by Richey McCourt

1. Give yourself as many opportunities to be creative as possible.

In doing this, you’ll identify obstacles in your way in any given week.

What is getting in the way of you sitting down and being creative? Once you identify these obstacles, they’ll become easier to manage and overcome.

2. Always have your antennae out for new ideas.

Be open-minded when you’re watching films, TV, or during conversations. You never know when a great concept, melody or lyric idea will strike you.

3. Being time efficient & organised, leaves more room for creativity.

Consider using new tools to make your more menial tasks quicker to complete.

Voicenotes

Voicenotes are great, now start rating each recording. Each time you record a musical idea to your phone, rate it: 1 star for good, 3 stars for great. This will save you time when you go back through your voicenotes.

RhymeBrain

This is one of many rhyming resources available. Cole Porter is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He used to carry rhyming dictionaries around with him. If it’s alright for Cole to use them, it’s alright for us.

Splice: a large catalogue of royalty-free samples.

Suggester: a phone app to help you find chords that work well together.

Samply: great for producers when sending mixes and songs to clients.

Session Studio

By Max Martin, Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA, and Niclas Molinder. This helps you clear your songwriting splits more efficiently. It makes it easy to send metadata to labels, such as the key, BPM, lyrics.

Disco

Great if you have a catalogue of songs you want to get in front of music supervisors in a professional setting. It’s standard amongst the TV/Film syncing industry. It also makes it easy to send playlists to A&R people.

Soundflow

For producers, this streamlines a lot of the menial tasks in your Digital Audio Workstation. If something repeatedly takes you 10 clicks, Soundflow enables you to do it in one. This will help you get the time-wasting tasks out of the way.

4. Ask yourself what kind of songwriter you want to be.

If you had a magic wand and you could get your dream record deal or publishing deal, what does that look like?

A lot of people know they want to be a songwriter but haven’t asked themselves that practical question. If you’re taking time out of the week to hone your craft, you can’t be wishy-washy about your objective. Consider the below questions:

• Are you an artist-songwriter singing your own songs?
• A songwriter for hire?
• Both the above?
• What does your market look like?

If you figure this out, the path will be clearer.

5. Rewrite & be a good editor.

Often you need to be bold and say, “we need new lyrics”, or “we just need to start again.”

Your first draft is the first step. In a writing session you have to leave no stone unturned. Refine, refine, refine, refine. Draw every ounce out of a melody. Don’t settle for OK.

If you feel like you’re internally coming up with excuses for why a certain section isn’t right,  you need to go back and work on it. Maybe the first half of the song needs to be repeated? 90% of the time asking yourself questions like this results in a better song.

6. Don’t be afraid of repetition.

Carly Rae Jepson’s hit, I really like you is a great example of how repetition surprisingly works really well:

“I really, really, really, really, really, really like you

I really really really like you”

7. Let a song marinate.

Give it a break for a few weeks and when you go back, you’ll hear straight away what you need to do to it.

8. The most simple melody or riff is often the best.

Example: The Weekend – Blinding Lights riff

Think of ways to create something to anchor your song around, perhaps a lyrical phrase or a riff. You want to grab the listener with a simple hook.

As Sinéad O’Connor said about songwriting:

“It’s much harder to be simple than

it is to be complicated.”

9. Get in the room with good songwriters.

This will push you in your game. Collaborating will make you consider things you haven’t considered before.

10. Define what your song is about.

Perhaps it’s about the split second you meet someone on the dancefloor. Everything in the song should lead up to, and emphasise, that moment. Create a world around that moment.

By keeping the lyrics focused you’ll make it easier to lock in the listener.

11. Consider song themes that everyone can relate to.

For example, break-ups.

12. Networking is important.

Even the most established songwriters still knock on doors emailing artists, managers, & publishers. Use every opportunity to make and build relationships in this industry.

13. Everyone gets rejected probably 90% of the time.

Google search big bands and artists who got rejected before they become successful.

You have to strike a balance of both internal self esteem to enable you to get back in the studio, as well as being self-critical to keep pushing yourself to do better.

Try to learn from rejection, don’t take it to heart. Songwriting is subjective.

14. Be a Jack-of-all-trades.

It’s rare that songwriters stick to just songwriting all of the time. Remain open-minded and consider what other, related pies you could have your finger in.

by Harry Martin

1. There are so many ways to navigate the music industry.

There are many routes to success. Fast routes and slow routes, straight routes and meandering routes. Hopefully they will all take you to the ultimate destination of a successful career in music.

Be your authentic self on the journey.

2. Maintaining a good work ethic is essential.

Everything comes down to the song and the recording. Spend time on it, refine your art. Without that, a successful career probably isn’t waiting for you.

3. If you’re a solo artist, the music industry can be a lonely place.

I would recommend you find another solo artist to share the journey with and talk to. There are great learnings to be had from sharing experiences.

Even if you are in a band, there would still be great benefit in sharing your experiences with musicians and artists outside of your group.

You don’t have to be alone.

4. Be patient.

It may take some time before your career gets fully underway. For example, Leonard Cohen was 33 before he released his first album, and it wasn’t immediately successful either. His career turned out ok!

5. On an optimistic note, if your work is good and finds an audience, you can get paid for the rest of your life.

On the subject of patience one should remember that remuneration will be slow to come too.

A plumber or a teacher, for example, completes their work and they get paid for it at the pre-agreed rate. As a musician, you have no pre-agreed pay rate. You’re doing all this work now and you’re not getting paid for it, or if you are, it’s minimal. Don’t despair though.

If you write or record a song that finds a large audience, your royalties will flow in for a long time (and indeed long after you depart this world should you be the writer).

6. In the Streaming era, you will most likely need a significant body to generate even a basic income.

This will require patience again, and probably some assistance with funding or some of the other income streams help plug that gap.

Roughly 100,000 streams will earn you in the region of €300-€400. You will need to get a strong body of work together, be that recordings or compositions.

If you are a singer-songwriter, you could consider writing with or for other artists too. They may actually release that song. That will add to the body of work which one hopes will get you towards a basic living income.

7. Manage your expectations.

There’s a lot of rejection out there waiting for you. Putting music out invites people to form an opinion on it and share that opinion. It may not always be an opinion you want to hear. Music is subjective, who’s to say what’s good or bad? I would suggest you don’t take criticism to heart. Easier said than done.

A lot of labels, managers might turn you down. That does not mean you are not a good artist. You may not be a good fit for that particular label or manager.

Many of the most successful musicians have experienced rejection at some point, for example Ed Sheeran, U2 and even The Beatles. In these instances, I think it’s fair to say everything worked out ok.

8. Get informed.

You are most likely going to be your own manager, at least for the early stages of your career. I would urge you to get informed about the industry, particularly the local scene.

There is a lot of information available to us in Ireland to get yourself a solid understanding of the basics of the music industry. Minding Creative Minds, First Music Contact, IMRO, RAAP to name but a very few. They have excellent events, webinars and podcasts too.

If you do ultimately become successful, I would suggest you stay informed. When it comes to making big decisions about your career, do not fully abdicate that decision to a manager, label, agent or publisher to make on your behalf.

9. Lawyers & contracts

Never, ever sign any paperwork without having a music business lawyer review it first. If you are short of funds, ask the label/publisher to add an extra advance to cover this cost. It’s in their interests too to ensure that you have been well advised.

10. Accountants and tax returns

Get an accountant to help you. This will likely save you money in the long run if you do have a successful career in music.

Keep financial records. Get yourself Excel proficient and begin to record all income and costs. You will have to do a tax return. If you have income but no evidence of expenses, you will pay tax that you shouldn’t be paying. The Irish state has enough money!

11. Finance tip.

Take time to review all statements you receive from aggregators, publishers, labels, collection societies such as IMRO, RAAP & PPI.

Make sure all your works are listed. Make sure all the key music markets are covered. Compare them with the previous statements to see if there are any significant and unexplained changes

At the start of your career, you will want to ensure that all of the money due to you is paid, and in a timely fashion.

And lastly, just to reiterate…. Never sign a contract without having a lawyer review it. I mean, never!

Oh, and keep following Minding Creative Minds.

by Agnes Burke

1. Understand where your limiting belief comes from.

If you understand where your limiting belief comes from, you’re more likely to be able to change it. It takes a lot of courage to go back and do the hard work of figuring out where that limiting belief came from.

An example of a limiting belief might be, “I’m not a confident person.” Why do you think that? How did that belief begin?

2. Visualise

If you didn’t have this self-limiting belief, where would you be right now? How much would you be earning? How would you be feeling? What does that version of you look like?

Map out the path to where you want to go. Visualise your mission, your strategy and your action plan, including your timeline. This is very important and putting it somewhere you can physically see it every day is essential.

3. How do you get from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

Just do it. There are lots of layers to this, but you have to put one foot in front of the other and make progress. Even if it’s just baby steps.

4. Be open to new ideas.

How can you learn from every experience? Flip your mindset around. Ask yourself, “What’s here for me? What’s the golden nugget?”

5. Feedback is valuable.

If you’ve been rejected, you’re learning. In every area, every day is a school day. Remember that.

6. Celebrate growth and resilience.

We’re not great at celebrating. Think about the goals you have achieved. Pat yourself on the back for achieving them.

7. Try positive affirmations.

They do go into your subconscious. Little sayings like: “I’m worthy of success, I’m open to new opportunities.”

Healthy self-talk keeps the door open for growth. You need to practice it. Repeat the words, “I can do it, and I am doing it, and I will do it.”

8. Take mindful breaks and practice self-care.

Who fills your cup up? Where do you get the energy that motivates you? How do you look after you?

Take that five minutes for yourself with a cup of coffee or something you enjoy, maybe it’s going for a walk. Really enjoy and savour every moment of it.

by Brian O’Regan

Effective collaboration takes time, patience, and effort – but it’s worth it. 

Collaboration allows us to achieve things that we could not achieve on our own, and it enables all parties involved to operate at a higher level. Effective collaboration needs effective communication, and although it can take time to build, it’s always worth the effort.

Listen first, and listen with a genuine desire to understand. Then speak. 

Listening is more important than speaking when it comes to effective collaboration, so listen first and then speak. Listen with a desire to understand what the other person is trying to say and try to see things from their perspective first.

Approach collaborative conversations with an “abundance mentality”. Try to be as open, honest, and generous as possible. 

Having an “abundance mentality” means believing that there are plenty of opportunities for everyone. When we begin a collaborative relationship in this way, it opens up far more possibilities than a narrower scope would allow. While maintaining a sense of generosity, also be careful to protect your most valuable assets, particularly in the early stages of a new collaboration.

Know what you’re bringing to the table, know what you need them to bring to the table, and make sure that you’re both at the same table. 

Effective collaborations are built on strong foundations of mutual alignment and complementary skills, knowledge and resources. Make sure your shared goals and values are aligned, and make sure that what you bring to the relationship complements what the other brings.

Build trust by showing trust and by demonstrating trustworthiness.  

Trust is the glue that holds strong collaborative relationships together. We can build reciprocal trust by showing that we trust the other person, and by demonstrating trustworthiness ourselves. Trust takes a long time to build, and it can be shattered in seconds, so treat it with great care.

Aim for “synergy” in your relationships, and “win/win” in your agreements.  

Synergy is the highest form of collaboration, and it’s where the collaboration itself brings ideas and results that could not have been achieved by both parties working independently.

When an agreement is reached, make sure it’s a balanced “win/win” agreement, where both parties achieve what they set out to achieve. If this isn’t possible, you can also decide not to collaborate.

Ensure you are communicating with clarity, confidence, and intent. 

When you communicate, make sure you’re doing it effectively. Be clear, concise and confident, but not forceful. Before you speak, make sure you know what you’re trying to say. Ensure your non-verbal communication (such as body language) doesn’t contradict what you’re saying verbally.

See the value in the different opinions of others.

If someone has a different opinion to yours, or if they’ve done something differently to how you wanted it to be done, don’t criticize them – try to see it as an opportunity to see things from a different perspective. Don’t assume that you’re right. Welcome the opportunity to expand your own knowledge and awareness of different approaches.

Deal with disagreements carefully and empathetically. 

Don’t let a disagreement turn into an argument. Find common ground again and go back to basics if you need to. Figure out whether the disagreement is related to your shared vision/goals, your values, or your methods. Take the time to understand their perspective, and don’t make impulsive decisions. If you’ve made a mistake, admit it quickly and honestly.

If no solution can be found, carefully consider your options with the other collaborative partners. 

If a collaboration has reached a point where it’s just not working anymore, or if no solution can be found for a particular difference or disagreement, then you’ll need to carefully assess your options depending on the circumstances. This is also where effective communication will be vitally important.

If you’re ending an official collaboration, try to end it collaboratively. You can both agree to disagree. This process may benefit from some external facilitation from a third party but try to resolve it between yourselves first.

by Brian O’Regan

1. You haven’t failed until you’ve quit.
Temporary setbacks are inevitable when you’re working towards something big, but unless you’ve stopped trying, then you haven’t failed. If something doesn’t work the first time (or the second or third time), try again. You haven’t failed yet.

2. Failure is something you can control.
If you can decide when you quit, then you can control when you fail. This is an empowering perspective, and it could help you get back on the proverbial horse when you fall off.

3. Rejection isn’t failure. It’s just someone else’s opinion, and you can’t control that.
Rejection is another inevitability when you’re pursuing a career in the creative sector. You can’t control rejection in the same way as you can control failure. Ask for feedback, learn from any mistakes you made (you might not have made any) and try again.

4. Focus your energy on what you can control.
When something goes wrong, think about what level of control you had over the outcome with these 3 questions…
● What did I have control over?
● What was I able to influence (partly control)?
● What did I have no control over?
Next time, focus on what you can control or influence, and don’t worry about what you can’t control.

5. Don’t take it personally.
As an artist/creative practitioner, your art may be very personal and very closely linked to your sense of self-worth. If your work gets rejected by someone, try not to take it as a personal rejection. Try to separate your sense of worth from your work, even if you’ve put your heart and soul into it.

6. Know when to quit, pivot, or change your approach.
How many times should you try something? That’s up to you, but don’t keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If something clearly isn’t working, don’t be afraid to try something different. Sometimes quitting, or choosing to fail at something, is the right decision and it can free you up to focus on something else.

7. Don’t let a fear of failure stop you from trying.
Fear of failure is one of the root causes of procrastination, and over a long period of time, it can be far more debilitating than failure or rejection itself. Fear of failure can lock you into your comfort zone, but in order to learn and grow, you need to break out of it. Sometimes we fail because we’re too far out of our comfort zone, so try and take it one step at a time.

8. Use your support network to talk about your failures and rejections if you find it helpful.
Sometimes, talking about rejections or failures can help to soften the impact, and whomever you talk to will likely have their own stories to share as well. If you’d prefer not to talk to other people about it, try writing about it in a personal journal or even on a scrap of paper. Getting it off your chest can help you feel less isolated and can help you to move on.

9. Take the time to define success and reflect on setbacks.
Before you start something, define what “success” actually looks like. When setbacks occur, take the time to reflect constructively, but don’t dwell on them for too long. Remember what success looks like, think about what level of control/influence you had over the setback, and make a plan to move on.

10. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Whether you’re applying for funding, applying for jobs, or trying to find a publisher for your first book, try to always have another potential option in mind while waiting to hear about results or decisions. This may help you to deal with a rejection letter or an unsuccessful application, and could help you to move on to the next opportunity faster.