Why am I suddenly writing a blog about how to be a better musician?
That's an excellent question. I aim to answer this by the end of this blog!
(Don't worry, I didn't sing. AND IT STILL STARTED RAINING)
As a dude who's trying to be a somewhat successful musician, I find myself realizing that this path is ridiculously hard, and I should've probably stayed at a comfortable office job with a stable salary, pension pot, benefits and a broken coffee machine. But where's the fun in that?
To be fair, I don't think it's hard in a bad way, it gets easier the more experience you have but everyone can pick their hard, that's the beauty of life.
Now, I've studied science in college and did and I.T apprenticeship until I was 19, then did office jobs until I was 24 so how on earth did I become a Guitar Teacher/Musician?!
Well, I was always a musical guy, I used to make beautiful noises on a toy keyboard when I was a kid.
(My face is upset cause I didn't get a guitar for Christmas)
I used to sing, make a drumkit out of my megablocks set, and tie an elastic band around an empty tissue box and pretend it was a guitar. There was always something there but as I got older, the conditioning kicked in and all I heard was.
“You need a solid trade", “You need to get a good job, it's too hard to become famous”, “Music is good but you have to do it on the side of your day job.”, ”You need a backup plan"
Now if you're a musician, I'm sure you can relate to this. It comes from a well-meaning place but it's usually people who don't want to do what you want to do that say these things. Ask any musician for their opinion on it and I'm sure you'll get a different set of opinions.
Is there anything wrong with doing music on the side?
Of course not but if music is at the core of your being then you are betraying yourself when you don't go for it. Life is too short to worry about failure.
Plus life is like a genie. When you rub the bottle of life persistently and wish for a better path, I believe things just happen in the most unexpected way possible, sometimes good, sometimes bad to put you where you need to be to carry out your destiny!
…And that's how I ended up as a Guitar teacher who's working to make a living as a musician.
Ok but Nassor, what does this have to do with being a better musician?
As Musicians, we want more gigs, more opportunities, more of anything that can help us make a living. The one thing we all have in common is that we all use social media to try and make that happen but I think it's the wrong way to go about things.
We often fall into the trap of thinking we need 1 million followers on Instagram and Tiktok, we need to post consistently and follow trends blah blah then hear -
“It's better to grow organically”
Which is ironic because Social Media is anything but organic.
It's all fake.
It's pixels.
It's not real at all.
People will like your music then scroll onto the next cat video and forget about you.
They may like your music then jump onto the next artist that captures their ears and forget about you.
Or even follow you if you are handsome or beautiful regardless of how trash your music is.
It's all superficial and can change in an instant.
You might think your music is good but why on earth should someone follow you?
What makes you special?
Ask yourself these questions.
The problem I've noticed is that I see no Musicians outside playing with each other anymore. I see people skating, dancing but I've never seen a bunch of musicians just get together and jam. The only time we will play is at an event or a gig but when was the last time you made the effort to pick up your gear and just play with your friends or on your own outside?
We want the best shows and recognition but I think it's selfish to think we deserve any of these things if we aren't willing to form real relationships with people. The people you remember are those who genuinely care about you and check up on you. Those are the people you will support, get behind and help in whatever they do.
I decided to practice what I preached and spent July busking with my friends on a few occasions next to Birmingham Library.
The first was pretty awesome, I asked my talented comrade Lily that plays Violin if she was down to busk and it was of course, terrifying at first but it went really well!
The dude standing next to use was called Bantu Master, he was listening near by and asked if he could join!
Rob Anderton Photography https://portraitmode.io/profile/roband/
Yes he used my guitar as a Drum.
Then I met a cool guy called Surav who also knew how to play guitar and I invited him to play!
Rob Anderton Photography https://portraitmode.io/profile/roband/
Then afterward, I bumped into a legendary guitarist and friend, David Loyd Henry. Unfortunately, I don't have any videos with him but I spent a good 45 minutes playing with him.
Playing and connecting with people over music felt more natural and free. There was something there, something real that can't be replaced.
This is the next time we went busk again, this time I went with my friends, Ronard, Nikki and Eloisa.
Me and Ron!
Eloisa!
Then my Amp died NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
So I ran to get batteries and this really cool Nepalese guy asked if he could play my acoustic Guitar while I was gone. The others said yes and he left 5 Dollars. I've never seen a 5 dollar bill in my life so I was over the moon and it's still in my wallet, I'll never spend it to remember this day.
When I came back with batteries, he was still there and he ripped a crazy solo with me!
The afterwards we bumped into a singer called Abel, who runs events.
Lastly, we had a special character pop up and rap on the mic
That was pretty interesting.
I'll finish this off with a cool solo I did which sound quite pretty. Or at least I think so haha
How do you become a better musician then Nassor?
It's simple. REALly Connect with people. (See what I did there)
If you want people to support your music and find your more opportunities, put yourself out there, talk to people, get to know them, make genuine connections, leave an impact on them that's more than your music. If that's not possible then make sure you are talking to your followers personally and getting to know them. Infact, don't even see them as followers!
That's how you make social media, social. That's how you'll gain support regardless of how many other musicians come up. That's how you'll enjoy doing what you do knowing that you always have people there who support you no matter what and they know that you will support them no matter what. You have your talent to share, use it as a gift to people, not as a self serving tool. (This is top quality dating advice too)
Just by putting myself out there, I have links for events, I've had professional photos taken for FREE, met some really interesting people, and learned more about myself and others in the process. I encourage you to do the same and watch how interesting your days and life become just by putting yourself out there and dancing with life a bit. It's meant to be enjoyed, the rest will just fall into place!