Making my first music video: and help from my friends

Tags

Arts & Entertainment, Business, Damzels Doll Factory, Ellyn Lilly, Filmmaking, iPhone, Kat Leonard, Lisa Anita Wegner, Media Production, Music video, Orville Heyn, Rob Small Tomahawk, Robert Saxe, Roncy Rocks, Video editing, Wanda MacRae, YouTube

Wanda MacRae, Kat Leonard, me, Lisa Anita Wegner, Rob Small Tomahawk

So, I have finally thrown my hat into the YouTube ring. I am finally working on my first video. I have to admit, I was pretty worried about the whole effort. Fortunately, my team was fantastic and the process has been pretty smooth.

My criteria for the video was to make an artistic, fresh video at a minimal cost with a short amount of time. That sounds easy right? Well, if you have an amazingly, creative and resourceful team, anything is possible.

Warming up the lasagna – not part of the video

Here are my takeaways from the process:

1. Pick a song and create a final, polished recording prior to making the video. Why? As Orville Heyn, my producer and cowriter on the song insisted, I would need to match the picture with the music and my mouth and fingers would need to be identical with the picture. Makes sense.
2. Practise the song so you can sing and play exactly with the track. Your day will go faster is the song is under your fingers. Since you can’t have music sheets in the picture, you need to know the song and all the nuances. You may even want to action the lyrics so that you can express/perform every line!
3. Figure out a simple location you can have access to for 8 hours. I picked my parlour as I knew it would work for my time period. I also needed a piano and a room that didn’t scream out any particular era.
4. Work out a budget, timeline and story. It is possible to make a good video on a phone! Working with a phone cuts down the budget considerably. Not a bad idea if you have constraints like I did.
5. Find a film-maker, videographer that can help you film (on a film camera or iPhone). Find an apprentice or helper so you can have multiple angles. I was fortunate enough to work with film-maker Lisa Anita Wegner and her apprentice Rob Small Tomahawk.
6. 

   Lisa shooting on the cool iPhone

   Set up hair and makeup. I asked the film-maker for her recommendation for someone who could do 50s hair and makeup at a day rate I could afford. Lisa MacRae was my choice for this project and she did an amazing job!

7. Find a costume. I purchased a dress from Damzels – Doll Factory a local dress maker. Why not use a local designer to support the artistic community. I had a choice of several dresses that would be perfect for my 50s set.
8. Order lighting. In my case we used natural lighting and we had some good overhead lighting already. Consider the lighting for the different times of day.
9. Source props – if you so, make or find them. My only prop was a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I sourced in my neighbourhood at Ellyn Lilly.
10. Test the lighting, location, etc. on the day before the shoot.
11. Source a photographer. Heck if you are all dressed up, you might as well get a few head shots done right? Robert Saxe took some photos on location.
12. Determine your launch plan – when and where can you launch the video for the biggest bang. In my case, I am launching the video on June 15th.
13. What will you feed everybody? Buy some great food for the day! I made a big lasagna, ceasar salad, bagels and my banana muffins.
14. Pay and thank your helpers! Enough said.
15. Bring friends that can help out with holding or fixing things as needed. I brought Kat Leonard who makes me laugh, holds the bounce lighting screen, and presses play on the stereo really well.

If I missed anything please let me know. I am new to this and tried hard to keep it simple. After all of this, I think I will do it again a few more times! I would love to hear from you!

Stay tuned for the upcoming video launching on my YouTube channel on JUNE 15th at Roncy Rocks Festival in Toronto.

ASCAP Expo: My Take

Tags

American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers, ASCAP Expo, Bruno Mars, Canadian Music Week, Holly Knight, Kat Leonard, Katy Perry, laura michelle, lucy LeBlanc, paul williams, Songwriter's Association of Canada, Tina Turner, YouTube

ASCAP Angels: Laura Michelle, Kat Leonard, Heather Hill

“…Through our music we bring order to chaos; we bring solace to suffering; we bring joy to heartbreak; we bring freedom to captivity; we bring hope to despair; we bring soul to the machines and meaning to the lives of millions.” Paul Williams, President ASCAP

Last week, I went down to LA with my friend Kat Leonard to check out ASCAP Expo (April 18-20). This was both of our first times to this conference. I normally hang out in Canada and partake in Canadian Music Week and Songwriters Association of Canada functions. I went because I just wanted to see what several of my American friends had recommended! The conference was big, a ton of fun, and while the music industry is in a state of flux, the music creators proved to be a passionate, positive and innovative bunch!

@heatherpirihill and @katbandoo

Paul Williams, president and director of ASCAP kicked off the conference. He is an amazing hit songwriter and incredibly inspiring. He is passionate about getting musicians (songwriters, recording artists) fair pay for their work. ASCAP is busy doing deals with the big players in order to get settlements from online streamers, congress, etc. “We do the work, pay us for our music. We are not machines…we need to be properly compensated.” He pointed out it all starts with the composer and the songwriter – copyright protection is critical!

Katy Perry was a keynote presentation. She is an incredibly hard-working and resourceful woman. Even though she had been dropped twice by her label, she managed to be resigned — the rest is history. It was great to hear her journey from a Christian artist into the secular market. She was 100% committed to her career and to her music. She loves to cowrite and looks hard for artists that inspire her. The panel was full of interesting information and it was entertaining watching her change in persona from a shy, coy girl at the outset to the strong-willed, confident tigress at the end!

Holly Knight. I was fortunate enough to have a one-on-one session with killer hit songwriter Holly Knight (Heart, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Meatloaf, etc.). I learned that cowriting with writers is an essential part of your growth. She was a recording artist and then became a prolific songwriter. Being a performing songwriter is critical these days. You need to be able to showcase your songs to other artists you may want to write with. We also talked about rock…Holly mentioned the demise of rock, but that other categories has revealed themselves. I received some great advice for my own musical journey.

Steve Lindsey. In the pop/rock feedback panel, Steve was an incredible source of information for creators. He helped develop Bruno Mars (amongst other incredible things). He told us the importance of knowing at least three hours of cover material. His point was, it is difficult to be a great songwriter without extensively studying great music on a daily basis. He told us that he held Bruno Mars back for five years while they learned an extensive catalog of hit music.

Key Takeaways!

1. Take Youtube Very Seriously. First we heard from several product folks at Youtube. The amount of content on Youtube is enormous and growing exponentially! We need to contentID and tag our music or we won’t get paid. We need a channel and we need to be part of larger Multi Channel Networks. The Youtube 100 may one day replace the Billboard 100. A&R and music seekers are following the success of musicians on Youtube as a primary source for selection.

2. Wait to record until you have fans and great songs. Several artists felt the recording process was too much money – maybe we are wasting our money. Time and time again we heard about waiting to spend until you have written a ton of songs, perform them, build fans and get fans to pay for songs. Novel concept right? It was great to hear this, because we all know that great songs are rarely our first ones.

3. COLLABORATE! Find people to learn from and write with others a lot. You may find an  incredible synergy!

4. Focus on Writing and Learning Music – Naturally you hear a lot about working super hard on music and business. Every day you need time to write, practise, and work your business. It is a full time job!

About the Sponsors: the sponsors were also paid panelists promoting their software and services. Their products/services are not necessarily what songwriters and composers want/need to hear about. It was not worth sticking around for these panels. I understand that the expo needs money, but the people paying to be there want unbiased information about what will help them. I like the sessions where music was being reviewed (date with a tape). You really learn a lot from the comments of industry experts.

Kat Leonard, Lucy Leblanc, MaryJane Viejo, Heather Hill

About the people. The best part of conferences is meeting the people. I met countless artists (thousands of singer/songwriters) and a few industry folks (note that I hardly saw any industry folks). Comparing notes and getting ideas from other musicians is invaluable. You hear the realities of artist development, recording, positioning, etc.

Tools. One great thing ASCAP Expo provides is the ability to:

- pay a low fee to have a one-on-one interview with an expert

- watch videos on all the sessions since you can not possibly go to all of them since they all take place at the same time

- you have the chance to be showcased on the last night. You don’t find out until that day if you are selected.

One suggestion I can offer to ASCAP EXPO is to open the city to the music!! I like that Canada Music Week is full of music. Bars are full of performances giving artists a chance to showcase their music. At ASCAP Expo there was hardly any music going on for a music conference (until the last night).

Carly Rae Jepsen Scores a Hat Trick at the 2013 JUNOs

Reblogged from Canadian Music Blog:

The week leading up to the JUNO Awards' main gala on Sunday April 21, 2013, saw a few events make the news. In the United Kingdom, fierce debates ensued over the question of Scottish separation.  Never underestimate the power of the kilt? In the United States, they were occupied with their Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath, the avaricious press making a fortune off of the story (though nowhere near as much as they have made off stories about Canadian pop stars).

Read more… 1,463 more words

Great blog about the Junos!

Packed House for Aynsley Saxe’s Debut CD Release

Tags

Aynsley Saxe, Bryan Pickell, Glen Hansard, Peter Gabriel, Singing, Toronto, YouTube

Photo by Saxe

Last night I attended Aynsley Saxe‘s CD Release of “Take me as I am” at the Hugh’s room in Toronto. She had an incredible crowd of friends, family and fans. There was an enormous amount of love in the room. The sound was excellent and the food and service were fabulous.

Bryan Pickell, a charming singer-songwriter, opened the night with an array of quirky acoustic guitar songs ranging from crickets and ducks to a solo piano meditation song. My personal favorite is his YouTube song. He had the crowd singing along and even dancing in the aisles (Kat Leonard!).

Bryan, Heather, Aynsley

Aynsley Saxe, a classic beauty with a wide range of talents, graced the stage and took us for a fun ride. Her lovely voice was mesmorzing on her title track “Take Me As I Am”. I still have the chorus in my head. Her last song “Stop, Drop and Roll” was my personal favourite (the fireman song) and was clearly fun for her to perform. Her Peter Gabriel and Glen Hansard covers were filled with passion!

Saxe’s band was first class: John Jamieson (keys and also Saxe’s producer) Tom Evans (drums), Adam Langley (guitar), Dennis Papadatos (bass), Meagan Ballantyne (cello), Alex Chung (violin), Carson Freeman (tenor sax), and Jill Harris and Lydia Persaud (back-up vocals). I think everyone should be able to have the chance to play with such pros as often as possible!

What a fun night and lucky for me, I won a t-shirt. I tried it out this morning as I walked past my local firehall!

Olive Ridleys – Toil and Beauty

Tags

Costa Rica, nesting, Olive Ridley, Olive ridley sea turtle, Ostinal, Pacific Ocean, Sea turtle, Tide

Olive Ridleys nesting  in Ostinal Costa Rica

If the moon and tide are just right,
On the beach in Ostinal, Costa Rica
Hundreds and thousands of female sea turtles gather
As if by magic, Olive Ridleys swim to the same mile
Riding the high tide at night
To nest in the black, volcanic sand

Dragging her heavy body onshore
She finds a spot over the high tide line
Flicking the sand with her flippers to dig a nest
Where 100 or so soft-shell eggs are laid
And then buried
And likely never seen again

Vultures take eggs while the turtles are laying them

Vultures watch and grab as she toils
But the turtle doesn’t stop and fight
Seemingly nothing distracts her
And what about the odds?
Only two out of one hundred babies survive…
Against the humans, animals, birds, fish

After two hours of fight,
Back down the beach she struggles
Into the warm ocean from where she came
Tired but empty of eggs
Prepared for a male that waits to mate
Nature’s relentless cycle…

The turtles are heading back to the sea after nesting

As I watch in amazement
With goose-bumps that last
Without the words to explain
I witness something raw, primitive
As the blood orange sun melts into the warm Pacific
One day, the survivors will make this their home

Thank you to the Ostinal guides, the students, researchers and locals who are educating us and trying to protect the turtles.

Ready! Fire! Aim!

Tags

aim, boxes, fire, Pat Pattison, ready, song development, Songwriting, two story house

As with my life and songwriting approach, I follow the school of Ready! Fire! Aim! I have learned over the years, that preplanning is not my best quality. I like to think on my feet and see what happens when I am in situations. This first week with Pat Pattison’s online course was difficult for me because I do not develop my ideas in boxes! It is super hard to get my ideas into boxes. I can see that my songs end up developing a story line, but I usually start with my chorus idea first which is the central idea of the song. This is going to be a good tool for me!

Well after a great deal of thinking about the “two story house” idea, I wanted to use the passage of time. I also wanted to make it a personal story in the first person. I loved the idea of the house being like a container that holds memories, much like a photo album.

Two Story House 

Box 1: My only love carried me over the threshold of our first two-story house. We had our lives and love ahead of us.

This house will keep my memories safe.

Box 2: I carried my babies over the threshold of this two-story house. They had their whole lives ahead of them. They had dress-up, birthdays, pets, proms…

This house will keep my memories safe.

Box 3: They have to carry me out of my two story-house. I am old and all alone now. I fondly relive the good times in my mind. There are treasures left between the floorboards.

This house will keep my memories safe.

Idea to explore. The two stories – there was my story and the truth (kept in the house)

Stay tuned for more songwriting tool revelations!

SAC Blogging Challenge: Week 1

Tags

Arts, Lyrics, Music, Pat Pattison, Songwriter, Songwriting, Toronto, Toronto Songwriting Guild, Writing Better Lyrics

My songwriting book collection. LOVE!

Last year’s Songwriter’s Association of Canada’ (SAC) Social Media Challenge was so fun and educational, I thought I would join this year’s challenge. This time we are combining two activities: we are taking a free Pat Pattison songwriting course (who is a prof at Berklee School of Music) and doing a SAC blogging challenge at the same time! I remember reading Pat’s book “Writing Better Lyrics” the first time and wondering if I would ever write like he suggests: that was a decade ago. Incredibly enough, I open that book several times a year to reference it. I am looking forward to expanding on the tools in my writing toolbox.

SAC: Where are you in your songwriting journey? 

I am a perpetual student of the craft writing, music and songwriting. It is an incredible challenge to write a song that communicates effectively on both a musical and lyrical level. I write every day. I write several songs a month. I write with a lot of other writers. I have written two albums and am working on my third collection of songs. I have run the Toronto Songwriting Guild for the past five years in my basement to work on and study songs with other committed songwriters and industry advisors. I love songs…and love to write and rework them. I also love to perform so I can see how others react to the songs. Recently I received my first FACTOR grant to record a new song. I can’t think of many better things in life than to be paid for what you love to do! Here’s to more of that!

What do you hope to gain from participating in this challenge?

I loved the community of the last SAC challenge. While learning a ton about social networking, I met some of my now favourite people in my music community. In fact, when I toured last summer, I got to play with my new friends across this country (Lily Cheng, Ross Douglas…). It will be great to participate in a course by a songwriting master. I hope to learn some more lyric tricks. I hope to notice things I haven’t noticed before. I hope to try new methods of writing. I hope to further understand what makes great songs. I want my songwriting to shift to a new level of clarity.

Come along for the journey over the next few week and subscribe to this blog!!

Create Your Own Positive Ripple

Tags

Mahtma Ghandi, Positive Imperative, Positive Ripple, Positive Thinking, Proverbs, Self Help, Victor Sinclair, Youth rally, Zig Ziglar

English: Think positive (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the past month, I have had the pleasure of spending some time with Victor Sinclair. I have been learning about the tenants of the Positive Imperative. It has been wonderful food for thought and I encourage you to explore it. I wanted to share how you can start creating your own positive ripple in the world. Where to start?

Positivity begins with your words.

From my childhood, I remember hearing “what you say is what you get”.  Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” I have seen countless examples of victories because of a positive attitude, daily positive confessions and powerful words. The biggest example about the power of words came when a close family member was healed of terminal cancer. While the medical verdict was dire, we all focused on the belief in a positive outcome of healing and continuously spoke life into the situation. No one with negative words or beliefs could enter the hospital room. The outcome for our family member was complete remission, even though the journey was very difficult.

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” Mahatmas Gandi

Positive thinking creates space for solutions

As I was climbing a snow-covered hill the other day in my hometown, I slipped with every step I took forward. It was really hard work to climb up and I was getting discouraged. I focused on the top of the hill, which opened my mind to possibilities, and my attitude changed. I suddenly remembered I had my yak traks in my pocket so I slipped these on my boots. The wires on my soles dug into the ice and snow and I was able to easily climb the hill. It made me realize that it takes hard work, a good attitude and teeth/grit to climb the big hills in our life.

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Zig Ziglar

Positivity is hard work but good work.

I often think about the reality that creating positivity is much more difficult than negativity. In times where convenience is king, it is hard to sell a concept that involved hard work. Have you ever noticed that you can go through your day being a positive force – opening doors, smiling, offering kind words, volunteering your time and then you get into the car and someone cuts you off and you swear…that word then becomes your kids’ new favourite? One small negative ripple changes the positive that has gone on before it. While it is hard to be perpetually positive, than the effort is worth it! Think about those days when you woke up and determined that nothing was going to bring you down. You put on your amour, protected your thoughts and the day was great! 

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. Zig Ziglar

Positivity can start young.

Having children has shown me that positivity is critical when raising great kids. Again like anything, it takes a great deal of time, love and effort to raise strong, healthy, balanced children. I was fortunate to be raised by wonderful parents who modelled Zig Ziglar’s ideas from his book “Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World”. I have recently looked at the book and so many of the suggestions are timeless. I love the communication suggestions, which emphasize the constant daily love, support, positivity and encouragement to do hard things. To raise great children you have to be a great parent. You have to model the behavior and thinking!

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. Zig Ziglar 

Positivity…can start now. It’s never too late to make your ripple.

No matter what age you are or situation, positivity is a concerted effort. There are so many great books out there that can give you some good ideas! If you are already on this road, congratulations you are creating positive ripples and making a huge difference in people’s lives.

I was at a youth rally on the weekend listening to teenagers tell their stories about their life journeys. I heard about kids wrongfully accused of harassment, suicide attempts, depression and more. In each of their stories they spoke of a person that entered their life at the right time (just in time) invested in their lives. These earth angels listened to where they were at and spoke encouragement and positivity into them. These young people had a new hope and they started to dream. Dreaming can take you out of your current trials and cause you to focus on possibility!

“If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” Zig Ziglar

The Positive Imperative – My Interview with Victor Sinclair

Tags

Alanis, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Dale Carnegy, Fanshawe College, FM 96, McAulley Boys, Napoleon Hill, Positive Imperative, Sara Westbrook, Sarah Mclachlan, Stephen Covey, Trebas, Victor Sinclair

For the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to interview Victor Sinclair with the Positive Imperative movement. I originally found him on Facebook as I remembered him from his broadcasting days and because he posted the most uplifting quotes and articles.

What is the Positive Imperative (PI)?

PI is a concept he came up with 7 or 8 years ago. It is a new conversation about positivity with an eye to how we evaluate situations and how we can stop polarizing everything into good/bad, right/wrong. PI provides a holistic conversation about what is healthy for our community and environment.

All conversations talk about positive and negative. A positive is constructive and healthy for the community and environment. A negative is the opposite of positive. Neutral is not participating in a positive contribution in the many facets of life; the environment, voting, peace, safety in the community, parenting and even simple things like driving your car. Most people live in neutral (apathy or disconnected) which is a big problem. Living in neutral is like living in the negative. If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.

How did this philosophy come about? 

For Victor, PI has been the culmination of a lifelong study of positivity or positive psychology and self-help (Dale Carnegy, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, etc). He had a particular affinity to Stephen Covey, but had an urge to bring something new to the table. He also learned a great deal from his experience with not for profit organizations – working on boards for 30 years (Big Brothers, etc.).

He had a eureka moment at 5 am in the morning during the summer of 2006. He asked himself, what was missing from the dialog on changing the world. He began writing for hours. He got the first tenet – everything is positive, negative and neutral. Neutral (or not doing anything) is dangerous. In our world, a ripple is manifested in a domino effect. For example, a person may start their day by cutting someone off, then that someone has an accident, then that someone is hit by someone else, etc. The bigger the negative, the bigger the ripple. There is a ripple effect in not doing anything (neutral) as well. For positive results, it takes 10 times the energy to create meaningful positives.

Look at parenting, if there is physical, emotional abuse, the manifestations are depression, suicide, etc. Neutral parents don’t show up or participate much (they have to work, and have lots of jobs). There is a choice to be a workaholic. Great human beings takes a lot of effort, time, concentration, patience, etc. It takes a lot of effort to create great kids. For example, if you want to make a positive ripple and change the world, it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Three Tenets of PI 

First Tenet – PosiNegNeut Dynamic: All approaches to life are either Positive (Constructive), Negative Destructive or Neutral, which is also Negative.

Second Tenet – Posiratios: Significant Positive creations take ten times the effort and energy to create as a Negative one and once achieved, are likely to create between three and five times more Positive creations thus causing a ripple effect. Negatives take ten times less effort and energy to achieve but do ten times the damage and also create a Negative ripple effect and Neutrals take no effort or energy and because of the vast quantity of them, also often do ten times the damage or even more.

Third Tenet – The Positive Imperative. Be part of solution or part of problem… everything we do everyday can be approached as positive, neutral, negative (drive, environment, raise kids and treat others). Being positive can save people’s lives. You now become accountable: what did you know, when did you know it, and what you can do about it? You see that you can’t be positive in one place and not the other…try to be as positive as possible…

What is the goal of PI?

The goal of PI is to reveal the importance of Positivity, through Positive programs, education and Positive Music.

What is Positive Music? 

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” Bono

Positive Imperative can be applied to all aspects of life – like the chicken soup for the soul   legacy. Music also falls into positive, neutral and negative.

About Victor Sinclair

Victor has had a great deal of life experience looking at music from all sides:

• Kiwanis Festival winning choir boy,
• played tuba in school and guitar as a youth,
• folk guitarist,
• taught the history of music at Fanshawe College
• researched the popularity of music as the music director of a radio show in London (the positive songs were always the most popular over the long run)
• songwriter
• Broadcaster – interviewed many music stars Frank Valli, Sheryl Crowe, Kenny Loggins, Bare Naked Ladies etc.
• taught music business/sales/marketing at Trebas Entertainment Management School
• ran a record company artist management company with 5 acts. As Executive Producer of “In Another Lifetime” – McAulley Boys receive a Juno nomination for best R&B ALBUM 1997
• created the first Positive Music Program for a halfway house in the world.

Alanis and Victor

Victor learned that the power of positive music and art can lighten dark places. Music has always be around. The thing about music is, you are what you listen to. Music can be a junk food diet, and you need to be conscious of what it might be doing to our minds. We have to be intentional about what we listen to. In an interview with Sarah Mclauchlan, he learned that one of Sarah’s songs kept a 14 year old girl from committing suicide. Music can save lives. He also gives the example of Sara Westbrook with her UPower concerts. In an age when bullying and teen suicide is an epidemic, she saves lives and delivers the message respect self, respect others, respect your dreams. We just need another 50 Sara’s out there. Music brings hope.

He is running with a concept which is modelled on Motown –  he wants to cross-pollinate writers, singers, songwriters, engineers, producers, etc. and create a dynamic team that changes lives. It is a collaborative collective and a social collective to create positive music and positive education in action and programs…

Where from Here?

What Victor is doing is clear. Egoless, “non-comparative” Positivity, and Positive Music in particular, is the best opportunity to change the world.

Check out “We Are One” this Positive Imperative YouTube video, by PI Players!

To read more and receive his positive newsletter, out www.positiveimperative.com

How to Organize a Fundraiser: A Win-Win for Artists and Charities

Tags

Angela Saini, Artist Causes, Charitable organization, Chris Assaad, Drake Hotel, Facebook, JP Saxe, Kristine St. Pierre, Toronto, War Child, War Child Canada

Teaming up with your favourite cause is a wonderful way to give back as an artist.

Recently, I teamed up with Angela Saini, Chris Assaad, JP Saxe, and Kristine St. Pierre to raise money in support of War Child Canada. Our show last Saturday night at the Drake Hotel was a great success thanks to everyone who worked so hard. We had a target of raising $2000 for the “Childhood Matters Campaign” for War Child Canada, and as of this date, we have reached our goal.

Here are 10 steps for an artist to remember when organizing a successful fundraiser.

1. What’s your cause? The cause was clear in our situation, I have two children and have had a passion for helping kids. War Child Canada is a great choice for musicians as they have a lot of experience working with artists, and a great toolkit on their site to help organize an event. Make a list of the charities that really matter to you – try to find synchronicity between your message and your cause.

2. Line up a venue. The Drake Hotel in Toronto was a great choice because we wanted to draw 100 or more people. Pick a place where you have a good relationship and expectations can be properly managed. We knew the sound was terrific, the room was intimate and the venue was willing. Think about how many people you can draw and then contact the appropriate venue.

Heather Hill on piano, Meghan Morrison, Kat Leonard, Arlene Paculan singing, Eddie Paton on guitar

3. Line up the artists as they relate to the cause. For our War Child Canada event, the artists were selected for their positive music, their work with children and foreign aid, and their ability to draw. If you can, try to secure a well-known famous artist on the lineup to draw attention to your show. Work out in advance if and how the musicians will be paid and what the proceeds will be from the door and merchandise.

Meghan Morrison, Evan LeBlanc, Arlene Paculan, Kat Leonard

4. Find helpers. You need to turn on your charm because you will need a lot of help. Aside from the promotions team (that I mention later), you will need helpers at the show: someone to take pledges, sell merch, cover the door, MC the event and provide sound, lighting and photography (photos by Saxe).

5. Give yourself three months to prepare. In an ideal world, we would have had three months. We had a little over a month and it wasn’t long enough to promote and get into people’s calendars. Given the time we had, we needed to chip in and work hard to delegate the tasks and try to get as many people out as possible. With previous shows, having three months enables you to sell advanced tickets and take some of the pressure off.

6. Go forth and PROMOTE. Try to do as much as you can for a low cost and ask the charity if they have marketing materials. Some things you will need to do for successful fundraiser:

• design and create a poster/postcards,
• write a press release and approve it with a quote from the charity (create urgency)
• send the release over the wire and media outlets
• try to get sponsors and advertising in local music mags
• follow up with press
• run a social networking campaign (FB, twitter, etc) – leverage power-users
• blog (video blog) about the event (ideally have each artist blog about what the cause means to them)
• strategically poster the city – coffee shops, libraries, schools, posts, and venue
• try to get radio/TV coverage and interviews
• personally invite your friends and fans (I am a big believer in not relying on Facebook invites) with your newsletter or handwritten cards
• physical street work still seems to work as well
• TELL PEOPLE YOUR FINANCIAL GOAL – they will want to help you.

7. Keep in constant touch with the charity. A charity often has a contact person you can leverage and a toolkit to help you get organized. They will provide you with with logos, a press contact, pledges sheets, posters, images, etc. They may even come to your show to say a few words.

8. Don’t stop fundraising once the show is over. After our show was over I continued to collect pledges from folks that couldn’t make it. While working out the accounting may not be the most fun, it needs to be done. Through the year, always help raise awareness and attention.

9. Do it Annually. If you like it, an annual event creates anticipation and gives you a longer runway to promote and fundraise.

10. Think creatively. If this cause means a lot to you, you will find unique ways to raise awareness and money. Maybe you can even write a song for the organization and give some of the proceeds to your cause! Maybe you could be a guest blogger on the FB group, newsletter, annual campaign…

Give a little, and take a little. You can make a big difference by getting behind a cause and creating change! It is a win-win for artists and for charities.