Your dear Baldy Locks here and I have come to some recent revelations that I find both fascinating and potentially dangerous. Now follow me here. We have all heard the terms Carpe Diem a.k.a Seize the Day, Carpe Nocturne a.k.a Seize the Night, and the ever elusive Carpe This a.k.a Seize…………nevermind. The basic principle of first two, while avoiding a potential sexual harrassement case due to the latter, is to truly reach out and no matter what you do, GO FOR IT. Make sure you give it 110% at bare minimum and live and breathe what you are doing. Sounds basic doesn’t it? Unfortunately for some not so much.

If you're like me you’ve more than likely tuned into an episode of Behind the Music on VH1 or you may have dug into the bio section on your favorite band’s DVD. Once you're past the unbridled sex, excessive drug use, and general debauchery, these are typically a great insight into the drive that got most of these artists to where they are today. OK, it may have partially been the debauchery. You often hear about how they didn’t take “no” for an answer or just “didn’t give up.” Did you ever notice that they never really tell you HOW they actually achieved that though? AHA! Now today’s lesson rears thy ominous head. Let us back track for a slight moment shall we? Take the first paragraph I wrote. Seize the day, night, etc right? Add in “NEVER Giving Up” and this equals potentially the most important question anyone can ask on their journey to being a professional musician. “What have I done to further my career TODAY?” Not yesterday, not last week, not the fact that I cut this amazing work of art and record and why aren’t I immediately a Platinum selling artist already? What have I done to help myself TODAY?

The strongest downfall I have seen in the industry is that people do not make furthering their career part of their daily lives. All of us have a daily routine to get us moving. Heck, I can barely even function before I make coffee alone. Now some artists have not grasped this concept in the simple form and they end up spinning their wheels on worthless ventures. For example they may think that flirting with the dead sexy receptionist at the publishing house so they can get their next big hit song heard is furthering their career but in reality, she’ll more than likely take you for that expensive dinner, go psycho on you at the end of the night, no kiss at the end of the evening then promptly go back to her life and lose your demo because she was sleeping with the boss anyway. WHEW!! Exhausting ain’t it? And that's just one equation to the industry.

What I'm saying in the “What have I done…” question can be much simpler to achieve. So many times people make it much harder than it needs to be. Doing something for your career could be as simple as following up on an e-mail, dropping a CD in the mail, practicing those charts for an upcoming gig, or even updating your MySpace or website. Unfortunately, most of us do not have Personal Assistants on retainer even though my girlfriend may feel like one at times. No, the truth of the matter is that all of these things need to be done but organizing them and staying on top of them will pay off in the long run and for God’s sake when dealing with anyone remember that their time is valuable and BE NICE.

You notice I mentioned that people try to make things harder than they actually are. This happens more times than not in the industry partially because people don't keep up on the everyday logistics I mentioned above. Trust me in the fact that I understand there's a lot of work behind this. Getting your everyday affairs in order is crucial to your survival in any industry but especially music. Remember gang that it is the Music BUSINESS! Don’t let the “artist” part of you consume you too much or you're dead in the water and it won’t matter if you’ve written the next musical anthem of all times or your God’s gift to the bass. You won’t be heard if you don’t get organized in a daily routine. Period!

The main reason I'm harping on finding a daily routine, other than the fact that I sucked at it for years myself, is that you need to be organized so that you can really focus. If all of the remedial stuff like e-mails, scale studies, etc is routine then you get to where you can do it on autopilot. We spent the countless hours learning our instrument so that we can play without staring at the fingerboard didn’t we? Why would we possibly run the rest of our career any differently? Oh Crap. It's starting to make sense now ain’t it?

Here is the real meat my Glorious Groovers. Once you have a daily routine established then you'll find that you can react quickly and efficiently when strong opportunities come your way. Imagine a radio promoter, artist, record label, whomever calling you for an audition or material and you have to fumble because you're not ready? Or the phone rings for a last minute fill in gig and you haven’t practiced in a week and you play a bucket of butt covered in month old hair grease and hummus. Now there is a visual!! Ewwwww!  Then there's the kiss of death. You have an opportunity to move forward significantly in your career but you fail miserably because you were not organized and prepared. Worst visual eh? Yes, it is. Don’t let that be you.

In closing it's simple my dearest Bottom Thumpers. The music industry owes us all NOTHING so it is up to us to make the most of our situations. Organize your career into a daily career and just like the Behind the Music episode “Don’t Give Up.”  It is extremely interesting out there and more times than we may like to admit it's a rough road to being a professional musician. My journeys have taken me through some extremely rough times but I can sit here today and tell you that with perseverance and determination it can and will pay off. Make sure you do something no matter how small it may feel at the time to help your career daily. It all needs to be done but once it reaches a routine we can play yet another gig, keep the drummer from drooling nearly as much, and once more save the World from another lame groove. As Always..

Until next time.
Keep Groovin,
S

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