BlogTrust is something we typically think about much more in relation to bandmates and collaborators than with ourselves as songwriters. If you regularly find yourself questioning your creative decisions or trying to bend your music in directions that don’t feel natural, you might have a problem with trusting yourself as a music-maker.
How To Trust Your Own Creative Intuition
5 Habits Of Successful Musicians
When it comes to making it in the music biz, it’s a little bit of luck, a bit of hard work, and a whole lot of strategy. This, I’ve found, is where a lot of us get it wrong. We think the music will carry us into the arms of adoring fans and eager labels, and when that doesn’t happen on the merit of the music alone, it’s easy to feel like we’ve failed, or throw up our hands in defeat.
If I’ve learned anything over the last decade that I’ve been doing this, it’s that there are a few habits that successful musicians have, and they’re not as complicated or complex as you might think.
Ready to find out what they are?
3 Tips For Writing Lots Of Music
Writing music is hard. Writing lots of music is much harder. But between how insatiable audiences are for new music and the fact that the more often we write the better chance we have at creating great songs, it pays to be prolific as a songwriter. Making music takes hard and often thankless work, but it takes even more sacrifice, planning, and energy to commit to writing as often as possible. Here are three helpful tips for being prolific and productive as a songwriter:
How To Tell When You’re Not Creating Authentically
As an artist, you have a completely unique perspective to draw inspiration from whether you’ve just started making music or have been writing songs for years. But just because you have the ability to create music that comes from an authentic place doesn’t mean you always can or do. Some artists struggle to trust their own unique musical intuition and shape their music too closely around what other musicians are doing, and you may be doing this with your music without even knowing it. How do you know when you’re not creating authentically?
Why The World Doesn’t Owe It To You To Listen To Your Music
As much as you might want them to, loads of new listeners are probably not going to spontaneously flock to your next release and listen to it, especially if you’re a developing artist. Sometimes we get so caught up in the excitement of sharing new music that we forget that connecting with audiences is far from a predictable, sure thing. Music is not an “if you build it, they will come,” endeavor because when it comes to making and sharing music, the reality is that no one owes you anything whether it’s coming to your shows or streaming your songs.
5 Tips For A Fruitful Collaboration
Some of the best music in the world has come from collaboration, but creating with partners doesn’t come naturally to some songwriters. Every collaboration is a relationship, whether you’re writing with a partner or performing music as a six-piece band. When these relationships are built on trust, communication, and respect, creativity is allowed to thrive. If you’re looking to get the most out of collaborating with other music-makers, consider these tips:
Why You Shouldn’t Let Your Ego Stop You From Making Music
If you’re a developing artist that wants to pursue music for the rest of your life either as a career or even just a hobby, there are huge obstacles that could stand in your way such as getting too busy to create or letting disappointment discourage you from creating. One of the biggest challenges every musician faces is grappling with their own ego.
5 Tips For Combating Musical Writer’s Block
If you’re lucky, songwriting is something you naturally feel like doing whether it’s your career or something you do with every spare minute in this season of your life. But if you’re not so fortunate, writing songs might feel difficult to do or even impossible for you right now. The truth is that all music-makers go through periods where it can feel either effortless or endlessly challenging to create music. Going through a motivational rough patch with your musical career isn’t a reason to quit, but an opportunity to dig in deeper. Many musicians will tell you these boom and bust periods are natural in songwriting, and that there’s often a lot of inspiration to be found after going through a dry spell. Here are five strategies for fighting writer’s block: