This post is the third installment of a series on “Music Success in Nine Weeks” — a book by Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online.

As soon as you tell someone you’re a singer, they will often ask, “Oh, really? What kind of singer are you?” Or “What do you sing?” How you answer that question will either give them a clear and compelling reason to listen to your music, or at least ask more questions, or it will leave them clueless and confused.

This question, “What do you sing?” or “What kind of singer ARE you?” has always been my least favorite question because I never felt like I had a good answer.

That’s because I’ve never perfected my “pitch” — that concise, easy-to-understand statement every musician should have in order to effectively describe your music to the average person. I never perfected it because, silly me, I didn’t know I needed one, AND I hadn’t the foggiest idea how to create one. Until I read Week Two of Ariel Hyatt’s book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” In this chapter, Ariel outlines the 6 steps to creating and perfecting your pitch.

And she does a hilarious job of giving real-life examples of WHY every musicians must have a pitch and how they miss the boat when they neglect this essential element of their marketing.

Now, I’m more than slightly embarrassing by the fact that I’ve never adequately created my pitch. Especially when I used to teach entrepreneurs how to create their own “pitch” in my “20-Second Connection” teleclass. Except I didn’t call it a pitch then. I called it “an intriguing and immediately engaging answer to the question, ‘What do YOU do?’”

But when it came to applying these same principles to myself as an artist, well, I just never came up with something that felt right or described what I offered in a way any non-musician could understand. That’s why it was extremely helpful to read Ariel’s 6-step process in Week Two of her book. She not only outlines the process but gives some good examples of pitches that work.

One aspect of this process that trips me up is when Ariel asks you to write down all the names of the artists that other people say you sound like. My friend and fellow singer Linda Kosut and I were throwing this around, and we decided she was a jazz troubadour that sounded a little like Chet Baker with a Bette Midler flare. As for me, well, we didn’t come up with anything. But I’m thinking of something like, “If Michael Buble met Julie Andrews in a smoky jazz club…” Hey, I’m still working on it.

And if you don’t have your pitch in the bag you may want to be working on your own! Can you describe yourself as an artist in a clear, concise and compelling way? If not, Ariel’s 6-Step process will definitely get you started and on your way.

Coming up next time… Week Three: Optimizing Your Website!