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My experience. I’ve been playing this “game” for a 1 year and a half now. I started selling just the kind of music I like, the music that I’ve been making for 30 years and I know I’m good at (acoustic music). These tracks started selling very well right away, and they keep selling well, in many libraries. I call them my “core tracks”. No slow down there. After a few months, I decided I wanted to experiment with new genres. I wrote tracks in many different genres. Even the genres that usually sell well (corporate, pop etc). I thought the quality was good enough, and I still believe so (it took me a lot of effort and time to produce tracks in genres that I was less familiar with .. I am quite critical with myself usually) – or, at least, I know that the “technical” quality is no worse than my “core” tracks. But, guess what, these tracks do not sell as well. Not even close. No matter how good (I believe) they are. I’m starting to believe that I should stick with the genre I really feel is “my” music. The stuff I know. The stuff where I’m able to put my “soul” into it when writing. Maybe the fact that I LOVE the music I make is somehow “perceived” by the listeners. Maybe it’s not just a matter of technical quality, but also a matter of subtle things that we are able to put into our music depending on how we “feel” about it. Maybe potential buyers can “feel” it too, and that may influence their buying decisions. Or, maybe, it’s just me … I don’t know. Maybe the simple truth is that I’m not good enough in some genres. Who knows. But this is my experience. And if (big if …) there is any truth in what I’ve said, maybe a good advice is to make music you really, really like. Make music for yourself, not the buyers. They’ll buy it because of that, flooding or no flooding. Again, I could be totally wrong – but that’s my experience so far.
Sorry for my English folks, I’m not a mother tongue …Not exactly. The smallest is the soprano, then the concert, then the tenor, then the baritone, which is biggest.
In terms of sound, concert and tenor are quite similar in sound and playability. Tenor is more comfortable, especially for guitarists, because of its bigger size. It also tends to have a fuller sound, because of the size.
The soprano, being the smallest, may be quite difficult to play if you have big fingers. They do sound “thinner” than tenors, but I think it mostly depends on woods and construction. I have a wonderful Pono soprano that sounds much sweeter and fuller than some cheap tenors that I had. The good thing about the Soprano is that it provides the most “ukulel-ish” sound, so to speak. That mid-rangy, bell sound so typical of hawaiaan music is best reproduced by a soprano. Not so much by a tenor, in general.
The baritone, the biggest, is a very different beast. It is tuned differently, it sounds different, it should not even be called a ukulele, because it has nothing to do with sopranos, concerts and tenors. But, it is a wonderful instrument (I really, really like it …). In general, I think it sounds best when finger-picked, not strummed. Go on YouTube and you’ll find lots of people strumming the baritone and sounding awful. It takes a lot more musicianship to make a baritone sound good, while with a soprano or a tenor you can just strum and sound good enough.
Overall, if you are just starting with a uke, I would suggest a decent tenor. More versatile, easier to play, more immediate gratification. Possibly, a solid mahogany one – you can find them cheap enough and you get a real instrument, not a toy. I think it’s the best starting point. Just my opinion of course.
I am an “old” guitarist, but fell in love with ukes several years ago. (well before Eddie Vedder came out with his uke album …). I bought 10 ukes so far, but I currently have 6 (bought and sold a few in the meanwhile). Yes, using a mic is always better, if you can do it. But that’s true for any acoustic instrument.
I’m not a Kala lover, at all, although I know they make some decent instruments (actually I have one, it was a gift, but it’s the one I never use … it just doesn’t sound as good as others, even cheaper ones). As I said, I’ve own about 10 and tried many, many more. I strongly suggest to buy a solid mahogany model – it gives the uke a sweet, full, rounded sound – much, much better than most dirty cheap non-solid ukes, which usually sound way too harsh, thin and without any fullness. If you don’t want to spend much, Cordoba makes good ukes like that, very reasonable (around 200 I think). I like some Ohana solid mahogany models too. If you can spend a bit more, go for Pono – best bang for the buck, super nice ukes in all respect (woods and construction etec), but we’re talking at least 400$ or so. But there are many more brands and models to choose from. I’d just stay away from super cheap instruments. If you have a lot of money to spend, well … go for a uke made from traditional Hawaiaan Koa wood. It’s worth soundwise, but we’re talking serious money (800 and up).
Also be aware that ukuleles come in different sizes (soprano, concert, tenor and baritone) and they are very, very, VERY different animals. That’s the first choice you have to make.
Uke on!Hi guys
I’m having a strange, very sad but also profound holiday season. I’ve been reminded that health is the most important thing, the one and only thing that is absolutely necessary to achieve whatever you want to achieve in life. So, I sincerely wish all of you and your families a 2015 blessed with health, music, love and happiness.
G.I purchased this program (paid 10$ if I recall correctly) and it’s really worthwhile. It’s saving me a lot of time. Highly recommended.
Chuck, forgive me the off-topic … how can you see how many views a single track has generated on AS? I can’t seem to find that info. All I can find is a general count of views for all my tracks combined, not a track by track count.
Back to your topic. I am also new at this game (almost 1 year), but I have over 30 years of experience as a musician, just like you. In this past year I tried composing both in genres that I’m very familiar with (acoustic music mostly) and also other genres that I am not so familiar with. So yes, I did a little bit of “genre chasing”, so to speak. My goal in my first year was basically to try a little bit of everything and learn from it. It turns out that … it’s very hard to learn. I sold very well tracks that I thought they would never EVER sell, and never sold tracks that I thought for sure they would be best sellers. Overall, I find sales particularly difficult to predict. My best seller is a vocal track .. go figure!! Most people say that vocal tracks don’t sell, and they’re probably right. So, I still don’t know why this track is selling so well. However, other vocal tracks of mine, very similar to my best seller, don’t sell at all. Again, go figure … I have no idea. So, after a year, I pretty much decided to stop predicting, stop chasing genres (actually, I stopped chasing sales, in a way …) and to just make the best music I can. To me, this works the best – both in terms of sales (paradoxically …) and, naturally, in terms of fun. So, now I mostly compose music within my “area” of expertise, but once in a while I compose other stuff, not because I think it’s gonna sell, but because … I feel like it. I just write the best music I can, the music I want to write in that particular moment, and that’s it for me.
I’m realizing, instead, that other things are worth my time and attention for increasing sales (because at least I have some degree of control over them), like library selection, promotion, process efficiency, etc. That’s what I’m focusing on right now, and I think it’s working for me.
Just my 2 cents.That’s great Mark, really. Do you know if someone using Weebly as platform would be able to you use the software?
Thanks