A question I get asked a lot as a working songwriter is “What else can I be doing to grow my music career while I’m writing songs?” It’s true, the most important thing you can be doing as a songwriter is writing songs. But as you’re writing, there are activities you’ll want to adopt that will help open doors for those songs to be heard. After all, feverishly writing songs without an outlet to play them for other people can eventually thwart our creativity altogether.
For the next several weeks, I’d like to post a weekly blog with an activity you can add into your schedule that I hope will help you grow as an artist and musician. Even if you perform the activity for 10 minutes a day, such as picking up a guitar or sitting down at the piano, you are building connections between your life and your creativity. I’ll also separate the activities into business and craft, so you can identify what activities might benefit the work you do in the writing room, and what benefits you outside that circle. Eventually, these activities will all run together as you knit a lifestyle that fosters creativity and connection in the music world. I encourage you to tailor the ideas to your own environment and run with any extra ideas you might have. Let’s get started!
Business:
Check your local paper for who’s playing at a nearby music venue. Try to attend one show this week of an act that is similar to your writing style or the style you aspire to. If you aren’t familiar with any of the artists or venues in your area, pick one at random. If you have a musical friend or co-writer you haven’t connected with in awhile, ask him/her to come along. If you have family or work related responsibilities, consider how you can take your family along, or schedule your meeting to include the show.
After the performance: If you enjoyed the show, introduce yourself to the band or artist afterwards. Mention that you are a songwriter and that you enjoyed their music. Be sure to ask when they’ll be playing again…..and plan to attend.
Craft:
Pick up any newspaper, magazine, or book, and choose an article or page at random. Begin reading, and as you do, consider each phrase - no matter how insignificant - as the title of a song. What might you write sparked from the ideas of those titles?
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I’m reading your articles every week in this blog, and the truth is that encourage me when I’m writing and seems the worst songs of the world, and give me new perspectives and encouragement to move forward. It’s just what I needed to hear! This article in particular has made me think about the people I know, around me, and that is going forward in the business, and I was surprised because there are many more of which I believed in the beginning, and I feel forces to begin to focus my songs for future presentations. Write thinking on some artists that I know and they might be interested. Perhaps this is a good idea. Congratulations for your blog.
I’m so grateful that you are inspired by the blog. Much of our struggle as writers and artists is believing in our own ideas. Take heart that all of us are climbing those same mountains…and eventually will meet at the peak.
Andrea
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