As we head into the final week of December, the mention of New Year’s resolutions starts to sprinkle into conversation and Facebook commentary. By all rights, I should have been buying into the whole resolution thing for years. After all – my long-held day job gives me two weeks off at this time of year, providing time to reflect and plan; I tend to lean toward self-improvement or skill-building projects; and I’m a December baby, with the New Year following my birthday by only a couple of weeks. It would seem a good time to make a grand proclamation and get busy fulfilling it come January 1 (or 2nd, depending on what recovery is required from New Year’s Eve).
Can’t say it’s ever happened that way for me.
My bad habits never appeared to be doing me any harm.
In the matters of keeping productive and effective as an artist and band manager, however, I have no shortage of improvement to make. If the following little list of my own 2013 resolutions can be of help to any other struggling artists out there, my efforts to write it have already been well worthwhile.
Here's what I've resolved to do:
1. Make a routine for creativity and stick to it. It’s very easy to de-prioritize creative endeavors in the course of a day – after all, there’s no guarantee any tangible result will come of it, whereas setting out to, say, wash the car, can reliably result in a clean car. The result of this reasoning, however, is that all ‘creative’ time will be commandeered by ‘practical’ tasks. The key is to remember that the process is the final product. If you’ve been actively creative for an hour, your task is completed, whatever was put down on paper or hard drive. Your mind is one step closer to your next creation.
2. Write boldly and shamelessly. When generating ideas, avoid self-censorship. Even if ideas seem embarrassing, bad or useless, write them down or record them anyway. Great ideas are far more likely to spring from a pile of garbage than from the blank page of ideas deleted at birth. You can always edit the hell out of it later if you want to. I’ve been giving myself this advice for years, and I still often find myself lapsing back into trying to craft a ‘great song’ from scratch. The result is almost always stilted and self-conscious.
3. Get personable at gigs – not just with the folks you already know. Mingle, hand out the mail-list sign-up sheet, listen to feedback, and memorize/record the names of the club staff present. Gigs are no time to be an introvert, even if you are one (and I’m an extreme case).
4. Play your instrument regularly, allowing time to just mess around with ideas, and to jam along with recordings and/or other musicians. Ideally, play with your live rig (including pedals and vocal mic stand) in place, so that it’s completely second nature when you go live.
5. Keep your eyes off the fingerboard.
6. Plan sets that don’t fatigue anyone or anything – especially your singing voice.
7. Seek out good current music and any other inspiration you can find. Give new sounds a chance to take root in your mind and heart.
8. Procrastinate when it comes to procrastinating. Put off putting things off – especially when reading or replying to emails.
9. Keep a gig log – recording date, venue, set list, crowd response, performance critique/notes, ideas for improvement. Ideally, film/record it Read it before each gig..
10. Write one band newsletter and at least two blogs per month. It’s good for all to know you’re still alive, especially you.
Thanks to you all for coming along on this ride so far. On behalf of MLB – have a very happy New Year and a 2013 full of great times and great music.
Peace
Mike
Can’t say it’s ever happened that way for me.
My bad habits never appeared to be doing me any harm.
In the matters of keeping productive and effective as an artist and band manager, however, I have no shortage of improvement to make. If the following little list of my own 2013 resolutions can be of help to any other struggling artists out there, my efforts to write it have already been well worthwhile.
Here's what I've resolved to do:
1. Make a routine for creativity and stick to it. It’s very easy to de-prioritize creative endeavors in the course of a day – after all, there’s no guarantee any tangible result will come of it, whereas setting out to, say, wash the car, can reliably result in a clean car. The result of this reasoning, however, is that all ‘creative’ time will be commandeered by ‘practical’ tasks. The key is to remember that the process is the final product. If you’ve been actively creative for an hour, your task is completed, whatever was put down on paper or hard drive. Your mind is one step closer to your next creation.
2. Write boldly and shamelessly. When generating ideas, avoid self-censorship. Even if ideas seem embarrassing, bad or useless, write them down or record them anyway. Great ideas are far more likely to spring from a pile of garbage than from the blank page of ideas deleted at birth. You can always edit the hell out of it later if you want to. I’ve been giving myself this advice for years, and I still often find myself lapsing back into trying to craft a ‘great song’ from scratch. The result is almost always stilted and self-conscious.
3. Get personable at gigs – not just with the folks you already know. Mingle, hand out the mail-list sign-up sheet, listen to feedback, and memorize/record the names of the club staff present. Gigs are no time to be an introvert, even if you are one (and I’m an extreme case).
4. Play your instrument regularly, allowing time to just mess around with ideas, and to jam along with recordings and/or other musicians. Ideally, play with your live rig (including pedals and vocal mic stand) in place, so that it’s completely second nature when you go live.
5. Keep your eyes off the fingerboard.
6. Plan sets that don’t fatigue anyone or anything – especially your singing voice.
7. Seek out good current music and any other inspiration you can find. Give new sounds a chance to take root in your mind and heart.
8. Procrastinate when it comes to procrastinating. Put off putting things off – especially when reading or replying to emails.
9. Keep a gig log – recording date, venue, set list, crowd response, performance critique/notes, ideas for improvement. Ideally, film/record it Read it before each gig..
10. Write one band newsletter and at least two blogs per month. It’s good for all to know you’re still alive, especially you.
Thanks to you all for coming along on this ride so far. On behalf of MLB – have a very happy New Year and a 2013 full of great times and great music.
Peace
Mike