Blog - Your Jazz Career | Essential Career Concepts For Jazz Artists

Lead Like A Jazz Artist

Post published:May 5, 2021
Post category:Strategy
Post comments:0 Comments

Great leadership comes from within. This blog post explores what a life devoted to being a jazz artist teaches you. Personally, the older I get, the more I see what lessons I learned from Jazz and how I use these in different contexts. People always say “jazz is a way of life”. That means it is a mindset; a perspective on the world that serves as a compass for your actions and decisions. This sparked my interest and prompted the question: what does it mean to lead as a jazz artist?

What lessons did you learn on the bandstand?

What did recording a big band album teach you about leadership?

What systems, habits and routines did you develop to thrive during an international tour? How do you keep the band together?

How do you create magic night after night?

And, when you have contemplated your answers, how does this shape your leadership style? Do you lead as a jazz artist?

Leadership: Two Short Notes

Let’s start with the basic question: what is leadership? A definition I quite like is: “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.” It feels both modern and reflects the culture of the organization; the US Army. Our question today is, instead of the Army culture, how the ‘jazz culture’ influences our way of leading.

My own definition of leadership that fuels my way of leading is linked to my core values of freedom and empowerment. It is: “Leadership is to empower others.” Another definition that inspires me – both in my coaching and in my work as a director – comes from author Stephen R. Covey: “Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it themselves.” What a beautiful way of looking at it and highly personal. It truly reflects his life-work. That’s my true aim with this article, empowering you to find your own take on leadership.

Secondly, it’s time to debunk the myth of natural-born leaders. Nobody is born a great leader. Just like nobody is born as a great jazz musician. It takes effort. However, more fundamentally, becoming a leader is a choice. It starts with choosing to lead both yourself and others. Leadership is about taking responsibility for your own life and of those you’re trying to serve.

Jazz & Leadership

Music has so much to teach us about leadership. Yet, few people make the connections and expand these lessons learned to other contexts. Below, I made a first attempt at distilling several key principles from jazz music and translated them into leadership principles. As I found during this thought experiment: jazz artists have much to offer as leaders.

Leadership Is Improvisation

Let’s start with the most obvious aspect of jazz music: improvisation. Improvisation in a musical context is to make whatever happens work. It’s about exploring possibilities alone (solo) or together (with a band). It’s the musical equivalent of a spontaneous conversation. The reality of improvising together means overcoming challenges and dealing with the unexpected. It’s all about innovation and adaptability. For this to work, the musicians develop a basic skill set which consists of: being really present in the now, trusting others, openness (to other’s ideas), and deep listening. In short, they need a ‘jazz mindset’. I love a quote by leadership guru Tanveer Naseer on this: “In our attempts to navigate today’s workplaces with its ever-increasing levels of distractions and attention-getters, we need to be more mindful that it’s only when we’re present to understand today that we can learn about what’s needed for tomorrow.“

To lead like a jazz artist means in this case to a) have a strategic plan (song), but b) be open and flexible enough to go for better opportunities when they arise (musical input from others).

In business, this improvisational approach is called an ‘emergent strategy‘. A quote from the linked article: “As a general rule of thumb, an emergent strategy may be the right choice for your business if the future is uncertain, and it isn’t clear what the right long-term strategy should be. By embracing an emergent strategy, you remain nimble enough to make adjustments as more data becomes available, while still knowing that you’re working toward a goal that makes sense.“

A Jazz band Is An Organisation

Why do we play with others? Why do we organize ourselves as a group or orchestra? Because we can’t do it alone. A solo performance, however captivating, only goes so far. What you want to create, can’t be created alone.

If you would describe a jazz band as an organization, what characteristics would you describe as integral parts for making improvisation work? In my view, there is minimal hierarchy (democracy), and musicians take turns leading by rotating solos, or the opposite; silence – ‘giving space’ for others to take it into new directions. Furthermore, it offers high levels of personal freedom (autonomy), there should be trust for people to work together (interdependence), and the band is designed to maximize flexibility and innovation A jazz band is a bottom-up organization where members share the spotlight.

Just like a band improvises, so is there ‘organizational improvisation’. How would you lead an organization on- and offstage as a jazz artist?

Leadership Lessons From Miles Davis: Openness

Innovation starts with openness. Embracing new ways of doing things and continuously challenging yourself to grow ever more fluent on your instrument. However, just like organizational culture, musicians also develop routines and habits. We call those habits “licks”. Interestingly, and different than in pop music or classical music, Jazz musicians who repeat their solos and flawlessly rehearsed patterns are not regarded highly in the jazz community. Jazz is about the new. It’s about exploration. “Keith Jarrett recalls Davis ‘keeping the music fresh and moving’’ by avoiding comfortable routines, forcing his musicians to play patterns they had never heard before.” (Source)

Famously, Davis’ song ‘So What‘ was presented to the band in the recording studio as a rough sketch without familiar chord changes and in two unusual modes. Davis, as a leader and innovator, consciously disrupted the creative process to include challenge, disruption, and exploration by handicapping the routines of the players involved. They couldn’t just repeat, they had to dive into the unknown and construct new pathways. They had to be open for whatever happened. But, he did that with full trust in their competence, knowing they would be able to handle the challenge. And what happened? Kind of Blue became the number one jazz album of all time. How are you fostering change, openness, and innovation as a leader off stage?

Magic Lies Beyond The Obvious

Okay, I couldn’t resist, here is one more Miles Davis lesson on leadership. According to Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis gave him the advice to ‘leave out the butter notes’ during a live concert one night when Herbie was feeling stuck and frustrated. The butter notes are the obvious notes. The familiar notes and patterns that you play all the time. Those are what can make you feel creatively stuck. According to Miles, the magic lies elsewhere. Standard harmony requires you to play the 3rd and 7th in a chord. What happens when you start leaving them out in your progressions and melodies? Exploring other combinations enables you to find your own voice. As a leader, how can you live this value of exploration in your way of leading others?

Of course, there is another lesson here as well: how can you help others during your personal path of growth, like Miles helped Herbie? Do you remember the Stephen R. Covey quote from earlier?

Improvisation Is About Interdependence

Jazz is improvisational music. Which albums are in the top 10 of all time? Bitches Brew, A Love Supreme, Maiden Voyage, … What do they have in common? Individual voices becoming more than their separate sum. This occurs when there is autonomy (freedom), purpose (in its purest form clear intent), and interdependence. Interdependence moves from dependence (like a student is dependent on his mentor), interdependence (self-mastery) to interdependence (working with others). The synergy that the five musicians on Herbies’ Maiden Voyage achieve comes from true interdependence. To achieve group transformation and musical innovation, a jazz group needs truly independent musicians to then become effectively interdependent. That’s when 1+1 equals 100, both in bands and in other organizations. How are you fostering both independence and interdependence as a jazz leader?

Interdependence is a concept made famous by Stephen R. Covey in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Quote: “Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make.” Read more on it here.

Leadership Is Truly Listening

What is the number one skill great jazz musicians have? Is it fierce chops? No. It is the – almost forgotten – art of deep listening. “I always listen to what I can leave out…” said Miles Davis. Why do you think he sometimes faced the band instead of the audience? No, it was not to disrespect the audience as many journalists wrote at the time. Instead, he did that to listen more carefully to his band members and to communicate, much like a conductor would.

However, truly actively listening is very hard. In the words of Stephen R. Covey, who calls this ’empathic listening’: “Empathic listening is hard and it is risky:

It is hard to focus our attention exclusively on somebody else;
It is hard to be patient and resist the urge to prescribe without thinking; and
It is risky because to influence others, we must first allow ourselves to be influenced.

To listen empathically we must be able to take our eyes off ourselves without fearing loss of our principles, values and perspectives.”

Most people, also in our early years as jazz musicians, pretend to listen or listen selectively. For jazz artists, this is actually linked to the previous topic of interdependence. It’s difficult to listen to others as a musician when you’ve not mastered your instrument or the song. You’re still working on being independent and our listening in this phase is superficial at best. During the song we’re already thinking of our next phrase and focus on ourselves; am I playing the right note? Am I still keeping time? Matured jazz artists understand the value of listening and they, in fact, learn to listen deeply to several people all ‘talking’ simultaneously in real-time. Like to 3 other people in a quartet. Real leaders do too.

Often, people confuse leadership with having all the answers and telling others what to do. Instead, try listening to your fellow ‘musicians’ the next time. Ask questions, rephrase what the other said, and have a conversation. True interdependence needs people to hear and understand each other: on stage and in the boardroom.

How are you going to optimize your next business meeting? What listening skills obtained from jazz can you improve the experience for all with?

Great Leaders Share, Bad Leaders Keep

As jazz musicians, we share our ideas all the time. We don’t keep that amazing scale to ourselves, we play it for all to hear. Yes, that means others can learn and utilize it themselves too. And, as artists, nothing makes us prouder. As artists, we educate, empower, and inspire others all the time by sharing our art.

It begs the question, do you share as a leader too?

In leadership, this translates from operating from a Scarcity or Abundance Mindset. Do you see colleagues as competitors or co-creators? Do you see other artists/organizations as competition or as people serving the same Muse? Do you share your knowledge, skills, insights, and connections with others? Or do you guard them tightly, afraid to lose your position as the leader? Lead as a jazz artist and share your lessons learned to thrive together.

End-note

Jazz offers us ways for leading and managing successful projects and organizations—from creating space for others to lead to really listening to ideas of others, from creating a plan to fostering a culture of experimentation and further innovation to ultimately recognizing that we can’t do it alone. What are your lessons learned from jazz and how can you serve others with these insights more powerfully as the transformative leader that you are?

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Two great resources on leading with a Jazz Mindset are this academic article (or related book ‘Yes to the Mess‘) and the Harvard lectures series by Herbie Hancock. Inspiring lessons learned by a lifetime in jazz by one of its bright shining musical heroes.

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

I’ve been coaching and educating jazz artists for years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are a high-performing artist and interested in transformative career coaching, you can read more about it here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative.

Separate your hobbies, jobs, career, and …

Post published:January 8, 2021
Post category:Strategy
Post comments:0 Comments

Are you a (young) artist and in the early phase of your creative career? Perhaps you are about to graduate from a higher music institution and ready to leave your mark on the world. Then the following question is probably on your mind: now that I’m “grown-up” what will I do to make a living? My advice is to separate your hobbies, jobs, career and vocation. This essential distinction is often overlooked but will aid you in balancing your creativity with earning an income. In addition, the best career strategy in these uncertain times is definitely a diverse portfolio career.

This blog post is for all you creatives that are trying to forge a creative path forwards. Let’s look at your creativity and your career from some different angles and figure out together what you will do next. After all, together we know more.

**Am I A REAL Artist?**

I want to start with a seemingly simple question that on deeper inspection has a large impact on your career but also on your overall life satisfaction: are you a real artist? And why, yes or no?

I ask this question because during those early career years your identity will most likely not be a one-word description. It might very well be an artist (eg. composer, performer, producer) and barkeeper and music teacher. Or artist and banker if that’s your cup of tea, you get my point. For the vast majority of young artists – be it illustrators, actors, poets or musicians – making a living from your art alone is impossible. Yes, I said it. Impossible. For now, let’s assume, despite all your talent, great chops, dedication, professional network and hard work, that you also belong to that group. In fact, the percentage of professional musicians in the Netherlands that make a living solely on music is 20%. So, 80% has another job or career going on to pay for their cat food. That kind of career is called a Portfolio Career. A career built from several building blocks that each can serve a different need, such as creativity, stability or social connection. I would argue that probably 90% of global creatives live this way. It’s definitely what my career looks like. Always around music but simultaneously consisting of different projects, jobs and careers.

It raises the next question: does not being able to financially live solely from your artistic music mean you’re not a real artist? I know lots of musicians that think that being a true artist means you can make a sustainable living of your art. They think in terms of being a professional artist. And in my view, that’s where a lot of trouble starts. Hence this rant of mine 🙂

Be Real About The Beginning

I think many aspiring artists get discouraged and even depressed when in their first one-to-three years they can’t make a living from music. They consider themselves not to be a professional artist. It hurts me to see very talented musicians throw their creativity away altogether and quit playing because of … What exactly? Since when does creativity have guaranteed outcomes? Since when does an arts degree guarantee an income afterwards? Surely, that was not the reason you started to study music, right? You started with a focus on art. You started it because you love music. Does love need a paycheck? No, your love doesn’t, but your house lord does. No, need to throw it all away if the word ‘professional’ is, perhaps only temporary, missing.

For some people, their early ‘non-professional’ phase lasts 3 months, for others 10 years, and for some even a lifetime. I’m saying all of these outcomes can be fine. It all depends on how you define being an artist, what your view on having a (music) career is and on how you define success. There is for sure not one definition set in stone.

Separate your Hobbies, Jobs, Career & Vocation

Since making a career with art is almost impossible everywhere in this world. Let’s save you a lot of stress and unhappiness by sharing a simple trick. Separate four things, as beautifully put by author Elizabeth Gilbert, your hobbies, jobs, careers and vocations. By doing this you will be able to understand more deeply why you do what and the role each part plays in your creative journey.

Let’s start with the difference between having a hobby versus having a vocation. A trajectory that for most of us probably had a similar development. Starting with an initial interest in an instrument, and slowly that curiosity transformed into love and finally into a calling. But, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

When A Hobby Turns Into A Vocation

What is the difference between having a hobby versus a vocation?

A hobby is something you do purely for pleasure. The stakes are zero. You don’t have to make money from your hobby, excel at it, get famous or anything else. The action itself is the goal. Since you’re reading this article, my guess is that music is definitely not your hobby. That’s fine. As long as that is clear for you. Or, perhaps not now but some years later, you will decide music is actually better off being a hobby. That can happen too. As it did with me around my 27th.

On the other side of the creative spectrum is your vocation. Your vocation is your calling. It’s the voice of the universe gently inviting you to take your role in the story of creation. The word comes from the Latin vocare, meaning to do what we are called to do. It is the highest possible pursuit a human being can do. A vocation can of course coincide with a career: the vocation of a doctor or nurse might be to be a “healer.” Your vocation as a musician might be “bringer of Joy”. For me being a teacher and coach circles around my heartfelt vocation to empower artists. Right now, I assume that music is your vocation. When and if it will be your career is partly up to you (discipline, clarity on goals) and partly up to chance (luck, talent).

In Our Creative World Jobs Are Too Often Underrated

It’s time to sing some praises for the good ol’ job. However, before the choir starts, let’s first look at what a job actually is.

A job is something you do to pay the bills. Something you do to be a responsible and independent adult. We live in a material world and those ‘materials’ come with a price tag. You have to pay your rent, food, utilities, drum sticks, and so on. A job means you don’t need a sugar mommy or to depend on your partner or parents. And, especially important for us millennials wanting to make an impact, a job is not about life fulfilment or total creative expression. It’s practical and serves a singular purpose: earning you an income. As writer Elizabeth Gilbert points out, many many artists had jobs. Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick whilst working at a customs office. Or, to use a jazz example: Lizz Wright runs a small cafe in Chicago called Carver 47 Cafe. Most people are not able to only be an artist. They have jobs. Even more, they might actually enjoy those jobs, because it gives them something music can’t. In my view, to focus on something else 1-3 days a week can be a welcome thing.

A career is a job you are passionate about. It is something you care about and worth taking risks for. The perfect example here is of course to have a music career. The main take-away is that you should only build a career out your artistic expression when you love it. And with ‘it’, I mean all of it. The good, the bad, the boring and the exhilarating. Or, as Mark Manson so eloquently puts it: “What shit sandwich do you want to eat? Because eventually, we all get served one.” Meaning: every career has its down-sides. A pro eats that sh*t sandwich, an amateur doesn’t. Which for the latter would mean music would be better off as a hobby.

Why Separating Your Hobbies, Jobs, Career and Vocation Matters

A job can give you time. Time to invest in your art (vocation) and music career. In this early stage of your life as a creative, I urge you to look for one. Also, understand that the difference between jobs and careers is not crystal clear. In fact, the definition is for the most part up to you. Some jobs will be music related, such as entertainment gigs or wedding gigs. Gigs that you do solely for money. So jobs can be both non-music and music-related. The difference depends on the reasons why you do them.

Furthermore, don’t confuse a job or career with being an artist. You can always be an artist and follow your vocation. You can be an artist and have a full-time job as a librarian or school teacher. Even with only six people loving what you do, you can still see an artist when you look in the mirror. Your vocation is not result-bound. It doesn’t depend on earned income, sold tickets, amount of press, Instagram followers or any external criterium. Being an artist is something internal – you feel it in your bones. It is a conviction, a mindset and matter of the heart. Let that knowledge set you free from the burden of having to establish a creative career. You can, and that career can be a beautiful part of your life, but you don’t have to. You can be an artist either way.

Be In It For The Long-run

This long-term vision will enable your creativity to flow more freely. Keep investing in your vocation and deepen your music skills and knowledge. Give yourself time. Results can illustrate your progress but they are not your end-goal. Your ability to express yourself and connect – through your music – with other people are. Let a simple job carry the financial burdens and don’t expect success to happen overnight. A creative career is a marathon, not a sprint!

Now that you know, embrace the many different projects, jobs, careers and hobbies that your creative and professional life will consist of. Who knows, they might even fuel and inspire each other 😉

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Two great resources on this topic are the book Big Magic by Elisabeth Gilbert and this video by her on building a creative career. I love her take on being an artist. Both reassuring and empowering. In a previous blog post, I wrote about building a portfolio career. Read it here.

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative.

The Golden Circle Tool For Artists

Post published:November 20, 2020
Post category:Identity
Post comments:0 Comments

One of my true joys is translating great business concepts to the reality of being an artist. This blog is one of those creative endeavours that resulted in an empowering tool that can enrich the life of any musician. The aim of this article is to help you make better career decisions and connect more deeply with others by implementing the Golden Circle model by Simon Sinek. When utilised to its full potential, it will drastically transform your perspective on why you do what you do. Are you ready for some mind-expansion? Are you ready to answer the question: why do you do make music?

The Source

For an initial understanding of the ‘Golden Circle’ concept, please watch this 5-minute video from Simon Sinek. In it, he uses a company – Apple – as an example, but trust me, this concept works just as well for artists. Just think differently 😉

What Is The Golden Circle?

The Golden Circle is nothing more than a tool. A way to discover and live a more fulfilled life. A life with deeper connections with other people – be it fellow musicians, fans, press or music industry professionals. Using the Golden Circle will make you think about your identity on a more fundamental level. It explores your “why”, “how” and “what” and aligns them more strongly together. It visualizes your actions, approach and inner drives and results in a simple and clear overview of who you are. It also puts the right thing at the centre of everything you do as an artist: your purpose. After all, it is why you do what you do that matters most. In the words of Simon Sinek: “Most of us live our lives by accident. Fulfilment comes when we live our lives on purpose. Knowing your WHY provides a filter through which you can make decisions, every day, to act with purpose.“

Now that this tool is explained in more detail, it is time to focus on each of the three segments and relate them to being an artist. Counter to Sinek’s approach though, let’s start with your “what”, since that is the most straight-forward one.

What’s Your What?

All artists know what they are. They describe their “what”, usually by focussing on four different elements of their identity:

What they are. “I am a singer and vocal teacher.” In other words, your career(s) and how you want to identify or label yourself.
What they do. “I sing, compose and perform.” These are your main activities as an artist and, as a human being, your behaviour in general.
What they create. “I create cinematic jazz, albums and teaching methods.” This is both your music description, the vehicles for your expression (songs, artwork), your connected products (album, EP, other merch) and services (workshops).
What they accomplish. “I won the Thelonious Monk Competition and headlined North Sea Jazz Festival.” These are usually your most important career highlights, like important reviews, awards, venues played and so on.

What you are, do, create and accomplish. Sounds like your standard biography, doesn’t it? However, as a modern-day artist the conventional is your starting point. The magic, individual expression and deeper connections with others lie beyond its borders. Authentic creation and communication need more than tangible labels; it needs your humanity. So, let’s take Simon’s extended hand and dive one level deeper into his Golden Circle model.

What’s Your How?

All artists can describe their “what”, however, fewer artists are able to express their “how”. Your “how” is what makes you more you. It is what sets you apart in the mind of others and is what gives your art and identity colour.

There is a lot that shapes your “how”. In short, your “how” is the approach to what you do. The way you do what you do. Let’s highlight here three ways to gain more clarity on your “how”.

The first I want to highlight are your core values. The motives underneath your clearly visible actions (your what). See part I of a blog post on this subject here. When formulated as guiding principles it becomes clear that living in line with your “how” takes discipline and effort.In my experience with coaching artists and guiding them in their process of discovering their core values. Sometimes, one of your values can be the main-direction for your purpose – the one that seems to tie them all together. It’s often an easier process to start with finding your “how” then your “why”.

Secondly, your artistic vision. Formulating your artistic vision is a great exercise for gaining clarity on what you are about as an artist. The famous example in the arts for describing your artistic vision is of course the creation of an art manifesto.

Thirdly, seeing beyond the genre description and understanding your type of music as a cultural phenonema. Jazz is more than music. It is a way of life built on principles such as openness, improvisation, and freedom. Approach Jazz – or any other genre for that matter – instead as a culture with its own principles and traditions. Which ones are important to you? What is Jazz to you? That is your third “how”.

What’s Your Why?

After the tangible “what” and the artistic, personal and spiritual “how” we end at the heart of the Golden Circle: your Why. This is where the gold is to be found (forgive me the pun). Why? (Okay, enough now). In my experience, most people struggle to articulate their purpose. Ask an artist, why they create art, and often the answer stays with words like passion and feeling compelled, or sentences such as “I don’t know, I just have too.” However, being an artist is such a journey of self-discovery that it simply is impossible at some point to not answer this mother of all questions.

So, what is your why? Your why is your purpose. It is that thing that drives and inspires you. It represents your dreams and goals. It is your shining North Star that guides you when times are dark. And, as Simon Sinek highlights in his video and book Start With Why: your “why” is what will draw people closer to you. People that can help you and artists that would love to create new music with you. But most of all, it will pinpoint you towards the people you can help and serve through your art: your audience. As Miles Davis said: Jazz is social music. Your “why” puts the social in your music and career. It is the change you’re trying to make in society at large and the individual listener at Smalls (jazz joke).

So, perhaps it is about time you answer that most dreaded question of all:

Why do you make music? And maybe in addition: why should anybody care?

What’s Your Why Statement?

Turn your answer into a Why Statement in which you mention your contribution and how that contribution serves a higher purpose – the impact. You can use three criteria for that:

No ‘what’;
Simplicity;
It serves a greater purpose than yourself.

For inspiration, below two great examples, and mine:

Simon Sinek: “To inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that, together, we can change our world.“

Spotify: “To inspire human creativity by enabling a million artists to live of their art and a billion people to enjoy it and to be inspired by it.”

Pieter Schoonderwoerd: “To empower artists to create more great music and built thriving careers so that they can enrich the world with their gifts.“

Need more information? Read this article with great tips on formulating your very own why-statement.

Together these three elements look like

If the Golden Circle would be a tree

Instead of it being a circle, let’s try to picture the Golden Circle as a large apple tree, to stay close to Sinek’s original Apple example. Let’s start at the bottom.

The roots of the apple tree represent your DNA (upbringing and genetics), your culture, religion, society and so forth. They are the macro-factors that shape all of us and were out of our control at birth and the early stages of life. The trunk of the tree is your “why” (your purpose) out from which your “how” and “what” grow. The branches are your “how” (values, artistic vision) and the apples are your “what” (careers, activities, creations, accomplishment). So when your actions are aligned with your “why” and “how”, your apple tree doesn’t grow bananas. It means that your “what” will feel natural to you and to others.

Is your tree bearing the right fruits?

Using The Golden Circle

Some fundamental thoughts on utilising the Golden Circle to its utmost potential:

The more you live from your Why the more it becomes a habit.
Your Why is meaningless when it only lives on paper. It is when practised in reality that it becomes alive; you have to live your why.
Integrating the Golden Circle in your life & career will make you more YOU. Apply it to your everyday. Are you applying for a dream job? Does your CV start with why? And, does your album cover express your how’s?
Use your Golden circle like a compass when making important decisions – does option A bring you closer to your Why?
Choose environments (institutions, workplaces, colleagues, friends, relationships) that align with your Why & How. Ex. You are a rebel – your core values are an open mind, experiment, and unconventional. The phone rings and you get a job offer to teach at a highly conservative music school – would you take it? When analyzed through your How and Why: the impact of the environment will be that to perform at your best will be impossible… So, when you get offers that steer you away from your purpose, you can express that and communicate the environment you need: I say yes, but on the condition that: “I want to bring artistic experimentation into the curriculum.” If the necessary conditions (changes) are not possible, you can politely say no.

This is where the word credibility comes in and why artists worry about that. It takes years to built credibility (= trust) but a second to lose it. So, walk your talk. Integrate it into your daily life and test opportunities and important decisions again and again with your Golden Circle.

A Challenge For Deeper Connections

Challenge: if you feel inspired by this concept, commit to articulating your own Why, and please share it with others. Do you notice the difference?

Hopefully, this article inspires you to use the Golden Circle model and live according to it. Let it be a powerful tool for your career decisions, but also in how you describe yourself and your music. Be purposeful, personal and artistic.

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Three great resources on this topic are two books by Simon Sinek and the podcast:

Start With Why
Find Your Why
Start With Why Podcast

In a previous blog post, I wrote passionately about how to create your very own art manifesto (your “how”). Read it here. Another tool for formulating your “how”, are two blog posts about discovering your core values. Read the first part here.

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

A Value-driven Music Career (Part II)

Post published:October 8, 2020
Post category:Identity
Post comments:0 Comments

This blog post is part two about discovering and practising your core values. They truly are the closest thing we all have as real superpowers. In part one, I discussed why your values matter and how you can discover your core values. In this article, now that you have formulated your core values, how do you let these values do their magic? How do you integrate them into your music and career? How do you activate your very own superpowers? Let’s find out by together analyzing two real-world artists: Pharoah Sanders and Vulfpeck.

A Value-driven Performance

One of the giants of the saxophone is tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. An artist heavily inspired by the avant-garde of the ’60s and spiritual artists such as his mentors Sun Ra and John Coltrane. If you are not familiar with the music of Pharoah, I recommend listening to his album Karma (1969). That says it all.

Now that I got you to listen to his music, which values come to mind? Which themes fuel it? Listen and feel the music. Let it speak to you and take a moment to write five words down that embody the spirit of the music. … Got them?

Secondly, you can read this great article for a deeper understanding of who Pharoah Sanders is. Does this article change some of the values you wrote down?

All right, it’s time to share my personal analysis of what Pharoah represents in his core. In my humble opinion, the five core values of Pharoah are Spirituality, Freedom, Love, Openness and Healing. Do some of them match yours? If yes, then we’re on to something.

A Spiritual Performance

The next question is: how do you infuse your art (what you do) with your values? Pharoah did this beautifully in a performance I witnessed some years ago at Le Guess Who? Festival in 2017.

Pharoah believes in our cosmic unity, in how we are all connected by our shared humanity. Pharoah integrated his core spirituality (faith) on stage in his interaction with the audience. He asked all of us to sing a chant with him and the band: “The creator has a master plan/ Peace and happiness to all the land,”. Another time it was “The power of God.” Here is a video with a short impression of that performance. We all sang it together, like a mantra, and for a powerful moment, we were all one. One single entity connected through this shared experience. We all felt loved and healed by this transformative experience. An inspiring example of how to infuse your performance and interaction with your audience with more of you.

Thank you, Pharoah.

One final remark on this. This is a prime example of the difference between being authentic and using a gimmick. A gimmick is simply copying a technique you’ve seen someone else execute. It is ‘outer-based’ and not grounded on our own distinct worldview. If I would copy Pharoah on stage, it would be a gimmick, when Pharoah does this it is authentic. Why? Because it truly reflects who he is and what he believes in.

We all have to find our own ways of expressing ourselves. Let Pharoah inspire you to dig deeper and be creative in finding yours.

Value-driven Branding

Humans are complex. It is truly impossible to express your full personality to another person. Ask yourself, does your partner after 6 years of relationship truly know everything there is to know about you? Of course not. What does that mean for your promotion and other communications as a professional artist? It requires you to focus on the essentials. What are the core elements of who you are, your artistic vision and what you stand for? What fuels your music and all other communication with people? This is where your core values serve as a beacon of light. They create a greater sense of self as an artist. That is what authentic branding is: an infusing of your true self in all your communication with others. Easier said then done, you might think at this point. Time to analyse the second artist in a more broad manner: Vulfpeck. With Pharoah the focus was on his music (album Karma) and his performance. With Vulfpeck we’ll dive into promotion: sharing/spreading your music.

Vulfpeck: authentic branding done right

Please take time to analyse the below three media. Based upon this, what do you think the five core values of Vulfpeck are? Try to not read further, it is important that you start seeing how everything is connected yourself.

Video for their song 1612
Their website at https://vulfpeck.com/
A short biography

Branding is communicating your identity through words (cg. language – biography, song titles, newsletters) and image (cg. photo, video, artwork, style). All these aspects tell your audience a story about who your are. Let’s find out together what fuels Vulpecks story.

The Cory Values Of Vulfpeck

In the video, several elements come forward. You see them play live, the lyrics are – in my personal view of course – funny (humour), the video is retro, it is all of them together and you can sense they enjoy hanging-out (friendship, community) and, most importantly, the music is funky. Now check the other videos. Do you see how they are all connected? Or, as a marketeer would say, on brand?

Next up, their website. I laughed (humour) the first time I saw it! Perfect. Such a daring concept in these hyper-visual times: a purely text-based, old-school (retro) and minimal design. Minimal in a way, just like their music, that it only features the essentials. Does that make it funky too? You tell me. And what is the first content featured on the website? Correct, a live video.

You Are What You Write

And, finally, their biography on Allmusic. Humour is a subtle and personal thing, but I see it in the first sentence “Vulfpeck is a primarily instrumental, Los Angeles-based band inspired by the classic R&B rhythms recorded by the Funk Brothers, the Meters, and quite possibly Booker T. & the MG’s.” Of course, it also fueled their concept for Sleepify and track names as ‘Zzzzzzzzzz’. Personality and purpose infused marketing was seldom done better. How does your personality impact your language? How do your core values influence your ‘tone-of-voice’ and the words you use? What is your artistic vocabulary?

All Communication Is An Opportunity For Authentic Self-Expression

Below one more example of how they are truly authentic and business savvy in their communication. Check their Facebook Page for a second.

Do you see how the artwork/photo is again retro and funny? And did you notice that “Live Shows” is right next to their “Startpagina”? When your core values are crystal clear so become these kinds of decisions. When “Live” is what you are all about, then you will use every opportunity available to express that. The same with your other four values. It starts a natural process that will organically grow into a more distinct identity in everything you do.

Furthermore, besides it being consistent with them wanting to present themselves as a great live-act, it is also strategically smart. Why? Because most artists earn their income, and merchandise sales for that matter, with performing live. So the savvy artist finds a way to build their brand around being an amazing live-artist. Did you notice how all of their videos, photos and artwork inhabit these core values? It becomes a system, a way of doing things, that flows naturally out of you. All it needs to do that is clarity on your concept of Self.

Really? Can I infuse my values in Everything I Do?

For those doubters that still separate ‘the business side of music’ from their creativity and purpose, a final gift. And, by whom greater then Sun Ra himself as a extraterrestial example of making even the most mundane of all ‘business’ tools distinctly yours. Below Sun Ra’s business card. Who else then Sun Ra could have possibly come up with this and pull it off with credibility? If interested, read more on it here.

Hopefully, this article inspires you to implement your own values with more purpose in everything you do. They can be a force of creativity and more personal expression if you let them. It’s all up to you.

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

A great resource on branding for artists, and everybody else that wants to create work that matters, is: Purple Cow – by Seth Godin. A book on how to be remarkable. Are you worth making a remark about?

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

A Value-driven Music Career (part I)

Post published:September 28, 2020
Post category:Identity
Post comments:2 Comments

This blog post is about you activating your superpowers. You don’t need to swallow some external red pill Matrix-style or take one more masterclass. No, in fact, it’s all there already inside of you. Just quietly working its magic in the background. I’m talking about your values. Your very own, deeply personal, heartfelt, purposeful and homegrown values. Do you want to fill your career with more meaning? Then bring your values to the surface and build your music career firmly upon this shockproof inner compass. Ask yourself, what else will point you towards True North?

Are you ready? You might want to find your shovel because it will require you to dig deep.

Where Did I Lose The Way?

We all start with a deep love for music and a desire to honour it by trying our best to become better at it. To express the ideas that come to us as directly as possible. Then something happens that blows us off course.

One cause can be the mechanics of Higher Music Education: the institutionalising effect of going through a system of music education. A possible effect of evaluating/judging musical performances by students is that it creates musicians that are rooted in outer-referenced values. As a young musician we probably all asked our teachers:

“How was my performance?”
“Did you like what I just played?”
“How should I play this part?”

However, do this long enough and it creates a system of looking for approval outside of yourself. I’ve seen many artists lose touch with the sublime and joy of being a musician this way…

This article is about re-centrering yourself. The key to that is re-connecting yourself to your deepest values. Artistic expression and career development based upon your own rules and by your own definition of success, instead of those by others.

As Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself: everybody else is already taken.“

Why Not Start With The Beginning?

Let’s start with providing some context and dust off this millennia-old Roman concept. What are values again? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, values are “the beliefs people have, especially about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, that control their behaviour.” This means that values are not things we collect, they are a practice. They are things we do. You don’t have courage. You practice it. Every day a little. The same for values as freedom, compassion, generosity, wisdom, love or humility. They exist in our behaviour. The seed lies in our intentions, in our heart and mind, but it grows into a blooming flower in our actions. As the Stoic philosopher Seneca stated: “Works not words.” Living according to your deepest values is what constitutes personal integrity. It is what it means to live an authentic life.

So, how does this concept translate to the reality of being a professional musician?

Music Is An Expression Of Your Humanity

Herbie Hancock said about jazz: “The conduit is being human and manifesting that humanity in everything that you do.” (Source: National Geographic) In that way, jazz can be seen as an expression of our humanity. Ask yourself, without a firm belief in values as Equality and Freedom, would Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” or Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” exist? For them, striving for equal human rights naturally meant integrating these core values into their art. Could John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ or his seminal album A Love Supreme have been created without deepfelt principles as Hope, Love and Compassion? I don’t think so. In fact, those very principles are what makes art deeply human. It’s why certain songs and albums stand the test of time and others don’t. Classics in literature, standards in jazz, they all share a timeless quality based upon more than aesthetics and stylistic elements.

So what is music?
It is art.
It is spirit.
It is character. Your character.

And what shapes your character at its core? You guessed it.

Your authentic character – your human spirit expressed through creativity – is what will attract other people to you and your art. Your values are what resonates with people. Expressing them more clearly is the higher goal. Music is the tool you use as a note-smith to do that.

In Coltrane’s own words: “Music is an expression of higher ideals … brotherhood is there; and I believe with brotherhood, there would be no poverty … there would be no war … I know that there are bad forces, forces put here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be a force which is truly for good.”

Our Values Are Us

Our decisions and actions flow from our values and in this way our
values help to define us; they are part of our identity. Our exploration
and discovery of our principles is therefore a discovery of self. Your values are the foundation you built your career on. This insight prompted one of my favourite writers – David Foster Wallace – to say the following:

“Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.“

What do you choose to worship? On what foundation are you building your music career? What fuels your artistic fire?

Discovering Your Core Values

The question worth exploring for you is which values lay at your core as a human being? To answer this question, it’s good to keep in mind this advice from Scott Jeffrey:

“Values aren’t selected; they’re discovered. We don’t choose our values. Our values reveal themselves to us.”

That means your values are already there in your behaviour. In past choices, current loves, dreams dreamt and fears overcome. You just have to make them concrete by finding the right words. This is why I call our values our superpowers. When clear, they shine the light guiding your steps forward. Suddenly, seemingly difficult choices become crystal clear, of course, THIS is how I should interact with the audience on stage, this is how I sell my albums, formulate my contract, distribute my music and so on. When you know your values you can live in accord with them. They are like a beacon reminding you what is important to you. When in doubt about a decision, test it against your values.

It’s time. Are you ready for some deep self-exploration?

Three Ways To Discover Your Core Values

In my eBook Write Your Biography, I provide musicians with three ways to find their own personal values based upon a ‘whole-person’ approach. The goal is to find five core values that represent your full-personality. Remember: they don’t have to be sexy, they have to be you.

1) Your DNA
For starters, think about your family, culture, talents, spirituality, artistic taste, dreams, ambitions, and causes you care about. How do these make you the person you are? How did your parents raise you? Which moments
in your life did you learn from most? Which five words are at the essence of your personality? Write them down and integrate them into your bio either literally or in spirit.

2) Artists that inspire you
Analyze the story, message, feeling, and spirit of your favourite artists. Why do you love them? Are there themes that surface when you compare your favourite artists? What do you feel when listening to Lizz Wright or Pharoah Sanders? What fuels their art?

3) Your own music until now
Analyze your own work until this point. Which values do they express? Are they representative of who you are right now? If not, what do you need to change in your art to make it more YOU?

Don’t Evaluate And Create At The Same Time

Start out by a free-flow writing exercise. Don’t judge the words that come to mind. As a stream-of-consciousness exercise just write your thoughts down. Try to find the right words to describe your inner beliefs. A distinct set of values that truly represent you requires precision. Dig deep. Is Honesty the right word, or is it Integrity? Is it Friendship or Community? Is it Adventure or Curiosity?

In addition, think in different categories to avoid having too similar values from the same ‘domain’. As Scott Jeffrey writes: “If you have a group of values that include honesty, transparency, integrity, candour, directness, and truth, select a word that best represents the group.” You need contrast between your five core values for them to truly represent your full personality.

I. Can’t. Find. The. Right. Words. HELP!

I have been there, and so has every single person I’ve coached. Don’t worry. Finding the precise word that embodies your beliefs is hard work. Give it time. Be patient. Revisit them over the course of a few months and test them again and again. Do they still resonate and ignite your fire? Then you’re on to something. Polish them as if they are five rough diamonds. Because they really are.

Values Are Not Static

Values are not static. As you grow and develop as a human being, so do your values transform. Your five core values might be different a year from now. Designing your career from the inside-out is also a life-long process. Keep your inner compass pointing True North. Check-in upon your values from time to time. Are they still your most important principles on life, art and what your music is for?

Activate your own superpowers and create more great music! Looking forward to hearing it!

Upcoming: Part II

Please do and keep your eyes open for my next upcoming blog post A Value-driven Music Career (part II). Here I will illustrate how to use these values in your art and career design by analyzing purposeful artists like Christian Scott, Pharoah Sanders and Vulfpeck.

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Need some inspiration? Check this great article by Scott Jeffrey listing 200 values to expand your vocabulary. Do you need more exercises to pinpoint your exact five core values?
For seven inspiring exercises on finding your core values, please visit this website.

Great resources on living a value-based life and how to use these for your life- and career design are:

The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown (values are a practice)
A Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl (being proactive vs reactive)
Maria Popova on The Shortness of Life by Seneca (productivity vs presence)

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

The Trap Of Self-Promotion

Post published:August 28, 2020
Post category:Marketing
Post comments:0 Comments

The last month I’ve been wrestling with the concept of marketing ourselves. Previous blog posts, such as To Sell Like An Artist focussed on the sales aspect of being a self-employed artist. This blog post explores more deeply how artists can do self-promotion with more integrity. An approach to promotion that combines your personality (values, worldview, strengths), your artistry and puts the needs of the audience you’re trying to serve first.

A Misguiding Concept

At the root of promotion for individual artists lies a big trap: self-promotion. The extreme emphasis self-promotion puts on the self has misguided generations of artists. Do you hear anybody say Wayne Shorter is such a self-promoter? No, because he doesn’t. He promotes his art. He shines a light on his ideas and philosophy on life with the benefit of others in mind. He doesn’t shout about how amazing he is. His art either touches you or it doesn’t. His books on jazz & spirituality either inspire you or they don’t. He simply shares what’s he’s doing in a way that reflects his identity and matches the values and worldview of people like him. To illustrate this, today I visited his Facebook Page and at 14h00 he posted this:

This post is not about himself. It’s about other artists celebrating the birthday of pianist & harpist Alice Coltrane with whom Wayne played together on the album ‘Extensions’ (1970). This is Wayne’s way of keeping her memory alive and simultaneously sharing inspirational music. This act embodies his spirit: generous, humble, and creative.

Being ‘Needy’ versus Serving Others

As you know as a jazz artist, being self-centered and at the same time ‘being in flow’ is impossible on stage. Being needy in your marketing with your own interests at heart is a similar no-no. People feel it when it’s not for/about them. Stop self-promoting. Stop putting your own needs before those of whom you’re trying to serve. Let your work breathe in its own right. Simply share, inspire, and give people a way in to find work that might matter to them. Put the fan first. Ask yourself, what’s in it for them? What do they need?

Do they need a deeper connection? A feeling of belonging? A ray of Hope in dark times? A feeling of recognization about our shared humanity? To be inspired? Made to laugh? A feeling of melancholy? What do your fans need? How can you with your art, life lessons learned, strengths harnassed and creativity provide them this? What does that mean for your marketing?

A More Fulfilling Way

If you are like me, you will find this approach to be simultaneously more fulfilling and stress-relieving. Firstly, all that ego builds a wall between you and your fans which is counterproductive. And, an unintended and even harmful side-effect, ego-infused marketing puts your self-esteem on the line. Your post received a few likes? “I must be worthless.” Your Instagram post got massive traction? “I am amazing!”.

Do you see how self-promotion can take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows? All that wasted energy, wouldn’t you have preferred to invest that into creating more great art? Then, just like in your music, why don’t you get your Ego out of your marketing?

The Old-Model Of Self-Promotion Is Dead

The old model measures the success of promotion on with it does for you. More streams, more likes, more followers, more sales, … The new model does the opposite. It is intention-based. Focussed on having an impact on others. Let’s illustrate this new model with an example.

Question: if Radiohead would have thought the old way, would they have self-released ‘In Rainbows’ in 2007 as a pay-what-you-want digital download?

Of course not. Instead, they started with different intentions and goals. They started with their own values and with a focus on the relationship with their fans. ‘How can we strengthen this relationship?’ they must have asked themselves. They wanted their album to be about accessibility (free), honesty (pay what you can), and community (download directly from their website). The strategy and distribution model were personal. There was no corporate entity between the artist and the fan buying/downloading their album. The release strategy was value-driven, authentic, and rebellious. It was a relationship built on trust. It loudly proclaimed what Radiohead was about and went against everything business consultants or Major Labels would advise you to do.

Promotion Infused With Personal Values

How did they translate their values of honesty, accessibility, and community to their album promotion? They started with publishing mysterious symbols on their website and blogs. By building anticipation and rumor. It was an insider approach aimed at their truest fans. They published a code with a hidden message their fans were desperate to decipher. These mysterious actions lit a fire under fans and press alike. What was coming? What were they trying to tell their fans? Then, a month later, guitarist Jonny Greenwood simply published a 25-word blog post announcing the release:

“Hello everyone,

Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in ten days;

We’ve called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.

Jonny.“

That is a personal way of doing it. Again, integrating their values and personality into their PR strategy and being true to who they are. No anonymous record label press release with drums beating how amazing the new record is. No, simply a written message from the band to their fans. 25 words. There is, even today in 2020, a lot to be inspired about by this release strategy by Radiohead. But foremost, they did it their own way and my main point is, so can you!

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

A great resource on personal and purposeful marketing is the book “This Is Marketing” by Seth Godin. I full-heartedly recommend reading it.

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

Your Music Needs An Art Manifesto

Post published:August 6, 2020
Post category:Identity
Post comments:1 Comment

This is not a blog post.

This is an invitation for an adventure in artistic expression. This is about you creating your own art manifesto. After all, to start a movement you first have to move yourself.

Is Something Missing?

Don’t you enjoy talking about your creative work?
Do you have trouble figuring out where to go artistically with your next album?
Does your artist biography read a tat dry and impersonal?
Does your grant application need a punch?
Did your last interview with that great jazz magazine miss artistic flavor?

There is a way to infuse your art and communication about it with more personality and purpose that’s not used in Jazz: the Art Manifesto. To see the first-ever art manifesto click on it. It truly still is worth the read!

Free Art Out Of Its Music Box

As an artist, you express your humanity through your chosen medium; music. You work relentlessly on further mastering your craft to convey your message ever more eloquently, fluently, and with increasing precision. You strive for that state of flow where you seem nothing more than a humble vessel for the Muses. You create great art, outspoken, personal, and deeply human. Great! So, what’s next?

After creating art comes spreading your art. You need to communicate it to others using other media. You will have to write and speak about your art. In my experience though, few musicians stay artists when they start typing. They lock up their inner poet and unleash their inner – often even outsourced – marketing manager. Not only the produced content suffers from this, but also the artist herself will enjoy the process of communicating about her art less.

Sounds familiar? Then ask yourself: why does your art stop with music? Why doesn’t it include language? Does your artistry have limits? Why not set your art free beyond music and let it breathe life into all your communication with others?

This blog post is a battle cry for your inner poet. Karl Marx talked about ‘the poetry of the revolution’ – the forms and the phrases that would make it sing – I want you to find the ‘poetry of your music’. Your own specific, personal, colorful, purposeful, quirky, and inflammatory poetry. We’re talking about artistic vocabulary. Purposeful language that expresses your artistic vision, personality, and your purpose with your art.

Are you with me?

What Is An Art Manifesto?

An art manifesto is a statement of your artistic vision. It is a core set of beliefs about art. It is a battle cry for your inner artist. It spells out what you stand for. It’s what you want to change in the world through your art. It holds the conviction of artists’ ideas and the power to spread them. An art manifesto has two main goals. The first is to define and criticize a paradigm in contemporary art or culture; the second is to define a set of aesthetic values to counter this paradigm.

An Unfamiliar Artform

Art manifestos are mainly associated with fine arts and movements like Surrealism, Dadaism, or Futurism. Few musicians know that from 1910 till now, also many composers published manifestos of their own. From Classical Music (Pratella), Punk (Bikini Kill), Indie-Pop (The Knife), Ambient Music (Brian Eno), Black-Metal (Liturgy) to Funk (Mono Neon). So, you might ask, what about Jazz? Well, it’s rare, but We Insist recently published a powerful manifesto on Jazz and its revolutionary role in society. A quote: “The music of this country, Jazz, narrates this struggle for justice and Black Liberation throughout the United States and the Global South. By this definition, Jazz is an intrinsically collaborative revolutionary act and discourse. There is currently little respect for this revolutionary orientation in academic jazz programs or spaces, the record industry, media, or arts organizations.“

The act of thinking about your art and its possible meaning of transformation for others is essential if you want your art to connect. It is essential if you want to bring about change: be it emotional, spiritual, political, societal, physical, or musical. Therefore, this article is a call-to-action to add your revolutionary voice to the choir and sing your gospel of Love and Change. You just still have to write its text.

Below, another example by Funk artist and bassist Mono Neon.

Steal Like An Artist

Some more inspiring examples for further exploration are:

The Art of Noise (1913, Russolo). Basically, the foundation for experimental electronic music before it was even invented. A quote: “We must break at all cost from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds.“
The Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music (1911, Busoni).
The Stuckist Manifesto (1999): “Against conceptualism, hedonism and the cult of the ego-artist. Stuckism is the quest for authenticity. By removing the mask of cleverness and admitting where we are, the Stuckist allows him/herself uncensored expression. Painting is the medium of self-discovery. It engages the person fully with a process of action, emotion, thought and vision, revealing all of these with intimate and unforgiving breadth and detail.”

Why Write One Yourself?

When you create your own art manifesto you can clarify your beliefs about music and where you stand. It gives words to the intentions behind your art. Instincts, feelings, intentions, values, even your whole identity can stay vague when not concisely described in words. The right words that make your text sing. The exercise of writing it will challenge your own assumptions and force you to formulate your artistic position in the current Zeitgeist. If you let it, it can be a daily reminder about what art is all about for you. In addition, learning how to explain your creative motives can be a useful skill when promoting yourself.

The Art Of Manifestoing

We all have heard of Marx & Engels and their Communist Manifesto, but it wasn’t until ‘The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism‘ was splashed on the front page of Le Figaro in 1909 that the arts embraced this new medium. It was the beginning of ‘manifestoing’. Every serious artist needed a manifesto. Art didn’t need a gallery, it needed a movement. It was a chance to take a stand, burn the tradition and proclaim your art as the phoenix rising from the ashes of meaningless, unreal, and dead art.

How do you write a manifesto?

To manifesto is to perform. I recommend any artist to see this as an extension of their artistic expression; as a piece of art in itself. There is therefore not one way of creating your art manifesto. There are countless variations, but some essential elements can be named.

Manifestos typically consist of two parts: a poetic battle cry that puts your vision in words and rallies the troops, and a list of principles formulated as statements. The introduction of The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, the frontrunner of the Avant-Garde movement in Europe, still speaks to my heart – and the hearts of many – a century later:

“It is from Italy that we hurl at the whole world this utterly violent, inflammatory manifesto of ours, with which we today are founding ‘Futurism’ because we wish to free our country from the stinking canker of its professors, archaeologists, tour guides and antiquarians. For far too long Italy has been a marketplace for junk dealers. We want our country free from the endless number of museums that everywhere cover her like countless graveyards. Museums, graveyards! … They’re the same thing, really, because of their grim profusion of corpses that no one remembers.”

How is that for a start? It clearly shows the ‘poetry of the revolution’ in action.

Your Manifesto Needs Statements

Your principles about music are the ‘policies’ that a political manifesto would describe. In these principles, you lay out the groundwork of your vision on music (and its role in society). Just like the ten commandments in the Bible. To illustrate the second part – principles – below you’ll find the first four principles from the “Manifesto of Futurist Musicians” (1910, Pratella):

“To convince young composers to desert schools, conservatories and musical academies, and to consider free study as the only means of regeneration.
To combat the venal and ignorant critics with assiduous contempt, liberating the public from the pernicious effects of their writings.
To found with this aim in view a musical review that will be independent and resolutely opposed to the criteria of conservatory professors and to those of the debased public.
To abstain from participating in any competition with the customary closed envelopes and related admission charges, denouncing all mystifications publicly, and unmasking the incompetence of juries, which are generally composed of fools and impotents.”

There still is truth in these statements today about Higher Music Education conserving tradition instead of moving music and individual expression forward. Or the role of music critics that sometimes just don’t get the music or even times we live in because they’re stuck in an almost religiously fanatic and narrow definition of what ‘real’ jazz is.

Your Kind Of Manifesto

Traditionally, the success of an art manifesto depended on its violence and its precision (l’accusation précise, l’insulte bien définie) combined with humor and theatrics. It requires style, courage and a rebellious spirit. You cannot be generic and safe. Furthermore, you will have to find a balance in defining yourself against (mainstream, predecessors) and in defining yourself for. A bit like long live and down with.

My tips for writing your own, besides reading inspiring examples, is to have clarity on your values. Are you all about freedom, spirituality, adventure, and curiosity? Infuse your art manifesto with them. Ask yourself what these values mean for your live performance, your compositions, your collaborations, band interplay, or album artwork. Below an example of Wynton Marsalis:

“Jazz calls us to engage with our national identity. It gives expression to the beauty of democracy and of personal freedom and of choosing to embrace the humanity of all types of people. It really is what American democracy is supposed to be.“

I think his ‘mission statement’ comes alive in his music and in how he speaks about it on stage and in the media. Wynton clearly tries to embody his values in his art.

Make It Personal

Make it personal. Make it reflect who you are and what your art is all about. Yes, ‘steal like an artist’ as Austin Kleon would say, but do it your way. And be pppppppplayful, play with words like with notes. Imagine a different future, a different sound, free of conventions and ego. Let your music and your manifesto take you forward. Let it never be finished and never be perfect. Create your art manifesto NOW!

Jazz or the revolution, that is the question.

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

A great resource on Art Manifestos is the book: “100 Artist’s Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists” selected by Alex Danchev.

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

Are You Suffering From Artisism?

Post published:July 6, 2020
Post category:Mindset
Post comments:0 Comments

As an artist coach and music entrepreneurship educator, most of my work with musicians centers around the tension between being self-employed and being an artist. More specifically, the difference between music and the business side of music. However, I also discovered that this distinction can result in some serious side-effects that do more harm than good. By merging these two separated boxes, artists can create a Win-Win: they infuse their business with more personality, purpose, and creativity, which makes these activities more your own, and, increases their career success simultaneously. The music business is often called a people business. Doesn’t it make more sense than to humanize the business side of your music as much as your art?

Is music vs business your default mode? Do you love the one, and strongly dislike the other? Then this article could be a game-changer for you!

In The Eye Of The Beholder

As human beings, we categorize. Case in point, we put art in box A and business in box B. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are good reasons why we categorize. It enables us to separate and focus, to dive deeper, to define, and organize things. After all, it’s hard to make decisions in life if there is no wrong or right. However, words are powerful and their impact doesn’t always get noticed. Especially when they’re part of some default mode of being we have internalized.

However, and this is where the trouble starts, based upon our worldview some ideas or beliefs will be more favorable than others. Which in turn influences in large part our level of interest in, understanding of, and the likelihood of putting these ideas into actions. This is exactly what I encounter with certain artists that have trouble creating a successful music career. They associate business with negative values, depersonalize it, and, because of a lack of understanding, play by some other person’s rule book. The result? A vicious circle of ever less motivated artists trying to level up their music career.

I’m here to tell you to play the game by your own rules. It’s possible and more, even necessary for real and meaningful success.

Everything You Do Communicates Who You Are

Let me ask you a question: do you love the business side of music? If your answer is “no”, what would it take for you to love music and the business side of music equally? Think about it. What needs to change?

In my view, the solution is fundamental, it’s how you define ‘business’. It’s how you perceive it to be and what it is for. Remember, business concepts are not tangible, they are abstract mental frameworks that need to be infused with meaning and action by the person utilizing them. Their very definition and intention to be applied with is 100% in your hands. That is an empowering notion.

Let’s take a counterintuitive approach. What happens when you merge the two boxes? Can a business task/objective reflect your art?

It can. And, I might add, it should, because that’s who you are and that’s what will attract people to you.

Let’s Put This To The Test

When was the last time you fundamentally questioned business concepts, like marketing, sales, networking, accounting, branding, or fundraising? Reflect on this for a moment. What do you associate with the word marketing? Or with the word entrepreneurship? If these words don’t resonate positively with you, then I’ve got a challenge for you. Right now, research the 2-3 business concepts you feel most inner resistance to. Why do they bring up so much resistance? Try to pinpoint the core problem. Why do you dislike marketing so much? Why do you hate creating a business plan, or networking?

Now, let’s try a possible solution.

Making It Your Own

I suggest trying two approaches:

Research these career building blocks. What definitions of and approaches can you find? Is there an author/thinker out there with a take on these concepts that reflects your identity?
Think of your core values. Next, look at the business task at hand. How would you execute this task whilst fully implementing your core values? What needs to change?

I Did It My Way

To paraphrase Frank Sinatra: you do it your way. This is a powerful sentence. It reminds me of the Miles Davis quote “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.“

Maybe you never thought about the business side of music like this before. But this is the most important shift you can make when turning pro. Look at business concepts and available tools and ask yourself: how can I use these in my way to express my humanity and serve my audience better?

Let’s play around a bit with an important business concept: marketing. How can you do this your way?

What Is Marketing?

As mentioned previously, there are two approaches, that in my view you have to both implement. Understanding the concept and the different approaches to it and understanding yourself.

Let’s take a basic approach to translate marketing to the reality of being a musician. As a musician, at its core, you have to do two things: one, to create great music, and two, to spread your music. The process of spreading your music from the sender (you) to the receiver (your audience) is where marketing comes in.

If marketing is part of Box B, you might associate marketing with things like buzz, hype, spin, clicks, and likes. At first glance, your goals seem to be to attract more fans, get booked, sell more albums, increase your Spotify streams, build a larger fanbase, and so on. It seems to all be about you. It appears to be about getting instead of giving.

Seth Godin wrote a great book on this subject. It’s called This Is Marketing. In it, he declares that the old model is dead and champions a different approach to marketing. To provide you with an initial understanding, here are four quotes from his book:

“Marketing is our quest to make a change on behalf of those we serve.“

“If you can bring someone belonging, connection, peace of mind, status, or one of the other most desired emotions, you’ve done something worthwhile. The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions, and we let everyone down when we focus on the tactics, not the outcomes. Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.”

“It’s impossible to create work that both matters and pleases everyone.”

“People don’t want what you make. They want what it will do for them.”

What does this mean for your marketing?

Infuse Your Marketing With More YOU

The above quotes from marketing expert Seth Godin paint an opposite picture to the old self-centered sales-orientated approach. It puts the emphasis on serving others, on adding value to their lives, on creating specific work that matters for specific people, on understanding what people truly need when they visit your concert or buy your album.

A social media post like: “Buy my latest album. Click here!”, when using his approach, becomes about sharing a track, describing its message or what the track is for (giving hope, dancing, working through trauma, sexy time, whatever).

You humanize your marketing and infuse it with values instead of your needs. Nobody likes needy people, right? By taking this approach, you try to solve their problems. Enrich their lives. Add beauty to their existence. Your own needs become secondary, the focus is on serving others. On contribution. The question becomes: how can this insert marketing action improve the lives of the receiver?

All your ways of communicating have one thing in common … YOU.

That what makes marketing work. That’s how you build deep connections. That’s how you create lasting relationships. By being you.

Merge Box A & B

But there is more.

After having infused your business with more of you, how can you infuse it with more of your art?

For marketing, it’s simple, instead of telling people about your art, you give them the experience. You give them a real taste of your music. You share a music video, you play the lead melody for a new song, you share your new single on Spotify, you create a playlist with your main influences for your new EP, you play an acoustic version in a fitting setting, etcetera. Your music becomes your marketing. It becomes a creative outlet instead of a sales pitch. You give people the experience of your art, instead of asking them for something. You add value to people’s lives instead of asking them to add value to yours. An artist understands that their music is two things: a gift and a commodity.

Business Is What You Want It To Be

Understanding business concepts and being able to execute them in an authentic way brings your music and business together. In doing so, it is my experience that business becomes more like your music; another means to express your humanity. It becomes more fun and a more creative undertaking. You might brace yourself, even start to look forward to your next business to-do. Imagine that!

This approach is empowering and puts you in control of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of doing things. You drop ideology – artisism – and take responsibility for understanding and implementing concepts in ways that bring you closer to your true self.

You will do it your way.

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!

Your Ikigai/Portfolio Jazz Career

Post published:June 6, 2020
Post category:Mindset
Post comments:1 Comment

This blog post on Your Jazz Career is part four of a series called ‘The Antidote’ which aims to strengthen your music career against sudden crises. In this article, I merge two interesting career concepts, the “Ikigai” and “Portfolio Career” methods, into an idea-baby: an Ikigai Portfolio. It sheds new light on how to achieve a sustainable and fulfilling music career by being more of you.

Something unexpected will always happen. It prompts the question: how do you minimize the impact of these disruptive changes? We all need an antidote for uncertain times.

The Five Antidotes Are

The five antidotes that are proposed in this blog series are:

Diversify your live-music projects
Your four roles as a recording artist
Six ways to maximize your income
Find your Ikigai Portfolio
Become indispensable and remarkable.

Let’s dive right into the fourth music career strategy starting with the Ikigai method. Were the Japanese on to something that can elevate your jazz career?

Finding Your Ikigai

There is a Japanese concept for developing a meaningful and sustainable career that I love, called ‘Ikigai’ (pronounced ick-ee-guy). This word started to pop-up in bookstores and on blogs a few years ago and resonated with me. It is a holistic and balanced approach to career development that often lacks in traditional Western career advice. It aims both at achieving a stable income and fulfilling work. Providing you, so to speak, with the best reason, besides a cup of damn fine coffee, of course, to get out of bed on a rainy Monday morning. That makes it worth finding your Ikigai, right?

What Does Ikigai Mean?

Ikigai literally means ‘a reason for being‘. That reason is found in a balance between internal (talents and passions) and external (needs and value). The closest thing in Western culture I can think of is a mix of the French ‘raison d’être’ and ‘joie de vivre’. As illustrated in the diagram below, it is the career sweet spot where your talents and passions align with what the people you’re trying to serve need and are willing to pay for. A powerful method to build a more sustainable and fulfilling music career.

The diagram shows four overlapping circles with your Ikigai in the middle. This career sweet spot is the overlap between four essential career dimensions that can be stated as questions:

What do you love? (Your passion). If you weren’t concerned about money, would you still do what you’re doing?
What are you good at? (Your vocation). Are you among the best in your community, city, work field, country, or even the world at it?
What does the world need? (Your mission). Are people willing to part with their resources (money, time, attention) to buy what you’re selling, because it leaves them better off?
What can you be paid for? (Your profession). Can you (eventually) make a good living doing this work?

Three Is Not A Charm

As you can see in the diagram, something is missing when you hit three or fewer of these four essentials. To explain the first example on the upper left: when your passion, vocation, and profession intersect, your mission is missing. It results in ‘a feeling of uselessness’. You are doing what you love, what you’re good at, and making money doing it, but it’s not fulfilling. Why? Because the people you are trying to serve, don’t need what you are doing. The result is that you will feel a void in your existence. This dimension is about justifying your own existence. Or to use an MMM-sentence (millennial-meets-meteorite), it is about ‘having an impact on the world’.

Sidenote: as a coach, this is where I would ask my client the question: define what you mean by ‘the world’. Whom are you trying to serve and have an impact on, exactly?

To explain one other danger of hitting three or fewer dimensions. The one on the upper right ‘Delight and fulness, but no wealth‘ is the common one for all creatives. Yes, you love making music. Yes, you practiced countless hours to hone your skills and are good at your craft. And yes, people need music in their lives for whatever personal needs it satisfies for them. However, if you can’t turn it into a profession. If you can’t get paid for it, you will have no income. This will lead to not having any wealth (savings, valuable possessions), and well, it’s tough making music whilst hunting down your grilled squirrel dinner in the forest around your cabin in the wild, isn’t it?

Using the Ikigai concept

To enjoy what you do, serve others, and to make a sustainable living out of it requires you to merge your passion, vocation, mission, and profession. When fewer than four are integrated into your working life, always one dimension will be missing: usefulness, passion, fulfillment or security.

Now, there are several ways to work with this. Either, your one career – e.g. jazz artist – hits all four boxes. Or, you need additional careers derived primarily from music, the music industry, or from other work fields.

You utilize one specific career that hits all four boxes. Cg. you are a performing artist and that is your passion, vocation, mission, and profession. It is both sustainable and fulfilling.
You utilize your broader music-related skills and knowledge to expand your performance career by adding other activities such as teaching, producing, recording, selling merchandise etcetera. Combined these should hit all four boxes.
You utilize your skills and knowledge related to the music industry to hit those dimensions that are missing in your artist career. For example, you also start organizing festivals, become an artist manager, roadie, guitar tech, music publisher, or booking agent.
You utilize your talents and strengths in non-music-related fields such as accounting, IT, hospitality, healthcare and so on.

There is no right or wrong approach. It’s all about understanding yourself, your strengths, and the needs of those you could serve. There is one vital requirement though, to identify yourself in plural instead of singular. To allow yourself to be more of you. To escape the prison of being one thing. To allow a wide definition of what it means to be an ‘artist’ today. It’s about freedom vs an identity crisis.

This way of building a career is called creating a portfolio career.

Building A Portfolio Career

Charles Handy – management guru and author – is the father of the portfolio career concept. He predicted decades ago that in the 21st Century more than 50% of jobs would be part-time, which is currently almost our reality. He describes a portfolio career as:

“A work portfolio is a way of describing how the different bits of work in our life fit together to form a balanced whole” (The Age of Unreason, 1991)

In addition, according to Handy, the portfolio career offers us a chance: “For the first time in the human experience, we have a chance to shape our work to suit the way we live instead of our lives to fit our work. We would be mad to miss the chance.”

To visualize this, for a jazz musician, your Twitter Portfolio Career bio would read something like Pianist/Composer/Music teacher/Entrepreneur. Yes, that doesn’t make it easier at parties to describe what you do 😉

It describes the reality for the majority of jazz musicians out there quite well though. Being an arranger, bandleader, film music composer, multi-instrumentalist, touring musician, and so on is how most jazz artists earn a living. Knowing that there is a term for this kind of life was reassuring for me. Maybe for you too?

Embracing Change

When change is constant, you’ll have to keep changing as well. Or to ‘Be Like Water’ to quote the famous improviser Bruce Lee. Charles Handy champions embracing change and allowing ourselves to be different in each phase of our lives. To put this concept in two simple words: mix and match. Let’s analyze the benefits of a Portfolio Career using the four Ikigai dimensions:

Passion: as a creative, you probably have more than one interest. Starting from loving several instruments to different ways of presenting your music (performance, recorded, video), to other art forms and interests beyond art. You will lead a fuller life that will also, I’m sure, lead to interesting cross-fertilization.
Vocation: how can you utilize all your strengths to their full potential? You will benefit from increased personal growth.
Mission: you can bring change to different kinds of people. One way is through your music. Which other paths integrate your mission more fully into your life? This will result in deeper felt life fulfillment.
Profession: which of your other strengths and (love-)interests could be work you can get paid for? This approach spreads risks by not putting all your eggs in one basket. Corona-proof your career!

Your Ikigai Portfolio

Applying both the Ikigai and Portfolio Career methods to your career will result in a deeply personal career path. You can mix your different skills to match what you love, the world needs and what people are willing to pay for.

This more authentic career approach has more benefits. For example, the comparison with others becomes less and less possible which decreases feelings of jealousy, anxiety, and so on. Furthermore, critique from others becomes easier to deal with, because your path is so distinct. Creating your Ikigai Portfolio is a personal and long-term approach where you take full responsibility for all its aspects. It is a path that acknowledges that both you as a human being, your circumstances, and the necessary skills to reach your goals constantly change.

I believe that you will benefit from this generalistic career approach. It’s my own experience that embracing change and seeking new challenges brings me closer to my True Path. You don’t find yourself. You create yourself. And creating your own path is demanding and doesn’t come with a clear How-To guide.

There are many roads that lead to Rome. The reverse is also true. There are many roads that lead to oneself. Why not try more of them to see who you are at the end of these paths?

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.

I’ve been coaching and educating jazz artists for years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are interested in a personal coaching session, you can read more about it here.

Be More Of You. Be Creative!