ON THE HORN
It’s been an odd couple of weeks with regards to my chops. I almost feel like I’m going through some sort of transformation. Perhaps it’s my body getting used to playing everyday. I imagine someone who has played like this for a long time might say “yah, so what!”, but for me it is a bit of a body shock, much like suddenly deciding to go to the gym everyday, which is something I should likely be doing as well. For now, the main idea is to keep to a structured dynamic routine. This might seem like an odd statement. For me, this would look like this:
- First thing played is my static warmup routine (as per the videos)
- Than I incorporate some musical element, it could be playing an etude, jazz, or even just playing along with the radio. The point is, don’t forget the musical part of playing. I did and got lost in routines, forgetting that truly the end result of a routine is to make the musical component as easy to achieve as possible.
- After doing something musical, I’ll dive into a practice routine which right now includes a rotation of a number of routines.
OFF THE HORN
Inspired by a recent lunch get together with two friends, the topic of creative voice came up. I have never taken the time to give this some thought in terms on how this relates to me.
What is meant by “creative voice”? When I mention this during a conversation, I was asked to expand on this topic. It was put to me that “Creative Voice” is an industry buzz word. This made me think a bit more about what I mean with this and the conclusion I come to is that really what I’m doing is finding “my” creative voice. If this is an individual task, I would think that there isn’t one definition for “creative voice”. After doing some research, I found a great article on this subject which has opened my mind into the mental aspect of finding my creative voice:
http://99u.com/articles/51575/the-4-phases-of-developing-your-creative-voice
The article mentions 4 stages with each stage having several questions that help the reader navigate the concepts of each stage. I have started answering the questions for me and am finding myself between two stages.
ON A BUSINESS NOTE
I keep on getting reminders that having a business plan for musicians isn’t the norm. Having a target is important to me as it will give me a sense of achievement when I reach certain targets. You don’t have to write an official business plan for yourself. You may want simply have a financial target and some campaigns that you are working at. I have provided an example below of what I am currently building myself for various “buckets”. I’m finding that for me, I will not have one bucket that will provide me with a lot of revenue, rather I have many small buckets. One benefit is that if one of these smaller buckets falls through, in the big picture it will not be devastating to my overall revenue. Some buckets for me include: Teaching, Gigs, eBook work, Transcriptions, Recordings, Special Campaigns (Church for example). For the example below, I’m only listing my “church” bucket.
2016 Business Plan for Klaus
Revenue target per month: $2000
Church Campaign:
Develop list of 150 churches within a 30km radius around home base. Make email list and provide short write up with video clip to key administrators.
Revenue seasonal based. Typical hot days include Easter, Christmas, Remembrance Day, Church Anniversaries.
Anticipated 2016 Monthly revenue
- Church Campaign
Jan – $0 - Feb – $0
- Mar – $175 to $350
- Apl – $0
- May – $0
- Jun – $0
- Jul – $0
- Aug – $0
- Sep – $0
- Oct – $0
- Nov – $0
- Dec – $175 to $350
By doing the above for the various buckets, I can get an anticipated revenue model. For me, I have only started being in the career music business for a few months, however, as time passes and as I get more actual data and experience I’ll be able to base my model on more actual data vs anticipated data.
Video BLOG
I am excited to announce that Matt Jefferson from the Maniacal 4 has voiced his interest in helping me develop my video blogs. You can check his work out by going to YouTube. I am thrilled to have him work with me. If you ever require video services, Matt is highly recommended. He’s an experienced and passionate videographer.