If you think back to the US tour that Lobelia and I did in Dec/January, you’ll remember that as well as gigs, we also did some masterclasses, teaching and consulting as we went round.
It was a whole lot of fun, and a great way to share some of what we’ve learned about social media for musicians and new ways of exploring artist-to-audience communication, without restricting it to people who were rich enough to hire us for a one-on-one session for a day. Here’s what we did:
- In Milwaukee I had a great session at the home of the incomparable Tracy Apps with a fascinating group of local musicians and artists talking about looping technology, and the implications of the kind of real time spontaneous music and art creation that it affords. Followed by this house concert.
- In Nashville, before a house concert we shared with the wonderful Angela Doll Carlson, we talked about managing a music ‘career’ online, about promotion, connecting with audiences – all the stuff that I write about on here – to a room full of musicians, writers, poets, thinkers.
- In Philadelphia, we did a looping masterclass in a university, via a contact we made on twitter with @natesologuitar.
- In Orange County we had a get together in a pub to talk about the future of artist-to-fan social media communication, organised by the very lovely Geoff Hickman.
- And in San Jose, I did my usual one day bass masterclass, at Looperlative Bob’s Looperlative House, before our house concert.
Well, now that Beyond Bass Camp is in place, the bass masterclass has migrated to the UK, but the rest of it can as well.
Andrew Dubber recently started doing a similar thing, and called it – ingeniously – unconsultancy – like an unconference, but with a consulting edge.
I like nothing more than sitting down with a group of musicians – or indeed creatives from other worlds be they painters, writers, film-makers etc. – and talking about things that help us get our art out there, help us make it, make sense of it, and make the world a richer place because it exists.
I’m happy to come and do this, either on my own or with Lobelia (or, indeed, with Andrew Dubber, if you want to book us both – we do work very well together 🙂 ) – with or without a house concert to follow (it’s a great way to make house concerts more viable – have a day’s house consulting before hand, let people buy into one or the other or both.)
So, over to you – if you’re in the UK and you want me to come and do a house consultancy, or us to come and do a gig, you can email me, or skype me – I’m therealslimstevie on skype. Hit me up with a text message on there first, and then if I’m available, we can chat about it!