If you’re practicing your songs, at first you make a bunch of mistakes and then you get a lot better.
But practicing your songs is different than practicing your show. Your show is about entertainment, not how many correct notes you play.
Many artists practice really hard at social media and are surprised to find out they got good at it but that it doesn’t translate into having an actual music career, much less great show.
If everything has been right on track for a while, no blips or bugs, you might consider a couple things
1. Speeding up. You’ve mastered your pace. You can autopilot at your current speed. And even though auto pilot is fun for a while, that’s not why you got into this.
2. Incremental change. This can go hand in hand with speeding up, but incremental change involves trying new things not just doing the current things better and faster.
Smooth sailing is a relief after years of rough waters so it’s tempting to try and stay there forever. It feels like the ultimate prize at the end of the race.
But smooth sailing doesn’t last forever, so better to speed up and/or change while you’ve got a little control.
Everyone wants to be in a band but most are afraid to actually make one or join one.
A band has a different soul than a solo artist.
But when faced with the actual opportunity be a part of one, most musicians hesitate.
Not that it’s a decision to be taken lightly…the perfect band is still one of compromise, arguing, getting paid later instead of now, boredom, letdown, weird van smells and someone always believing they should be louder in the mix. That’s best case scenario.
So foreseeing any of these aspects when thinking about being in a band shouldn’t be a deterrent…it simply leads to a question: are you willing to stick with these people despite these aspects?
Are you willing to compromise your control and creativity over a long period of time for the sake of the synergy and soul changing-ness of being in a band?
***In Nashville anyway there’s definitely less bands now than fifteen years ago.
’Starting a band is hard, so go be the star…or go play for one so you can get paid now not later.’
And being a solo artist is great. It’s a great endeavor. But a lot of solo artists and musicians want to be in bands but they’re just too afraid. And that’s too band, because bands are awesome and worth the compromise.
As a kid you sit in your bedroom for days or weeks or years and learn guitar and how to sing along with it.
And then eventually it’s time to leave your bedroom.
You have two options…
Either leave the guitar in the room
Or
Take it with you.
If you leave the guitar in your room you can come back to it and it will always be there for you. You pick it up, sit on your bed and enjoy the feeling of music.
But if, when you leave your room, you take the guitar with you…now you’re on a different journey. Now it’s enjoying the feeling of music AND…making money, gaining attention, building reputation, connecting with people, telling stories, making your dreams come true, making others dreams come true, and the list goes on.
No one tells you what to do with the guitar. Both options were (and still are) on the table. You weren’t born for one or the other.
But I’ll leave you with this…The only thing music can be relied on for is the first choice. The feeling and experience you get when you play it. Beyond that you’re signing up for the circus.
When you’re the headliner, the audience doesn’t wonder if you’re a good band. They spent money to come see you having already made up their mind. And on top of that…They are willing to make huge concessions to assure themselves they made the right choice buying your ticket.
When you’re the opener, the audience is wondering if you’re a good band or not. It’s a different game. If you’re bad, they don’t feel dumb. You’re not why they bought the ticket. So as the opener if you know what the audience is wondering, take care of that.
***The spoils, the benefit of the doubt, the money all goes to the headliner. It pays to headline. But it is quite a thrill to be a great opener…to go from unknown to great in the mind of the audience.
