How should I manage the practice vs publicise balance? i.e. How long should I spend publicising myself compared to how much I practice?
Firstly, there is no substitution to effective practice. If you are practicing well and you then play just one gig, people will hear about it. The professional scene is fairly close-knit and words soon spreads about good players. Secondly, quantifying the amount of time for either of these activities is almost impossible. Perhaps it’s best to say, have you exhausted all the promotional possibilities mentioned above in the ‘contacts’ question. If the answer is ‘no’ then you still need to keep going. For what it’s worth, the answer should probably always be ‘no’ – there are dozens and dozens of opportunities (although many of them are not in Southampton – think bigger than just the city walls).
That said, this is a real issue for most musicians and it’s worth thinking about seriously. Last year in the Jazz & Pop Performance Class, a member of the improvised music group ‘World Service Project’ came in to talk about being a professional musician. He has had three records released on independent record labels, his band regularly tours in the UK and abroad and he is greatly in demand as a session musician. When asked a similar question about how he balances his business and practicing priorities he gave a very insightful response. He claimed that when he first started out his understanding of publicity/ marketing/ business was very poor as he did not dedicate equal time to that as he did to his musical activities. He said that once he realised that this was the case (after wondering why he wasn’t getting any gigs), he tried as hard as possible to match the hours he spent practicing, rehearsing and performing with those he spent working on the business side and publicising. The simple (and obvious) outcome was that more time spent on the non-music side meant more work. What he also said was that, like practicing, as you get better at it, it takes up less time. Please note that he was already an accomplished performer who had spent many hours practicing before launching his professional career.
Nowadays, there are an increasing number of musicians who allocate specific hours each day (e.g. 4-5pm) to increasing their social media following or sending out speculative emails to music industry people (including venues). You are probably going to be self-employed if you choose to perform music, you will need to structure your day with both the creative and the business side of your livelihood in mind.
Top Tip
It’s never too early to start thinking like somebody in charge of a business. Read up on how to set up and publicise a product. If you have the time, study a bit about marketing and talk to other musicians who are self-employed to see how they manage their time.
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