Let me say that again; there are no short cuts. Now there’s a part of you that knows its true, but there’s another part of you that thinks ‘but I’ll be different, I’ll find a quicker way. You won’t, and it’ll take you just as long as anybody else. The reason all those websites promising ‘pro secrets’ or ‘7 day success’ exist is to exploit your ‘shortcut mind’. You know it’s a lie but still want to buy into it (sometimes literally). So the first thing you need to do is forget about short cuts. Then all that wasted energy can then be focused towards actually improving, slowly and surely.
Principle no 2: ask yourself why you play music
If the answer is to impress people with your skill or to become famous, then you’ll never be a great musician. The reason great musicians are great is because they speak to us. They have something to say other than ‘look at me’. So many musicians think that becoming great is just about acquiring technique. Skill is important, but it’s what you do with it that’s important. Technique is the vessel through which you say something. Most musicians sing words or play notes but don’t say anything with them. They’re afraid that if they do, people will reject their message. If you want to be great you must get over being timid and throw your personality into your music.
Principle no 3: always enjoy your music
Many musicians think that to be a proper musician you must be serious, and that means squeezing all the joy out of it. Music should lift you, even on those difficult days. If it doesn’t do that you need to be asking yourself; why not? Being a musician can be a struggle but what keeps me going is playing music. All the rubbish, rejections, disappointments and success is just a means to an end to keep on playing as much as possible.
Principle no 4: find you uniqueness and highlight it
Find the things you do differently and build on them. Great musicians have a unique way of doing things, that’s why people are attracted to them. All to often musicians try to please everyone (except themselves) and end up being boring players. Great music divides listeners because of its uncompromising vision. If one half of your audience hates you but the other half love you, you’re onto something. If everyone says it’s nice or ok, you need to think about what you’re trying to communicate, because you’re not hitting anyone at a deep level.
Principle no 5: learn from people who are better than you
This is a difficult one, but once you give up trying to pretend you’re a genius you can learn from all the great music that surrounds you. Rather than wasting energy feeling you have to compete with something you can embrace and learn from it. Another trap to fall into is that you end up trying to reason with yourself that better music is just different, when deep down you know it’s really better. Look for musicians around you who aren’t famous yet still brilliant.
Principle 6: don’t listen to everyone
There’s a time to listen to criticism or advice, and there’s a time to ignore it. In the stage of building something up you want to avoid judgment, otherwise it’s in danger of being torn apart. Once you have created something fully formed then you can invite judgment. Because you know what you have done and why you can evaluate criticism, and judge if it’s relevant.
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