Indie Band Guru

It has been proven over and over again, by more studies than we can list, that music lessons for children help them achieve more success than their peers that do not get musical training.  So why isn’t every kid taking music lessons?  Why are music programs being eliminated in schools nationwide?

The most talked about benefit is that music lessons help children in school.  Numerous studies show children who play an instrument, score higher on both standard and spatial cognitive development tests alike.  In IQ tests after a year of musical training, scores for the children learning music increased an additional 2.5 points, over children with the same schooling who were taking drama lessons instead.

Another often witnessed benefit of music instruction is increasing a child’s self-esteem.  We all know learning to play an instrument is hard work and takes dedication. Not only does mastering a song increase a child’s self-esteem, but showcasing their newly learned talents at recitals can boost their self esteem as much as winning a game in a sports competition.  Lessons also help kids to learn how to keep a positive outlook when facing difficult tasks.

I personally suggest guitar lessons.  A guitar is extremely portable and a kid can practice and learn in all sorts of environments.  We all want our kids to be popular, right?  Lets face it, knowing how to play a guitar means that your child will always have a way to entertain and impress his friends, especially when he/she gets to be of High School age. Playing the guitar can be a real help in a teen’s social life, and it will give him/her the additional confidence that goes along with it.

Many music schools for children have been popping up ever since the Jack Black film School of Rock.  This is great for everyone involved.  One I have seen that looks phenomenal is Chicos School Of Rock in California.  They are even in talks to introduce music lessons for kids right over the internet.  What could be easier than that?

The bottom line is that we have to introduce our children to music and our love for it, at as early an age as possible.  With all the benefits proven, how can we afford not too.  I have a 1 year old at home and have been singing and making music with her since she could sit up.  It is great fun for the both of us and a great bonding experience.  We found a great show on Nick Jr. called Jack’s Big Music Show that I strongly recommend to anyone with kids.  She loves it and it is actually not too bad to watch for an adult as well.  Enjoy music—-with your kids.

The Plan: Provide an Apparatus that Introduces Indie Artists’ Music to Listeners looking for new independent music

– Immitter.com presented their plan for a new internet startup at the 2010 DEMO Conference in Los Angeles, CA this past weekend.  Immitters’ specialty is music; its platform is the Internet. Immitter proclaims itself as the Internet Music Transmitter. Its mission is to broadcast music from aspiring independent artists to its intended audience — people who value it.

Immitter operates on the premise that everyone enjoys discovering new music. Many of us are willing to venture beyond the traditional label driven model to listen to music from aspiring artists. We do not, however, have time to sort through current platforms for independent music discovery, namely the millions of profiles on Myspace music, Last.fm, and tons of other social networking sites. And, even more problematically we don’t always know where to begin when confronted by an overwhelming number of unsigned bands to sort through.

Jermaine Kelly and Andre Nurse, cofounders of Immitter, understand  this very specific problem — they are independent musicians endeavoring to get their music to its intended audience. They founded Immitter in response to meeting listeners who are open to discovering hidden musical gems being overlooked by the major record label model. Though those audiences are open to listening to aspiring musicians, they are not open to spending hours sorting through hundreds of music profile pages on social networking sites to discover them.

The solution is to deliver the music to the audiences. Currently, there is no Pandora like promotion engine that broadcasts music from aspiring independent artists. Musicians hoping to have their content heard must wait for people to stumble upon it. Immitter imagined the possibility of aspiring artists being able to upload their original content onto a transmitter to be broadcasted according to specific parameters, just as Pandora does with music from labels.

The company and website www.Immitter.com  are still in their infancy, but they may be some potential there.  At Indie band Guru we are always on the lookout for great new music and ways for bands to get their music out to the world. 

Let us know your thoughts about Immitter and its’ potential.

  I heard a strange, but true story about the origin of  the band, The Soft Pack’s name today.  The Los Angeles (via-San Diego) indie mope-punk rockers were called The Muslims back when they got started in 2008.  Maybe not the smartest choice.  How far could a group calling itself the Muslims get in today’s politcally correct music business?

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The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims)

  “It’s just a band name,” guitarist Matty McLoughlin told an interviewer early last year. “It isn’t meant to describe us or associate us with anything.” But by the end of the year, the band had switched to The Soft Pack. “We were sick of it,” he later said. “Sick of questions, jihad comments, basically everything about it. It became a total nuisance.”

  Now I find out the new name is not exactly politically correct anyway.  It seems that a Soft Pack refers to a fake phallus used to give the appearance of a penis under clothing.  Here is the description fom the company;

  Soft Pack:
This family of packers is built to bulge. The realistic package feels amazing through jeans and has even been known to pass the “squeeze test” at gay men’s clubs. It has a “realistic” texture as well as form, and successfully mimics a flaccid penis. Available in Vanilla, Mocha, Chocolate, and Blue colors and in mini, small, medium and large sizes.

  Good for them though.  At least the band stayed true to being kind of offensive just not letting the casual listener know about it.  God Bless even today’s punk rockers and the punk rock attitude.

Do you have any good band name origin stories?

  Choose your tourmates wisely! I am not sure if indie starlets Band of Horses have done this on their decision to due a 3 week series of dates with grunge rock pioneers Pearl Jam.  The only similarity I see in these two bands is that they are both from Seattle.

  Granted opening for Pearl Jam will expose Band Of Horses to a much larger crowd, but who is in that crowd?  Aging, grunge rocker wanna-bes trying to hold onto their youth?  I feel that the standard Pearl Jam fan will just not like the slow tempo of most of the songs by Band Of Horses.  These fans may resent the fact that they are there to see a raucous rock show and on the stage is a bunch of guys that needed to shave about a month ago.

Band of Horses and their beards

  At the same time, how could a relatively unknown to the masses band like Band Of Horses turn down a shot to play with such a concert packing powerhouse?  BOH would not have a shot to play at Nationwide Arena in Ohio or Madison Square Garden in New York without the drawability of Pearl Jam.  Band Of Horses will play in front of A LOT of people at these shows.

  In the end I guess you could look at it both ways.  Some people will hate them and some people might like being exposed to something new and different.

  What do you think?