Fish(er) Tales

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! These posts will give you a better idea about what this site is about. Start here, then go here, and here, and then here.Gaining credentials is an important part of building your career. Credentials give you legitimacy and relevance. Credentials are what you promote to earn your reputation. And people “buy”...

This is a guest post from Seattle composer Jeff Tolbert and his fine, new film scoring blog (check it out!) Compressors can be confusing little buggers. When I was a recording novice, I was often baffled by them and was never really sure if they were doing anything. Even now, with more experienced ears, it’s still sometimes hard to tell exactly whether a compressor is adding anything useful to...

Hey! I’ve written a bunch of free tutorials on using Sony Vegas, Sound Forge, and Acid. Click to read ‘em! Editing Music with Sony Sound Forge Using iZotope RX for reducing noise and more Audio For Video: The Audio Post Workflow Reflections in Sony Vegas — make your titles and logos shine! Slow, fast, reverse, and freeze motion in Sony Vegas Efficient Editing with Sony Vegas Anatomy...

This past summer I ended up with jury duty. I didn’t serve on a trial, but I did have to report for several days. The only positive outcome of the experience was that it gave me time to think. Since prospective jurors can’t use electronics – no camera phones, no laptops, etc, I brought along a book and a spiral notebook that I bought at a back-to-school sale. (Can you tell me why...

Let’s face it, there are some aspects to running a successful artistic career that you simply can’t control. Various issues seem to overwhelm and interfere with your progress. Rather than sit around and worry about these challenges, take a different tactic. Despite the seemingly uncontrollable nature of things, you can control one aspect: YOUR reaction. Instead of wallowing in self-pity...

The best way to make sure you get the most from your talent is to use it. So, write a piece of music every day. This doesn’t need to be extravagant or even complete, rather just put your first thoughts down on paper, HDD, disc, etc. Make composing part of your daily routine. Not everything you do will be “good”, but the exercise will yield some bits and pieces that you can later turn...

I do a lot of speaking in public. Between consulting, training, and teaching, I talk a lot. I was going to write a blog post about giving a speech. Y’know tips and tricks and such. Then I ran across this article and decided I couldn’t really improve upon it much. So I suggest you read it. 23 Public Speaking Secrets Gleaned from the Greats All I’d like to add is that if you do Powerpoint...

Is it possible to make money without working for it? In a word, yes. There are only two forms of income: active and passive. Active income is money earned pursuing your creative endeavors. Passive income is money from investment returns. The key is to use some of your active income to build your passive income as that money is the key to your financial independence. If you could earn enough money passively...