10 THINGS YOU SHOULD BE DOING DURING A PANDEMIC
Never thought I’d be writing a blog with this title, but here we are. Just as it seems like we might be rounding the corner on this lockdown, we see our numbers spiking or we hear talk of “the second wave” in the news. If you have been dependent on making a living from live performances as an artist, it is a very discouraging time. However, what if you were to take advantage of the down-time to move your career forward? Here are some ideas for making the best use of this time.
1.Practice - I know, how boring! But really, this is a great use of “down-time”. If you are a competitive person, just think of the other musicians in the world who ARE practicing and making progress while you are binge watching Grey’s Anatomy (wait, is that me?). If you are not a competitive person but love the thought of making progress and simply “up-ping” your game, then that can be reason enough right there.
2. Learn or develop new skills - Could your guitar chops be better? Have you always wished you could figure out coming up with chords to your songs on the piano? Do you struggle with creating harmonies? How about sharpening your rhythm skills? Recording or producing? Soooooooo many amazing things to learn or get better at and now is the time to focus on one or two and make it happen.
3. Watch free webinars on marketing, licensing, PR, release strategies, etc. If you follow or subscribe to the right folks, you will be bombarded with FREE, extremely valuable information on a regular basis. I’m actually amazed at what is out there. Here are a few of the accounts you should be following.
Musicians Friend
Ariel Hyat (Cyber PR)
Bree Nobel
Songtrust
BMI or ASCAP (you don’t have to be a member of either to be on their newsletter list and they both have crazy good articles posted regularly)
Bandzoogle
Discmakers
CD Baby
Ari’s Take
Comment below or send me a message if you can't find exactly what you are looking for.
4. Set some specific goals with target dates and processes to achieve them. For example; In 6 months I will be able to play my acoustic version of Rock You Like a Hurricane without any mistakes by rehearsing it with a metronome 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, leading up to the show on such and such day. Or...Spend 15 minutes a day creative writing using a writing-prompt app. Spend one hour each Saturday just on lyric writing.
5. Fine tune your original songs, pick your top 10 to 12 - If you write your own songs, go through the collection and select ten to twelve of your favorites. Even if all you have is one line or one verse, but you absolutely love it, it goes in the favorite pile. Now, develop each of those songs. Rewrite, collaborate or just work them until they are where you want them to be. Set specific goals with target dates and processes for each song. If you don’t write your own songs, set up a co-writing session via online or social distancing and try it out with someone. Most accomplished songwriters will offer a co-writing/coaching session for a fee which can be life changing. Try it out and see if it works for you.
6. Read a book about mindset - Mindset, or your Mental Health is one of the crucial pillars in being a successful creative. It is easy to let fear and insecurity dominate your thoughts when you are depending on other people to pay you for your art. It has to be one of the scariest positions to be in. Talk about vulnerability! It is also difficult to balance being a “creative” with tasks such as bookkeeping and scheduling, not to mention handling technical obstacles we are so often faced with. Here are a few books that I have read and love; The Miracle Morning - Hal Elrod, The Power of Starting Something Stupid - Richie Norton, The Compound Effect - Darren Hardy, The War of Art - Steven Pressfield, Secrets of Six-Figure Women - Barbara Stanny (still reading this and it is a MUST for any female entrepreneur/artist), Ask your music friends for recommendations.
7. Create content besides music - Do you like to blog? Do you paint? Crochet? Cook? Make short videos of you doing what you do besides music to help your followers get to know you better, engage with you more and become true fans. Followers do not always equal Fans. Your job is to turn followers INTO fans!
8. Get on Patreon and create your community - If you haven’t looked into Patreon yet, I strongly suggest you do it now. This is simply a way for people who love your music and want to support you to actually do it in a monetary way. Even if right now you only have five fans that you believe would contribute $5 a month to support you (and all five of them are family) still do it! When you sign up, you will see many, many articles written about creatives just like you who have thought of unique ways of building their community and earning a living from those who connect with their art.
9. Do a livestream - Figure out the technical aspects of doing it (there are a lot of articles, webinars and blogs out there by now), decide on a realistic frequency and schedule to do them (if once a week is just too much then do it once a month), create a unique tag-line for your live stream (“Sunday Songs with Sara”), give your followers an incentive for joining (giveaways, sneak peeks, new song, exclusive performance of a request that will be online only, etc.), start on time, communicate with those that join you and thank them by name! Do not get hung up on the number of viewers. Again, you are looking for the people who love and connect with your art. Even if 3 people comment about how much they loved it and will definitely be there for the next one, you do it for them!
10. Create your Brand Binder or Vision Board - your brand is the visual presentation of who you are as an artist. If you have only given this a little bit of thought then now is the perfect time to give it a LOT of thought! This can be so much fun if you allow yourself to dive into who you are, what your tastes are, what vibe you want people to feel when they catch their first visual glimpse of you. You can use Pinterest, a physical binder or poster board, or whatever works for you. Clip out (either virtually or physically) representations of all things you connect with:
Colors
Fonts
Outfits
Jewelry/bling
Lighting
Textures
Era (The Roaring Twenty’s, The Peace and Love Movement of the 60’s, etc.)
Objects (cars, horses, glass buildings, rod iron fences, etc.)
I hope this helps give you some new ideas for moving your music forward during a time when they might feel stagnant. People will always need music. Our souls can’t live without it, in my opinion, so continue to create! Continue to nurture the gifts you have been blessed with!
What if you are reading this and things have settled back into some sort of normalcy? As a musician, you still have slow seasons, right? You can easily swap in the title words like “during the slow season” or “in between gigs” or anything like that. In other words, when you are not actually creating music, performing music, recording music or earning money to fund your music, there are so many other things that you can do to bring you closer to achieving your goals.
