A band I met up with the other day assured me that given the chance they are prepared to work very hard for their success. That’s good news, I thought. Then I thought some more.
Why does the band need a chance to work hard? Why not just start working hard right away?
Being prepared to work hard is empty rhetoric compared to actually working hard. It happens every day when you pick up your twanger to write a song or play a scale. When you pick up the phone to hassle a promoter for the umpteenth time. When you pack your gear into the van and head up the M1. When you plan and organise your life so that you are able to do what matters to you the most: make music.
The other point they made was that they are prepared to work hard if they can get assurances that “things will happen”. As if a manager can predict the future. Well, there’s one assurance: nothing will happen if you continue just talking about it. At some point you have to actually start chopping wood.
You’ll never be given a chance to do all that. You take a chance. You commit. To bastardise a famous quote: don’t ask what music can do for you, ask what you can do for music.
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Well said…..couldn’t agree more! Though sometimes us whippashnappas just need to be told x
I liked your comments, very accurate! I’ve developed many Artists with some successes over the years and I tell them all that any thing good and worthwhile in this life has to be worked at. There are no reassurances apart from one… You do nothing, you get nothing! Essentially the harder u work at the right things, the more you increase the chances of success. It’s simple. David Tolan- Music Masters
Thanks Matt and David for your kind words!!
V.