I know musicians making friends with other musicians has always been a pretty popular thing that goes on in the unsigned music world. I understand why musicians feel the need to make friends with other musicians in their music scene. They do it so they can get more contacts. Hoping to get gigs with them or even form a band with them. Some musicians do it just for networking in the music scene and try to get known around them so they can be a part of the scene. Some do it to try to get their own music out there. Some do it for the enjoyment of hanging out ’cause they have good music discussions having the same taste in music. Lot of reasons why musicians want to be friends or just “buddies” to other musicians.

In the past, when I was out there gigging, I hung out with some musicians in the scene. I wouldn’t exactly call them “best friends”, just hung out with them in the scene. Didn’t really hang out with them at their homes or anything but what is that word, I’m trying to look for? I think the correct word that I’m looking for is, “acquaintance”, means you know them personally but not exactly your friend.

If making friends or acquaintances is what you want to do in the music scene, you must go for the people who are willing to support you in return. Be friendly with the musicians who have the same taste of music as you do. That is pretty much key to winning support from other musicians, sharing the same musical tastes and styles. Enjoying the same bands and genres. Having lots of common in music.

The last thing you want to do though is try to be friendly with all musicians out there, ’cause not all of them are going to be friendly, believe me. You will make enemies out there too. You can’t please everybody. I’ve had plenty of musicians from the past who I thought was going to be a buddy of mine or just a contact, but I learned that a lot of them can’t be trusted. Just move on from the enemies immediately, brush them off and go for the ones that will be willing to be supportive of you.

Seriously, there will be kind musicians out there that will support you, have your back, and he/she will want the best of you. You will get wonderful musicians that will support you every step of the way. You just need to believe in yourself and support the musicians who support you in return. There’s your own music scene. Sometimes, it’s worth it going through all those musicians who were enemies who tried to bring you down, ’cause you can get supporters that way. There will be musicians who won’t give you drama. Just go for the right musicians, and your music life will be great.

This is one of the reasons why I’m trying to learn music theory more, so I can understand their music theory discussions, lol…

Kev

You can promote your music all you want to. You can have over a million fans in facebook or twitter or where ever. You can put your show advertisements everywhere as much as possible. No matter how much or how hard you promote your music, people are still not going to listen to it and will not support your music if it’s not good. Believe me. If they don’t like it, they won’t support it, even if you would like them to. Sad, but that’s the way music is. People are pretty honest with music.

If you’re not getting enough support with your music that you would like to, don’t worry about it. Just keep doing your thing, and sometime in the future, you will write something really good that everyone will like. Once in a while, I do get really good feedback on a few of my originals, but it would be appreciated if people gave me positive feedback on all of my music but music doesn’t work that way, I guess. You have to let the people be your critic. There are too many musicians out there that get offended by negative feedback. Thing is, if you’re getting too much negative feedback, keep working on the music. Listen to what they have to say and try to improve the song, then the feedback could possibly turn into a more positive direction.

I actually enjoy the negative feedback, it don’t bother me. The negative critics actually help me wanting to become a better songwriter and musician. If you take your time to improve your talent, more people will give you more respect and the negative critics will go away that way. The negative critics are not gonna go away if you lash out at them and defend yourself. They’ll stop hating on you, if you become a better musician and songwriter. That’s how you get people to like you more.

Which is what I’ve been doing with my own talent. I’m trying to improve my musicianship to a higher level. Trying to learn music theory, scales & modes, improvisation, timing & rhythm, etc. I’m trying to learn all the things a musician is supposed to know. I’m also trying to improve the singing too. I’ve been practicing music everyday for a couple of hours and it’s really making a huge difference in my playing, and I am getting better.

I’ll get back into songwriting again soon, I just wanted a little break from it to focus on learning music. Even if you did improve your singing and instrument playing, people are still going to give you honest feedback. It’s all about the song. The melody. If the song is good enough, people will support it and respect it. How do you write a really good song? I’ve said it before, the song needs emotion, you need to feel it. Ever feel amazed or blown away by your favorite music? Well your music needs to feel the same way. It needs to be played with heart.

Good music is the only way that you’re going to get somewhere in your career. You can’t beg people to like you. Just let the good feedback come on it’s own and things will be fine. Never think of yourself as a great musician, you need to let others tell you that. Sometimes it takes years to be a good musician and good songwriter, just give it time and everyone will like you soon enough.

Kev