LEARN TO SPEAK MUSIC
A Guide to Creating, Performing and Promoting Your Songs
From the Learn to Speak… series
by John Crossingham & illustrated by Jeff Kulak
Rightly observing that “there’s always room for one more song, one more voice,” Crossingham offers encouragement and advice for young rock-star wannabes based on his years of touring and recording with several indie bands. As it’s largely general advice of the commonsense variety—keep a notebook, respect bandmates, experiment with sounds, get word out over “whatever the hot free web-network is”—rather than personal experiences or specific directions, this reads less like a serious manual and more like an expanded magazine article for casual readers. For art that’s more decorative than informative, Kulak festoons the pages with equally generic figures wielding various instruments. The occasional mini-playlists and rare specific tips won’t give budding musicians, producers and agents much to work with, and there are no addresses or other resource lists. (Nonfiction. 11-13)