I’m going to say something controversial. And I’m going to make people upset.

You’re not busy

It’s not that you don’t actually have time to work on that which you are truly passionate about-your music career. Yeah, perhaps it does not generate income for you right now, but it does have the potential to change your life in the future, yielding a significant earning for you later…

It’s not that you don’t actually have time for something like that, but rather that when faced with the choice, every day, to spend some time working on your music career, or to do something else, you make the choice to do something else. Because the ease and the short-term gains of that decision are greater than the former.

• You work a 12hr shift at your day job, and when you get home, you choose to relax in front of the TV (Not with your spouse and your kids, but disengaged in front of the TV).
• You go to class all day, and when that’s wrapped up you choose to go see Fitz and the Tantrums at the club downtown (No, you don’t study, you go to the show).
• Every day you spend your lunch break with your favorite co-worker at the sports bar talking about The Yankees (Yes, you do have to eat. But the Yankees can wait until tomorrow).

Do this: write down, every day, how you’re spending your time on an hour-by-hour basis. A very simple, single-line journal entry will suffice. Do this for a week, or maybe even a whole month.

Yeah, I’m willing bet that a few times I’ll be wrong. That’s ok, feel free to reprimand me in the comments below. But I’m also willing to be that I’ll be right more than a few times.

So stop procrastinating. Now that you’ve got a report that shows you how much time you actually have, use it to create a time budget, and designate a time slot every day to work on your music career. Stop being dishonest with yourself, telling yourself you don’t have time. Because now you can’t-you’ve got the document that proves it.

Reward yourself with the time to pursue that which you’re truly passionate about. I’m gonna get busy with my journal entries right now…

//Jon
My blog: www.producernotes.com
Twitter: @stsn

Do you find that often times you run short on thoughts to share? Maybe this is one of the main reasons you don’t post on your blog as much as you would like. Or worse, maybe you have not started a blog at all (Yikes, get started!)…

I find myself in this position way more often than I would like.

Quick pseudo-digression: Have you ever met a friend for coffee, and spontaneously entered into a very inspiring and enlightening conversation? Coming away, not only did you learn a few new things, but you also contributed to the conversation, and taught your friend (and yourself) something as well? I’m privileged to have the kind of friends that spark these conversations regularly.

That little digression? That’s exactly the point of social media (blogs, social networks, etc). It’s like hanging out at a coffee shop, having a conversation with great people and friends. You may not know what you’re going to talk about when you sit down at the beginning of the conversation, but by the end of it you have contributed by teaching someone something.

So next time you’re short on thoughts to share, get inspiration from other people by reading their blogs or checking out their Twitter links. You don’t always have to lead the conversation. A lot of the time you can join and contribute to other people’s conversations.

//Jon
My blog: www.producernotes.com
Twitter: @stsn

What would it take for you to get started on your next project? That one you’ve been thinking about and talking about for so long…

I’m willing to bet it’s really not as big a hurdle as you think.

Do this:

Pull out a piece of paper and jot down every requirement that comes to mind in order for you to pull this project off. Now pick one item from that list. How long would it seriously take to get that one little isolated thing done? Two minutes? An hour?

Do it. Cross it off.

Once you initiate, I’m wiling to bet that bringing the project to completion won’t be nearly as difficult as you thought before you started.

//stinson
My blog: www.producernotes.com
Twitter: @stsn

Iremember when I first heard Bush, the band of course, not the President, and I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this is pretty good. It’s not Nirvana but it’s pretty good”.

A few months after I heard them, they played a big show in Nashville. Sold out, as I recall. I had friends that went, it was a big deal. I stayed home and listened to Nine Inch Nails and practiced 360 flips in my driveway.

Looking back, I don’t think Bush could have made it past MySpace if they came along ten years later. Their music is really good, but it isn’t transcendent, and I’m not basing that on my own opinion, because I actually really like the band. But it’s not as good as Nirvana. And it sounds too much like Nirvana to be able to get away with not quite being as good.

Because of the level of noise and clutter out there, and the disposable nature of a culture of amateurs, willing to sign their rights away to get a track in a movie or iPod commercial and never be heard of again, “good enough” isn’t good enough anymore.

In the past, “good enough” worked because there was a machine that packaged music in a way that let passable artists, with enough hype, get through people’s bullshit filters. Now, an entire generation of artists are coming up with no structure or support system for their own development, and they are expected to do, for themselves, what a label used to do, and pay for, back when there was a thriving music industry. This is creating a lot of problems for talented musicians who suck at business and marketing. It’s also a great opportunity for people who are good at business and marketing but still not great at being musicians/artists to feel like they are getting somewhere, when really all they are doing is splashing around, wasting people’s time and money and attention, and helping to increase ad royalties for social networks that gladly give them a platform for self-promotion because it sells advertising.

It’s easy to get fooled into thinking that the facade is still there though, because there are still manufactured acts that have questionable artistic credibility being tossed out like fresh meat. But that’s an illusion. Manufactured pop stars are fundamentally not musicians, they are a totally different breed of entertainer, they are cultural icons and they serve a very specific purpose- to reflect the subconscious and, at times, conscious self image of their own fans back at them in a way that is slightly more perfect than anything the fans could actually pull off themselves. The music is wallpaper- it’s the background, not the subject. It might as well be Jersey Shore, it’s the same formula.

It’s totally different from the kind of musical epiphany that is impossible to avoid while listening to Sgt. Pepper’s, or Mozart. But even Mozart enjoyed the lowbrow operas of his friends. He just took everything a step further than anyone else thought was possible.

You see, that’s the whole package. When an artist manages to do both things at once- to reflect the subconscious mind of a huge amount of people right back at them, in a way they can absorb and understand and see themselves in, AND is shockingly brilliant musically. Bush was between two worlds, you could look up at them and say “I could do that” and that was part of their appeal. They weren’t fake Disney pop stars, but they weren’t Nirvana either. They were good enough.

The times have changed though, and now “good enough” just isn’t good enough anymore. Now, to really break through and get any kind of meaningful attention, you have to be GREAT!

I‘m thinking the bands that bubble up enough to blip on the radar screen, do so because of three main reasons:

1. They create remarkable music
2. One of the band members pulls everyone else’s weight in the “music business” department
3. They hook up with a professional in the business who is connected, puts the icing on the cake, and gets the job done

Certainly there’s an infinite number of nuances and other specifics that happen on a case-by-case basis. God knows there’s billions of moving parts and magical miracles that make up why certain bands are successful.

But this is the extremely reduced.

Thoughts?

//stinson
Blog: www.producernotes.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/stnsn
Twitter: @stsn

Sometimes it’s not as much about putting on the most incredible live show anyone has ever seen. Sometimes who you’re sharing the bill with is not all that important. Sometimes it does not matter how many people will come out.

Sometimes it’s just about getting out and playing live, so that there is kinetic energy around your band. So that you are participating in the scene. So that the team who is managing you, marketing you, investing in you has talking points in their social circles and business contacts.

The bottom line is that if you create a strong emotion in just one or two key people – people who will talk about you to their friends and associates (sneezers as Seth Godin calls them) – it does not matter if that happened when you were the only rock band at a hip-hop show, playing to only three people.

//stinson
My personal blog: www.producernotes.com
My Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/stnsn
My Twitter profile: @stsn

If you’re spending all your time developing your skill set, and thinking about all the technicals involved with that, you’re not getting your creations out there.

I’ve fallen quarry to this for more than half my life. The first two years I spent at Belmont University, I attended as a music major. My thought process was that I would become “overqualified” to play the type of music I wanted to make. I would be a musician who could practically play and do anything on the guitar. And I spent so much time trying to perfect my performance of other people’s music, learn my way around the neck of the guitar, and being consumed with picking and rhythm techniques.

In parallel I had become obsessed with how certain records sounded. In particular how certain guitarists got the tones they got (The Smashing Pumpkins Siameese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness blew my mind). So I started trying to learn everything I could about recording-taking many extra studio classes in school that really didn’t apply to my major (until I bailed and switched majors later). By the time I graduated from college, I found myself working at a recording studio… recording other people’s projects…

I tell you this to illustrate that in both cases I made myself believe that I had to know everything and be able to perform anything related to my craft before I could begin working on my own original ideas and creations. I lost so much time putting off my own creativity under this mentality.

Creation could be thought of as a two-halved process. One half could be learning a certain level of technical skills associated with what you do. I would argue that this would be the lesser, least significant half. Then there could exist the half that pertains to the creation side of the equation, where you create something original with your own characteristic flavor or artistic expression. I would argue that this would be the most important part, as time after time we see amazing artists create works that are eternal, yet they are just average musicians (and in some cases, can’t play at all) themselves.

Part of your developing process is the part where you create, and then share those creations with others. That’s what allows you to get better at the second, most important part of the equation.

So stop practicing and perfecting, and share your creation with us.

The funny thing about the idea behind this post is that one of the most accomplished guitar players and composers told me this ten years ago, but only now has it begun to sink in.

This post inspired by the book This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin, and by the blog post But what have you shipped? by Seth Godin.

//stinson
My personal blog: Producer Notes
My Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stnsn
My Twitter page: @stsn

There’s not room enough in the world for just another one.

What are you doing to make sure what you’re creating isn’t merely another one?

//stinson
www.producernotes.com
www.facebook.com/stnsn
Twitter: @stsn

Here’s a third post I lifted from Producer Notes, my personal blog on record making. As mentioned, I’ll continue to make a note of when I re-publish content from that blog which fits the context of the Radical Notion blog. You can find the previous two posts here: The Privilege and Give Away The Secret

I‘ve got some friends who are a little bit older than me, and have been making records longer than me. It’s great to have these friends, as they are my mentors. They teach me things on a near daily basis. They challenge me to keep my production skills sharp.

I also have a group of friends who are a little bit younger than me for whom I act as the mentor. The (maybe not so) ironic thing is that they teach me just as much-and sometimes more-than I teach them.

This happens in three main ways:

1. They ask me questions, and I have my knowledge and skills tested because I have to come up with the “correct” answer and/or good advice.
2. They ask me questions, and I don’t know the answer. I research it, I teach it to them, I learn something new.
3. They flat out teach me something I knew nothing about.

I not only keep my skills sharp by keeping in touch with my mentors, I also constantly have my skills sharpened by the people whom I teach. It’s great to focus on networking with people who have been making records longer than you, and picking their brains for knowledge. But what action are you taking to put yourself in a position in which you can learn by teaching someone who has less experience than you?

//stinson (find me on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/stnsn, and I’m @stsn on Twitter)

Photo by foxypar4. Licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Here’s another one I lifted from my other blog, Producer Notes, my scribblings on record making and how that relates to my general enthusiasm for creativity. I’ve published a few posts there which I think also fit this context of what we talk about on this blog, so I’m lifting them and re-posting them here. I’ll continue to point out when I do this.

They’re not going to steal your idea. Because it’s impossible to steal mastery of a trade.

You can’t out out “George Martin” George Martin. Or out “Prince” Prince

YOU are the magic puzzle piece that makes it all work. Don’t worry about giving away the secret to the sauce. No one can make it all work like you, because you are the magician. You are the integral piece that connects all the dots.

What you need to do is engage with your audience. Show them how it works. Expand the enthusiasm of your fans by discussing the build of whatever it is that drew them in in the first place.

“Want to know how we got the guitar to solo to sound like the end of the world? Modulated octave fuzz split through two amps. Check out my new video where I show you how.”

“Want to know we got the background vocals to sound so huge? MS and Blumlein stereo mic’ing. Head over to my blog where I explain that, along with many other recording and mixing techniques.”

They will go from enthusiastic to completely addicted, spreading your ideas, your name, and your mastery around in the process.

No one can out “You” You.

Photo by brokinhrt2. Licensed under a Creative Commons license.

//stinson (find my other blog here: www.producernotes.com; find me on Twitter here: @stsn)