Today we’re going to share 7 Tips Productivity Tips for Musicians. As creative people, musicians sometimes need a bit of help staying on top of things.
This goes beyond setting specific goals and working daily to achieve them. Frustration can sometimes affect us deeply, and the best course of action is to stay productive. Naturally, some days may be harder than others, but the key is to develop strong habits and stay the course. Whether it’s practicing, producing, or songwriting, consistency is key to achieving results.
One tool that can help you tremendously with productivity is Roadie Coach. It can help you track your progress and give you personalized feedback. Simply attach Coach to your instrument, and take advantage of its high-quality microphone, vast song library, and accompanying app. Without further ado here are 7 Tips Productivity Tips for Musicians
Finish Your Old Projects
Although this mainly refers to your old songs, you’ve probably started working on a ton of projects you never got around to finishing. Here are just a few things you can finish during this period:
- Finish designing your merch
- Design a logo for your band
- Mix and master your old albums
- Create lyric videos for old songs (you can add music to videos with various apps)
- Set up a Bandcamp page
You may not make money or benefit in any way from any of these in the short term, however, you’ll set yourself up for success. Putting in work early will help things run smoothly once all of this is over and when gigs start coming in.
Practice
There is no way around this one. If you want to get good at something, you need to put in the time. If you are a guitarist, practicing every day is paramount to developing your skills at a good rate and if you are a songwriter, take the time to write and promote your songs. How often should you write? Ideally, every day. Take it from songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren. She writes 7 days a week! No wonder her song catalog is worth over a billion dollars!
The same applies to production, engineering, etc. Do it every day!
Learn a New Instrument
Like many other musicians, you probably have more than one instrument laying around your home. There’s probably one you bought intending to learn it. The best time to do it is now!
Learning to play an instrument for the first time probably seems like too much work. Yes, becoming a virtuoso player takes years, however, you can learn the basics of a new instrument in 6 to 12 months in normal conditions.
Make time for learning a new instrument and include that in your regular practice routine.
Work on Your Production Skills
Are you more comfortable with writing lyrics, music, and arranging songs than with playing an instrument right now? Then you should take some time to learn more about music production. There’s plenty of music software out there for you to master.
Around 66% of music producers nowadays use:
- Ableton
- Logic
- Pro Tools
- Cubase
You don’t need to use all four programs, of course. However, you should at least be familiar with all of them on a superficial level. You can always download trial versions of each program, mess around, and experiment a little. So get a good recording microphone (if you don’t have one already) a recording interface, and get to work.
Use Social Media Intelligently
You’re probably already spending several hours a week on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, right? Why not use those hours to promote your music? You can post your old tracks, promote new material, or get creative with it.
Sure, you can still use social media to connect with friends, but make sure some of the time you spend developing your professional connections, posting about your projects, etc.
Seek inspiration, but don’t wait for it
Go for a walk, read an inspiring biography, watch a movie that moves you, listen to music, etc. All of these activities can help you immensely when it comes to being inspired.
However, do not wait for inspiration in order to do what you need to. That is one of the biggest mistakes rookies make. Professionals work on their craft every single day, whether they are inspired or not.
Be patient
This is perhaps the most underrated tip. Many musicians give up whatever they are trying to accomplish within a few weeks or even days. Results build up slowly over time, and patience is key if you want your productivity to really pay off.
Keep in mind that you will have bad days, sometimes even bad weeks or months. The key is to be patient and keep working towards your goal.
These 7 Tips Productivity Tips for Musicians can take you far if you apply them diligently. Most of them are very basic. However, the challenge here is consistency. Use them as a sort of guide to take you to where you want to be. Remember, do it every day and have fun!
