A Day in My Life

Music is an intensely entrepreneurial business. It takes discipline and a certain type of self starting attitude. After all, you have no boss to tell you what to do and when to do it. It’s all on you. This can be good or bad. On the negative side, you could respond to this by doing nothing, by being lazy. This approach will guarantee your failure. Or, you could be organized, energized and enthusiastic. If you’re disciplined and focused on your direction and your goals, you maximize the opportunity to succeed.

Throughout my career, different musical directions have changed what any given day looked like. Early in my career, music store teaching and playing small pickup jobs were my life. Later, I owned my own music school and played larger, more prestigious dates. Then, staff jobs at theaters and recording studios took up more and more time. There was a period where I owned a music production company that focused on media music. Jingles, documentary scores, TV themes and tracks for singers took up time in this phase. Then, my career turned in the direction of what was called the “Neo Classical” guitar. This involved transcriptions, original composition and improvisations on a theme. This work led me into concerts and three CDs.

As you can imagine, my day looked very different in each of these directions. I thought I would concentrate for the purpose of today’s blog on my current direction.

I made the decision within the last year or two to concentrate exclusively on two and only two musical directions. One is the concert jazz guitar and the other is music education.

So here’s what a day looks these days.

In my performance work, I have to continue to develop new repertoire for my concerts. This material can be original or not but it has to function at a high concert level. I no longer write for major companies – I write exclusively for my own performance and recordings.

After material is written, it has to be arranged and notated. From there, it goes to the band for rehearsal and then is scheduled for performance or recording. A new CD of mine called “Freefall” has twelve original tracks conceived either for my trio or for solo guitar.

I usually begin new pieces with a title and then write that mood into the song. Current titles are “Tribute to Wes”,”Synergy” and “Dragonfly”. “Tribute to Wes” is complete and waiting for the arrangement. Synergy is started and “Dragonfly” has four bars written. Each day will produce a little more of each piece until they’re all complete and ready to move into the next phase.

In the meantime, there is a shocking amount of time spent on the business of this business. Booking, press, internet exposure, social networking, promotion – the list goes on and on.

I work in the private music teaching side of the business. I work exclusively out of my own private studio, maintaining a large and demanding private practice. In response to demand and changing technology, I now Skype all over the world. I have also recently signed with a company called Truefire.com. This company is an on line video guitar education company. My program with them will launch at the end of January. There is a huge amount of preparation for this new endeavor. I’m slowly getting up to speed with all the technology changes.

Another phase of my education work is research, writing books and giving master classes. I’ve just finished a new book called “Jazz Guitar Chords – Without Memorizing a 1000 Shapes”. Books require time in the organization, the writing, the editing and the promotion.

Now, let’s take a day. Of course, days differ according to the needs and demands of that day. This variety of day to day activity keeps everything fresh and avoids the boredom that plagues many people with “straight” jobs.

Last Friday, I gave private lessons from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM. At 4:30, I joined jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno for a session about our upcoming CD and our next four concerts together. By 8:00 PM, I was working on the final revisions of a new book, putting finishing touches on the arrangement of “Tribute to Wes” and arranging a photo shoot for some promotion on the internet. By now, it was 10:00 PM. I reviewed some new video footage from a recent concert. My decision was to use the material just for promotion and Youtube or to turn it into a DVD product. By 11:00 PM, I was sending out invitations to an upcoming concert with my trio and sending files to a printer for the posters to be used to promote several upcoming concerts.

Since I write for the magazines “Just Jazz Guitar”, “Jazz Inside” and for the website “All About Jazz”, it was time to write my columns. This took a couple of hours up until 1:00 AM. The last 30 minutes were devoted to research and setting up the next days activities. I try to stop at 1:30. The next day starts again at 8:00 AM.

Every day is different but that’s the length of most of my days. Only the balance of activities change. Some days, I’ll devote up to sixteen hours to teaching and then fill in the rest of the day as needed.

This, as you can see, is a business that you must love. It is my choice to work at this pace but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

What is marketing? Marketing is the entire range of activities that involve increasing your exposure in the market that you have chosen. This exposure then needs to lead to sales. These sales might be for CDs, DVDs, digital products, books, concerts, merchandise etc. It includes but is not limited to advertising, promotion, public relations, sales, endorsements, articles, interviews, establishing contacts etc.

A typical musician runs hot and cold in this regard. He or she gets enthused about marketing and works very hard … for a couple of weeks. Then, nothing for months…

Ben,

I am a veteran jazz guitarist, born in Chicago but based in suburban Philadelphia.

I appreciate how you handle sensitive topics related to the Art of Jazz.

Being in this business for a long time as a musician, educator, author and lecturer, I have a somewhat different take on the subject of jazz musicians and audiences. Though it’s easy to blame the media and they deserve some of the blame, I think the biggest problem lies squarely on the shoulders of jazz musicians and the jazz community.

This community has never promoted or marketed their art and craft at the level or with the same intensity as other musical idioms. This is not to comment one way or another on the musical significance of jazz versus rock – country vs pop etc.

As an example, country music has an enormously popular and important tradition called Fan Day. This is basically a big convention for the fans to meet, up close and personal, their country music idols. Autographs are given, merchandise is sold, pictures are taken. I have never seen a country artist resist this tradition or complain about it. They recognize that without the fans, they would have no career.

Country music plays to the fans and seems to show a genuine interest in them. I understand the differences between country and jazz but jazz still must be marketed with consistency and enthusiasm. The musicians have to do their part in promoting and marketing their art and craft. I am talking about traditional forms of jazz not “smooth jazz”.

Jazz shares many of the same issues with classical music. There is too often a distance and certain type of elitism that prevents audiences from getting “close”.

I hold out great hope for the future because of the “new” music business – the “cyber marketing” and all the tools that are available to jazz musicians across the world.

Chuck Anderson
“Audience Friendly, Progressive Jazz Guitar”
www.ChuckAndersonGuitar.com

If interested, I’d love to send you copies of two of my CDs as well as one of my books. It deals with the subject of development within the music business, the individual and within the artistic community. The book is titled “Music Pursuing the Horizon”
—-
Chuck Anderson
www.ChuckAndersonGuitar.com
chuckandersonguitar.blogspot.com

What is marketing? Marketing is the entire range of activities that involve increasing your exposure in the market that you have chosen. It includes but is not limited to advertising, promotion, public relations, product creation, merchandising, endorsements, establishing contacts etc.

A typical musician runs hot and cold in this regard. He or she gets enthused about marketing and works very hard … for a couple of weeks. Then, nothing for months.

What you need to do is to set aside time every day for something … anything … that would promote you and your work. It’s a good idea to follow some simple advice from the exercise world and the diet world. Do what you can maintain. In other words, it’s a lifestyle more than an emergency event.

The more you do, the more you will develop an attitude, a momentum. Soon, the process will be natural. It becomes something that you don’t even have to think about, to do.

When this happens and continues to happen, you’re on your way!

Musicians and entertainers are not supposed to chase club managers around, negotiate contracts or even collect the money. They should be spending all their time developing and polishing their skills as performers. Yet, the majority of up and coming artists spend the majority of their time spinning their wheels in the frustrating search for work, for publicity, for recognition. Could this be one of the reasons that we have relatively few quality acts today? I think that this is a major contributing factor.

It’s not that talent doesn’t exist. It’s not that the drive or the ambition of artists are lacking. It’s not that people are not trying. It’s that there has been a complete collapse of the internal business of music. Changes in the industry have certainly contributed to this problem. But the real problem seems to be a lack of interested, committed people to work in the industry.

A case in point is the agency business. A music agent is a person that pursues and hopefully, gets work for artists. For this effort, they receive a commission. At one time, this business had prohibitive expenses associated with it. Phone bills and the mailing expense of promo kits mounted up. But today, you can get unlimited phone calls across the country for $39.95 a month. EPKs (Electronic Press Kits) have eliminated the publicity pictures, the bio, the credits and the demos (CD or DVD). They have also eliminated the mailing expenses associated with these items.

So what does it take to enter the agency business? … A phone and access to the internet! From there, select your artists in the genre that you want to pursue and begin.

What are the music business graduates doing when they graduate from college with their degrees? It’s not obvious to me!

Without agent Sol Hurok, Andres Segovia probably wouldn’t have had a career. There are many examples in music history, where agents have been responsible for the development and prosperity of an artist’s career!

Derek Siver, founder of CD Baby has recognized this need and is beginning a business called MuckWork. I am 100% behind Derek and his new business endeavors.

Check Derek’s new endeavors at http://sivers.org

Why they are in music at all is a mystery to me. My only guess is that it beats working for minimum wage.

It’s obvious that they don’t study or practice or do anything other than exercise their egos in front of the public. The fact that they have audiences is either a tribute to their marketing skills or a general insult to the listening public.

There is a silver lining to this sad story. I once thought that there was a correlation between talent and success. Instead, I’ve replaced that theory with another theory – and it is generally optimistic! Don’t worry about being good enough or having any talent. Don’t worry whether or not you can recruit adoring fans. Anyone can find a niche for whatever they do. And with some effort, you can turn that niche into a fan base with income to follow.

Your conscience should be your only barometer and without any conscience the sky’s the limit!

Determine a Direction

Before even considering contacts, one must develop abilities and determine a direction. Whether this involves formal study or self teaching is inconsequential. The important thing is that the physical ability to perform is developed along with the creative sense and the sensitivity of the ear.

At whatever point the individual feels that he is ready to pursue a specific direction, he can begin his search for contacts. The most important fact to remember in this search is that you must locate the contact not the reverse. Though you may disagree, the contact has less to gain than you do, at least initially. You are vitally interested in yourself and your future. The contact is typically not that interested. Thus, the pressure is on you to make the moves. You do not have to be born into contacts. You do not have to live next door to a contact. You do have to open a strong, definite line of communication between yourself and everyone with whom you come into contact. If you are shy and reluctant to express yourself, you must work on overcoming this problem. Though it does require an effort, it is well worth it.

Those who accept all commercial work to the exclusion of any other musical pursuits have usually made their decision in favor of income and a degree of stability. Those who turn down all commercial work in favor of artistic pursuits have made quite another decision. For some this decision has led to income and stability but only for very few. For the majority, the decision has prevented them from achieving financial rewards and those things which society equates with success. If the individual has made the decision that finances are unimportant to him and if he can remain immune to society’s pressure, he will be free to pursue his art in peace.

The progress of the band suffers and you suffer! The chain is as strong as its weakest link. But you don’t know how to handle this problem. After all, it’s your friend, maybe your best friend.

This is your first test of developing an attitude of professionalism – or at least seriousness.

If your “friend” won’t put the effort into improving, you should replace him or her in the band. Don’t let some misguided sense of loyalty stop you from doing what you should do. It’s not fair to you to be held back by such an individual.

If this individual is truly a friend, go to the movies with him or her. Hang out, eat meals together, go to a ball game.

Be a friend but don’t let it interfere with your future!