Musicians, where's your head at? [Part 2/2]

For example, a band playing death metal while singing in Zulu cannot expect to capture a large sector of the market in South Africa, and certainly not the world, whereas a band playing straight up pop music or West Coast hip hop does, in theory, stand some chance of penetrating the global market. The truth is that it just doesn’t matter how good you are as a musician. If you are playing music that appeals to a tiny, specialised niche market, you are always going to battle to get any kind of broad recognition and struggle to make any money. That said, just because you play commercially-oriented music, doesn’t mean that you are going to be rich and famous. Just as your motivation for playing is important in determining your path through the industry, your ambitions for your music are too.

 

Learn how to write great songs

 

Once you can acknowledge that you are ambitious, the path is cleared for hard work. If one has lofty goals in any endeavour, hard work is going to be required. Don’t be scared to set agendas and targets and make the entire cast of the music project ambitious. The power of music of any genre lies in the songwriting behind the sound and style of the band. To be successful, the first thing to learn is how to write great songs. So study them. Listen closely to successful hits and figure out the structures that people use; then you can copy them (sensitively), or pervert them, or invent a sound that contrasts with them. But listen and learn. Set a challenge and then figure out how to meet it. Ambition is a heavy fuel that can take one a long way, as long as one is prepared to put in the grind. But let’s get one thing clear here: direction needs to be sorted out too.

 

Skill vs passion

 

When it comes down to deciding what is important in your own armoury and in those of the people you want to work with, sensible business advice advocates passion over skill. Skills can always be acquired through hard work and practice, whereas passion is hard to acquire over time and the lack of it is instantly detectable. In addition, a lack of technical skill can result in creative flow in unexpected ways.

 

The best example of this is an entire genre of music: the blues. Many of the greatest blues artists of the early 20th century and even earlier were not great guitar players or vocalists. What draws us to their music is its content, the emotion and power of the lyrics and the direct power of the musical delivery. This cannot be learned or acquired – it’s something that comes from the heart and the gut and that speaks directly to listeners. A good local example of this is Martin Schofield of Wonderboom and Martin Rocka and The Sickshop. Widely regarded as one of the best technical and emotional guitarists in the country, Martin was not born with what musos refer to as an “ear” for music. He was never one of those people who could hear a song on the radio and play it on his instrument the next day. But through years of diligent application and plenty of passion and commitment, Martin is now what he is. His passion for music has more than overcome the skills gap he initially experienced, and he was always certain that this was going to happen. When we compete in as tangled a marketplace as the music market of the 21st century, an ability to cut through clutter with your music is a valuable asset. People today react to pure emotive power far more quickly than they do to a beautifully crafted, technically complete piece of music.

 

Technical skills not a prerequisite

 

This is not an attempt to downplay technical skills. Rather, it is to emphasise that it is not a prerequisite for becoming a successful musical entity to be a genius on your instrument, or even with your voice. If you do happen to be a technical genius, find that within yourself that really burns hard and strong and use your ability to bring it to vibrant life. A technical virtuoso

with the flame of passion burning through everything he does is a musical collaborator that everyone will want to work with. Music is still an art form, despite the industry’s attempts to turn it into some kind of consumable product.

 

So play with your heart and soul and don’t hold back.

 

Originally published in David Chislett's One, Two, One, Two: A Step By Step Guide To The South African Music Industry. Download a free copy of the book at www.davidchislett.co.za.