JUST TRY.

What do you believe you can't do?

Can you not write songs?

Can you not play guitar?

Can you not be the lead singer of a band?

Can you not land a nightly house gig in Dubai?

If you've been on my email list for a while, or you know me in person, hopefully you know that the belief you can't do something resides squarely in your own head and nowhere else.  (Where else is a belief going to reside?)

Even if you feel like your negative belief is justified because you tried something and failed, you are probably still wrong.

Hit songwriter Jason Blume gave a great speech at one of the last Taxi rallies in LA.  When he was first writing songs, every single one of them was rejected.  For years.  But now he's the one of the only songwriters in the world who has had a hit on the country, R&B, and pop charts at the same time.  He encouraged the audience to keep trying to write songs.  Even if you don't believe you can.

Jason told the story of a bird that had been raised in a cage too small to fly.  One day, the cage was opened and the bird was freed.  But it did not fly out.  Why not?  It didn't believe it could fly.  It simply didn't know.  But after a few months, the bird finally realized he could fly.  This is a true story.  

...

I believed as late as four years ago that I could not write songs.  That I simply did not have the ability to.  I had tried, a few times, and I just couldn't figure it out.  My friend Panos finally challenged me to write a song a week, of any quality and any length, and suddenly, there I was, writing songs.  Many of them were bad, but some were good. 

A singer I know through the band Guitar Villians had tried out for band after band, but never landed a position. Not long after she took one of my Rock Band classes, though, she became a lead singer in a band for the first time in her life.

Another singer I know through Guitar Villians was a staid, conservative, shy insurance analyst (or something equally safe and boring).  But she's now one of the biggest rockstar competitors in our big live band karaoke competitions, often sporting a mohawk.  

People change, when they try to.

Years ago, I wanted to play an instrument in a band (other than voice).  I tried guitar for a few months, but didn't really take to it.   I sort of play keys too, and took a couple lessons but it wasn't calling to me.  I took drum lessons for a year and a half, and really enjoyed it, and I think I wasn't half bad.   But when I tried bass a couple years later, it just fit.  Turns out I just needed to try.  And keep trying.  And keep trying different instruments until I found the one that spoke to me.  

If I hadn't kept trying, I might have concluded that I simply wasn't the sort of person who would be really good at any instrument other than voice.

...

And about landing that house gig in Dubai?  I almost did, but my duo partner's lack of a passport prevented us from going.  It all turned out for the best, though.  (If you're interested in East Asian musical opportunities, look up Elio Pagliarulo, who books acts in hotels throughout East Asia.)

...

Whatever it is, JUST TRY.  And then try again.  And again.

Who are you doing the work for?

Singing well takes work. Playing an instrument well takes work. Writing songs takes work. Honing stagecraft takes work. Pulling together a band, booking a band, creating buzz... You name it, whatever you do in music, ad however much you love doing it, there is also a part of it that involves WORK.

To do WORK, you need MOTIVATION.  Where does your motivation come from?

From doing the work for yourself... AND doing it for someone else.

Work for yourself...

Of course, you must have motivation within yourself first.  If you're becoming a singer just to prove your ex wrong, you won't make it.  If you're learning to play guitar because you feel like you should, you'll give up soon.  If you are learning to compose just because your friend thinks you were born to write songs, you have no real reason to push on when the ideas aren't flowing.  

YOU come first - YOU and YOUR reasons, YOUR fire, YOUR emotions.

But work for someone else, as well.

When you work for someone else, you back up your own motivation with an external force. 

This "someone else" may be someone you actually know, or someone you wish you knew.  It may be someone you are working for, or someone you wish you were working for.  It may be someone within the music world, or someone in a totally different field.  It can be someone on the other side of the world you know only online, or a family member living in the same house.  It could even be someone who's passed on.  

Why is another person important?

Two reasons:

1) Accountability.

2) Inspiration.

Accountability

Promising yourself you'll accomplish a thing is good.  Promising someone else is much, much better:

It's one thing to promise yourself that you'll write a new song every week.  It's quite another to tell a musician friend that you'll write a new song every week - and will report to him when you've actually done it.

It's one thing to practice singing your scales because you know you should.  It's quite another to practice singing your scales because your voice teacher is going to be listening for improvement next week.

It's one thing to tell yourself you'll build that new product by December, or find three new students this month. It's quite another thing to post the same thing on a forum full of other motivated people who are working to reach their own goals.

And it's one thing to say to yourself that you'll get the album done by Christmas.  It's another thing to promise that to your grandmother, who never knew while she was alive that you were going to become a musician.

Be accountable to someone, and you will get where you're going faster.

Inspiration

Working alone, sometimes that flame of internal motivation can fade a bit.  Working with or for someone, you benefit from the alchemy of relationship.

This is true even if you are inspired by someone you don't know.  I was listening to Eva Cassidy, The Golden Palominos, Ani di Franco and Kat Lytning this morning at the gym.  I know only one of these artists in person, but they all inspired me to rush home and write a song as soon as I could.  In a sense, I was writing "for" them - because my ideas came from their emotions - in other words, the relationship between my emotions of the day, and their emotions in the songs.

Lots of people co-write because of the benefit of mutual inspiration.  When you co-write you are working not only for yourself but for and with your partner.  You both benefit from each others' work and inspiration.

And of course, there is the obvious inspiration of being motivated by your emotional connection with someone, regardless of whether you write for, with, or about them... or all three.  

I'll leave you with a few ideas of who you could be doing the work FOR:

• You practice singing for your voice coach, so she'll be proud next time she sees you.
• You spend time working stage performance with your whole band for your father, who is so proud because he never thought he'd have a rock-star daughter.
• You write songs for your friend overseas, because you told him you would.
• You make the flyers and advertisements for your music careers mentoring group, because you publicly posted a goal of finding x number of new students by the end of the year.
• You practice your keyboard parts over and over for your bandmates, because you don't want to let them down by making the same mistakes at the next gig that you did last weekend.
• You note some new lyrics for your secret crush, because there's no other place you can express what you're feeling.
• You write a new chord progression for your co-writer, because you're meeting next Tuesday and you need to have something to work on.
• You write a song for your grandmother, because even though you weren't a musician while she was alive, somehow she might be able to hear this song you write about her. 
• You learn to program music for your favorite techno artist, because you would love someday to collaborate with him, as far off as the possibility may seem today.
• You write the newsletter for your mother, because you love that she always reads them.  Hi Mom! :) 

Who are you doing the work for?

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(c) 2010 Adrienne Osborn

Adrienne Osborn is a vocalist and performance coach based in Colorado.   For more free articles and tips, visit http://PerformanceHigh.net.