Your Audience...Specifically

If you never specify your audience you can never be wrong. 

You can always sit on the throne of ‘they just don’t get it’. Because “they” are no one and everyone. Faceless.

When your song or album or video or project doesn’t connect you can blame your unpicked, unspecified audience…since they’re undefined they can’t be seen or heard to let you know any different.

It’s scary to specify your audience and then go to work making something for them. Because if you pick an audience and your thing doesn’t work it’s not on them, it’s on you. You tried to make something for them and it didn’t connect.

BUT when you specify your audience you can actually get to know them, make something for them that isn’t just a shot in the dark. And when it connects, it connects through relationship not luck or trying to shout the loudest from the tallest building.

It is scary to specify your audience. But you need to specify your audience. 

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Extra Credit

When I was in school, working on extra credit was always more exciting than working on regular credit.

Working on things I wasn’t required to work on was more fun.


Now that school is over, none of it’s required and it’s all extra credit.

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Talking And Listening

You learn more when you listen.

But teaching usually requires talking.

More words doesn’t (necessarily) mean more meaning. But it can.

Talking less doesn’t (necessarily) mean more humility or maturity. But it can.

Above all…People recall your presence (your vibe) more than they recall your words.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Emotional Pop Ballads

The idea from my last post was trotted out on full display at the Grammys last night so it’s worth circling back to.

(If you didn’t read it the basic idea is: Do they want more of what they already have? Or do they want what comes next?)

I didn’t watch till the end of the broadcast but by the time I turned it off I counted seven performances of piano/vocal or acoustic/vocal ballads.

That’s a lot.

We can thank Adele for ushering (back) in this type of song and performance a handful of years ago.

And a lot of the songs and performances last night were just fine.

Beyond that, I’m here to ask…

With such an explosion of emotional pop ballads, are you going to write and release another one in hopes that people want more of what they currently have, or are you going to take a guess that people want what comes next, AFTER the ballad wave?

Both are risky. And maybe you’ll try and do both. The second one is just more fun and interesting.

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Now And Next

What do they already have and what do they want next?

Do they want more of what they already have?

Or something very different? Something a little different?


If you are selling someone another refrigerator on the basis of ‘if one is good two is better’…that’s a pretty tough sale.

It’s a lot easier to sell someone another fridge if yours is better, more efficient, smarter, smaller, bigger, better design.

And in the same breath…if they already have a refrigerator they are happy and content with, you might consider selling them on microwaves or toasters or dishwashers rather than fridges.


We see this in music too.

Lots of people who already liked Nirvana wanted Pearl Jam next. Probably not a huge surprise. They’re different enough to be stepping stones.  

But also…

Lots of people who liked Tim McGraw then went on to like Jay-Z. These people decided that what they wanted next was something really different than what they already had.


My guess is you and what you offer fit in here somewhere…

What do they have?

What do they want now?

And what do they want next?

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Into The Unknown

We don’t have to go very far to go into the unknown. It’s not a far off distant land.

The unknown is right next to the familiar.

The familiar is Hey Cleveland how’s everyone doing tonight?!…the unknown is Hey Cleveland come on, jump in, lets go!

The familiar is just barely avoiding eye contact…the unknown is making eye contact.

The familiar is playing the song…the unknown is playing an extra chorus  at the end just guitar and vocal.

The familiar is asking How’s it going?…the unknown is What have you been thinking about today?

The familiar is seriousness…the unknown is vulnerability.

If the leaps of adventure into the unknown are what you seek, you might start looking right next to the familiar.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com