Jan Smith

Since I bought my ukulele I’ve been surfing around the web looking for stuff to play. There are a bunch of how to play ukulele videos on the web (some a lot better than others). There’s also a pretty good selection of ukulele tab sites out there.

Probably the most comprehensive list is on this site. It points to a whole load of sites on the web that have them. But the best on the list are these:

Ukulele tabs from Ukulele Hunt. (more…)

Back in school that was an easy question to answer. The size of the band consists of the number of friends you have that are musicians plus a singer (oh, I crack myself up).

When you’re a grown up band - particularly when you’re a singer with a backup band - the situation is more difficult. How many people should you have in your band? What instruments do you need to have covered? Do I really need a third sitar player? (more…)

It was looking increasingly like that I was going to buy a uke. After I tried out Dave’s I had trouble putting it down. So I headed out online. Checked out Buy Ukulele and read about where to buy a ukulele. (more…)

It happens to every band sooner or late. A massive arguement and you all end up hating each other and vowing never to play together.

I’ve been fairly lucky with band mates all round. Usually we’ve got along just great. Of course there have been a few fallings out, but that’s pretty inevitable. But it’s never come even close to violent before. But the other night it almost came to blows between me and Dave.

It was a completely dumb argument. Needless to say, we were pretty drunk at the time. Even so, there was some real malice from both of us. When you’re out on the wrong, resentments tend to build up over time. When you start arguing, they’re going to explode all over the place. And they certainly did explode. (more…)

Hi, thanks for visiting my new blog.

I thought I’d start a new blog talking about my life as a musician. Then a realized that every post would start, “I spent most of today scratching my ass,” so I decided that I’d also include posts about stuff online that will help musicians along in their efforts to put burgers and fries on the table.

It’s a hard life being a musician. Unless you make it big, of course. The perception of life as a musician is that of rock-star decadence and endless parties and good times. There is quite a lot of that. But there’s also a lot of wondering how the hell you’re going to eat.

I think this is without doubt the best time to be a musician (at least a not very popular one). In the online world, you can find your audience. Even if you’re a very niche artist (hello all Egyptian nose-banjo players), there are people out there in the world that will buy your music. So, as well as documenting my trials and tribulations, I’m going to be talking about a few of that ways that bands can make money and keep themselves alive while living the musician’s life.