If you want respect, get out of the music business (laughs)! If you love what you are doing, it will show and you will gain respect. People who buy records like how songs move them no matter the skill level.
Well, the Internet is a great thing, everyone now can have their own spot and sell their music. But it is becoming a jungle where everyone just thinks about themselves. There is too much quantity, and too little quality; too much competition instead of collaboration.
To play in places where they cannot pay the expenses for an entire band, I travel with only my guitar and a CD where I have my own backing tracks. And I noticed that the public reacts very well to these concerts!
I am very fortunate to know and have worked with an amazing variety of musicians, so I can write a piece of music with someone in mind.
I still discover a lot of music by word of mouth, seeing what my friends are listening to. I have always bought music and still do.
What works for me is a real life approach mixed with the internet stuff. The Internet by itself is just digital overkill for all of us suffering from ADHD. Everyone has 47 social media profiles, a web page, and ends up sitting in front of the computer all day.
I personally love to hear melody and hooks in solos as well as lyrically slow/wide vibrato and story-telling phrasing capped off with shredding licks that make you want to fall to pieces.
If you have gathered some musical experience by actively making music, you listen to music in another way. You are able to hear everything and not only the lead instrument or vocals.
A great solo works like a powerful and moving speech. Something that grabs your attention, keeps you interested, tells a story, and wraps up leaving you feeling like you got something from it.
Music is a language, it comes from your soul and your body. I`m not hung up on technique or theory; that`s why I love Santana as much as Vai. What they play just comes from the heart.
