6. Self-Deprecation
Looky here! No one’ s pays money to go to your show and witness you beating yourself up from the stage. Stop tearing yourself down. Stop pointing out your mistakes and apologizing over and over again. Most people didn’t even notice it. And if they did, well then pointing it out is just redundant!
Trust me, I’m talking to myself just as much as I’m talking to you. It’s very tempting to tear yourself down, cause we’re wired that way, but it really doesn’t make anyone feel better – especially not yourself. Just learn from your mistake and use it to get better.
7. Using your fans
You know what I’m talking about. We all do it. We only bug our fans when we want something from them – money to fund the making of the next album, money to buy the album once its out , or votes to win the title of best something-or-other. Ooor even worse, you become their best friend just so you can get them to come to your show. What would it look like if you “bugged your fans” about other stuff and gave them a reason to not dread reading your status updates? See Making Your Fans Part of the Process for some great ideas.
Sure, we think its important to ask your fans for stuff. We even wrote a post about it (The Art of Asking Your Fans For Stuff), but like the title suggests, it’s an art. You gotta do it tactfully.
8. Having Unrealistic Expectation
Many years ago, i started to notice a trend. None of my shows ever turned out how I envisioned them to be. I remember leaving one show after another either angry or extremely discouraged. Eventually I realized that, while some shows were actually terrible, most of them weren’t as bad as I had made them out to be in my head. They had just turned out differently than expected. It was then that I came up with these words:
Hope for the best: prepare for the worst.
These 8 words will be your best friend if you let them. They’ll prepare you for the most unexpected situations and help you cope when a good night goes downhill. They’ll also help you stay in the game longer.
9. Acting Without Planning
In addition to #1, this is the other thing that will kill your music career. Failing to create goals, timetables, or action plans will really mess you up. Finishing an album and releasing it the next week is career suicide. Yet, artist do stuff like this all the time. We’ve written so many post about the importance of planning, so we’ll save our breath and direct you to these two: A Breakdown on How to Make “IT” Happen and How to Get From “Local Artist” to “Touring Musician”.
10. Doing Too Little/Doing Too Much
You ever meet that person who’s in a new band every year. They know all the musicians in their local music scene and hit up as many open mics as possible. They play every show that comes to them, BUT they’re not getting anywhere? It’s like a hamster in its wheel – it keep running but it’s only getting tired.
Take a step back before the new year starts. What have you been doing and why isn’t it working? What can you do differently? What things have been working? What should you do more of/less of? Think about your long term goals (see #9) and decide what habits are helping or keeping you from getting there. If you feel like you’re in a holding pattern, begin to do things different. After all, they say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again in the hopes of getting different results.
We wish you the very best as you plan for the new year! Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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