chances...?

As you'll all have seen I'm trying to grasp whether this creating a business plan is relevant all over a wide variety of professions. I think my lack of motivation is down to a number of factors, but then I thought about it from a different perspective. When your on a treadmill and it starts getting that little bit too difficult and your legs go a bit wobbly and you think mehhh enough... but you know you havent quite run as far as you would have liked... what do you do? Well for me, I switch it to a screen where I can see my distance or my time and I think to myself *Just get to this point* whether its 5km or 30mins, and I noticed I tend to get a mini kick, its that little bit of hope that says your a little closer to your goal, sometimes i'd do that a couple of time and before I now it I've been on there for an extra mile. Well what if I applied the same target setting to my career, and like I create a fitness plan a few months before a half marathon, I write up a business plan. I could write he plan of everything I want to achieve overall, then break it down into how I would go about achieving those things, and then put little time brackets in for when I would like to have achieved these things by. And sure, you never know what life is going to throw at you, and things maybe go a little faster or slower than planned, but then at least I can track this and keep note of why and how to remedy it in the future. Like we were advised for this module to plan out our study for the summer and new term months, I know I felt a lot more productive when I realised I could tick a lot of those things off.

Over the summer I've been trying out a lot of different things, such as, one reoccurring theme was lots of open mic nights and getting involved wherever I can, so I have run an open mic night at a local venue, joined a local original music promotion company, joined other acts in their gigs, gigged as a covers duo , gigged as an originals duo, performed backing vocals,  and helped recording.

Another theme was learn to play and write your own music, so I bought a guitar, started having lessons, started co writing with other musicians and now write solo.

Another theme was publicise yourself,  since learning a bit more about the ways in which I could exploit the internet for personal gain, I have now got my own website under construction http://www.georgiebird.co.uk/ (again its under construction so please dont judge it too harshly)  a thriving musician page on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Georgie-Bird/416931698408343 one (now retired but previously thriving) music page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/littlebirdandfriends, a soundcloud page with recordings https://soundcloud.com/georgiebirdmusic#, professional photographs, a twitter account linked to my facebook page, a professional email account set up to my website,  I'm also set up on radio airplay and Bandcamp. (however these are still being worked on). Though I have a few more sites to tackle, this is massive progress to what I hadat the beginning of the year.

So the next theme is creating a plan... I've come to the conclusion that this is important. I have found a musician that I really look up to. Dave is in a band called sinfiction, http://www.sinfiction.co.uk/ he has become both a friend and a mentor to me. He has everything planned. Not in the sense that he knows where he will be in a years time, because who knows what doors might open, but in the sense that he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep progressing at a good rate and get to where he would to be in a years time. He advised that he splits the year up in to quarters and at the same time as gigging and rehearsing weekly, each quarter is dedicated to a different area of promoting the band. For example this quarter is dedicated to getting radio airplay and air time. So his advice to me was work out steps you need to take, and then work out how you can do them, and get doing it. Book things in, because then you know you have a date to work to.

The autobiographies and biographies didn't mention any of these singers having a plan, but most of them clearly had luck on their side as each one kind of had fame fall into their laps one day when they were out playing a small time gig. BUT sitting and waiting for something to happen doesnt make it happen. So all these 'how to guides' are telling me to make a plan and go out there and make it happen, as no one else is going to do it for me and now its not all about just bagging a record deal. Would you really be willing to leave your entire career up to pure chance? Or do you think planning and achieving is the way forward?

Skype

I had a chat with Adesola last week when I was freaking out that I'd got stuck and couldn't really go any further as I thought I'd fallen at the first hurdle of writing a literature review. I had a lot on with work and though I'd done a lot of my research over the summer, somehow, when October hit, I panicked, had a new job, (which I've now quit as it was making me miserable and taking up allllll my time) and I didn't really Know what to do about finding theorists views on my topic.
Turns out there's not that many technical theories about starting a singing career, but there are lots of books. I've been  researching all different types of music books, such as music management books, independent music careers books, and recording industry statistics books. Some of which were more helpful with others. Luckily, like Anastasias pieces of paper - in her blog where she writes about achieving steps towards her career, I found by summarising to Adesola what I had actually done over the summer about progressing through the module, that I had actually done a lot more than I realised and I just needed to compile it all and get cracking with my giant inquiry essay. So yes I am trying to catch up on my blogging and put all these themes that I've found into practice as well as trying to get on top of that essay.

I do have a question for anyone reading this though.

Assuming:

You have chosen what career path you wish to take...
you have completed the relevant training or education requirements...
you are now in a position to start your career.......

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST 3 MOVES..IN ORDER OF HOW YOU WOULD PERFORM THEM.

WHAT ARE THE FIRST THREE THINGS YOU WOULD DO TO START YOUR CAREER. ???

or IF YOU ARE ALREADY ESTABLISHED IN YOUR CAREER... WHAT DID YOU DO FIRST??

please do get back to me, i'd be very intrigued to hear your answers...

Walts words

I took this rhyme from 'This Game of Hip hop artist management', it's about what I said in my previous blog about fears only being as real as you let them. What has this got to do with my inquiry topic i hear your cry?...

basically I've found a number of things that keep popping up in each book about 'starting your music career'. One of which is to realise that you are the product and you are a business.  However, before you can even start to make your business plan, you have to realise who you are and where you fit it. I've really found this book interesting because it has identified my problem with fear whether that be a fear of success or a fear of failure. At present, my business plan starts with ICE-ing THOSE FEARS!

Anybody got anything they wanna add to this subject because it'd be nice to know i'm not the only one who's had to broach this!

'The Success attitude'

My inquiry is based largely on pre existing data, in other words, i've spent my summer, watching and reading interviews, reading autobiographies and biographies and articles about what people have already done to kickstart their careers. I think at times finding motivation for our careers (that do at times seem to be going no where..) can be difficult but actually I think at that point, taking a step back and rearranging my point of view really helps. I read a book recently that i'd just like to share a bit with you because i found it to be realy useful.
'This Game of hip hop artist management, the success attitude' by Walt F.J Goodridge, may seem like an unlikely book to find relevant to us little musical theatre types, but actually as I work my way into a career in music I thought I'd see what Walt had to say about careers in the music industry.

The whole beginning of the book spends time tackling the issue of the self and attitude. He suggests that the key to success is 'The success attitude'. Walt considers that there are 5 success attitudes each with there own key word: page 18
The Negative success attitude- Key word PESSIMISM, I cant succeed.why even try?
The Passive success attitude-LIMITATIONS, I might succeed, if someone helps me...all i need is the right person
The Positive success attitude-POSSIBILITIES, I can succeed, if i work hard towards my goals
The Active success attitude- PLAN, I will succeed, despite obstacles, despite other peoples issues i can succeed.
The creative success attitude- CREATION, because of other's issues and because of setbacks, I will succeed.
I decided after reading this that actualy, perhaps I'm a pessimist and at best perhaps passive. AND THAT IS TERRIBLE. As I touched on in a blog in the last module, the first place to start your career is having self belief. If I don't believe in me what on earth makes me think some one else will.
I really liked Anastasia's blog about motivating herself and her flatmates by publicly updating every day what she's done to pursue her career goals as one of the biggest common themes I've found during my inquiry research is 'have a plan, and have goals'. Updating something like that everyday would keep me up to date on which of my set goals I'm achieving.

The book also suggests the term 'ICE'ing your fears.
I-indentify yours fears
C- confront your fears
E- eliminate your fears

So, like the other interesting tips I've found during my research, I'm trying this out and noting down the outcome! But I thought it might be helpful for some of you with similar issues.

MODULE 3!!!!

Hellooooo !

Hi guys, a hearty welcome back, and lets get cracking, to all! I have lots to fill you in on as soon as I manage to organise my brain which at the moment is allll over the place. I have photos and possibly videos to show you all what I've been upto over the summer. I've got to say, it's had its ups and downs but I think I'm ready to run with this module and start piecing together ideas for my final artefact.
Tonight I'm singing at the green man which you'll all remember is where I met toby (the first guitarist I worked with).  I need to start from the beginning when I have a good amount of thinking time but I also have a couple of people I'd like you to meet.

Right I'm going for a jam so I'll start that update soon x  :D

to the studio!

 

Whilst in france, I began writing some songs, the guys from 'dreamchaser' took me to their studio to show me where I'd be working and we recorded one of my songs. This was just a rough structure recording which we will later be producing properly. :)

Stoke mandeville Hospital Radio

Paul understands that I want to learn as much as possible about the music scene, so when the Dream Chaser team were invited down to Stoke Mandeville hospital radio, they took me along to see how the interviews ran, and how the radio station operates.