Putting it all together for a lifetime of success | Strategy

Pro Songwriting Masterclass | Martin Sutton (The Songwriting Academy | Hitmakers Exposed | Céline Dion, Cliff Richard, Lena, Garou, Charley Ann, Micheal Patrick Kelly ...)

Every now and then, it’s great to have a look at what your goals are  because your goals may change.  And certainly over the time of  the last year where Covid has affected our lives so much, it’s very possible that your goals have changed, whether it be short term goals or long term goals.  So it’s really, really advisable to keep checking even in pleasanter times, pleasanter times.

it’s good to go back and just make sure that you’re still on track.  Put it this way, if you were to drive up to the wilds of Scotland somewhere from  deep South England, you might look at a map to begin with and go, yes, well, it’s pretty much the M1  all of the way,  but at some point you are going to need to look at that map again and make sure that you’re still going in the right direction. There may have been a few detours along the way as there have been over the last year.

 So  what I advise that you do is have a look at what your strategy is.  It’s good to take stock of where you are currently.  What have you learned over the last year? Where do you feel your strengths lie? And by the way, I hope you’re writing this stuff down, because it might have something to do with your assignment.  Where are you now? What are your strengths  and  where do you feel that you need to learn more?

And very importantly, where are you going with this?  Okay. Now, are you the artist that wants to be standing at the front of the Oto arena singing to 20,000 people?  Do you just want to write a song that your mates down the pub  or  in the virtual pub approve of and they think it’s great?  Do you want to be releasing music as an artist, or do you want to be writing for other  singers?

 Now,  when I was first, in the music business properly, when I gave up my job to do this as a full-time career  for the first 18 months to two years, I wanted to be the artist.  But then somebody said to me, very wisely, wonderful man called Kick Trevor, who is, still in a music business.  He said to me,  Martin, maybe it would be better if you, became successful as a songwriter first, and then that would help your career as an artist.

 What I think he was actually saying in a very kind way was  concentrate on the songwriting because you’re not that great as an artist. and  frankly, he was probably right. I’m a bit of a,  I can sing okay, live, but when it comes to recording, I sound like a bit of a Richard, really.  So, so that’s what I did.

I focused on the songwriting, but after two solid years of thinking that I was the artist, I changed my goals  and I’ve never looked back since.  I’ve had an incredible life of making music for a living and loving every step of the way, loving every minute of it.  Now, I’m not saying that you should not be an artist if that’s where you what you want to be,  but really, really think about what you want to be and what work is required to do that.

there is a lot of work required in being an artist if you are the art, if you want to be the artist that is headlining on major platforms, major stages,  and and not just sort of releasing stuff, small little things everywhere. There’s social media, there is the promotion, the branding, the marketing, all of that stuff. Can you be bothered with it? And if the answer is no, then that’s okay because it has to fit with you and your lifestyle.

 So really, I want you all to, and in fact, I’ll just set this as an early assignment. I want you guys to go back and look at what you have achieved and what you really, really want and what you think you want your path to be.  Now, I know that we all want to win a Grammy, but there are different ways to win Grammys, okay? it doesn’t have to be as the artist.

So  that’s the first thing. Strategy. Double check it and also check how you are working right now.  Now, when I say that, look at your work-life balance.  Look at the,  the amount of time that you’re putting into your music.  Have you slacked off? Have you increased the amount of work? Are you doing too much music? So you’re getting stale?  Have a real close look at that. Are you still going back to your diary every month, looking a month ahead  and asking yourself, well,  where are the spaces where there’s nothing in the diary?

And  I’d hazard to guess that there, there are a lot more spaces like that in this time of lockdown. And are you filling it with music?  And if it’s not working on your own, are you working with other people? all of those things I wanna look at. Gimme, gimme a hands up. How many people still do that? How many people look ahead a month ahead and schedule their music time?

Show me the hands if you do that.  Okay, so that’s about  a quarter of you maybe. Okay? That’s something I want you to start doing. That doesn’t mean that you have to fill every moment that you are not, you don’t have something else in the diary, With your music, but make sure that you are looking ahead and planning it, because this helps prevent procrastination.

 Even if you say, I’m just gonna give myself 30 minutes that day to do it,  you might have longer available, but if you give yourself 30 minutes, chances are you’ll go in there as I do in here. I come in here for 30 minutes and I come out three days later, because it gets under our skin and we, we, it just,  it grows, but we have to get walk in the door. I have to walk in the door to get into work mode.

Okay?  So  that’s all I’m gonna say about strategy.  The second step of this path to success is the creation,  creating the songs. Are you writing the amount of songs that you believe is necessary? For instance, if you want to be an artist,  every song that you release, you should be writing maybe four or five other songs  to make sure that the song that you are releasing is the strongest song that you have.

 Or are you just releasing every song you write  That may not be advisable because not every song is gonna be great.  We have to cherry pick the best ones. If you are writing for other people, if you’re writing songs for other people, and I think everybody should be doing that, artists or not, then are you writing enough songs? Are you following briefs?  I know that they, the platinum members amongst you will be getting daily briefs in of who’s looking for songs around the world.

are you following those briefs properly? Are you doing your research on them? For those of you not in the year long program, are you finding out where your songs could be placed? Are you doing everything you can to do research on where you think those songs could be great? Which artists are you do finding out what they might sing about, what their key is, and which is based on the course I did earlier last year, in fact, about how to target right for artists.

 So take all of that on board. when you are creating and  when you are creating, are you  actually creating the moment that you think of the ideas?  Now, when I say that, I don’t mean I use setting four hours aside to think, to write an idea. The moment you get it,  just acting on every idea that you get,  that’s the important thing.

every time I get an idea,  I am doing something to get the ball rolling, just so it becomes a thing  every time I get an idea.  So, recently there’s been, there’s been several ideas that I’ve been writing on Zoom with my friends in America,  but literally I’ve thought of an idea and I’ve called somebody up  and this is taking action guys.

I’ve called somebody up, look with my fingers  and said,  I’ve got an idea. I think it’s a great idea.  You interested in writing it with me?  And if they say, yes, happy days, and, and I’ll say, this is what I think it is.  And I will literally just throw the seed at them and then say, there you go. That’s all I’m gonna leave you with right now. have a think about it and let me know.  And because I’ve thrown the seed at them, my brain starts doing what my brain does,  and I start thinking, oh, it could be this now, it could be this.

And I’ll be phoning them up an hour later saying, by the way, it could be this  and I’ll sing them something.  But that’s not sitting down four hours and putting in a big writing session. It’s just acting on the ideas. Our job  is to create,  our job is to create. I’d say there’s a question here from Ricardo saying, ideally, how many songs should we write per month?   

It’s not about the number, Ricardo, it’s about how quickly should you act on an idea that you get?  You might only get one amazing idea in a month, but if you don’t act on it, then you could lose a career changing song, a life changing song.  

 

Mastering Your Music Career: Setting Goals, Strategy, and Effective Songwriting

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