Of course, there’s no right or wrong way to make it in the music industry. Some people work hard, grind out content, and hope that they’ll make it on the world stage one day. Some people find success playing small to their local fans, and sometimes, rarely but not impossibly, someone will make a track that turns out to be massive.
There are endless ways to make a music career happen, just as there are mistakes that you can make along the way that will prevent you from making it big. To help you along in your own journey, today, we’re going to explore the five mistakes you need to avoid as an aspiring musician.
You Don’t Need Music as a Real Career
This is by far the most essential mistake you need to avoid on this list. If you’re in the mindset of treating your music career as a hobby, a passion, or a side hustle, you’re never going to make it. This is because you’re telling yourself that it’s second to whatever else you do in your life.
Make music your priority.
As soon as you’re able to switch your mindset and start treating it as your future, not just something you do here and there, you’ll start making endless strides and exponential progress.
Not Working on Your Relationships
You will be a part of plenty of relationships throughout your life, both personally and professionally, but a big part of making music and having a career in the industry is being able to boost and nurture those relationships into something special.
“From your relationship with venue owners and concert/gig organizers to managers, your band members, studio staff, and perhaps most importantly, your fans, you need to make sure you’re spending time on your relationships. Even though you’re the ‘talent,’ you’ll never be able to make it without the help, support, and guidance of anyone else,” explains Tina Jackson, a music blogger at Boomessays review and Academ Advisor.
Letting Your Ego Run Unchecked
Let’s face it, you knew that this mistake was going to be in here. How could it not? Let’s say you perform at a gig or record a studio album, and you nail it. It’s amazing. Everyone loves it. The performance was everything you wanted it to be and more. However, if you let this success run to your end, you’re only going to be damaging yourself in the long run.
Ego stops you from learning from your mistakes. Ego makes you arrogant. Ego will raise you up and set you up even higher, so it hurts more when you fall. And you will fall. It’s part of life. If you’re able to control and manage your ego, then you’re going to allow yourself the opportunity to be even stronger when you stand up.
Not Being Aware of Burnout
When you’re riding high productively, and you’re smashing through the items on your to-do list, it can feel like you’re on fire and everything is going your way. You never want to stop in case you can never get back to where you are. It’s understandable. It’s something everyone goes through, but you need to make sure you’re taking breaks.
“Burnout is a killer. It kills your dreams and your motivation when you wear yourself out too thin and are not working to a sustainable level. A career is a marathon, not a sprint. Prepare yourself to go the distance,” shares Nick Harris, a career writer at Writing Populist and Rated writing.
Not Learning from Your Own Mistakes
Everybody, and I mean everybody, makes mistakes, including you. You’re a human being, and there are going to be times you mess up, make bad decisions, don’t pay enough attention to something or someone, or just fall short. That’s okay. It happens to the best of us.
However, the real mistake comes from not taking the time to learn from your mistakes and moving forward with your life with the new lessons learned. If you’re not learning from your mistakes, you’re not growing as an individual, and this will only keep you in place exactly where you are right now.
If you want to grow and soar, you need to open your mind to these life lessons you’re going to face along the way.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of mistakes you’ll need to be aware of, but most importantly open to, along your path to becoming a professional musician. Just always remember that mistakes are always going to happen. There will always be obstacles. What defines you is how you approach dealing with and overcoming them.
Elizabeth Hines is a content writer and musician at Write my essay service and Resumention. She writes about her musical experiences and aims to help others seek new opportunities and find their way. She also writes for online magazines and blogs, such as Dissertation service, and others.
