I'm a musician. Or, well- a songwriter, really. I'm a guitar player, and I have an accomplished, unique style, but I long ago realized I was never going to be either versatile or fast enough to ever be included in the annals of what I consider to be the greats.
But I perform songs, and I pay attention to the room- to the responses of the audience- to the silent critiques you can read on people's faces if you look closely enough, and I learn, and I push myself, and to be honest I feel like I've gotten pretty damn good at it.
Being pretty damn good at playing songs for a crowd of people, along with the price of a nice IPA nowadays, will of course get you... exactly that- a nice IPA. I mean, sometimes you can get a generous venue to comp that beer, or maybe two, (thanks, Jeff!). However, if you want to get paid, or famous, or people to show up, or whatever recognition you're looking for; you're gonna have to put a little more in to it.
I was reading an article in my local paper earlier today about a bunch of friends and acquaintances of mine and this quote by Emily Rogers does a lot to illustrate the position of a modern musician.
“So often, artists who are excellent at self-promotion are the ones who succeed. I won't make a blanket statement that introverts are inherently better songwriters, but it takes sensitivity and self-reflection to craft a truly emotive piece of music and those with that skill set are often made uncomfortable by self-promotion. I certainly am.”
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Once upon a time the only thing a musician needed to (or could) do was move to an area where there were talent scouts, A&R guys, and label executives, and focus on writing and performing really great songs till someone discovered you. Nowadays you have to do a lot of that work yourself to even be considered by potential team members, and the truth is that the small local artists I admire most tend to be the ones most hopeless at self promotion.
I fall squarely into this category. Although I am definitely an extrovert, I hate self promotion. I hate social media. I'm really a pretty big technophobe. I can't really internet. I can whine about it or I can work on it. If I'm really going to work on it, I may as well document it. Maybe someone else can learn or benefit from reflections on my efforts. Thats what this blog will be for.
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