Fiddlers Casey Driessen and Christian Howes discuss extensive clips from Casey’s album Otherlands. We talk about chopping/rhythm, and other aspects of musical collaboration for fiddlers and string players who want to expand their creative voice, musical community, and career or lifestyle. We play a tune together as well in this hour-long interview. Find more at www.christianhowes.com

Fiddler Casey Driessen on Collaboration, Rhythm, and Drawing Musical Language from Otherlands

Join us with Guest Speakers Caleigh Drane & William Seiji Marsh as we discuss how to conquer your stage fright and better achieve your musical goals through mindfulness and mindful practice.

Mindful Practice with Caleigh Drane & William Seiji Marsh

Join us with Guest Speaker and former Creative Strings Workshop participant Marlene Cruz Lozano as she talks about her new studio, Violin Bootcamp, which centers adult women violin students, their goals, and needs.

On Teaching Adult Students With Marlene Cruz Lozano

Download my video starter worksheet for musicians here(free):  http://bit.ly/2kM5bE4
Get my favorite tools- 
TubeBuddy: http://bit.ly/2q7nkAg    
YouTube StarterKit:  http://bit.ly/2izzkq7

In this video I cover: Why video is essential for any self-employed musician in 2018, why your career is likely to suffer if you don’t have videos, how making videos will benefit your musical and business growth, and what has worked for me on my road to 1,000,000 views on my YouTube channel.

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/5sRQTsM9jVo

Making videos in 2018 is important for your growth and improvement as an artist.

The best and easiest way to improve your work as a musician or teacher is to record yourself and listen back.

The reason for this is that we can’t generally observe our performance while we are performing.  Listening or watching back allows us to understand the mistakes we are making, helping us to notice and fix them. 

Your business suffers if you don’t have video.

Many people will not hire you if they can’t learn more about the thing you do, or who you are, via video.

Whether someone is looking to “get a vibe” about how you come across personally, or they’re looking for a specific skill or service you offer, most people want to see you on video, even after they’ve been referred to you by someone they trust.

If people cannot find videos of you on YouTube or elsewhere, they will often pass you over — even if they’ve been referred.

And you’ll miss out on being discovered in a Google search.

What you need to showcase on video and why:

1) Show who you are so they can know, like, and trust you.

Most people will hire a less talented teacher, performer, composer, or producer whom they know, like and trust.

Speaking from the heart, showing your human side-- gives your prospective clients the opportunity to get to know you.

Many clients don’t know the difference between the talent and skill of you vs your competitors any more than you can distinguish the difference in skill of web designers, landscapers, or rocket scientists. 

2) Demonstrate specific skills and/or services.

Demonstrate your skills in as many sub-categories as apply.
Describe the benefits to your customers of services you provide.

Pro Tip: Make a list of all the styles or skills you have as a performer and make a video showcasing each one.

Pro Tip: Make a list of all the things you say more than once to your students and then teach all of these things one by one. 

You can also compile playlists of related content for easier access to your viewers, and to increase the chances that your viewers will watch more content that is relevant and useful to them.

There are a number of other things you can feature in your video content, including:

3) “Behind the Scenes” documentation of any tour or project.

4) Interviews (of yourself and/or of other people you collaborate with)

5) Testimonials from students, colleagues or clients

Get Started- use my free Checklist linked at top of this description.

Make a list, based on the examples I gave above, of 5-10 videos you could make right now.

To make it easier for you, I’ve created a worksheet and checklist for you. Download it here (lead magnet) and simply fill in the blanks. 

After you shoot your first video or two, it will get easier and you’ll improve quickly. You’ll learn a ton about yourself and your work in the process. You can share your first video with a couple people you trust and ask their opinion before sharing publicly.

Production values are not as important as the substance of your content; You can work up to better production values over time. 

A video is a chance for someone to get to know you. They will forgive the production values if you show a good performance, a human moment, or anything that is authentic.

Why Musicians Need Video - Creative Strings Podcast Ep. 26

Christian Howes presents the Creative Strings Podcast: Exploring intersections between creativity, music education, string playing, DIY music business, and culture

Since 2011, performer, educator and composer, Christian Howes was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll (“Rising Stars/Violin”), named among the top three jazz violinists in the JazzTimes critics poll, and nominated for Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He received the Residency Partner Award through Chamber Music America for residencies in school orchestras, earned a USArtists grant through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and was invited by the U.S. State department to teach and perform as a cultural ambassador in Ukraine and Montenegro.  His 2013 release on Resonance Records, “Southern Exposure” earned recognition in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Downbeat, Jazz Times, as well as a six-night run at Lincoln Center.  His 2015 release, “American Spirit” was named among the Best Jazz Albums of 2015″ by the Huffington Post. Howes is the founder of “Creative Strings“, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to expand music education through the creation of online curriculum, an annual summer conference, and dozens of visits to schools annually teaching improvisation, contemporary styles, and related subjects. He endorses Yamaha violins and D’Addario strings.

Why Musicians Need Video - Creative Strings Podcast Ep. 26

Christian Howes

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