Contributor’s Guidelines

Making Music publishes articles and videos about… you guessed it… making music! We want artist profiles and stories, instructional articles and videos, health & wellness insights, resource spotlights, helpful tips, and gear and product guides. Look over our site before you submit. We do not feature CD reviews, nor do we cover live performances. We do not publish publicity pieces or promote proposed products being developed through Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

We are interested in building relationships with text and video bloggers who focus on music and wish to be part of our music making community. This content generally focuses on teaching, musician tips, interesting musician stories, musician health, and new music product/instrument demonstrations, but we welcome queries in other music-related areas.

If you are interested in submitting articles or ideas to us, preference is given to writers who are also musicians, or experts within a related field on which they are writing (such as audiologists, medical professionals that work with musicians, or tech/gear professionals).

Making Music has monthly themes that all prospective contributors should reference:

• January – Recording
• February – Vocals
• March – Guitar
• April – Alternative instruments
• May – Drums and percussion
• June – Bass
• July – Banjo and ukulele
• August – Amps and live sound
• September – Brass and woodwinds
• October – Piano and keyboard
• November – Strings
• December – Holiday Gift Guide

Plan ahead and tailor your article pitches to upcoming themes. If you pitch an article about drums in August, guess what? If we accept it at all, it probably won’t be published for nine months.

Article Topics / Styles / Guidelines

Health & Wellness Features—(200-400 words) These articles are either nontechnical explainers with treatment and prevention tips for problems that may affect musicians—hearing loss, muscle cramps, carpal tunnel syndrome, stage fright, etc.—or articles about how music can be used as a treatment in dealing with specific health problems. These can be heartwarming stories about musicians who use music to help others (music therapy, drum circles, music charities, etc.) with direct quotes from participants and facilitators, as well as health-related techniques to aid musicians (yoga, stretching, chiropractic care for musicians, correct vocal technique, etc.) told from the viewpoint of experts.

How-Tos—(300-700 words) Instructional pieces that are either general instruction (How to Sight Read Music) or specific to an instrument (How to Buy an Acoustic Guitar) or technique (How to Comp on Piano like a Pro). They are fairly basic, short, and not overly in-depth pieces, giving general overviews on topics like music software or apps, recording on a budget, the correct use of mics, how to prepare for a gig, etc. We are also interested in good “explainers” that offer information about high-tech concepts (such as MIDI) in layman’s terms or techniques like chord progression. We particularly like articles that include a video demonstration component.

Feature Story (500-800) These focus on groups or organizations and individual music makers, anything from highly visible programs (such as The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp) to small, localized organizations to famous musicians who share their tips and stories with our audience. Our special interests are in unique and inspirational stories about everyday music makers, as well as professionals who provide an inside look at their lives and offer tips and advice for our audience. We also want tips from the musician and what kind of gear they prefer. (For example, what is it that they love about their favorite guitar, mic, or drumsticks?) Please be as specific as possible with makers, model numbers, years, and colors. Interesting and insightful photographs and videos add value to these features.

Shorter Feature Story (300-500 words)—Same general focus as above, also with links to videos.

Spotlight Profiles—(300-350 word bio, 2-3 sentence answer template questions, and favorite gear guide) These generally highlight a talented musician who also has a successful career in another field. The bio will often focus on how the subject’s career and music grew in parallel. These follow a specific template.

News—(Under 200 words) We tend to stray away from the typical pop culture news like whatever crazy thing Kayne West is doing, and focus on a learning or educational aspect. Short music-related news items, interesting scientific studies, facts, trends, inventions, etc., as well as humorous anecdotes about musicians and stories about charitable music organizations (Little Kids Rock, Guitars Not Guns, etc.).

New Gear Announcements—We are interested in receiving new music product announcements from manufacturers. This includes everything from drum kits and guitars to amplifiers and mics. Please send a product description, link to the maker, high-quality photograph(s), and MSRP (or MSRP range). We do not post descriptions of products that have very limited availability or are not yet available. We also do not promote proposed products being developed through Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

Community Videos—Are you a musician or member of a band? You can submit a video here for a chance to be featured in our Community Video section. High quality videos are preferred, and lyric videos will not be accepted. We welcome all genres to be submitted as long as they aren’t filled with curse words, skimpily dressed people, graphic images, etc.

Article Submission

If you want to write for us, have specific ideas or articles to pitch, give us examples of article titles, tell us how you will execute the story and why you are qualified to write it, and include links to examples of your previously published writing and/or your personal blog or website.

Preference is given to writers who are also musicians.

Emails that say only, “Hey I want to write for you and my idea will be great and relevant to your readers,” will be trashed. Emails that do not contain your credentials or links to your previous writings will not be considered. Any article pitches that are not music-related (and we get far more than we should) will be deleted with an extra harsh mouse click.

Send your pitch, and links to previous examples of your work, to Tom Wanamaker at twanamaker@bentley-hall.com.

If we decide to work with you, all submissions are reviewed and edited by the managing editor. If we like your article but it needs some work, we will email you back and ask for revisions.

If accepted, articles will be posted with byline credit to the writer and an author bio in which you can add links to your personal blog or website.

Stories that include artwork (photographs, illustrations, music notation, and video links) are much more likely to be used online. All photographs must be hi-res and legally available for use. That means the writer (submitter) is wholly responsible for contacting the legal owners of all photographs and seeking permission to use them. All photo credits and captions should be submitted with the photos.

 

Making Music, ISSN (1552-2946), is a registered trademark of Bentley-Hall, Inc.