Guitar

How to Do Outrageous Musical Marketing

I’d like to give you something to think about based on my real life results in terms of getting gigs, magazine coverage, and excellent word-of-mouth promo.

There is zero BS here. Enjoy and please comment!

Concept 1: Do musicians have to market themselves?

You and I are running businesses, we are not only artists.

A hard pill for many of us musicians to swallow is that we all need to market ourselves.

If this makes you shiver, feel un-artistic, or think I am a fraud – WAKE UP! Any business, no matter what their product or service is, has to market themselves.

An Amazing and Creepy Coincidence

By Adam Rafferty 10 Comments

Guitarists Peppino Dagostino, Adam Rafferty, Pepe Romero and Carlos Barbosa-Lima

This is too weird. Enjoy…

When I attended the High School for the Humanities in NYC I was in the graduating class of 1986.

At the time I was a 17 year old aspiring classical guitarist, practicing hard for my first year of college in the conservatory.

A few of my high school teachers were “guitar aficionados” and one in particular, “Mr. S”, encouraged me very much. I’ll never forget when he said “You’ll be the Pepe Romero of the year 2000!” This was incomprehensible to me.

How To Create Info Products from the Heart (and a Guitar DVD Update..)

By Adam Rafferty 14 Comments

I recently read an article by a buddy of mine named Rob Cubbon. He describes the state of mind & spirit he was in while creating a few of his e-books in his post “My Rules of Product Creation.”

While creating his first one, he was stressed and it felt like rolling a rock uphill. In contrast, the second one just “happened” by itself. Oddly – the second one which was infused with joy and ease is also preferred by his readers and sells better.

I’ve had the same thing happen when I record CDs under stress, so I know full well what he was describing.

I was starting to feel a similar process regarding the upcoming Guitar Instructional DVD which I plan to shoot later this summer.

Home Studio Gear For Recording Great Sounding Fingerstyle Guitar

By Adam Rafferty 45 Comments

I call this an “update” because you may have read my earlier post or seen my videos on recording fingerstyle guitar for Youtube videos.

Here, I will describe my home studio setup with getting a great sound in mind.

Please comment below if you have a suggestion or want to mention your gear – or, especially if anything I am saying is not accurate!

Hey – I just made current, which gives all the details on the gear that I used to record my new CD “Play Pretty for the People.”

If you are thinking about recording at home, you will love this guide. I list my home gear (guitars, strings, software, mics, and more…). Enjoy! 🙂

swa-7-tools-crop

Find out what simple (and affordable) equipment I use at home to record to get a CD quality fingerstyle guitar sound.

Get the Free PDF – Instantly!

The Attitude

All kinds of gear sounds great for fingerstyle guitar. There are many ways to do record it, mine is just one…here goes.

[Read more…]

7 Tips for Making a Great Fingertsyle Guitar Recording (and…it’s not about the equipment!)

By Adam Rafferty 20 Comments

I just had the pleasure of spending some time in my home studio recording a few solo tunes.

During the past few days I have experienced the range of emotions from elation to frustration, mainly with my own guitar playing.

I’d like to share some insights with you. The following applies to do-it-yourself home recordings as well as sessions where you go to a pro studio.