AriKoinuma.com

I haven’t posted in a while — I’ve been laying low and mulling my next move. And I do have an eye on my next move — I’m about 1-2 weeks away from committing to it.

Ahh, I want to say more, but I better not. I’ll be back soon.

People focus too much on effectiveness, and while that’s not wrong, effectiveness can be tweaked, improved and sharpened over time.

The true secret to a successful strategy is to make it sustainable.

This applies to everyone but particularly true for musicians.  We get into this because we like music — playing it, making it, recording it, etc.  But with it comes the rest of “business” — promoting, schmoozing, booking, tweeting, and so on.

There are many how-to info out there that claim to make you successful.  But the problem is, they don’t take who you are into account.

Back when I released my first album, I promoted it heavily on MySpace, because Your Favorite Enemies was very successful with that approach.

9 months later, I got so burned out that I just couldn’t go on.  I did many things right as far as I could tell, and my fan base was growing — if slowly (YFE has 7 members, I was by myself) — but getting burned out and not logging in for a long time just burned down most of what I built during that time.

Definitely not a successful strategy.

Derek Sivers says it well when he says “Do what excites/scares you.  Don’t do what drains you.”

I’m still trying to figure out what a successful strategy for me is.  But one lesson I learned: it better be sustainable.   If it’s even half way effective, if I can sustain it, it’ll build.

So, don’t blindly accept other people’s success methods without taking compatibility with yourself into account.  If you hate parties, don’t attend them.  If you hate going online, stay offline.  If you like drawing, incorporate that.  If you like biking, incorporate that.

Make up a career strategy stuff full of activities that excite you, and boldly ignore the rest of good advices.

So that you can sustain it.

Just a quick note to a few people who are subscribed to this blog.

AriKoinuma.com is going to be my site where I promote myself as a musician, offering descriptions of services I offer. If you know me as a self-improvement blogger, well, unfortunately, I will no longer be very active as such.

But thank you for all your support and kind words. I am continuing my journey to be the best version of myself, and I hope you will, too.

If I had a band it’s another story, but I am a Self Sufficient Musician — a one-man band. I program the drums (which is time consuming, though not without its own merits) and play and sing everything else.

If I worked full-time for a month, how many songs should I be able to write and record?

That’s the challenge I’m setting up for myself for March. I’m taking my new recording studio for a test drive. I just switched from Sonar to Logic as well (I was running Sonar on Windows via BootCamp) so I am afraid I’m not going to be as fast as I was on Sonar — hopefully the switch will pay off in the long run, as Mac OS is more stable than Windows.

I know I just started this site but because of the above, I’m going to be more sporadic with updates for March. There’ll be loads of goodies to share after that, though, so stay tuned!

There is a right answer to that question — what you must say if you are to become a Self Sufficient Musician.

The answer: “I am.  I am my biggest fan.”

Well, and just saying it isn’t enough, obviously.  You must believe it.  I once read Steven Tyler of Aerosmith saying “You think you’re my biggest fan?  No, you’re wrong.  I am my biggest fan.”

Now, I am not saying that you have to be a narcissist.  There is a fine line between egomaniac and loving your own work.

And there are at least three reasons why this is required for your success in music business: (continue reading…)

I’ve been running a poll to see what the perceived obstacles people are facing in their music career pursuit. Is it luck? Is it the industry? Is it the competition?

Well, I’ll give away the answer here. The biggest obstacle between you and your success is YOU.

That’s right.  You’re the only one standing in your way.  Or to put it another way, if you figure out how to get out of your own way and unleash the real, unrestrained you, you will succeed.  You won’t be able to prevent your success.

Does that sound all abstract and new-agey?   Would you rather I discuss the proven-and-tested technique to win 1000 fans instantly? (continue reading…)

One of the major differences between popular music and jazz/classical is the technical expectations of players. With the latter, the technical proficiency is a requirement, a must.  And the bar is set pretty high — high enough to require years of dedicated and effective practicing.  You can’t become a professional by merely being good.  You must be exceptional just to get your foot in the door.

With popular music, though, it’s a different story.  We all know that virtuosity dosen’t necessarily make good music.  As a guitar player who picked up the guitar in late 80’s myself, I used to think that fast playing was a good playing.  It is so far from truth, and thousands of rock guitar god wannabes are the proof.

The fascinating and interesting thing about popular music is that effectiveness is the requirement, not virtuosity.  Most often, technical proficiency is required to be effective, but not necessarily, not always.

So what makes one an effective musician?

(continue reading…)

It took me 13 years since graduating from college to become a full-time musician.

Does the depress you or encourage you?  Why did it take me such a long time?

Well, there are many reasons.  But one of them is because it took me that long to figure out exactly what I wanted to become.

There are many forms of musicians, and I tried being many of them.  Below I’m going to list all the careers I’ve tried, and my own take on their pros and cons and what’s needed to really pursue them.  Hopefully my real-life tales will help you determine which direction you’re drawn to. (continue reading…)

In the previous article, I stated that it’s very possible and realistic for musicians to earn enough to sustain a comfortable lifestyle while creating, recording and performing music that you enjoy. While the second phrase, the bit about music you enjoy, can include writing jingles, playing string quartets in weddings, or playing showtunes on a cruise ship, let’s narrow it down to what is commonly the ultimate ideal for most musicians writing and playing popular music: make a living from original music.

Is this still possible?

Yep.

So having defined a very specific objective and activity, let’s further break this down into its most fundamental and essential elements. (continue reading…)

One of the ultimate dreams of musicians — particularly, songwriters, composers and “artists” — is to make a living making music you love.  Not only you are “in” the music business, but you are one of the elite few who just do what you please.

It certainly sounds attractive to me.  No bosses to boss you around, no clients to please — just make the music that makes your heart sing, and get paid for doing it.

But there is a catch there, isn’t there?

Yes.  The catch is this: you can’t do it.  It’s not a theoretic impossibility, but realistically, no.  You need to be both extremely exceptionally talented, and equally exceptionally lucky.  So, no ma’am.  You can’t expect your life to be that exceptional. (continue reading…)