[This article is written by guest contributor Brandon Waardenburg, founder of artist coaching service Apparatus.]
The lustre of performing live can die pretty quickly.
When you’ve seen more dive-y bars than you’ve seen daylight hours.
When you step in yet another unidentifiable sticky object on the bar floor.
When the door man stiffs you $100 because he can’t count heads.
Truthfully, any activity can turn into a grind no matter how intentional we are about keeping focused.
The Mystery
My good friend Zach has a folk band that has played about 2-3 gigs a month for more than 2 years now. They’ve been through some bandmate changes and more than their share of ups and downs, figuring everything out as they go.
They’ve played at small empty venues and they’ve played big venues that were busting at the seams. Kudos to him and his mates for sticking it out this far.
Just recently a few more interesting doors began to open. They found themselves…
1. Getting some radio air time
2. Playing more unique shows
3. Gaining different types of fans
4. Seeing their name in print
… and, like any good analytical person, Zach was digging in, trying to figure out what changed.
He called me up the other day and I could sense a little excitement and intrigue in his voice. He stammered on about his band’s new trajectory and the mystery of not knowing why it changed.
The only possible answer is that his grind was finally starting to pay off.
So we dug in a bit more and called out the differences between today and yesterday. All in all, a very inspirational exercise.
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Source:: The DIY Musician