have good amps to plug into for the session. Check into your local studios to see what they have available.


After you get a good sounding demo CD get a good cover and packaging together. T-shirts are another good way to get some revenue going. Sell, sell, sell! Next its time for a good guitar. Pay attention to who you like and what they play on. Remember the guitar is only half the recipe. Your amp has a lot to do with your sound, so do your research. If you like Clapton’s tone with Cream, you are going to have to pick up a Gibson Les Paul or an SG. He also recorded on a Fender champ and the live gigs were on a Fender twin reverb. Goggle is a good place to get this kind of info. You can also head to your local guitar shop and plug in. Again think tubes on the amps. Combo or Stack? A combo is very portable, but if you are in a metal band, you get a lot more cred with a stack and more so with a full stack. Playing live you have to think about road worthy gear as well, so try not to get the cheapest gear you can find. Again, name brands really make it look like you know what you are doing. Like a lot of things, presentation is as important as playing well.


Another thing you have to pay attention to is your style. Your band look might have a very large part in your instrument selection. A more vintage looking and sounding band might do well to check out the many random vintage guitars on ebay as well as your used sections in music stores and pawn shops. Be careful that the gear sounds good before you spend money on it! On ebay, check the return policy of the seller. You can get burned sometimes, but if you are careful and know what you are looking for you can find diamonds in the rough for a much lower investment. Sometimes, you can pick up a vintage guitar and change a few components making it play better sound amazing and give you the cred you need to get yourself to the next level. Remember tat vintage gear is always worth more with original everything, so if you plan on reselling it eventually, it has to sound good stock. Worse case, at least keep the original parts of you can put it back on when you sell it.


Now you have the gear to play live, record, and look good while doing it! Whats next? Lighting gives your show a much more professional appearance. Get a portable light stand and a few key lights to make it look full. I recommend the LS7730 for a light stand. It runs about $170 and can fit enough lights to fill about any room. As far as lights, a couple LED par cans, a Scorpion storm FX, and a light that throws a lot of color down in the middle. These light can be set to change to the music automatically and will give your shows a lot of motion so if you guys don’t move a lot yourselves it can cover it up a bit. You won’t always need the lights, but at backyard shows and small gigs, it makes a huge difference.


If you have any questions, post a comment and I’ll try to get back to you! Good luck and good playing!


Jeremy Gift

So I’m a white dude…I know its shocking, but I’ve been in a Spanish Rock band.  So how did that work?  It started slightly after I was born.  I came into this world in the lovely city of Canoga Park, CA.  Shortly after I was imported to Oxnard, CA.  This is likely a big reason I ended up in the Spanish Rock band…How so?  I’m the minority in Oxnard.  Good!  I love latinas!  So naturally when it came time to learn Spanish in school I dove right in…wrong!  It wasn’t till I started running cross country that speaking Spanish really came in handy.  Basically there was a whole team of broken English Spanish speakers, one guy fluent in both, and me.  So either the whole team learns English or the guy with long sun bleached blond hair has to learn Spanish.  Learn I did!  So fast forward a few years and my hair is cut and I’ve been playing in bands for quite a while.  So I like Spanish rock.  It started in college and it seems latinas go to the Spanish Rock shows…so do I.  I had been recording several local bands in my studio and had landed a job at the local Guitar Center.  Kick ass!


A girl I was interested in (latina) was going to the Wednesday Spanish rock shows at Ruby’s.  Turns out I know just about everyone in every band that played there.  One night they have no sound guy and I work at Guitar Center…So I end up doing sound that night and got the job for every Wednesday after that because they said it sounded better than the regular guy.  Good times!  After doing a few months of this, a lot of the bands wanted to record CD’s.  So I recorded a few of them and one band was recording without their lead guitar player.  I wank a solo or two just to fill space and record the real lead on another day with the actually band member.  I didn’t think about it at all, but The singer/rhythm guitar player remembered it.  Good for me!


So, about six months later his band had disbanded.  It happens…often.  Problem was he still had gigs lined up so I get a call.  Juan says,” So I have a couple of gigs I have to do, except I don’t have a band any more.  Would you mind filling in for a few?”  So I think for a second…No fancy changes, easy chords, and I kind of know the songs already.  I reply, ”Sure, but where are we playing?”  Turns out we are local, and not so local.  “Why not!” Then I find out the first gig is in two days and we need a drummer.  I pull a guy who played drums about six years before and we have a rehearsal the next day.  Kind of rough, but the show must go on.  The next day I get out of work, load up the gear and head to the best dive bar in Ventura.
I’m stoked to wing the gig!  Its exciting to not know what you’re going to play and to not give a shit because its not your band.  So We start setting up and I notice the girl I’m totally into sitting along the wall.  Shit!  She smiles and I wave and I do a little freak out in my mind.  Ok, time to really get down to business.  Wait, drink tickets!  Killer!  So I go get a Fat Tire and pound it!  Then on to a Vodka cran.  That one is just for sipping.  Ok, go!


We get going and somehow we are pretty tight and the crowd is into it!  I had forgotten the freedom in just playing guitar.  I sing and do the rhythm/lead in my band (Breathing Deep, check us out on myspace) and it’s a lot easier to jump around when you aren’t stuck behind the mic.  So I’m going ape shit on the solos and putting on a killer show!  After we get done a bunch of people come up and tell me how good a guitar player I am!  And now we get to the beginning of the end.  Juan wants to be the star, but he doesn’t move a whole lot and is fairly boring to watch.  Turns out the previous bass player got kicked out because he “over exaggerated” according to Juan.  Now I had seen the previous incarnation of the band and Danny, the bass player was the whole show, and a pretty descent player.  I’m always stoked when I get someone in Breathing Deep who does that.  But, this is Ghoma and I have to tell you the singer’s last name is Ghoma if that tells you anything.  So we play the last three gigs and the story repeats and no one is talking to Juan after the shows and I get praise galore.  So he talks to Carl who has been kind enough to play drums for these shows and gives him the, “He’s just a little too much“ talk.  So Juan flakes on his own gigs because he somehow moved to Bakersfield to get away from his coke habit.


That was it for me weather he wanted me in the band or not.  You don’t break the carnal rule of flaking on gigs.  Ever!  I don’t want to be associated with someone unprofessional like that.  You live by your reputation and a bad reputation will follow you for a long long time.  Juan called me a few weeks ago and wants to record a few new songs for a CD, and I’m happy to record, but that’s as far as it goes.  He’s back to the solo acoustic thing.  Good luck to him.  I really like the experience I got in the band and wish the rock scene here was as flourishing as the Spanish rock scene.   Ironically, I have more latin sounding songs in my set than he does, and maybe someday we can pull the two scenes together.  Till then, I’m going to keep rocking balls and killing it in my band!  BTW if anyone remembers what the hell I did after the Ruby’s show, let me know.  And pretty girl, at the same show,  what the hell is your name?


In closing, I would like to warn people in new bands to be very careful of egos.  It can ruin the best of bands.  Just think of Van Halen with David Lee Roth.  It doesn’t matter how good you guys are if you can’t coexist as a unit.  Having a band is like a marriage between five people.  it’s a real pain in the ass, but It can be really rewarding if it works out.  Good luck to you all and let me know If you have anything more you want to know.


Jeremy Gift

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Welcome to Freemusiciansecrets.com!   We are proud to launch this page to help our peers in the music industry.  We hope to build a page devoted to giving honest answers and unbiased opinions on a wide variety of subjects.  BTW if you are interested in anything that we don’t have content on, feel free to shoot us an email.  We can’t promise to know everything, but if we do, we’re on it.

Combined here we have a staff expert in: Recording, producing, managing bands.  We have singers, songwriters, guitarists, drummers, keyboard players, bass players, DJ’s and more.  Then there are our friends and even family.  Our network covers a lot of ground, hell presently we are working on two videos.  One is a latin classical guitarist who is arguably one of the best guitarists in the world.  Man he really pisses you off when he explains things to be so seemingly easy.  Still a great teacher!  The other is a finger style player.  He’s killer, he even won the Chet Atkins guitar competition in 2002 the year Chet died.  Super cool nice guy!  We’ve seen him take a beginner guitarist and a year later turn him into a monster picker!

Plans for the future…We are doing a few reviews of some new stuff and offering opinions on rigs and no promises, but we are working on getting a few discounts for our subscribers!  Oh, if you are into the Spanish rock scene, one of our staff members is working on an article concerning how to be the white guy in the Spanish rock band.  Its looking like one of the funniest things we’ve ever read!  We’ve got interviews lined up with Eddie Money’s producer Bob Delellis and Todd Smallwood, who has produced about everybody!  We’ve got another producer in the works, but I’ll leave that one a surprise.  All in all, we are going to work har to bring you everything we can to help you succeed in the music industry.  We’ve been there in one way or another: new bass player, drummer doesn’t show up to the recording session, break a needle setting up the tables, and pitch correcting the egomaniac singer who you can’t tell he can’t sing (just tell him you added some compression).  Help us help you so we can get the right info to you!