Already from the description of all this, the head swells a little, but what will happen when you encounter all this? So that all this does not swallow you up, it is important to properly set yourself up and somehow adjust your daily creative and thought process. To achieve your goal without emotional burnout, you should do a fairly simple list of things every day that you can recommend to any musician, both beginner and experienced.
Don’t just focus on the music
Yes, yes, it’s about finding a hobby. With these words, many musicians break out in a cold sweat and a nervous tic begins, because they already give their all to music, constantly rehearsing and performing at concerts. Naturally, all this takes the lion’s share of time, so with such tips you can easily go somewhere …
But the fact remains: engaging in some other activity is simply necessary. We do not know what it will be in your particular case. Though cross-stitching or awkward culinary experiments in the kitchen. You need to do this in order to get out of the notorious comfort zone (and it is not necessary to say that daily rehearsals, concerts and composing music do not give you a buzz). So you will significantly expand the scope of your own perception of the surrounding reality, you will begin to be interested in what concerns not only your professional activities.
Expand your taste in music
Zac Citron, musician and sound producer, on the list of things he would advise himself as a young musician from the past, says: “Be neutral about all the music that you don’t like.” The advice is sound, because it is likely that there will always be a chance that you will someday truly appreciate something that you did not like literally 2-3 years ago.
And if you are a hardcore rock-n-roller, then do not rush to turn up your nose at pop music. The times of radical opinions and positions are long gone, so there is no need to be so categorical. Moreover, millions of people listen to pop music – it is unlikely that such popularity would arise out of nowhere. It is very likely that there is something special about this music, so as a musician, it will not be out of place for you to listen to several such albums.
Rationally distribute the load
Every musician has a goal – to become the greatest performer, soloist, guitarist who will leave his mark on history. The goal is cosmic, but why not. It is important to understand here that the solution of any problem is the consistent execution of certain actions, both minor and global.
You don’t need to run a marathon out of every new day in an effort to break a new record. Nobody demands a new song from you every day, so it is not necessary to sweat over a blank sheet of paper for 5 hours. Do you have an idea for a text, but the right words don’t come to mind? Just sketch out the general structure and thought, and return to this task another day.
Develop your skills
Let’s say you’re great at doing something (you feel confident at a concert, you can improvise, you play your part perfectly). This means that this skill is already in your piggy bank of skills and it is enough to train it periodically so that it is not lost.
Here we are talking about something else. Analyze what exactly is not working for you right now? For example, at a concert, you often feel awkward from pauses between songs and you constantly feel that these gaps need to be filled somehow. Well, it’s time to sit down and think about how this can be done. It is like working on oneself, and this is true, because the lion’s share of a musician’s success is not his talent, but his diligence and desire for self-improvement.
Think of new ways to promote yourself
If you have not yet received the attention of major music publications, then you should not think that everything will change on its own. It is possible that you should take a different path and start communicating with some blogger, offering him a joint collaboration. Constantly look for “new people”: representatives of labels, journalists specializing in music, members of other musical groups, etc.
And there is no need to attack these people with endless letters asking for cooperation. Write to them everything in human language, explain why this particular person attracts you with his professional qualities. If he did not answer, then it’s okay – just switch your attention to another. Surely some promoter or label owner receives hundreds of such requests every day, so there is always a chance that he will stumble upon your letter not today, but a month later.
Surely there is a lot more that a musician can theoretically do for his development. Still, everyone has their own path and how exactly it will develop depends only on you. But remember one thing – stagnation and inaction have not yet led anyone to success.