datamusicata

This is now the second holiday season upon us since I began Datamusicata, and it occurs to me that many touring musicians don’t have that much work during Christmas--unless they do “casuals” or holiday shows. This begs the question, what can we do during the holidays to not lose our edge?

This is one of the most difficult times of the year to maintain our scheduled commitments to our art. The most obvious one is practicing. With no gigs in the near future, the pressure is off. Please remember that playing every day is what makes you great. The less you play, the less great you are. So practice every day no matter what, even if it’s only fifteen minutes. It is the daily routine that keeps the juices flowing. Don’t let that flow dry up, or it takes more time to find the muse the next time you pick up your instrument.

There are also other things that you can do during this “fallow” period. Is your mailing list up to date? Have you taken the trouble to sort the addresses by state, so that you don’t send emails to people in Iowa for a gig that you are doing in Florida? It is important to keep the list current and geographically specific.

What about the venues? Do you have them arranged in a list by location. Do you have a spreadsheet that lets you see at a glance when you last contacted the venue and when you should do so again? Does it reflect how well you did?

What about your media list? Is it current? And is it sorted by location or venue? What I do is keep them in files by the venue/city and I recommend that to you. And make certain that you have the deadlines for all the different media sources. Some magazines need their copy two months in advance; newspapers usually about a week.

And radio stations, while they are not as vibrant as they were in this age of the ipod, are still very important. Various organizations and publications make a list of the stations and the programs that play all the genres of music. You can get an acoustic list from joining Folk Alliance (www.folkalliance.org). And the Indie Bible is worth every penny. (www.indiebible.com). It has the stations, programs, venues, promoters, agents, managers, etc for every genre of music.

And lastly, this time of year, we tend to over do the eating and drinking, so make certain that you get plenty of exercise each day. Ideally, I get up, drink a big glass of water and go to the gym, followed by an hour or two of practice and then the day begins. I don’t always keep to it during the holidays, but that is the goal.

This could be a time to not only celebrate the holidays, but catch up on all the stuff that falls by the wayside when you are touring, booking yourself, practicing, composing, and recording. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas.