My Best Advice to a Young Musician Trying To Get Their First Hit – Sure, I’ll Tackle That Question : Not long ago, I met an acquaintance at the local coffee shop, he was an artist, specifically he was a musician with an incredible voice, a small band, and specialized in playing the guitar. He had been working for many of the local businesses in the area getting gigs to play in coffee shops and a wedding here and there, but he was also working on his own music, and a few songs he’d come up with.
They were decent, he played one for me, and it was quite good. He had placed it on YouTube, along with a couple of others, but unfortunately he wasn’t getting the number of hits he wish he had.
What I mean is none of his songs on YouTube have gone viral yet. I suppose they will in the future. He asked me if I had any advice for a young musician trying to get his first hit. I actually do, and although I am not a musician myself I’d like to put that advice out here in this article for others to read. Specifically I’d like to recommend a very good book;
“This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession,” by Daniel J Levitin.
You see, there is more to having a great song which touches people’s emotional soul than just a good voice and a good command of your musical instruments.
You can learn all about cadence and rhythm, tenure and pace, but if you don’t understand how the brain works or the brain waves and biorhythms of the human body flow you may not be able to tap into the place you need to be when you deliver your carefully orchestrated lyrics with perfect pitch and inflection.
You must understand why music predates human writing and language. Yes, some people just have a feel for it, and occasionally they come up with that perfect song with the perfect rhythm, and it just feels right, and it works. Still, it’s important to know why it is working, and to have full command when creating your first hit.
Well, that is the advice I gave to the young man, and I believe he understood and is starting to understand why sometimes when playing in front of audiences everyone was tuned in, and he felt in such control, and why sometimes the audience turned off, stopped listening, and it was obvious that whatever he was singing and the music he was producing just wasn’t working. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.