Reflections and Progress: A Week of Music, Security, and New Beginnings
This week has been one of significant progress, mixed with a few challenges that I continue to navigate as I push forward with my music journey. It's been a week of reaching milestones, securing my digital presence and expanding on some exciting creative ideas that I’ve been sitting on for a while. Here’s a recap of everything that’s unfolded:
Radio Submissions: Reaching a Global Audience
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve now submitted my music to a total of 42 jazz radio stations worldwide! I’ve been at this for a few weeks now and every new station I submit to feels like a positive step toward expanding my reach and growing my audience. It’s an ongoing effort to introduce my music to new listeners and I’m excited by the potential to gain more exposure in the jazz community. The most recent round of submissions has been particularly rewarding as I am targeting major global cities with a major jazz presence. I can only hope that the response from listeners will be as enthusiastic as I am about the music. Why wouldn’t they be? I’ve utilized the talents of some incredibly talented musicians. It’s great stuff!
The El Paso Trip: Collaborations and Creative Growth
Another highlight of this week was a trip to El Paso to meet with Curtis Edwards, my former guitarist. Curtis is a longtime friend and my original music partner, whom I had lost touch with years ago when he moved back to El Paso. I had been looking for him for years and finally tracked him down. We recently reconnected after 15 years and it was as if very little time had passed. Being the true friends that we are, we picked up our friendship and our music immediately. We’ve been talking about creating a lyric and sheet music book for our mutual compositions for quite some time, and it was fantastic to sit down in person and dive deeper into that vision. Curtis is just as passionate about this project as I am, though he has a slightly longer timeline in mind. We agreed that a two-year window for the book’s release would work best, which gives us time to get everything right without rushing the process. The book will include our shared works, along with accompanying sheet music and pictures. I’m really looking forward to the creative process of transcribing our original music into sheet form and manifesting something meaningful and tangible that any musical artist in the future will be able to use to play our work. I love the idea that we can build a musical legacy, not just for our families, but for the world that will exist after we are both gone.
During the visit, we also attempted to transcribe our song “Undeniably You” into sheet music. “Undeniably You” is a blues song that Curtis and I wrote years ago. It appeared on our original CD back in 2011. That CD is no longer available to the public. Those are the works that will become the book I mentioned earlier. This song however will be revamped and distributed as the next SoulePhix release since it falls into the genre I have been so diligently building since 2016. While we weren’t able to generate a perfect version this time, the process was invaluable and I’m eager to revisit it in the future with the help of a professional transcriber. There’s something about this particular song’s energy and message that feels like the right next step and is a win/win for both projects really. It is also adds to the SoulePhix blues repertoire and will enable to put together another blues playlist in the future.
The El Paso trip wasn’t all about work! I also had the pleasure of collaborating with two former band mates of Ray Martinez. You may recall the Ramon “Ray” Martinez played bass on the recent release, “Golden Moment”. I met Kacie, who is a fantastic female drummer and Hector, a talented guitarist, who turned me on to a new song in Spanish I’d never heard before. I don’t want to say which song it was but I definitely hope to revisit it in the future! After the trip, I mused about the possibility of expanding Cinco Verde Publishing LLC in the future to include the building a recording studio in El Paso. It feels like a potentially ideal location, given Curtis and Ray’s roots there and the growing network of musicians and upcoming projects I have in the area. Having Cinco Verde Publishing LLC as the exclusive music publisher for the studio is something I’m seriously considering. It would give us the space to create high-quality recordings while keeping everything in-house, and I’m very excited about the potential for this venture. I am even considering buying or creating my own radio station out there. El Paso has lots of potential opportunities!
Cybersecurity: Protecting My Digital Footprint
On the business side, I’ve been focusing on securing my digital presence. As an independent artist, it’s crucial to protect both my personal and professional information from threats. Unfortunately, I encountered a situation this week that reminded me of just how vulnerable our online lives can be. I received a series of emails from various Gmail accounts that initially seemed like routine FB communications. However, after digging deeper, I realized they were hacking attempts aimed at accessing my accounts. Needless to say, I took immediate action to protect my online assets. I am also traveling a lot more for both business and pleasure. I need to be safe cyber-wise when I am at public places like airports, hotels, etc. I’ve now implemented stronger Cybersecurity measures, including purchasing a VPN and enhancing the security of both my phone and laptop. The last thing I want is to have my hard work jeopardized by a cyber attack, so I’m doing everything I can to stay ahead of the curve. This hacking attempt is a reminder of how important it is to stay vigilant in the digital world, especially as my business grows and I become more connected online.
Looking Ahead: Vinyl LP & Digital CD Music Releases
Looking ahead, I feel energized by the possibilities on the horizon. Although I have lots to look forward to with the new lyric/ sheet music book and revamping of the original Simple Pleasures CD, I continue to stay focused on my immediate goal for Cinco Verde Publishing. This is the creation of a vinyl LP and a digital album CD in order to bundle all of the jazz standards work I have done up until now. Thus far, all of the songs have been released as singles. When my husband passed back in 2016 and I started this whole renewed music venture in my life, I didn’t have a specific plan. I was creating music for my own emotional healing as a result of my husbands terminal cancer diagnosis and sudden passing. I just kept going into the recording studio and singing through the pain until I looked up and realized after all these years that I had a real body of work behind me. That’s when it kind of hit me that I could do something with all of this work. So, this next move will allow me to neatly package this entire “recent” body of work and then move to focus on the book project with all T’s crossed and I’s dotted professionally.
Final Thoughts
This week has been a reminder that progress often comes in waves—sometimes slow and steady, and other times in bursts of excitement. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, from submitting to global radio stations to securing my digital presence and making headway on some big projects. I’m grateful for the people I’ve met along the way, like Curtis, Kacie and Hector, who continue to inspire me and challenge me to think bigger about my music and my business! As always, I’m thankful for the support of my listeners and followers, who continue to encourage me on this journey. It’s a good feeling inside when you know you are doing in life what you came here to do. It’s an even better feeling when the people you didn’t know you needed to make the journey even better find their way into your life!