What the hell is a sock account?
The internet is a battlefield of sorts where there are people who are trying to get #1 rankings, views, "likes," "upvotes," subscribers and so on...
...and sometimes they cheat to do it. If you've ever seen someone's fan page/YouTube channel/Reddit article/whatever skyrocket in numbers in a very short period of time for seemingly no reason at all (as in barely anyone is commenting/sharing/"liking"/etc.), chances are pretty good that douche bag is using sock accounts to artificially inflate his numbers. In other words, cheating.
Cheating for high numbers happens a lot, but it's much tougher to get away with these days. But before I get into that, a sock account means a web account where you use it as a false identity. The name derives from sock puppet (where you put your hand in a sock and draw a face on the sock's toe area to use it puppet-style); even though you're the one controlling the sock, the sock is meant to be a character, as in fake, as in not real, hence sock account.
Example: You establish a new Facebook fan page, so it has zero "likes." A cheater instead of earning the likes properly will instead sign up 100 different fake Facebook accounts and then "like" his own page 100 times, giving the appearance of getting off to a good start, but in reality the "likes" are all fake; those 100 fake Facebook profiles are all sock accounts.
Sock accounts are used either to inflate numbers or give the appearance that people are talking about certain things in order to trick people into thinking something is interesting. One who is skilled in the art of sock accounts can have a "conversation" that appears to be involving 5 people, when in reality it's all the same guy using 5 different accounts.
Those who are really good at using sock accounts create a fake argument online and draw people in from the drama. I will admit that that takes some skill to pull off.
Why does anyone even bother with sock accounts?
Some people do it just because they like seeing how many people they can fool, and the rest all do it for one reason: Money.
The more interest you can generate in anything, the more opportunity you have to sell stuff because when you've got a bunch of people watching, reading and participating, all of them can be potential customers you can hock products to.
I've personally never used sock accounts, but there are thousands of those who do every day (including corporations.) There are some out there with many thousands of different sock accounts, all ready-to-use for whatever reason. I'm not one of those people.
I don't play the sock account game because the risk is just too great. That and the fact online advertising costs a lot less now. I see no reason to spend hours, days, weeks or months creating sock accounts when I can just flip over a few bucks, advertise properly, get the views/likes/whatever and go about my business.
On a final note, part of the reason YouTube and Facebook started getting really strict with new signups (like cell phone validation via SMS message,) is because of people creating so many tens of thousands of sock accounts. One who would want to create sock accounts on those systems these days has a lot tougher time going about it, which is another reason why it's pretty much pointless to even bother with it.
5 things people think makes you get noticed as a guitar player that actually do not work at all
There's a lot of things people say you should do in order to get noticed as a guitar player on the internet, and many of those things are false. Here are 5 of them.
1. "Playing an expensive guitar will get me noticed."
False. For "getting noticed" reasons, it's actually better to play guitars that people can actually afford, such as Squier and/or Epiphone brand. Why? Because there are a lot more Squier/Epiphone players than there are Fender/Gibson players, and they will be searching for the guitars they play on the internet...
...and that is probably the reason you're even reading this now. Would you be following me on the internet if I were exclusively playing expensive guitar brands? Highly unlikely.
2. Producing only "pro-quality" videos only
There are thousands if not tens of thousands of "pro-quality" guitar player videos out there, and very little of them get viewed as much as the "crappy" webcam videos do.
Nobody really cares whether your video is in 360p or HD 1080p. And on your end, the "pro-quality" videos take 3 to 5 times as long to make, 3 to 5 times longer to upload (which is not good if you're under a bandwidth cap by your ISP,) and are generally tedious to even get done. You're better off making it as easy as possible to record a video and post.
And if people yap at you for lack of video/sound quality, let them, because in the end you're getting the views and they're not.
3. Using "for musicians" web sites
This doesn't work. Any site labeled as "for musicians" doesn't have anywhere near the draw that YouTube, Facebook or even Twitter do. Don't bother using them.
4. Only releasing "quality" music
Big secret revealed: There is no such thing as "quality" music, because the term is totally subjective.
In relation to music, people think "quality" means "complicated." Well, if your music is nothing but complicated crap, it will never get done. On the other hand, if you keep your songs simple, you'll be able to produce tunes faster and get more traffic from them.
5. Networking
"If I 'connect' with a bunch of other guitar players, that will get me noticed."
No, it won't.
I'm going to talk about this at length, but believe me, this is worth your time to read it to avoid mistakes.
With that said, here we go.
There have been bands and guitar players flying the "SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC" banner on the internet since the late 1990s, and it has never worked. It started with this thing called "web rings", and then later into MySpace, then later into ReverbNation. A bunch of guitar players and bands "supporting" each other but in the end accomplishing absolutely nothing. No new traffic gained, no increased sales of songs... just a big pile of fail.
In musician's circles, networking just doesn't work. Never has, and never will. The only reason anyone does it is because it's free.
Remember: Advertising always trumps networking
Spending a little cash, be it for a promoted tweet, Facebook promoted post (any status update you post can be promoted,) Facebook advertising or YouTube advertising goes a long way.
If you care about your music and/or band at all, spend the money and promo your stuff; it will not cost you hundreds of dollars to do it, but rather well under $100. With the Facebook promoted post in particular, you can go as cheap as 5 bucks. Is it worth it to spend $5 to see if advertising works for you? YES.
Can the free way of networking actually work?
Networking only works if you put a ton of effort into it, and you have to go about it in a very sneaky way which has the high probability of backfiring on you.
I'll explain.
Scenario: You're just starting out and want to gain some recognition. The goal for the time being is not to sell a song, but rather just get noticed and build your audience so you can sell songs later. You have a YouTube video posted of you playing your song and you're ready to promote.
We'll use the two options of:
- Promoting a Facebook post
- Networking
Assuming you have a Facebook fan page with at least 25 fans on it, we'll say that you spent the 5 bucks and promoted a post pointing to a YouTube video you made of your song.
What this will do is expose your post to about 1,000 Facebook users. Maybe 2,000 depending on how far the reach of your post gets when promoted. The end result should be that - assuming your song is any good - you will double your Facebook "likes" from 25 to 50 in 1 to 2 weeks once the campaign launches. That's not guaranteed, of course, but it's a reasonable expectation.
Networking
To do the same with networking it will take much more effort.
First, On YouTube, you go to every guitar-style video that has music similar to yours, post comments and subscribe in the hopes they will return the favor, subscribe to you and "like" your page. You will have to do this on anywhere between 100 to 500 different YouTube videos just to make this happen.
Second, on Facebook, you will have to follow suit and "like" a whole bunch of different pages (anywhere from 50 to 250) in the hopes you'll get "liked" back.
Third, you'll have to seek out guitar forums like Squier-Talk and Ultimate Guitar, register accounts and participate in a bunch of threads. The way to advertise there is by putting the links to your Facebook fan page and YouTube channel in your forum signature. You do not say "check out my band" there, because that's spamming and you'll be banned for doing that. For every thread you participate on, your signature will be seen and people will click on it - maybe.
You will have to repeat the above three every day. Comment on hundreds of YouTube videos, "like" hundreds of Facebook pages, and participate in many, many forum threads. You'll have to put a good 1 to 2 hours a day into this.
"Gee, that sounds like an awful lot of work..."
It is. If you're going to use the free way of doing things, you will be doing a whole lot of work just to get noticed. And there's no guarantee it will even gain you the recognition you want from all the time you spent with your networking.
It's much faster and easier just to buy advertising instead.
"But there's no guarantee advertising will work either!"
True, but at least you won't be wasting a bunch of time networking just to find out if it works or not.
You can either spend 1 to 2 hours a day for weeks if not months trying to network yourself, or you can buy advertising and know whether that works or not in less than a week...
...and that right there is what makes spending 5 bucks on a Facebook promoted post worth it. Time is money, after all.
Do I like the new album From Hendrix?
A new Hendrix album People, Hell And Angels has just been released, including a vinyl option (which is cool).
The entire album is currently being hosted by NPR.
I am not a Hendrix fan. I consider his work "okay" at best. Not groundbreaking. Not incredible. And certainly not perfect. Just "okay".
I also believe Hendrix's work wasn't anything life-changing. Why? Because when I hear it, I hear 1960s psychedelic rock combined with some 1970s jazz/funk, but mostly 1960s guitar tone. I also hear his guitar being out of tune a lot (even in the studio recordings) and also hear tons of mistakes.
I have seriously tried to like Hendrix's music. But I can't. It just doesn't do anything for me and never did.
It's interesting to note that while that the album Electric Ladyland did go #1 in the US, absolutely none of his singles ever charted high.
Only one song, All Along The Watchtower, charted decently and peaked at #20 in the US. After that, the next-best was Crosstown Traffic which peaked at #52. Nothing after that charted well. For example, Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary didn't even chart at all in the US.
Hendrix's peak popularity was always in the UK and that's where he had his most top 10 hit singles (five of them). But never once did he have a top 10 single in the US. A #1 album, yes, but never a single. And the singles are what matter most.
Like I said, Hendrix to me is just okay. Meh.
Creating a from-scratch beat on the BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-3, plus other notes
In this video below I show how to create a rhythm using a custom kit on the BOSS DR-3, and show how to do something almost nobody does (only because they don't know how), that being to record a swing-style beat.
Creating rhythm patterns using a standalone drum pattern sequencer like the DR-3, Akai XR20 or like machine is easy as long as you understand how a pattern sequencer works.
There are those of the belief that a PC is a requirement for pattern sequencing. Nope. Pattern sequencers have been around a very long time, and the vast majority of them can be controlled via MIDI if you want to use a separate controller (which is optional but not required).
Those who complain about a standalone pattern sequencer as being "too hard to use" only do so because they're already used to the utterly broken-beyond-belief interface that is the PC.
In other words, this whole "too hard to use" thing.. um.. no. The pattern sequencer was always easier and still is.
How to "convert" a P90 to sound like a Stratocaster single-coil pickup
In this video, I show how to get a P90 single-coil pickup to have "Stratocaster characteristics" by adjusting the pickup pole piece heights.
Obviously, the P90 can't sound exactly like a Strat single-coil because it doesn't have the same treble response, but the point is that you can get a Strat-like sound out of one if you want to.
A video really doesn't give you what it actually sounds like when you do this minor modification. I had to describe it as "subtle" because on video, it is subtle. But when you hear it in person, it's much more obvious. Sometimes the audio from a video really doesn't give you the complete picture, so to speak, and this is one of those times.
The entire reason there are pickups with adjustable pole pieces is so you can, y'know, actually adjust them. But nobody does even though it's an easy feature to get even on cheap guitars like the Les Paul I own seen in the video above.
I do plan on keeping the poles for the rhythm pickup on my Les Paul in staggered formation, because it really does bring out a Strat tone I'm more familiar with.
If you don't hear the difference between flat-pole and staggered-pole in the above video, that's fine because like I said, in the video it's a very subtle change in sound. But I like it and plan on keeping the guitar configured that way.