Posts in the Music Business & Careers Category at Best Online Guitar Lessons for Beginners and Intermediate Players, Page 3

March 29, 2012 by leregalla

Your Vision and Finding Ideal Gigs

[This post appears in the Backstage member’s area at Live Music Producer Tom Jackson’s Onstage Success. www.onstagesuccess.com. If you’d like to read the full article, email me at Leanne [at] LivinOutLoudMusic.com and I can send you a coupon for a free one-month Backstage Pass.]

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a weird combination of “dreamer” and “doer”. I bet you might be the same.

We’re very lucky, because many people never get past the “dreamer” stage in life. As artists, we start out with a dream – our vision – and then spend years working towards it, revising it, and growing into it.

The problem is that it’s really easy to get sidetracked. Life and “reality” get in the way. We can lose track of that vision and get bogged down in daily details. We feel lost, maybe lose motivation or start to doubt ourselves (who, me???)

If we’re lucky, at just the right time, something reminds us. Suddenly everything’s clear again, we let go of junk that’s holding us back, and we make huge leaps. Can you relate to a time in your life when that’s happened?

Competition, Comparison, and Creativity Quashing

A few months back, I was talking to a fellow songwriter. She was describing a networking/educational group she was part of and said it was cool, there were lots of great people involved, it was a supportive atmosphere, she enjoyed it – and it was weird that she enjoyed it, she said, because “these people are my competition!”

And I thought, “Competition for what?” Gigs? Media attention? Fans? Merchandise or music sales? What could they possibly take from her? Especially if she’s rockin’ her own biz?

She simply couldn’t wrap her head around a cooperative musical situation. That surprised me. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did.

What IS competition really?

Obviously, if you are actually entered in a formal contest with prizes, etc., that’s a different story. But in our everyday, build-our-indie-career lives, are we really in nearly constant competition with each other – to write the best songs, to snag the best exposure opps – only coming together occasionally to cooperate on certain projects? I don’t think so.

Here’s the thing. Competition implies a scarcity mindset. There’s only so much to go around and we all have to fight each other for it. There are only so many fans with limited budgets for music, so many paying gigs, only so many big exposure opportunities and if we miss one, our careers can potentially be ruined or stalled. If a blogger or columnist is covering someone else, they’re not covering me. If a club books Janet for a night, they’re not booking me.

I don’t think that way. I just come from a completely different mindset. I see the world as being full of opportunities. And not just any old opportunities, but ones that are absolutely perfect for me.

Just because I do well – at booking gigs, at meeting people, at creating opportunities for myself, heck, even at winning contests (if I were in to that) – that doesn’t mean that you can’t also do the same. At the same time, if YOU do well in your career, that in no way stops ME from being the best I can possibly be.

Actually, any of us living life to the fullest helps everyone around us do the same!

Let’s try something completely new!

I’m going to propose a radical idea here. I think a competitive mindset is – for the most part – a remnant of the old-school music biz model. It’s outdated thinking and won’t get you far in today’s environment. I know there are many people out there who agree with me, but it’s a very new and foreign idea to others.

Do you realize that we can eliminate competition from the picture completely by creating a true, authentic, unique personal brand? (More on that later!)

You might be a competitive person by nature. Comparing yourself to others and trying to beat them may spur you to greater achievements. If that’s your deal and it works for you then great! I would never try to change you. But for me, it never has. My only measuring stick has always been to look at myself and do better.

So if you are out there, thinking like me that you’d like a different lens to look at the world, try cooperation on for size, for real. Try cheering a friend on truly, without jealousy, without comparison, and then turn your focus back onto what you gotta do to get where you wanna go.

I find this mindset to be incredibly freeing – it lets me be creative without ever worrying what everyone else is doing. My wish is that it does the same for you!

February 17, 2011 by Leanne Leave a Comment

What I Did On My 2010 Year-Long Vacation

Well – ok – so I didn’t really take a vacation for a whole year, but it did feel like it sometimes… 😉

I cut my teaching schedule so that I could have more creative time and finally get out and perform all the songs I’d been writing. I stumbled on some really cool places to play and met some great supportive people. My students even came out with me! I found a home-away-from-home at Harmony Ridge, a local venue with fabulous musicians and a great stage and sound system, that is hugely supportive of original artists of all ages. I played at the Zanafest weekend-long music festival that they hosted, what a blast that was! Three days of great music & fun! To top it off, I got to cheer my students on as they performed in the festival’s Youth Talent Competition.

I traveled to Nashville three times with the different organizations I’m working with now. If you don’t know already, you will know soon – I’m a huge fan of Live Music Producer Tom Jackson and his whole team at www.onstagesuccess.com. The first time I saw Tom speak, I thought “This guy has the cure for cancer for musicians!” – if the “cancer” in this case is not being able to sustain a long-lasting, lucrative career as a performer. (You don’t have to take my word for it. Check out his page. Some real heavy hitters in the music industry agree with me.) The changes he makes with artists onstage are just magical – they transform an average performance into something amazing right before your eyes.

I wanted to learn for myself – and because I’m naturally an excitable, sharing kind of person – I wanted to shout from the rooftops and get this great stuff out to everyone I could. So 2 Bootcamps, 2 Intensive Workshops and a private rehearsal later, I’m now licensed to teach the “All Roads Lead to the Stage” live music method curriculum. I’m also really thrilled with the direction my solo material is taking and can’t wait to get it out there even more.

At the same time, I hooked up with a great organization called Indie Connect (www.indieconnect.com) and became the Pittsburgh/Western PA Chapter President. Their mission (are you seeing a common theme here?) is to help independent musicians build solid, sustainable careers. It fits in very well with my goal of providing good strong skills, career and business guidance for musicians. I’d been a member for over a year, so I knew they had really top-notch training resources and instruction.

But the most powerful thing about Indie Connect is the networking. It’s organized and structured in a way so that whatever help you need with your career for whatever level you’re at – everyone in the room takes time to help you, make suggestions, and make contacts. It’s a far cry from the hit-or-miss networking that musicians often do in noisy bars, where you may or may not meet the right person at the right time. Indie Connect’s been growing by leaps and bounds all over the country and producing great successes for their members, I’m really proud to be part of such a dynamic group!

2010 was a busy, busy year for me but some very amazing and cool things came out of it. I think I annoyed people sometimes shouting about it all…. matter of fact, I’m sure I did. But I can’t worry about that, I’m too excited. 😉

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of me and my new directions this past year – are you ready to rock-n-roll with me???

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