So far he has interviewed some really great people from all over the world, and I am honored to have been asked to do this.

Anyways, without further a due, here is the link to the interview, enjoy!

“Read All About Him – Bret Phillips”

http://shotfromguns.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/read-all-about-him-bret-phillips/

There are only so many people that I can meet face to face every day, so natural I decided to look towards the internet in search of making these contacts. Again tho, even with the internet, there is only so much that I can do myself…this is where you come in.

I need YOUR help.  If you support me and have my back, I need you to spread the word about me.  This is really easy, just tell at least one friend or family member(if not more!), who is into playing, recording, writing, or making music in any capacity, to hit me up. Just a quick ‘hi, hello’ and I promise I can take it from there.

How can someone get in touch with me? Here are a couple of different ways:

Friend me on Facebook, no fan page right now, this is my personal account so you will definitely be able to contact me.
I have set up this Facebook Event in honor of this as well.
Follow me on Twitter
Link up on LinkedIn
Use my Contact Form to contact me directly.

Thank you all very much for the support thus far, I really appreciate it. Having the help of my friends and family helps make following my own dreams possible.

Hit me up!

In order to test my knowledge of search engine optimization and document the process, I have put together a short web page and video that are an excellent example of seo basics.

By following some very easy steps, anyone can focus in on a keyword phrase and rank high in many search engines. While the steps are not particularly difficult, competition for specific keyword phrases can increase the amount of effort involved in getting to the top.

Without researching how many people are actually searching for my keyword phrase, I did check to see how many other sites google shows when you search for “an excellent example of seo basics”, and was unable to find any that were actually using seo for it specifically, which greatly increases my chances at ranking high for them.

In another lesson I will go over some options for researching keyword phrases traffic, and also seo competition. Both of those could easily be lessons on their own. Now that you know which phrase we are trying to rank for, we will get into the fun stuff.

Let’s get started with the easiest things that you can do to increase the seo of your page. If you are using a content management system, such as Wordpress, accomplishing these are very easy, as you will see in the video.

First, your page needs a title. This title should be whatever your keyword phrase is, in this instance, an excellent example of seo basics. If you look at the top of your browser, your should see my keyword phrase. You should also use this keyword phrase on the page, at the top, and inside of the h1 html tag.

If you are using wordpress, the title of your page or post will automatically be put into the title and the h1 tags.

Secondly you need relevant content to your keyword phrase. Since this page is about the basics of seo, they keyword phrase an excellent example of seo basics is appropriate. Think of your content like an article, then write out an article based on your keywords.

Inside of this ‘article’, you need to include your keywords 3% or so. Be careful not to over do it as it will be an excellent example of how to get slapped by the search engines.

The more relevant content on the page, the better. You should have anywhere from 400 to 700 words in your article for solid results.

You will want to have your keywords at the beginning and end of your article, and it can be helpful to use a bold or underline on either or. You will notice I have used them for this excellent example.

In your article, not only is it pleasing visually to have some kind of relevant image inside the article, you can also use this as an excellent boost to your seo. By adding an image to your post, you are able to get your phrase into your page at least 3 more times.

• image name (anexcellentexampleofseobasics.jpg)
• image title ( title=”an excellent example of seo basics” )
• image alt ( alt=”an excellent example of seo basics” )

For a typical wordpress post or page, you will have the option to use tags. This is another area to put your keywords. Sometimes you can even break up the phrase into individual keywords to have showing up on the page.

Depending on the amount of traffic specific search terms have, you might have quite a bit of competition for a high ranking page.

I hope that this tutorial has given you an excellent example of seo basics. By following these simple steps, you can easily rank high for low competition key phrases.

If you need some SEO help for your business or products, feel free to contact me.

There are two sides of recording music, the engineering and the performance. Typically the performer is coming into the engineers ’space’ or ‘world’ in order to capture as best as possible, their art.  That being said, and myself having played both roles, I am confident that if you take these suggestions into consideration the next time that you record, it will go much smoother for everyone involved.

Show Up Rested

If you were going to give a public speech, or maybe if your team had a game, you would surely make sure you were rested and prepared for your big day. The same goes for the studio.

Just because Jim Morrison made it through sessions in a drunken ‘rock and roll’ fashion, doesn’t mean you can. Many of you will be on your own budget, not the seemingly endless budget of a major record label, time is YOUR money. Instead of abusing substance to try and ‘get creative’, show up relaxed and focused.

Be Prompt

In my studio, every minute late that you are is on your dime. If we agree to begin recording at 10am until 6pm, and you show up an hour late, you will only have 7 hours to track.

Include your set up time, especially drums,  and you will run out of recording time fast.

I recommend showing up at least 30 minutes early, or even try and talk your engineer into letting you come in the night before to set up drums. Given the amount of time it takes for the drummer to set everything up, and the engineer to mic everything properly, and then get levels, you could spend an hour or two.

Bring Backups

Bring extra everything. If you are a guitarist, bring two guitars, bring extra strings for each, bring a pack of picks.

Drummers, bring several pairs of sticks, have a backup set of drum heads, etc.

The more prepared you are for any kind of mishap, the less time and money you will waste when they happen, and they DO happen.

Master You Material

That is to say, know your music. Practice until it is perfect and only then is it time for you to try and record it. You would be surprised how many bands show up to record and are still ‘arranging’ their songs or unable to cleanly play their music.

There is nothing worse as an engineer than having to sit through one guitar riff or vocal line for 30 minutes while the artists fumbles their way through.  It is a waste of time and money for everyone involved.

I recommend to any group that is coming to record with me, to spend the two days before coming into the studio rehearsing the material.

Practice With A Metronome

Regardless of using a click track while you are recording, practicing to a click or metronome will help your internal clock.  The more you do it, the better you will become at it, and you will be able to hold steady counts and beats more naturally as your progress.

Sometimes songs will change beats in the middle of the song, and with many software metronomes you can set them up to make those changes properly.

Tune Your Instruments

The two instruments that are out of tune the most in my sessions are the drums and the vocals.  Tuning drums is something every drummer, and in my opinion every engineer, needs to learn.

While many studios have house instruments that you can rent or use that are probably already tuned up, they may not always be available. Also, being a musician, I know the feeling of wanting YOUR instrument to be on the track and not some studio gear, so tune up your own instrument.

As for tuning vocals, this is something that comes with being a good vocalist.  If you can not sing on key, learn how to or find someone else. Auto tune is not as cool as the mass media might lead you to believe, though that is not to say it does not have its purposes.

If singing on key does not come naturally for you, take some lessons from a professional.  It takes time and effort to learn how to use your voice as it does with any other instrument. Nobody wants to record or listen back to out of tune vocal tracks.

Having any instruments out of tune on your recordings is going to greatly bring down the quality of your sound,  so make sure you being your tuner.

Quiet On The Set

There is NOTHING more annoying or distracting while trying to work with an artist than having to talk over or listen over the other band mates talking behind you.

I am a big fan of having the band involved in the whole process, but I have definitely sent people out of the studio and asked them to stay out until we are finished because they were being too loud and distracting to both me and the artist being recorded.

In this light, you also need to LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS AT HOME. The studio is not a place for your whole posse to come hang out, bring the band only.

A mentor of mine once said the phrase “too many chefs ruin the brew”, which is exactly what happens when you get too many people in the studio.

Take Me To Your Leader

Who is the person in your band that has the best ear overall?  The one that can see the music as a whole of many pieces and not just want to crank the guitar tracks up as loud as possible.

This may be one or two people, but you need to decide on the ‘leader’ who will work closely with the engineer to make sure the bands concept is getting across.

After everything is recorded, this person will also sit in on the mixing sessions to work out levels and placement of instruments and such.

Leave Your Ego At The Door

If you have taken my advice and ‘mastered your music’, ‘practiced for the two days before recording’, when you step into the studio, you should be able to knock it out.

What you shouldn’t be doing is arguing between each other(like all bands do) in the studio.  Save that drama for your mamas basement.

The studio environment needs to be relaxed and creative, not stressed and tense.

Relax and Have Fun

After all these ‘rules’ it might seem like recording isn’t any fun at all. Quit the contrary, when all parties involved are aware and comfortable with these ‘rules’, the recording process becomes a very special time.

Without having to worry about being in tune, people chatting away or being distracting in the background, rushed for time, etc., you are allowing yourself to let loose. This gives you the opportunity to really let this music you have been working so hard on, really shine.

Later that same evening I met up with some other friends of mine, during which time one of them begins to talk about the dodo bird.

Before this instance, I am pretty sure I had not thought about or heard ‘dodo bird’ in well over a year, probably much longer.  So why two times in one day?

Another example could be when you are driving along down the road, or maybe sitting at a red light, and you feel like the person next to you is looking at you. You look over only to find that they are! How did you know, or better yet, feel that?

We started to discuss this idea more throughout the night, more for just the brain exercise than anything.  We tossed around some concepts, one in particular involving telepathy.

Say in the ‘greater energy’ that we are all a part of, my thoughts are not confined to the inside of my brain.  Instead, like lights beaming through fog, my thoughts both present and recent past are radiating around in my circle of energy.

Being subconsciously in tune with that greater energy, my friends energy is able to pick up on those thoughts which in turn start floating around in his circle.

Same goes for the person staring you down from the car next to yours. With them focusing their attention on you, their energy is focused on you, and your surrounding energy mixes and mingles with theirs, giving you that feeling deep inside that someone is looking at…or focusing on you.

So without making a conscious mental effort, much like breathing, we could be picking up on the thoughts or wills of those around us.