Ben Franklin, also know as Ben Jammin’ amongst his peers, knew the meaning of how to work together to be successful. He stressed the importance of teamwork over individual merits, and our online guitar magazine staff certainly agrees!
We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
- Benjamin Franklin
- Ben Jammin’ Franklin circa 1777
It is really hard to make it alone. In fact it is almost impossible to become successful if you isolate yourself from others. Today it is so easy for anyone to record some of their music and post it across hundreds of social media sites.
So how do you break out of the clutter?
By forming alliances and teams with those who you respect, love, and/or admire.
Benjamin was right. Today, if you try to succeed just by yourself, you most certainly will fail. Those who will become successful will be the ones leveraging their relationships to benefit all the parties involved.
For example, instead of booking a gig and playing 3 hours, why not invite 2 of your other guitar/music buddies to play as well? Sure maybe you might have to divide the pay up a bit and you are not the sole feature of the night, but the increased exposure that they will bring may be worth it for the long run. After all, it is about increasing your fan base, and one of the most powerful ways in doing so is playing shows with other talented groups and artists. In fact, why not get something going where you all three rotate on playing order and go on a tour? Why not promote each other on your social media sites and home pages? It might just be easier for you guys to book a tour if you already have your lineup organized, rather than the venue managers worrying about who to include with you.
It’s always a little weird to see the competitiveness of guitar players. I guess it is just our natural instinct. It can be a good thing when developing our skills and pushing ourselves to new heights, but it can also be one of the major reasons we aren’t achieving the levels of music success we dream of.
What do you think?
PS. A great post that I just read over at Unsprung Media focuses on this idea, of building a brand by branding together.
You definitely want to go right now and read this insightful post. It will help enlighten you on your way to guitar and music success.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 JB // Dec 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Woopsie-doopsie…
Well,nice in theory, but it doesn’t always work.There’s no miracle.You may hang with the wrong people even if you love or admire them.Believe me.
Some will say I am always tearing the topics apart:not false,but untrue.
I’m just trying to get the sh** out of your ears and of your eyes.I’m rather built with empathy,so I really wish no one to live what I went thru musically.
Being 7 bands touring whole Norway may seem sick, but we did it.I played in 3 of those bands.As drummer, guitarist, and singer…
After a while there is always this stupid competing coming up and messing all round.So you stop for a while, chill, drink a Tuborg and…next day,please.
Until compromises and divergences do you part with the other bands and your bandmates.Eh, we all evolve as we play and discover…
2 daveisaacs // Dec 23, 2008 at 8:04 am
All true in that the music world is full of competing egos, and you may not know you’re hanging with the wrong people until the damage is already done.
But the right people are out there too….I agree with the premise of this article, and it’s important to remember that networking and relationships are just as important as talent and skill. Getting out there and working with people means you’re gonna get burned some of the time, no way around it….no different than any other aspect of life. But treat others the way you want to be treated and it DOES come back to you.
Besides, I’ve made a lot of friends that way. And as for the handful of others, well….karma’s a bitch.
3 JB // Dec 23, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I absolutely agree with everything you wrote.there are also the right people to play with for sure.
I just want to point out that some are too cocky and break any healthy musical collaboration.
You can’t imagine how many times i was refused a tour with “friends”.
It’s a good thing Karma’s a bitch…hehe.
4 JB // Dec 24, 2008 at 4:29 am
Just forgot to say that the blurb about “Branding together” is fantastic and worth a real whole big website.Maybe my next dirty deed?
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