I am very proud to call Matt Roberts, trumpet player, composer, blogger, teacher and, it seems, video editing ninja, my protogé. Matt was, and still is, my star pupil and it’s great to see him finding his feet in the professional arena.

Some of you may already be familiar with his blog, mattrobertsmusic.com, where he blogs about his life as a trumpet player, including his annual European invasion along with the rest of the Quarter Notes, his brass quartet. Each Christmas the Quarter Notes busk their way around Europe and video the results. And those results are, especially if you are a musician, even more so if you are a brass player, very entertaining. The videos are edited and generally massaged into a releasable format at the end of the subsequent year. Matt has recently started to release the videos from Christmas 2008 and the first episode, featured below, already sees the quartet getting their collars felt by an overzealous community support officer.

It is my intention to slingshot Matt’s blog, which I designed but is currently in need of an overhaul, into orbit in the next few weeks, putting him in a very strong traffic position to further propel his career. The blog makeover, including a Genesis Rocket powered social media makeover, will be documented here at Brass Revolver and also at Upstart Blogger, each blog examining different aspects of the makeover process.

Until then, sit back, grab a drink and enjoy the video, courtesy of Matt. If you like it, tune in next week for episode 2.

Even though my own jazz career, and blogging career, dominate my working hours I still like to keep 1 foot in the freelance recording camp. Being a session trumpet player can open doors and allow a musician to connect with people who may otherwise be unaccessible.

Yesterday, however, things turned a little ugly.

I was booked to play a big band session, taking the solo chair. Whenever I get called for this kind of gig I’m always a little apprehensive. Trumpet players have some of the biggest egos in the musical world and, since everyone wants the solo chair since it gives them the biggest chance to shine, some of those egos can get out of hand.

Add to that the fact that my trumpet was made for me by David Monette, a fact that is always guaranteed to rattle a few cages, and those egos, especially the ones of the trumpet players who can’t blow there way out of a paper bag, really start to rear their ugly heads.

Yesterday’s session started innocently enough but after just 1 hour the trumpet player sitting to my right, let’s call him Jon, since that’s his name, asked me the following question.

Aren’t you that blogging guy who made Lily Allen run away from Twitter?

I told him that I was that blogging guy and that I could, just maybe, be partly credited with making Lily Allen run away from Twitter, although it was more likely that Lily ran away from Twitter because she got caught with her metaphorical pants down.

And then, for no apparent reason, he opened his mouth and let the following pearls of wisdom pour out.

You suck man, you suck! Where the hell do you get off telling everyone to download music for free? People like you are killing this industry from the inside. Lily Allen wanted to protect musicians and you just took shots at her and made her look dumb. How would you like it if people stole your music?

Oh, I forget, you make money all day long by giving away your music using that stupid micropatronage thing you keep pushing like it’s the way we can all start to make a living from music.

Seriously man, you suck. You sit there with your 5 figure 24 carat gold plated trumpet, driving around in your flash car, telling other musicians what to do. You suck.

He went on for a little while. I tried to ignore him but it was tricky since he just wouldn’t shut up. Eventually I decided to reply to him and tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to him how real independent musicians can make good money by distributing their music for free, how listening to music isn’t the same as stealing it, and how, if he just calmed down for 5 minutes and thought it through he would see that he was wrong, very, very wrong.

Needless to say, he didn’t agree.

I persuaded him to shut up for the sake of the recording and, amazingly, he agreed. He was clearly upset, however, and continued to mutter under his breath and generally act like an amateur.

Jon will never get it. Jon will always fail.

For the record, and for all the trumpet players who read this blog waiting for this next piece of information, Jon plays a Taylor Chicago with numerous superfluous sleeves, caps and other weight adding accessories with a Vincent Bach mouthpiece.

I’ll keep this simple. Raising money for an independent recording project is something that makes the vast majority of musicians sweat. But, thanks to the power of the internet, it’s much easier than you think. So far this year I have raised just under $39,000 by using micropatonage combined with a very healthy does of publicity.

Just follow these steps to replicate my success.

Step 1. Start a blog and write about your project.

Step 2. Open a Twitter account and network with like minded individuals.

Step 3. Accelerate your Twitter account with Genesis Rocket to grow your followers and drive traffic back to your blog.

Step 4. Ask for micropatronage donations on your site using PayPal and reward anyone who donates with a free copy of your finished product upon release.

That’s all there is to it. The established order of the music industry would love you to think that it wasn’t that easy, but it is.

Try it. It worked for me and it will work for you.

It was inevitable. The BBC seem incapable of keeping anything a secret anymore and The Waters of Mars has been leaked. The press screening was held on October 31 and, it would seem, that someone had a copy and decided to pass it around a little too much.

Fans of the original series will be very happy to see that the Ice Warriors haven’t been forgotten and, if you like your Doctor Who a little on the scary side then this will definitely leave you with a smile on your face. The robot, Gadget, is definitely thrown in for the kids.

Flashbacks, flashforwards, even classic series references make this an episode to watch closely, paying attention to every detail. Especially the opening line.

However, it is a little depressing in places. Ok, so we know that we are going to get a regeneration in a few weeks time and that 10 will become 11 in a blaze of CGI glory, but this really does set the audience up for a very tragic ending this arc, with the potential cruelty and fragility of some major characters really highlighted.

The Waters of Mars is a classic that will please Doctor Who fans old and new and a fitting start to the final stretch.

Now is the right time to return to my personal blog. The last few months have been filled with recording sessions, late night writing sessions, making bold new plans, designing products and generally pushing myself harder than I ever thought possible.

Spinning the metaphorical plates that make up every individual piece of my professional life had left little time for personal blogging. In fact it had left little time for anything outside of my professional circle.

And that had to stop.

I had always planned to spend 2009 building an empire and then, for 2010 and onwards, the plan was to reap what I had sowed and spend more time with my family, more time blogging rather than building and designing, and more time playing.

Thankfully, things have gone to plan.

It’s an understatement to say that I have been busy

The installation of this new red theme, Genesis Red, marks my return to personal blogging.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.