Off Beat Band

I believe that setting achievable goals is essential if you want to accomplish anything, and making those goals public can help other people keep you accountable.  In this way I want to lay out some road cones for the direction I want Off Beat Band to take in the future.  I say road cones, because there isn’t a road yet; I’ve got to make it myself.  As of right now, I don’t know of anybody that has done anything like this before, and so I’m going to be blazing the trail ahead.  All the while making lots of mistakes and a fool of myself in the process.  I’m okay with that.  Here are some of the aspirations I have for OBB.

• Off Beat Band is first and foremost about music.  This includes all aspects of music, but more specifically it will help other people to achieve full time musician status.   This can include all aspects of the music business, including finance, skills improvement, promoting yourself or your band, gigging, social interaction, and other things.
• I want OBB to become a community-like.  An online collection of people who all share a similar love for music.  It’s my hope that I can foster communication between artists, encouraging people to meet up locally, start bands together, and broaden the music scene in the places they live.  I also hope it’ll become a place where beginners can find good advice and encouragement from those who are more experienced.
• OBB needs to be inspirational.  As humans we are naturally weak.  It’s hard to take the risk of becoming a full time musician, so I hope to dispel some of the myths and lies that might be subconsciously holding you back.  This should include creativity exercises, financial advice, relationship advice, and other things that can spur us on to greatness.
• I don’t want OBB to become a “tech” guide.  This is simply because the world of instruments, electronics, and accessories is way to large for me to handle as one person.  It’s best left to others (who I’ll hopefully find on the way).  However, I do plan on giving some “how tos” on the equipment and products I’m familiar with.
• The main goal of OBB is to help others improve their lives.  I think things like overcoming fear, conquering addictions, and eliminating rage are more important than writing awesome songs.  I want to help people enrich the world, not steal richness away.
• I’m planning on making money from this site someday because I think I should get paid for my hard work, but I’ll keep it on a very short leash.  I hate annoying advertisements, worthless newsletters, and people that have to trick you into buying something.  I avoid them like Yersinia Pestis.
• A tangible goal of mine is that I’d like to write at least one post a week.  As I get a greater audience, I hope that people will help to keep me accountable with this goal.  Like I said, I’m naturally weak.
• I want to share the healing message of Jesus.  I’m stating it publicly now, ’cause I dislike it when people have unclear or shady motives or try to trick you into following their religion.  I’m still in limbo about exactly how I’m going to portray my message, but God has had a very huge impact in my life and I want others to experience the same freedom that I’ve found.

At this point in time, nobody is actually reading OBB.  I’ve only showed the website to my Chinese friend Lin, who plays guitar as a hobby, and has no interest in starting a band.  But in the next few months I plan on having a committee of 10 or so of my genius colleagues to come in and review my site.  During that time I hope to make a whole lot of improvements to the site, and get good ideas for articles.  After that initial reworking, I’m going to have a more official release date where there will probably be more pomp and ballyhoo.

Don’t worry, I’ve never heard of ballyhoo either.  10 cool points for the thesaurus.

I have to admit I had a lot of hesitation starting this website.  Mainly because I’m not an expert, and I don’t have years of experience under my belt.  I’ve been playing guitar since 2002, and played my first gig only a year after that, but all that stuff doesn’t add up when compared with people that have been intimately involved in the business for years and years.  Even though I have zero readers right now, the fact that this website is up and publicly available makes me nervous enough.

But I was thinking yesterday, one of those intense, deep thought “eureka” moments when I realized that I have no reason to be scared.  I accept my ignorance, embrace it willingly, and choose to fight on in spite of the opposition, when ironically the only opposition is myself.  Also, I have an advantage over others, because I’m going to meticulously document my path from ignorance to expert.  In this way you can see in close detail the steps it takes to move from the field of novice to that of a virtuoso.

This is Off Beat Band.  Welcome.

And don’t forget to check out his myspace page here.  There’s some pretty progressive stuff there.  Check it out!