Kat DaVille | Musician, Blogger, Consultant | Central NJ | Uncategorized
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Uncategorized

Stay Positive: 6 Ways to Work as a Musician

  Starving artist.  Struggling musician.  Does this sound like you? I know most musicians can't stand the business side of things.  However, one could still be creative while crunching numbers (take it from me; I'm still a bookkeeper). Your goal is to earn a living playing your instrument.  You can still do that while exercising your creative muscles.  Melodies, groove, and theory can parallel with your average "square" jobs.  Honestly, it's fascinating to see how science consistently provides concrete evidence on how music reinforces and ultimately strengthens spatial awareness, cognitive development, and mathematical reasoning. Who knew listening and playing along to Metallica and Anthrax would make a better person? However, this post is more about providing methods of earning income while boosting self-confidence.  In order to gain more income, we must first provide value, education,...

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6 Ways to Re-Invent Yourself

 Once upon a time, when I was an assistant karate instructor, I got an amazing gig performing taiko drums with the students before a HUGE audience.  It was THE COOLEST gig I've ever done.  It combined my love for martial arts and music in one shot. So, the following year, I was asked to perform live music with a group.  Great opportunity, right? What I didn't realize is that I fell flat on my face. After the performance, I was told by half the people my band was amazing.  The other half mentioned that I completely embarrassed myself in front of 500 people (many of them were my neighbors or people from town).  From the looks of the video, I thought we played pretty gosh darn great.  Whatever. After a year, I learned my gig was...

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I’m Done… (A Love Story)

 Brace yourself, my friend.  This is about to get real personal. Hands down, my family is the most important thing to me.  Without them, I do not know where I would be or how I would behave, react or adapt in these uncertain modern times.  As a young single mother, these individuals were my world.  Now that my children are older, these invaluable human beings integrated into our already huge latin family. The concept of family, however, is not only bound by blood.  More on that, later...

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A Road Worthy Story: Tour Shenanigans Vol. 2

 Sometimes, I don't have a sitter and I have to take my girls to work with me. This is about one of those many times. The Bloody Muffs performed a matinee all ages show in Brooklyn, NY at the now-defunct venue called, the Place.  My amazing bass player at the time, Jessica Carmen, loved children and appreciated the novelty of a little girl attending a punk rock show.  My oldest daughter was 7 at the time. I walked my daughter around the venue and showed her the different facets of putting on a show.  We discussed what the amps looked like and I pointed at where the drumset was located and we walked toward where the sound person stands during the show.  She was engrossed in the hoopla and looked like she was...

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6 Ways to Get More “Me” Time

 Practice time = "Me" Time. "Me" time is the most important asset you possess.  Protect it, regardless of your atmosphere.  I go into depth about making the most of your practice time here. All cards on the table: I knew what I signed up for when I decided to have children and evolve into motherhood: clean the house, dirty diapers, dirty dishes, help with homework, work to keep food on the table, work to keep the lights on, work to pay for extracurricular activities, work to save up for a vacation.  Your time is used up to maintain your family, yet people forget to value their own time in the process. As a drummer, timing is my life.  Without honoring the tempo, I lose my place in the song and the band suffers....

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Studio Update!

  STUDIO UPDATE!!!  We're finally in the demolition stage! I can't thank everyone enough for their words of encouragement.  Our office is almost up finished being demolished.  Time for a clean slate! Here's what it looked like when we moved in last year: [caption id="attachment_50774" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Before...

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5 Inspiring Punk Rock Drummers

  STORY TIME!  The first time I ever thought about picking up sticks was when my mom took my sister and I to the local Sam Ash to buy her a keyboard.  I was around 10 years old at the time and I always knew I wanted to play music.   While my mother and sister were shopping for electric keyboards with weighted keys,  I wandered off into the back room with all the shiny looking can things.  As I approached the Drum Room, I heard a very complicated drum pattern being performed by one of the employees.  At the time, I didn't understand it, but I was able to comprehend what he was doing while intellectualizing how he was doing it.  I immediately scurried over to the bucket of spare drum...

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6 Quick Tips for a Successful Recording (Not Just for Drummers)

So you want to record an album?  Good for you! Prepare yourself, however.  All of your flaws will be exposed in full view of your mates, producer, engineer, and whoever else may be present during the recording session. It would benefit you to leave your anxiety at the door and come to terms with the fact that you're a human being.  Artists in general are filled with complicated emotions.  Individuals, especially musicians, make mistakes (including in the studio) and not a single one of us is perfect.  Your mates and producer (primarily the producer) understands (hopefully) this concept wholeheartedly. But don't worry.  You've got this. Once you've come to terms with the natural order of things in the studio, your recording session will be a lot easier.  Prepare Your Gear.[caption id="attachment_50845" align="alignnone" width="604"] Courtesy...

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