A guide for musicians on building a team and avoiding industry sharks

I’ve been speaking with a lot of clients lately, both about the work we do together on their websites, and the bigger picture of their careers. A common thread that has been coming up in conversation is that around building a team, and the mixed experiences they’ve had around this.

Many of the concerns that we’ve discussed recently have included: Ul>

How to identify what roles you need to fill in your team, and how to find the RIGHT people to fill these roles

The impacts of hiring people/companies who simply don’t deliver what they say they will

Consultants offering bad or irrelevant device (AND charging over-the-odds for it)

Poor expectation management (especially when it comes to PR campaigns).

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6 ways to create more consistent content.

As someone who’s been writing both songs and articles since January of this year — and moved halfway across the country, and survived a shooting, and started working twice as many hours — I have discovered the wonders of burnout.

 

Lately, I just haven’t felt inspired. Only a few days since I have been in Boulder have I had an influx of ideas that I vomited onto the computer screen. So much has happened since March, yet my Muse idly sits in the grass, unwilling to budge.

 

Any creative will become intimate with burnout. The creative process reaches a plateau similar to what Seth Godin calls “The Dip,” and everything begins to feel stagnant and tiring. The office cubicle you longed to escape becomes the creative rut you long to escape.

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How to Make Playing the Guitar a More Personal Experience

If you really want to enjoy playing the guitar, try making it a more individualized experience. You can have a deeper connection to the instrument, the music you play and yourself. This can be exciting and calming at the same time. These tips can help you make it a more personal experience.

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6 Iconic And Fun Dance Moves For Everyone To Learn

Dancing is an expression of creativity and a way to interact socially with others. However, it can also be a source of anxiety for people who feel awkward or self-conscious. While dancing often looks spontaneous, it may involve choreography, which is developing and learning dance steps ahead of time. If you go to parties or night clubs and see people moving and grooving out on the floor, they usually aren’t doing strictly choreographed routines. In many cases, however, they are spontaneously making use of choreographed steps that they learned elsewhere.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to learn any dance steps, it’s no wonder that you feel uncomfortable when the music strikes up. Fortunately, there are well-known moves that you can learn on your own and then break out at your next social gathering. The following start with the simple and then move up to the more complex.

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Five Tips For Aspiring Musicians

When I was a kid I took guitar lessons. In this short article I want to share a few tips that helped me.

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COVID-19 Risk Assessment Generator For Musicians

As some countries begin to open up and others continue to see further restrictions implemented, it’s clear that this pandemic is going to be with us in some shape or form for many months to come.

The consequences of Covid-19 restrictions have been severe for many industries around the world, perhaps hitting the live music and performance sector harder and more severely than most. As lockdown rules are eased once more, musicians will undoubtedly be raring to get back on stage and for many that will mean working to a new set of guidelines to ensure the safety of you, your fellow musicians and your audience.

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Tips For Transforming An Unused Space Into A Music Studio

If you’re a musician, having your own place to practice and record is incredibly important. Unfortunately, renting out time in a recording studio can cost anywhere from $50-$500 per hour. Most independent artists and bands just don’t have that kind of cash. 

But, if you’re willing to utilize your resources and put in a little elbow grease, you can completely transform an unused space in or around your home, or even in your community into a music studio for you or your band. 

You’ve heard of the term ‘garage band’ before — and may even be one, but there are other unique places to consider using, including empty churches, a storage shed, an unused business, or even a school practice room. 

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Artist’s Guide Preparing For Winter Isolation

While the pandemic has raged throughout the summer, many parts of the US have had the advantage of fair weather, giving us - at times - some semblance of normalcy, and the ability to interact with others in relative safety. That said, winter is fast approaching, and with no vaccine on the immediate horizon, creatives will be forced to once again batten the hatches and prepare for a season of isolation. While a bleak prospect, our time spent in lockdown this spring has given us some tools for coping with the coming season.

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How To Build Confidence As A Beginner Singer

Are you just getting started as a singer? Great!

What many beginners or wannabes have in common is that they’re a little unsure of themselves. They’re often self-conscious of their voice.

This comes across in their performance. And, for better or for worse, it can even negatively impact how they’re coming across.

If there’s one quality that makes a singer stand out, it’s confidence. If they sing with confidence, even if their technique isn’t perfect, the audience will often respond favorably.

But how does a singer improve their confidence? That’s what we’re going to look at here.

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Making Merch Work For You Now – Covid Edition

We are living in trying times for sure, friends. And while this IS temporary, it may be some time before you can take your show back on the road. With this harsh reality looming, the first instinct may be to panic. Try not to do that - don’t let uncertainty prevent you from moving forward. The best thing we can do for ourselves now is to keep going, find ways to pivot, and figure out how to weather this storm.  

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5 Tips For Playing Live For The First Time

Playing live is an experience that can be nerve-wracking, intense, and a highly-charged experience. So it’s really important to make sure that you harness and use these feelings in a positive way, to your advantage. 

The list below offers tips, advice, and things to consider to ensure that your first experience playing live goes as smoothly as possible. This means you can focus and put your energies into performing well and having fun, not into worry and anxiety.

You’ll notice that every tip in the list begins with the word ‘prepare’. This is because preparation is the key to success in this area. Preparation brings confidence, certainty, self-assurance, readiness, and everything else important in playing live as well as you can. So get ready!

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Going On Tour? Schedule Some Days Off

Deciding to take your band on its first tour is incredibly exciting. You get to plan where you’ll perform, how you’ll interact with your fans and what you’ll do on off days. Speaking of which, make sure you schedule a few days of downtime. It’ll help you rest, recover and even network. 

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How To Build A Bass Cabinet

A speaker gives your favorite bass some extra power, but the sound isn’t always what you might want it to be. That’s where bass cabinets come in — speaker boxes that are designed to provide the best sound possible from your instrument. While you can buy one from your local music shop, it’s not nearly as much fun as building one yourself. 

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What You Must Know If You Want To Tour In Europe

Touring European cities like Paris, Barcelona, and Berlin is a performing artist’s dream. Europe’s cultural scene is vibrant and supports up-and-coming musicians. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, travel to Europe is currently restricted. Foreign travelers are banned from the EU bloc for 30 days, and France is in near-total lockdown.

Thankfully, governments are hopeful everything should return back to normal by summer, which just happens to be prime music festival season. Sadly, the United Kingdom’s legendary Glastonbury Festival is one of the casualties of the pandemic, canceling its 50th anniversary. Without Glastonbury, there were still be plenty of festivals and shows to play in the coming months as the continent comes back to social life.

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