The daily thoughts, musings, and stories from the life of a working Nashville musician.
I’ve been studying mindfulness techniques for the last year, and a recent book I read about two months ago has really transformed a lot of things in my personal mindfulness practice. Here are some of the things practicing mindfulness every day has helped me:
Most musicians are waiting for their big break. That one gig that will launch their career, that will change everything.
Why do we all think this way? Because we've been told since we were little children that if you're good enough, you'll get picked by something like American Idol and your career will be catapulted to long term success.
It's a lie.
Big breaks don't exist. Like needing a haircut, "big breaks" seem to appear out of nowhere overnight. They've actually been building slowly for years (or decades) at a painfully slow rate that's usually not even visible to the outside.
Don't worry. It's not your job to know when that final tipping point will happen.
Big breaks are the result of a fanatical devotion to building something worthwhile. Launching your career is getting up every morning for decades and doing good work.
In September it'll be just a little over 3 years of living in Nashville, and I've been incredibly grateful to be here. Looking back at the last three years of working, living, and experiencing Nashville, I put together a list of 5 things I wish I'd known when I first moved to Nashville looking for work in the music industry.
I’m a bit of a software junkie, and there’s been some really cool software stuff I’ve been using lately. Here’s a quick list of 5 new software toys I’ve really enjoyed over the last month:
Over the last few months I’ve had the honor to work with some amazing sidemen in Nashville. There’s something incredible about working with musicians that have dedicated their life to their craft, and there’s so much I’ve learned from watching them. Here are 10 things top session players do that sets them apart from the rest of the pack:
After taking a month off from blogging every week, I’m finally back. It was wonderful to have the month to think, relax a bit, and recharge a bit before heading into a new year.
So what’s going to happen with the blog? After giving it a bunch of thought, I’m going to keep blogging weekly like I have for the last 5 years. I find a lot of value in blogging, and I feel like a lot of the things I write about are useful to my readers.
I’ll be mirroring a little more closely what I’m working on as a musician, and focusing less on other things. As I become more plugged into the Nashville scene, I’m getting to see first hand some amazing sides of the music industry that few get to see (for instance, playing the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman in the same week)I’m working more and more as a sideman and producer.
I’ll do my best to share some of the useful things I’ve picked up and share them in a quick and fun way here.
As always, I appreciate you reading the blog. I’m looking forward to an awesome new year together.
Eric
This week I have a guest blogger share a little bit about how to create compelling music for video games. I've always been intrigued by the way composers have to create cinematic scores while allowing extreme looping flexibility, and David really nails it with this post.
Without further ado, here's David Freeman's thoughts on creating great music for video game scores:
It's a new year, and as always I'm thinking about my priorities in 2018. 2017 was a fantastic year for the most part, and as my career as a gun-for-hire keyboardist and producer continues to develop I'm always trying to tweak what I say here on my blog. And I need your help.
Which one of these things should I blog more about this year? I'd really love to get your opinion, and your voice will have a big impact on what I decide to do. Here's the options:
Note: I'm doing all of my MainStage blogging over at www.patchfoundry.com/blog, which is why MainStage stuff isn't an option.
One of the tricks for musicians is finding enough time and mental energy do everything. Here are 5 ways to save yourself some significant time:
I’m still on tour this week, and one of the things I tackled that I’ve long been putting off was cleaning out my phone.
