Yeah, but who do we sound like?

·                            For a singer, having great pitch means resonating their voice with all the other instruments to create a powerful harmony. Doing this well takes years of practice and a little (or a lot) of talent. In this week's installment of 'Music Success in Nine weeks' by Ariel Hyatt, the only thing more important than great pitch for a new musician, is a great Pitch.

In order for us to get our music heard, we must entice our prospective audience with our words first. It makes sense. You can tell a lot about a band by how they describe themselves. If they are hard pressed to answer such a simple question as, "Sure, I'd love to come see your show. What kind of music do you play?" They may not have a coherent vision or direction for their music. Maybe they haven't given it much thought. Either way, it doesn't make their possible fans interested in attending a show. But if that same band answers with a collective short simple answer, "Electro-funk blues with a twist of opera," it will generate a lot of interest and bigger crowds to play for. So you see, even if your music is ground breakingly epic, it really doesn't do any good if you can't describe it clearly to the public. No matter how well you play or sing, no one will be listening to you unless you work on your Pitch.

What I love about her book, is Ariel doesn't just tell you what to do but how. Sure, I know I need a pitch, but if I knew how to come up with one, I'd have it already, right? So she came up with a clever (why didn't I come up with that style) way of producing a pitch. 1) list all of the genres your music fits into. 2) list all of the other artists people say you sound like. 3) list all of your influences. 4) list all of the feelings or vibes you want your music to elicit. Then reduce all those lists down to all your favorites and combine them into a concise 15 second Pitch.

For our band, Nobody Gets Killed we had some pretty long lists. We have so many influences and we want to explore many different genres with our music.
One of the Pitches we came up with is 'Anti-pop alternative rock with undertones of blues and soul. A Radiohead feel with shades of Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie.' It's a start, but I'm sure it needs work.

Because we have a very subjective view of our work, what we really need is the input of our fans. So, we are asking you to please leave us a comment of what you think we sound like and what feelings you get from our music. We don't want to just be describing ourselves from our narrow point of view, we need you to "put us in our place", if you will.

Thank you to all of our fans, to those who read this, and to Ariel PR for putting together such an excellent program.