How to write a blog for a small but devoted audience

I just understood that what much of what I have to say is relevant to a relatively small number of people. It makes me jealous to see the number of subscribers in blogs like that of problogger.net. At the moment of writing these lines he has 65971 readers. I remember that just two months ago he had about 52000 readers. This shows that his blog is not only popular, but that its popularity is increasing in a dramatic fashion.

Now it is clear to me that his blog is running for several years and mine is online only several months. Yet it is also true that the subject of how to make a blog (and especially how to make money from a blog) is very popular. My blog, which is about music, performance and research, and that is slightly more academic in a way, will probably never reach such popularity.

There are many blogs that gives tips on how to make your blog popular; however, many of them fail to distinguish between various kind of blogs. I believe that my blog should not post every day something. If I will do so, I will loose my subscriber’s trust. It is easy to duplicate your writing and say the same thing in many variations. It is harder to keep good communication with your readers.

I do find many of the “how to” posts on blogging very interesting. Yet, I try to keep in mind that at the end of the day I write to few people and my aim is to make a big impact on them. I believe that one should find a delicate balance between producing a sequence of texts that will attract new readers and subscribers (it is not completely wrong that the more texts you write, the more people will be driven to your site).

So here is basically what I suggest to bloggers that want to create a community of small but passionately interested people in their writings:

Write interesting and original content

Write interesting content that will encourage people to subscribe. People subscribe to blogs because they found more than one interesting post there (make internal links to your best content). You must give them a feeling that you blog is constantly (even if only twice a month) being updated with stimulating content. You do not need to write only original things, but if you build on posts of others or on old posts of yourself, you must try to comment on it or approach it from a new angle.

Engage with your readers and with other people of the web

When people contact you, do not ignore them. React to them. Sometimes even write about them. The idea of blogging, I think, is to mingle with others. You are not the center. You are them medium through interesting ideas, of yourself as well as of other, are being expressed. Arnold Schoenberg once wrote in a letter that the most important thing is that people will develop a sense of evaluating things. In your blog evaluate the idea of other and bring to your readers only the best and most stimulating ones. When you do that, it is important to criticize what you read. Write what is good and what is less good concerning what you read.

Use the web technology and options in order to spread the word

Learn about search engine optimization (SEO), web 2.0 and social sites. All this will help you spread your posts to a larger amount of people.

Be patient

Remember, your goal is not to become popular, but to find many devoted readers who are interested in your writings for the long run. This takes lots of time. If you have one extra reader a month during the first year your can be content.

Know who you are

People forget what they like and who they are. They are fascinated by the internet and change their way of writing because of it. I too write differently when I write an article that will be published in a journal. Reading a blog is different. Yet, I firmly believe that as the internet and blogging changes the way some academics write, so the web will change when academic writers will bring their talent and quality writing to the web.

Related posts

Did Schoenberg kill classical music? and the future of the web

Finding a thesis subject

Choosing a subject for a PhD, MA, DMA or whatever thesis you are doing, can be a tricky issue. Many people start there research degree saying “I have no subject” or they speak about what they are doing in very general term. This is perhaps normal for most research students. Yet, it is expected that you will gradually find a focused and interesting subject for your research. Finding a research subject can be a painful process. If it is hard for you to explain to other (I have I mind people who know very little about music) what your research is about, then you are probably in the early stages of finding your subject. I remember that it was a very stressful period for me. I hope that some of the things that I will write here will help you make the process easier for yourself.

I remember that I spent a year of my life reading lots of articles and books trying to find my way in the world of writing about music. After a year my supervisor, Prof. John Rink, told me that it is about time that I find a real subject for my thesis. During that year I knew that I was interested in interpretation and performance studies. My thesis proposal during that year was about ‘music communication’ in very broad terms. I was fascinated about how musical communication happens between composers, performers and listeners. My supervisor felt that my proposal was too broad and he tried to encourage me to focus it. One of the things that I did during the first year was that I read books and then wrote a ‘reading report’ of a few pages which included a critical response to what I have read. This gave me some experience in writing and reacting to what I read.

A good thesis subject definition, like a good PhD proposal is essential for a successful dissertation. Yet a good research proposal depends on a good dissertation subject. It is worth while to spend much time on finding and developing you subject. In this post I will suggests some things that might help you arrive to a successful dissertation subject.

Explore what other people do

My supervisor is not the only one that gives his research students to read much literature during the early phase of research. Actually, it is a very common method of teaching in the USA (although I did my PhD in Royal Holloway, University of London). Apart of the experience it gives one with writing and criticizing, it is supposed to open the student to a vast number of authors, methods of doing research and styles of writing. It is good to see what people are interested in since it may give you ideas. It is good to keep a small diary where one keeps short notes about what one reads. Another way to get to know what people are doing is to attend conferences.

Be novel

Once you get to know what people write you may find ‘holes’ in their research. You may discover that they did not cover all aspect of a phenomenon or that there are other angels to treat an issue. I remember that in one of my ‘reading reports’ I wrote to my supervisor that it could be interesting to see how composers themselves perform their own music. I mentioned Schoenberg and Bartok. My supervisor said that indeed this could be an interesting path to take and that I should now explore what was written about Bartok, Schoenberg or any other composer that performed his or her music. The idea is to find a subject that nothing or very little was written about. Once you finish a PhD that is noval, this makes you an expert in your subject. 

Be in touch with your feelings

I told John that very little was written about both Bartok and Schoenberg. His reaction was that he feels that perhaps it would be wise to choose Schoenberg since he was a Jew and I am interested in Judaism. He said that although I will probably write now on performance, in could extend my research in the future so that it will relate to other issues such as religion.

Choose a subject that you love

Moreover, Schoenberg’s history is very much connected to the faith of Jewish people in Europe and USA, and this is connected to the history of my own family. The subject if European Jewish history was always something that fascinated me. Choosing a subject that you love is very important, since that are moments in your research which might be boring are hard. If you love your subject, it could compensate on this and help you finish you degree. Furthermore, you will probably invest more energy, emotion and time in something that you love.

Ask for advice from people that you appreciate

Another thing that might help you find a good subject is to ask Scholars about possibilities. You can ask you supervisor and other members of you department. You can also write to scholars in other places via emails. You will be surprised how people might help you. Yet, one should keep in mind that it is also good to struggle on your own. If you develop mechanisms to find things you are interested to write about, it will definitely help you in you future career as an author. It is interesting to examine the breath of writing or various authors. Some are focused. Others write about almost everything.

See how your supervisor feels about your subject

Once you have found one or more possibilities, show them to your supervisor and ask what he or she think. It is very important to choose a subject that your supervisor will agree to help you with. My supervisor told me that he does not like most of the music of Schoenberg. Yet he made it clear that what is important that I will like my subject, and that he will support whatever I choose. I am not sure that all supervisors are so generous. You have to be sure that your supervisor agrees that you will do research on your subject so that you can receive his or her support during the studying phase, when you defend your thesis and thereafter.

Keep developing and focusing your thesis as time passes

The normal thing that happens when you find a subject is that you need to focus it. When I new that I want to do research on Schoenberg and performance, I have to decide which recordings and pieces I will explore. I had some idea during my first PhD year, yet the PhD plan kept changing as time passed. Keep an open mind and take into consideration that things usually change once you advance in your research.

There are people who do reasearch of subject that they do not like. They were lucky to find something novel but unlucky that the subject was not close to their hearts. I strongly feel that a good subject must be novel, somthing that you love and something that your supervisor can support. Keep this in mind when you search for a thesis subject and you have more chances to turn into a good scholar.

Related posts

How to write a research proposal

6 tips for finding a good PhD supervisor

How to write a book review

How to give a successful conference paper

מסלול "מוסיקה" בבית המדרש של קהילת קשת במזכרת בתיה יתחיל את פעילותו ב-4.11, בהנחיית אביאור ביירון.
 
פרטים נוספים בהמשך…
 
קצת על המסלול:
 
פרשנות של טקסטים היא עניין משותף לתחום היהדות-ישראליות, לתחום המוסיקה ולתחומים ביצועיים אחרים. בעוד הנושא האידיאולוגי הוא בולט בתחום היהדות והציונות, בתחום המוסיקה ההקשרים התרבותיים והחברתיים לעתים נסתרים. במסלול המוסיקה של בית המדרש נאזין ונצפה בוידיאו ביצירות קלאסיות בביצועים שונים, ונקרא כתבים של מבצעים המתייחסים למטרות ולאסתטיקת הביצוע שלהם. מטרת הדיונים לחוות ולדון כיצד ביצועים מוזיקאליים יכולים לשרת ערכים שונים (כגון "נאמנות" למלחין, ביטוי עצמי של המבצע כיוצר, לאומיות ומיניות) ולהשפיע באופן משמעותי על החוויה המוזיקאלית. אין צורך בידע או ניסיון מוזיקאלי מוקדמים.
אביאור ביירון, אבא לילדה בקשת, ינחה את המפגשים. ביירון הוא בעל תואר דוקטור למוסיקה מאוניברסיטת לונדון. הוא לימד ארבע שנים באוניברסיטת בר-אילן. כעת הוא שוקד על כתיבת ספר בהוצאת אוניברסיטת אוקספורד. פרטים נוספים ובלוג ניתן למצוא באתר www.bymusic.org

In the following site I found astonishing information about a performance of Björk singing Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. http://lostsongs.bjorkish.net/pierrotlunaire/

Björk  said in an interview to the New Yorker on 23 August 2004: “It was an amazing experience for me,” she recalled. “The songs left so much to the imagination of the singer—you know, they were originally written for a cabaret singer or an untrained singer like me. Kent Nagano wanted to make a recording of it, but I really felt that I would be invading the territory of people who sing this for a lifetime.” As a person who wrote one or two things about Pierrot lunaire and especially about the performance of Sprechstimme I would like to suggest that it is a pity that she didn’t record the piece in a commercial recording. This would do good to Schoenberg to Pierrot and to her. I hope she will change her mind.

In order to get attention on the web, all you need is a good title (like: did Schoenberg kill classical music?) and a funny video (notice the quazi British accent). Yet to gain serious and devoted subscribers one needs more than that: one needs interesting and stimulating content. I saw today the following very interesting video by Mike who gave presented in the library of congress a few months ago. The video is really very interesting. Yet it made me think about the issue of quality on the web. OK. So you are right, Mike, that Youtube has original content. However, is most of it really interesting? Is most of it really NEW?

One of the problems with the Web 2.0 is that lots of people are posting stuff that is not that interesting. And the biggest problem of Google, Digg, Stumbleupon and other social sites is how to bring the most relevant content to surfers. It seems to me that the web encourages people to post lots of data all the time (the more data you post, the more are the chances that people will find you). The web changes how we produce information.

It seems to me that in the future the best social sites will be able to track important information (to whom?) even if it is only a one page site with no sites linking to it and relevant only to a small community of people. This is a hard task.

There is something sad about how Google and other social sites (I see little difference between Google, Digg and Youtube in this respect) bring surfers to ones site. Why should the age of a site say something about its content? Are all the pages in a site important even if a site has many incoming links?

It seems to me that the future of search engines is creating focused specialization areas that are NOT totally automatic. In other words, there will be human interference in future algorithms.

The future musicologists (and other writers) will know how to keep a high level of writing, yet taking advantage of the technology of the internet. Writing in various tones of voice and various kinds of writings will be one of the solutions. 

There is something quite amazing about the Schoenberg archive in the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna. The people there are so helpful. They give you the impression that there sole aim is to provide you all the information that you are seeking for. This is not the case with most archives. Some archives want to preserve documents but do not really care whether or not you will find what you need there. A few archives are even hostile to researchers. The Schoenberg archive in Vienna is not only friendly, they go out of their way to provide you all that you need and even things that you never thought to ask for. Schoenberg’s children who moved the archive from USA to Vienna say in an interview that I conducted with them that they are happy from the move and how the whole project looks today.

One of the great things about the archive is the fact that one can find so much information on their website www.Schoenberg.at . You can find there letters, scans of original manuscripts and letters, concert programs, and much more valuable information. You can even hear a web radio and listen to historical recordings. If you ever go through Vienna make sure that you visit the archive where you can see Schoenberg’s working room, find a big library and usually also see a changing exhibition on Schoenberg. The Schoenberg Center also orginizes exihibitions around the world as well as educational programs for childrens. It grants scholarships for scholars and orginizes concerts (this is not supposed to be a comprehensive list of the ASC activities). In any case it is quite clear that this organization is well managed and probably also well funded. 

One of the reasons that I discovered new things in my PhD and my recent research on Schoenberg is due to the help I received and still receiving from the Schoenberg Center. If you are looking for a subject to research on, whether it is a PhD, MA or an article, you can be sure that if you do it on Schoenberg, you will have lots of resources in your disposal. There is still much material in the archive that was not explored. This gives a scholar a chance to discover new things and contribute. When people contact me concerning the articles that I published on the Schoenberg recordings that I discovered, I refer them to the archive in order to obtain copies of these recordings (I am thinking here about the test pressings of Schoenberg conducting Pierrot lunaire and the broadcast done with him conducting the same piece). I am looking forward to working with the archivists of the Schoenberg center now that I am working on my book for Oxford University Press.

I just received a letter from Oxford University Press that starts as following:

"I hope this message finds you well!  I’m delighted to report that I am now returning the fully countersigned contract for Schoenberg’s Writings on Aesthetics and Interpretation in Performance to you, and I am pleased to welcome you as an Oxford University Press author. Congratulations!"

The letter made me very happy and I am looking forward to continue working on this book. It will be the first time that all of Schoenberg’s writings on performance (articles, unpublished manuscripts, sketches, letters, etc.) will be published in one place. Some of the manuscripts were not published in the past. My job is to edit the translations and write a short forward to each of Schoenberg’s writings, giving them a context that will help the readers understand them better. I will also trace significant themes throughout Schoenberg’s life from Vienna to Weimar Berlin to Los Angeles. I assume that I was chosen edit this book since my PhD was on Schoenberg as performer. I have written elsewhere how doing a PhD in a good University is important for ones future publications and research.

At this stage I am looking for a good translator for this book and I am reading many of Schoenberg’s letters (he really wrote lots of them!). Together with the general editors of the nine volumes mentioned above, we decided that Joseph Auner’s book The Schoenberg Reader will serve as a model for my book.

The whole project is very exciting and hope to devote to much of my energy in the coming years.

Schoenberg just had a birthday

When I visited London a few days ago, a musician that I respect recommended me to approach a publishing house and try to publish a book on Schoenberg, saying that his 60s anniversary to his death will be on 2011. However, birthdays are much more fun. Here is a video that I recommend to see. It has a wonderful 12-tone birthday tune for Schoenberg’s birthday.

Check out P0lyph0ny ’s youtube site which is about Gould and other interesting things.

Related Posts:

Email interview with Schoenberg’s Children

Conference paper: Schoenberg’s or Adorno’s Performance Aesthetics?

Schoenberg’s piano piece Op. 33a article and videos

Arnold Schoenberg as a painter

Arnold Schoenberg videos