Hodge-Podge Page

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The Hodge-Podge Page!

This use to be my Buy/Sale Page

But I Bought & Sold most everything that I wanted so now that the page is gone here comes the Hodge-Podge

With that said, I've decided to put all kinds of different things on this page!  So here goes:

  1. For example, if you want to know more about the business side of me then you should go here:   View Glen Heffner's profile on LinkedIn                          

  2. I've wanted to say this for a long time, and I'm speaking to young people here...Music has always been my life. PERIOD.  I'll say it again.  "Music has always been my life".  But I took the time to look really hard at what was happening around me to see if I could discover things that might separate me from others.  For example, I had a good band, so did many of my friends.  We were all making the same kind of money and still my band and I thought that we had  something a bit different but we didn't know how to present it.  So one night I was watching a national band on television and after seeing their great performance I asked myself what did they have that we didn't? All of a sudden, it hit me like a sledge hammer and when I applied the answer to all of my friend's bands, I realized that not a single one of them had these special things either... So what were they? Well, in a nutshell, that night I discovered that the group had a completely co-coordinated stage presence.  They knew when to look at each other, when to smile, when to move, when to laugh or be serious.  In other words, they had practiced a perfect 3 and a half minutes of totally convincing "look" that made you believe that they were "the real thing".  Next, they had great sound and finally great lights  I took this to my band, "The Rumblers" and immediately we started rehearsing the moves and looks for the shows.  It was horrible.  We found it so hard to actually look into each other's eyes and pretend that we were sharing a funny joke or some other type of communications.  It took us nine months of 5 days a week, 4-5 hours rehearsals, coming up with all kinds of unique moves relating to the music, etc.  We even recorded our 3 sets of music  and for two months we just played our songs back on DAT tape while we rehearsed the moves and "views".  THEN WE SOLD ALL OF OUR SOUND AND LIGHTING EQUIPMENT AND HIRED THE BEST SOUND/LIGHT GUYS AVAILABLE. For 4 months they learned exactly what we were doing and where all the cues were.  When The Rumblers did our first show we played to a sold-out house of over 1100 people and the place was stunned.  We had all the other club owners in the area brought in and they were ready to book us immediately but they were shocked when they heard what our deal was....The Rumblers deal was that we took 100% of the door, the club didn't have to guarantee any money what-so-ever and that was it!  Some club owner's immediately balked but we had set up some shows where we knew that their clubs would be practically empty because we would be playing near them.  Within a month, we had a rotation of over 6 clubs and we played sold-out shows for over 12 years.  Our average take for a weekend was around $5000!  Three things....: People had a show, amazing  sound (and sometimes we even used quad sound tricks) and great lights....National record companies came to see us; RCA, Phonograph/Mercury, etc....Just a word to the wise, look at the competition and ask yourself, "What aren't they doing that I can do to make my group unique"?  If you can answer that, you'll be on the way!

  3. Musician's - Stay in School - Got to College! - I know, I know.  What could sound more boring, well, let me tell you something.  If you're really serious about becoming a professional musician, go to College.  There's lots of reason.  For example, you might meet your future music partner, you'll definitely learn the business of music.  You see, college isn't just about learning music; it's about interfacing with other people and that interfacing will give you the abilities to handle situations that you'll need to understand to successfully negotiate record deals, be it major companies or independent.  In addition, there is nothing like having that piece of parchment that states that you have a degree in music.  It can stop another musician "dead cold" when they're trying to put forward their opinions and sometimes it is a good thing to be the winner in discussions like that.  Finally, when you're dealing with the real world of music , you just can't fathom, (at least not now ), the major ways a music degree will work in your favor in so many aspects of the music business.  For example, you can read music, therefore you understand form and analysis of music which means that you have the ability to think logically.  Your music skills will allow you to get into Sales, International Sales, Repping,  Scoring, Recording, Music Production, Mastering, Performance and so much more.  I'm 54 years old now and I HAVE NEVER HAD A JOB IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY THAN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!  That's all because of College.  Think about it.  By the time I was 22, I was in the music industry and I've supported myself and my family just fine in the music world.  Ok, I'm through preaching but it will be the best 4 years of your life.  Oh yeah, I failed to mention that you can become a great music writer, or reviewer also....

 

                                                         Control Room                              Module Wall

 

Studio Room

Since I’ve got so many modules (and the fact that I’m a pro audio rep), I generally find myself "stumbling" upon modules and synths while "on the road". I buy them and then I sell some of them. If you’re looking, feel free to check with me because I just might have it! I should also mention, that I’m not trying to "make a mint" on them either. I just hate to see modules/synths  "dying" in some dusty corner in a store. I find that many of my favorite modules are the ones that don’t have the "big name" associated with them. For example, the Casio VZ-10m sounds awesome and they fit in mixes exceptionally well. Another often overlooked piece is the Kawai K5m. So much power, but you have to be willing to program your own sounds. Remember, factory patches were only designed to be a "starting point" for your own!

                                           Some of the "stuff" in my "land of misfits"!

E-Mu, Roland, Kawai, Akai, Korg, Casio, Oberheim, Alesis, Kurzweil, Yamaha, Peavey, Moog, ARP, 360 Systems, Digital Systems Synergy, Fairlight, and more...

Got stuff to trade, sale or want to buy?  Just click on the link below and tell me about it!

 

-glen

majormidi@charter.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

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