Just who is this Tom Rule anyway?

Who is this Tom Rule anyway?

Tom Rule is a Tennessee native who is proof God has a sense of humor. A left-handed keyboard player who has played more styles than he cares to think about, Tom is not normal, but you wouldn't know that from his music.

He landed in Macon, GA in 1990 and has been doing music and such in that area since then, with occasional forays to places like Boston and Iowa to perform. You can get more info here & here if you really want to.

Tom is also on Facebook, and has a Blog you can sign up to get emailed when something is added. He also stashed a lot of music over at MacMusicGuy.com which is available - sheet music, mp3s, choir practice tracks, etc.

He is also thankful his parents paid for all those piano lessons!

MacMusicGuy.com is down for a while.....

Apologies to those who were not able to complete their transactions - something has gone awry deep inside the guts of MacMusicGuy.com, and it looks like I'll be rebuilding the store from scratch, sadly!

Perhaps this will let me fix those little things I've been wanting to get to for a while now!

I'll post updates as soon as there's anything to report!

Accessible Depth: What's with the Cross?

I know - there’s only one thing overtly “Christian” on this album. So why is there a cross on the cover?

Since I’m a firm believer that “Christianity” is not a thing you DO, it’s a relationship you maintain, it follows that everything I do or create springs out of my relationship with the Creator. Obviously, some days I’m better at that relationship than others, but I still keep trying.

The type inside the cross on the album cover is a chord chart from church printed on a very old laser printer - which was malfunctioning. It’s a very cool mistake that I decided would look great on the album cover. See if you can figure out what song we were playing that Sunday.

Here's the rough draft of the cover. The final version wasn't much different:

Interviewed by David Vignola of Vision Recording in CT.

I was recently interviewed by David Vignola of Vision Recording up in Connecticut for his podcast about music licensing. We connected on LinkedIn through the Music licensing group - he was looking for someone who is new to the licensing game to get some stories about the process and such.

Here's the link to the podcast. As I type this I have not listened to it - sure hope I come off as at least somewhat intelligent!

Episode 31 - Music Licensing Part 2


Here's a separate blog entry with links to the resources I mention during the interview.

Notes for Vision Recording Interview

David Vignola from Vision Recording up in Naugatuck, Connecticut interviewed me for his podcast the second week of December about music licensing from a newbie perspective.

The specific link is here: Episode 31 - Music Licensing Part 2

I mentioned several different resources during the interview, and here are some links:

Libraries I'm currently in:

• Indietracks - My tunes there
• WAP Publishing
• Renegade Music Marketing
• Music XRay - My EPK there
• GovAccessMusic.com

Other resources mentioned:

• Linked In - Music Publishing and Licensing Group - this is a "closed" group, so you have to request to join. The admins are just trying to make sure that legit musicians are in the group
• Sarah Gavigan - http://www.getyourmusiclicensed.com/ - a music supervisor who is putting out a lot of info, suggestions for proceeding, etc. My impression is that she's doing this not only to support herself, but also to make her job easier!
• John Oszajca - http://www.musicmarketingmanifesto.com - has a lot of good material on marketing here, plus a paid online community with tons of resources.
• Aaron Davison - Renegade Music Marketing - HowToLicenseYourMusic.com - lots of ebooks and directories for sale

 A couple of other tidbits:

• I'm really just starting out. I've been "collecting" material for a fairly long time, with no real purpose behind it....so essentially I already had some material ready before starting this journey.
• I've read in SEVERAL places that this is a marathon, not a sprint.
• I've also read that the first placements are the hardest - once you have a track record and people know what kind of stuff you do, then they'll [hopefully] remember your stuff.
• Music supervisors are incredibly busy and under serious time deadlines. Label everything with your name and contact info - EVERYTHING. You have to make it easy to be found.
• A comment in the Linked-In group that has stuck with me was that to make significant income from licensing you have to have a THOUSAND tracks out there, adding 100 a year to your catalog. For me, this just means that it's going to be a [possibly long] while before I can "give up my day jobs".
• But my whole purpose in pursuing this was as an ADDITIONAL income stream - not to really make an ENTIRE living off of it (although that would be really cool!).

...and just in case

you want to see all the OTHER stuff I do, here's a short list. It really does work out to about 7 part-time jobs. Some people call it "entrepreneurial" - I personally think it's proof God has a sense of humor!

1. http://www.tomrule.info - piano teaching and studio work
2. http://www.TomRule.info/depth - New Album: Accessible Depth
3. http://www.HamSandwichTees.com - Mugs, Tshirts, Hats, iPhone/iPad cases
4. http://www.MacMusicGuy.com - MP3, Charts, Sheet Music
5. http://www.MaconMacGuy.com - Websites, Training, getting small businesses to work their technologies
6. http://www.MidGaHosting.com - web hosting, email, etc.
7. Teaching Piano, Music Appreciation, and accompanying the Chamber Singers at Macon State College. See http://MaconState.blogspot.com for the Music App class blog.
8. I'm also on staff at Northway Church in Macon - the band tom&co recorded two albums in 1999 & 2003 which received a bit of airplay/webplay.
9. ...and I'm in a couple of bands/groups: Joey Stuckey Band, GA Cabaret, Mosely Dixon Project 

 ???

Anybody with questions, please feel free to contact me!
Use the contact form over at MacMusicGuy.com (just ignore the "order number" field).

Accessible Depth - HUH?

ACCESSIBLE DEPTH? What kind of an album title is that?

It’s been my privilege to have been gifted with the musical flexibility to live in several worlds - “classical”, pop, jazz, educational. While I enjoy an eclectic array of music, it has long been point of frustration that so music lacks imagination, creativity, and depth. On the other hand, the 20th century experimental composers were trying to maintain some depth - but many of the experiments would never have an audience.

...and without an audience, what’s the point?

So this album is an attempt to create accessible music - i.e. that is eminently listenable - but that can withstand multiple listens because you keep finding additional interesting tidbits - “ear candy”.

Let me know how I did!

Accessible Depth: some production notes

Some of the older tracks on Accessible Depth were recorded using Mackie’s Tracktion. I'm moving away from Tracktion, though I really do like the software, because the OS has moved beyond it and I'm starting to see some crashes.

The acoustic piano tracks were recorded on Pro Tools 7 (Win) - the resulting tracks were ported over to the studio Mac for further work.

Some of the Fender Rhodes tracks were recorded at Northway church in Macon, GA - that’s a genuine vintage 1972 Fender Rhodes that is in remarkably good shape. The Rhodes parts were played into an Alesis Masterlink, while I listened to the underlying accompanment on an iPod - a bit kludgy, but it worked well.

Other instruments used include a Korg DW8000, Roland RD700sx, plus several VST instruments including Sampletank and Kore Player.

The album was assembled and mastered using Presonus’ Studio One Pro.

Online piano / Keyboard / Praise Band lessons

I've been on the faculty of VidChat University for a few months now. It is a conduit where musicians can take lessons on an ad-hoc OR continuing basis over the internet, and it works pretty well. We're running a special for the holidays - see below!


Click to see my instructor page.

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Accessible Depth: Spring Longing and Doooooo Dot

Spring Longing is another “dead of winter” session of thinking with my fingers on the keyboard.

Oddly enough, in spite of this piece’s title, I enjoy recording in Winter more than Summer because there’s less noise - heaters are much quieter than air conditioners!


Doooooo Dot began as a demo piece for my wife Pam to record. We never got around to it, and I found the original score notes last summer. The Roland RD700sx I regularly use has some samples done by Take 6....and I began wondering one day if the two would work together.

I think they did. What do YOU think?