For the Smart Money Cookie

I remember a while back reading David Nevue’s book, “How to Successfully Promote Your Music the the Internet”. In it he threw out a cool suggestion for increasing the searchability of your band.

His suggestion was to write a review of CDs that you feel are similar to your style of music or CDs that inspired your music. The idea is if you promote traffic to this webpage, visitors will also see a review of your band, and check out your music.

I loved that idea so much that I was psyched when I learneda very simple and similar promotional idea on Amazon.com. Here’s what you have to do:

First, you need to sell your CD on Amazon.com OR at the very least offer a free MP3 in their Digital Music Network.

Second, do a search for a band or album similar to yours. In my case, my group, the Brobdingnagian Bards, released a CD inspired by the Lord of the Rings. So I went over to the “Fellowship of the Ring” soundtrack.

Third, scroll down and you’ll see either a link that says,

“Recommend an item!”
or a box that has
“I recommend ___ in addition/instead of this album.”

Fourth, grab the ASIN from your webpage. (The ASIN is the 10 charcter code listed in the Produce Details). All you have to do is insert you ASIN into this blank to make your recommendation.

Your music is now linked to the artist you consider yourself similar to. The beauty of this promotional idea is that it all takes place in the Amazon shopping environment.

This means, more than likely, they’ll go straight to your Amazon page. They’ll read about your album. They’ll listen to your MP3s. And hopefully, they will buy an album, and/or hunt down your band’s website where you’ll earn a new fan.

PS. The 2004 Edition of “How to Promote Your Music Succesfully on the Internet” by David Nevue is now available.

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

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Turnarounds are chord progressions with the last chord taking you back to the first chord thus making it possible to play these progressions over and over again as an intro to a song, an ending or between verses. Here are some nice sounding but easy turnarounds for you!

In order not to mess up the layout with the guitar tab staff I will not include left hand fingerings but I suggest that you choose left hand fingers carefully so you don’t get into trouble!

However, in order to learn to play these guitar chord progressions as intended I will say something about your right hand fingerings.

When you play these progressions on your guitar I suggest that you play the bass notes with your thumb and the first three guitar strings with you first finger, middle finger and ring finger.

Of course you can use a pick if you hate picking with you right hand fingers. If you strum the chords you will have to mute unused strings with your left hand fingers or otherwise you can pluck the strings with your pick using different patterns.

The first chord progression includes the guitar chords A F#m7 Bm11 and E7. You can use any right hand pattern you like as you play the chords.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—2—3—3—
3. —2—2—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2——-
6. ——-2——-0—

Our second turnaround consists of the guitar chords Amaj7, F#7, Bm11 and E7. When you learn to play these turnarounds I strongly suggest that you follow my advice above about left hand fingerings.

When you have found the most effective fingerings for the guitar chords it is important that you stick to the fingerings so that you can learn the progressions by heart and be able to move between chords fluently.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—2—3—3—
3. —1—3—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2——-
6. ——-2——-0—

Turnaround number three is a bit harder to play, at least the last chord which requires a bit of stretching. The chords are A, F#7+, Bm11 and Bb7add+11.

Try to move your fingers as little as possible when changing chords. To keep the fingers close to the fretboard will help you change chords smoothly. Here is the guitar tab:

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—3—3—3—
3. —2—3—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2—1—
6. ——-2———–

The last guitar tab turnaround consists of the chords Aadd9, C9, Fmaj and Bb9+11.

The most difficult and most important thing when playing chord progressions on your guitar isn’t to hold a chord but to change between chords.

To practice really effectively you can choose two consecutive chords and practice changing between them in a slow tempo.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—3—1—1—
3. —4—3—2—1—
4. ———–3——-
5. —0—3——-1—
6. ——————-

Now you can play four guitar progressions that of course can be mixed. You can replace the second chord in a progression with a second chord from another progression and so on.

I will end this learn to play guitar article by showing you a right hand pattern you can use with the chords. Use the pattern once for every chord in the progression. The thumb will of course be on different bass strings depending on the chord.

1. —a—a—
2. —m—m—
3. —i—i—
4. ———–
5. —p——-
6. ———–

There are many common turnarounds that are used frequently in pop songs like the old pop song Diana, Last Christmas and many more. To practice the common progression C, Am, Dm, G7 in different keys is a good way to learn how chords are related and also a good way to practice the art of changing between chords in a smooth way.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music guitar tab and learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com