I didn’t make this but I thought I’d share this. Encouraging for us all. Originally found here.
Let’s start this off with a confession. I suffer from acute procrastination.
“No, I’ll finish writing that song tomorrow.” And tomorrow never comes.
“Mix this song right now? Nah, tomorrow.” And tomorrow never comes.
It’s happened to me many times, and probably to you too.
Well, here’s the good news. I’ve figured out a great way to tackle procrastination.
What is it?
You do what any typical metalcore song would do. You break it down. Read more…
Johnny: “I’m the best drummer ever. EVERY SECOND of this song will be a drum fill! Who needs beat when you have tom rolls?”
Which one is your band right now?
Trevor: “I’m the best singer ever. All I need to do is cover up all these crappy musicians with my voice.”
Steve: “I am the next great guitar player. As soon as I get bored playing chords (which is every other measure) I am RIPPING AND SHREDDING this song to piece. Sweeeeep piiiiick!!!!
Guys! Stop!
Stop driving Jackie crazy!
You’re killing me. You’re killing the audience. You’re killing yourselves.
Consider this a wake up call. No one came to the show to watch a random group musicians who are blindly thrown together.
Say “what” again.
There are two extremes of musicians: hobbyists and professionals.
I’d guess that a lot of us reading this would be like to be more like the latter but are much closer to the former.
First step. Get serious.
Are you serious about it? Do you want to one day be a full time musician?
Make that clear in your life.
Make choices based on that decision.
“Hm, I could work at Job A and have no time to do music but make bank. Or I could work at Job B, which pays less, but gives me plenty of time of flexibility to continually develop my music career.”
Let’s get to the point.
Why do you play/write/record music?
Because you enjoy it. Plain and simple.
If you’re in it for the money, you picked the wrong job (unless you’re Zeppelin/U2/Beyonce).
If you’re in it for the “chicks”, you’re a tool that won’t keep it at. (hint: there aren’t any).
You do it because there’s something about it that you enjoy. The creative process, performing on a stage, or whatever. You like it. You love it. You wanna do it a lot.
Everyone agrees, right?
Well, here’s where things get harder to agree on. Read more…
Being a musician (or any kind of artist) isn’t easy. Those who think being a musician means bathing in cocaine and women all day are ridiculous and watch too much TV.
When you get right down to it, music and art is nothing but constant hard work. Talent alone is idle.
A lot of times, you slave hard without any results. Here are some things to remember when you feel like giving up or lose inspiration.
1. Overnight Success is a Lie.
The media love to tell the stories of a young, undiscovered talent who uploads one youtube cover and has a record deal and an arena tour the next day. However, these stories are rarely true, if ever.
Not getting big enough drums sound? Reverb plugins not adding the space you want? Try setting up a room mic. A room mic can add extra weight and space to your drum sound to fill out the ambiance in the mix.
Ron Burgundy is saying it, so you know it must be true.
He treated it like it was real.
At the local university, there’s this guy (let’s call him Jack).
Jack does a sport report for the campus news program.
On time while doing his latest sports report, he fumbled up. Several times in fact.
“Do you wanna redo it?” asked the video production manager. (Of course he should redo it. Who wouldn’t?)
And Jack said, “No.”
What? Read more…
Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.
The oldest trick in the book is just making yourself do it.
Sometimes, you have nothing forcing you to work. Sometimes, you have bosses. Sometimes, you have deadlines.
But all the time, you need to make yourself do it.
We list excuses:
-I’m tired.
-I’ll do it tomorrow (which doesn’t happen)
-I need to Netflix binge instead.
–I just don’t feel like it.
But those excuses ain’t good enough. Rest is good but so is accomplishment. Read more…
I recently attended a seminar with Les Rose. He’s a photojournalist/producer at CBS and has done work on 60 Minutes.
He was showing us how to tell a great a story and gave us new stories as examples. One thing he made clear was this….
You have to make ’em laugh before you can make ’em cry.
He said it’s an old Shakespeare technique. Laughter opens up the heart. If you want to move them tears, they’d better be crying from laughter first.
This is the example he showed. Below, I’ll tell you how to apply it to your song order.
Bandology 