In July of 2006, I released my first album, Meeting of Minds. In April of 2007, I released a free EP, Rough Drafts. In August of 2007, I released my second full length album, Reverse Psychology. I think 2 1/2 albums in 2 years is pretty good, but then you didn’t hear much about music from me in 2008.

Well, 2008 is just about over probably over by the time you’re reading this, and I’ve decided to change up the way I’m doing things for 2009. Previously, my process has been to create rough versions of songs, figure out which ones are being used on the next album, then finish those songs. In 2009, I will be working on completing 1 song at a time. Every song I do complete will be available for free download online. There will definitely be some sort of podcast available, but I haven’t decided if it will be a part of this blog, my main site, or if the songs and related info will be posted in a new, seperate blog.

Two songs are already just about complete and several others are close to completion. Before I start publishing these songs, I need to complete some site renovations and deal with moving my studio, so you likely won’t see anything until February at the earliest. Once I get started, my intention is  to publish songs frequently – at least every few weeks – though I’m not planning to aim for the insane 1 song/week that I’ve heard of some people striving for.

For those of you who know my music (or those of you who don’t), if you have any ideas for a site name to go along with this concept, please leave a comment or send me a message.

I’m gonna respond to all slang statements by using their literal opposites.”Yo, that movie was off the hook!”
“I thought it was pretty hooked.”
“?”

Back in January I returned to Capoeira after many years off. Looking back,  I wasn’t in great shape at the time. I think my metabolism is finally starting to slow down and I had not been exercising much. I wasn’t completely out of shape, but it was enough to make Capoeira difficult. When trying to practice different moves, I was constantly feeling like I didn’t have enough stamina, I wasn’t strong enough, or I wasn’t flexible enough.

Now, almost 1 year later, I’m seeing a drastic difference. There is still much I need to do to increase my stamina, strength and flexibility, but they are vastly improved from January and I am regularly growing in all those areas. Since January I’ve been going to classes at least three times a week and pushing myself when I am there. I am proud of the progress I’ve made so far, but I haven’t done anything extraordinary. The cliche remains true – practice makes perfect.

But, if it’s a cliche, why do so many people seem not to know it? I’ve lost count of the amount of people who have said things like “I’d love to do Capoeira, but I could never move the way you do.” I guess I could take that as a compliment – people assume that I’m somehow so good that I woke up one day knowing the amount of Capoeira I do – but I find it frustrating.

There is so much a person can achieve with time, motivation, focus, and the right teacher. It is silly to look at someone’s achievements and assume they came without at least some of these things. While your mother’s assurance that “you can do anything you set your mind to” is not 100% true, it does still hold some weight. There is a countless number of things you can become good at if you put in the work. It is one thing to decide you can’t do some of these things because you can’t or won’t make the time to learn, but if you decide that they are simply impossible for you, you are selling yourself short.

One of the guys in my class is better than all the rest of us at the acrobatic moves that require strength and flexibility. Some of the things he can do are truly amazing to watch. The other day, he told me that when he started, he couldn’t even do a carttwheel – one of the most basic movements of Capoeira. When he found out that our Mestre was going to be visiting his class, he spent hours a day practicing cartwheels, and learned to do them just in time to not embarress himself in front of our Mestre.

Here’s a stop motion video I made with a friend of mine. It was quickly done, so it’s a bit rough. The music is a song I made called Legends.

I just finished moving this blog from blogger.com to WordPress. If you notice any issues, please let me know.

Some changes to note:

• The address of the blog is now www.ahdchild.com/blog. If you use any of the previous addresses, they will redirect to the new one, but you should update your bookmarks just to be safe.
• If you subscribe to the feed, you should be using http://feedproxy.google.com/ahdchild. Any of the previous addresses should redirect to this one, but once again, you should update feed settings to be safe.

(This is an excerpt)

Let’s shake off the chains that are connected to our brains
Let’s be free from the land of the foolishly brave
Let’s not fight for causes where victory is a loss for us
Let’s find our own goals that mean more to us.
I cry tears of lyrics when I listen to our future generations degenerating,
As we squander education, it’s disgracing
And as I get older I feel guilt for the youth
Because it’s no longer what my parents did
Its about what I do.
I try to only think about finding solutions
But I’m lost in nostalgia, mirages, and illusions.
I can’t let the past sleep -
I fear it will be the deep sleep of the dead
And as I try to look ahead, I’m so afraid of what’s next . . .

I’m gonna regularly practice my grandiose speech. Once I get more comfortable with it, I’m gonna cease all other types of speech.

This is geared towards promoting music, but it should be easy to apply generalize these tips to apply them to most kinds of self-promotion.

1) Find pre-made markets: Promoting a project is very expensive in terms of time. The same way you try to find the most bang for your buck when you buy things, you should find the most efficient ways to spend your time. Rather than try to promote to random people, try to focus on places where people who are likely to like and support my music would be – at live events featuring music similar to my own, on the websites related to similar artists, in places where people into art and creativity in general are likely to gather, etc.

2) Share the process: Art is exponentially more enjoyable and enticing when you are connected to the process in some way. Any time you interact with people, you have a great chance to connect them to your process. Don’t shove it down people’s throats, but encourage them to ask about your project and your creative process. If they are interested in learning more, make sure you tell them more.

3) Give them a taste: You can tell all kinds of people about the stuff you’re working on, but talk is cheap. The best way to get people to see you as an artist isn’t to tell them about your art – it’s to show them your art. If the telling gets someone interested, that interest will quickly get old if there’s nothing more. Make a promo CD, put some free songs online, do what you need to do to make sure you’re putting your art where your mouth is.

4) Be ready for a sale: Not everyone you talk to is going to buy a CD on the spot. Not every visitor to your website is going to order a CD their first time there. Still, some people will want to buy immediately. If they can’t, they may end up forgetting, losing interest, or spending their money on something else in the meantime. You should always be ready for a sale. If I’m on your website and I want to order a CD, I should be able to do it right away. Don’t delay the sale by making me go through some unnecessarily long or complicated process first, make it quick and simple. CDBaby is great for that. Don’t rely on CDBaby though. If we meet in person and I want to buy a CD, don’t make me wait until I have access to a computer to get it and don’t tell me you’ll have copies on you another time. Have it ready.

5) Be easy to find: It’s so frustrating when I google an artist whose performance I enjoyed and nothing comes up. It’s frustrating at first, but then I usually forget about them. Don’t be forgotten. Make sure more info is available for people who seek it out. In this age of information, people should be able to easily find your music and (going back to tip #2) info on your process (i.e. bio, blog, etc.). Try googling yourself to see how easy you are to find.