It’s Not Always About The Music

There’s that figure of speech, I’m sure you’ve heard it,  ”Jack of all trades, master of none”. It often gets repeated in a tone that conveys this as being a bad thing.

However, that’s not always the case.

In fact, that saying used to be repeated as “Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one“.

Now that, I think, is more like it.

While, you want to be a master at your music, obviously, there are many other areas of expertise which you can learn about that will help your music career progress.

Whenever you find yourself with some free time, pick a few of the following skills to become proficient at. You don’t need to master them, but having a working knowledge of many of these can help your music career in many different ways.

Web Coding

This is a big one. Your website is your hub. The place where you broadcast your music and brand to the world, and where your fans should come to congregate.

Learning intermediate levels of web design layout, HTML and CSS coding will be a great benefit to you, and a huge money saver.

Getting professionally designed websites can be expensive, if you can customize a WordPress layout on your own, while still making it look one of a kind, you are already on your way.

Photography

Take a photography class and learn the basics.

While you might want to splurge on a professional photographer for your main press photos, this is still a great skill to have for everything from taking great pictures on tour, to constant content for you website.

Graphic Design

Get a copy of Photoshop, or similar design software, and learn the basics. This will help you with everything from general design sense, to poster layouts, cd artwork, and more.

An understanding of the different file types is also a great advantage when you are dealing with print houses and trying to get artwork printed at a certain quality.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t hire professionals. However, you can’t afford professionals all the time, so buy their services when it really counts, and do what you can on your own the other times.

Writing

Learn to write. This is an important one.

Improved writing skills will help you with everything from biography writing and blogger email requests to song lyrics and engaging tour stories for your fans.

Video Editing

With the dominance of YouTube and the rise of videosongs as an art-form, it would be a good idea to get your hands on some video editing software, and learn how to use it.

This can help you with everything from editing together your own videos to creating tour stories and live videos of you on the road.

This is just a small portion of the skills that will help out your music career. It goes on much longer than this.

But, don’t be overwhelmed by this list. Pick one skill that vaguely interests you and take it from there.

Grab a book from the library, or read a blog on the subject and get started. It’s always my philosophy to learn as much as you can, while you can. You can watch TV later.

What other areas of expertise do you think would help your music career?

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Image by: Chris Riebschlager