My Theory About How To Achieve a Successful Career in Music

So, here's the big question...is it possible to make a living as a musician?


Without hesitation, my answer is a flat out yes. I have been a full time musician now since 1998 and I have managed to make a middle class living with it. But, this has not come without a price.


First of all, there is the fact that I have next to no social life at all. The reason? I spend so much time either researching opportunities for performances, or actually performing that, when I finally do have some rare free time, all I want to do is either sleep or spend a little time with my family.

Secondly, there are the rigors that my body must constantly go through. There are many late nights and, with a young daughter to raise, very early mornings. This means that I the average amount of nightly sleep I'm able to get is far below what most people experience (I average about 4 hours to 5 hours of sleep a night). I have little down time because I must constantly be doing things to keep the ball rolling. Not to mention, some of the harsh environmental conditions I have been submitted to...ie, doing high energy outdoor shows in blazing 100 degree weather, with little time to hydrate or even eat because of the lack of time available to set up. The list goes on and on.

Before I go any further, I would like to make PERFECTLY CLEAR that I am NOT complaining. I am simply trying to enlighten those who do not understand what it takes to do this for a living. I lovingly call these folks "civilians".


Now, I would like to get to the point of this blog post, which is to share my thoughts as to what I feel it now takes to have a successful career in music, especially in this new millennium and digital age that we are in. I feel that there are several ingredients or "conditions" that must exist. They are as follows:

1. 
   
   
   
   You must start young - This is true for ANY musical genre. And, it is gravely important in regards to achieving a highly proficient level on your instrument of choice. This is because if you want to be purely a performer, you are going to spend so much time looking for opportunities that you will find time for practicing rapidly being eaten away.
   




2. 
   
   
   
   You must be able to put a team of people around you - In other words, you will need to think in terms of being a small business and find a way to acquire someone to eventually take care of the researching of venues and performance opportunities, someone to handle certain aspects of your marketing, someone to do the actual phone calls to get you booked, etc.
   
   I know a ton of musicians who read this will probably roll their eyes, but they CANNOT deny the simple fact that, as long as you must do EVERYTHING yourself, there will always be a ceiling as to how much money you can ever earn. It's simple math...the more time you must use up trying to handle the "back office" end of things, the less time is left for the actual performance end of things. The less you perform, the less money you can earn through performing or selling merchandise during that performance.
   
   By the way, how do you compensate this team of people I'm suggesting you have? Well, that is somewhere where one must use the creativity that we are born with as artists, because that money isn't going to be there in the beginning.
   




3. 
   
   
   
   You must become well established and reach a certain level of success by your late 20's - This is another thing that I think a lot of musicians are going to roll their eyes at me about, but I will hold fast in my opinion. The reason I state this is because, as one gets older, and certainly by their mid to late 20's, one will have more financial responsibilities. That's just a fact of life. There is no one out there that can tell me that their level of expenditures has not changed and gotten to be more expensive between the ages of 16 and 26.
   
   So, when I say you must reach a certain level of success, I mean that you must reach a point in your career where you can pay ALL of your bills and still have something left over after you have done so. If you can't do that, then it is time to look at doing something else with your life before you reach your 30's and start to have to worry about even more complicated things like a significant other, or kids, or a house....you get the point.
   




4. 
   
   
   
   You must master time management - I think this one is obvious! Even if you can find other people to take care of some of the other things that you must do, as I mentioned in #2, there are still so many things left to do that you will still have to take care of yourself.
   




5. 
   
   
   
   You must master technology - If you are a musician (or any type of artist) and you don't have a BETTER than average command/knowledge of the internet, computers, social networking, etc. you might as well pack it all in now.
   




6. 
   
   
   
   You must have some sort of game plan - I don't care how many different ways you can say this, but it is simply a fact that if you don't know where you want your destination to be, you can't possibly find a route there!
   




7. 
   
   
   
   You must have a drive that is so strong that it borderlines on fanaticism - This is such an important ingredient! Music and the arts in general are so challenging to make a living at and be successful that I feel that you actually need to be a little bit "crazy" to do it. There are so many factors that are constantly working against you, and you will face so much rejection, and so many people telling you that this or that can't be done (most notably, even some of your closest relatives), that you honestly must have the absolute strongest of convictions to stay the course.
   

So, certainly I think most of the musicians who read this will think I'm full of it or don't know what I'm talking about. But, as I was careful to mention at the top of all of this, this is MY theory or opinion.


Of course, any of this could be completely offset if one were to get super lucky, be discovered or signed to some sort of big record deal. However, these are simply not likely scenarios. The overwhelming majority of musicians and artists out there are "D.I.Y." (Do It Yourself).


So why am I writing all of this?


I'm not doing this to vent my frustrations...I'm not frustrated! I'm doing this because (A) I think "civilians" need to have a better understanding of those of us out there who are serious about what we are doing as artists and that we are not all flakes, as is commonly perceived, and (B) if a young person should happen to stumble upon this blog, and actually take the time to read all of this, I want them to know the honest truth about what being a musician really means...especially if you want to actually make a living at it.


This is not for everybody and it most certainly is not a game. And even if it were a game, this would be chess, not checkers!

by Shenole Latimer

A Little News Update: Vlog Post 26

Possible Crossroads?

I personally believe that there comes a time, at least once in everyone’s life, when there is a special convergence of forces that can dictate the rest of how that person’s life will progress… a crossroads, if you will. I believe I may have reached such a point in my life.


I’ll start with things concerning music.


To date, I have completed several extremely successful tours with my program “What’s All That Jazz About?”. Without exception, every single venue has asked me to make a return. But, what pleases me the most are the connections I’ve made. One connection I am particularly happy to have made is with a musician that I met in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by the name of Daniel Z, who would very much like to become a partner of mine in expanding my programming.


The timing of meeting Daniel is interesting, as I had just been complaining about my lack of help in my endeavors. I had also begun to think about expanding my programming to encompass more venues along the east coast. Plans have also begun towards my first sortie into the west coast.


Then there are some physical matters that have been of recent concern.


My hands are starting to show the signs of too many hours on the computer in an unnatural position. I have continued numbness in the last three digits of each hand, making it more difficult to type and, most unnervingly, making it more difficult to play my saxophone. But this isn’t where my physical concerns end. I have also been experiencing light-headedness, shortness of breath, and some weakness on a few of my recent performances when it has been the hottest and I have had to perform outdoors. Interestingly enough, I usually feel better after eating some food.


Could this be a sign of diabetes, high blood pressure, or even heart disease? One thing I know is that my body is clearly trying to tell me that it is nearing its limits pertaining to the type of daily abuse it must endure in order to maintain self-employment as a fulltime musician.


Now I shall move into an occurrence that is more of a personal nature.


When I was about two months old, my mother and father decided to separate from each other. Absolutely all contact was lost with my father and I was subsequently raised by my mother and grandmother. Later, my stepfather George Clark stepped into the picture. Unfortunately, my stepfather passed away on August 6, 2010. In any case, growing up, I had always had a curiosity about my biological father. I wanted to know who he was, how I may be similar or dissimilar to him, and whether or not I may have any half-brothers and sisters.


Just recently, in what seemingly would only be nearly impossible feat, I managed to find my biological father! Not only that, but I have also found out that I have seven half-brothers and sisters. I have met all of my siblings except my youngest brother, who was on a trip to Bolivia with his mother, and two of my sisters who live in Canada and that the rest of my family had lost touch with within the past few years. And, of course, I have had the opportunity to meet my father face to face.


One of the things that I find so striking is that none of the males on my father’s side of the family, not counting my youngest brother because he is only 6 years old, are shorter than six feet, three inches tall. Another thing that I find interesting is how similar my father, my two oldest brothers, and I are to each other. That is to say, that all four of us have the spirit of an entrepreneur, are intelligent, are very computer and internet savvy, and are readily comfortable talking to and approaching people.


So what is the point of all of this?


All of these things have occurred within an incredibly short amount of time, making me feel like there is both a convergence of forces taking place in my life, and that I am at an important crossroads of sorts. I have this strong sensation that the decisions I make at this juncture can have a massive impact on the rest of my life. There are other factors and occurrences that I have omitted for the sake of saving time and space within this blog entry, but suffice it to say that there are too many things, that potentially carry great significance to me, that are happening all at once or in near synchronicity.


My situation reminds me of the “choose your own adventure” books that were popular when I was a young teenager. Do I step into one doorway of the unknown or the other? The thing is, this time I can’t cheat and look ahead at what awaits me.





By Shenole Latimer

New Life for "Shenole Latimer.Com"!

Since October of 2010, I've been saying that I was working on an updated version of my website and that it would be launched "soon".

Well, 8 months later I'm finally on the threshold of the relaunch of www.shenolelatimer.com . To find out more, check out the video for some details and I'll see you at the relaunch!

By Shenole Latimer

Back on Track!

Two weeks ago marks FIVE YEARS since I had completed recording my last album and this coming October will mark FIVE YEARS since my last album was commercially released! Last year I had geared up to do my sophomore album as a band leader, only to have to put the project on hold.

What has been the hold up?

Life!

My original intent with this upcoming album was to call it "A Day in the Life of...", but with all of these delays, I feel like calling it "A Decade in the Life of..."! So anyway, at long last things are back on track, Tierra Records is happy, I'm happy, and the guys in my quartet are all ready to get going.

The music for this project will once again be a little more ecclectic than most jazz recordings. This time, it isn't because I'm trying to show off my versatility as a musician. Actually, the ecclectic collection of selections comes from the fact that (A) this album will be comprised by all original compositions of mine and (B) I did not try to force any of the songwriting to make it all sound like the same style of jazz or what have you. I simply wrote each song the way I heard it inside my head.

I don't know what that says about what's going on inside my head!

The actual recording date has not quite been set yet, but I can say that the recording will take place in October, 2011. In fact, I can narrow things down a little more for you and say that there is a 99% probability that the recording will take place sometime during the week of October 23rd. I just haven't decided on which day yet (we will be tracking the album all in one marathon recording session over the course of a 12 hour day).

Once the tracking is done, it will probably take anywhere between 2 and 4 months to mix the album, about another 2 or 3 weeks for it to be mastered and shipped to manufacturing, and finally about another 2 or 3 weeks for it to be available for ordering and download. So, with all of that said, the actual release will most likely be sometime within the first half of 2012. Who knows, maybe the release date will end up being on the anniversary of the recording date of my previous album...making it SIX YEARS since I recorded "Front and Center". There are a lot of variables in play, but the main thing is to get the tracking done.

By the way, the line up will be Art Hirahara on piano, Thomson Kneeland on bass, Kyle Struve holding down the drums, and of course me on saxophones. There might be a track with some guitar on it, and possibly one with mandolin, but I haven't made a final decision on those tracks yet.

In any case, all I can say is that I'm just real happy that things are back on track and that it looks like I will finally have a chance to follow through with this project!

Stay tuned for more news about "A Day in the Life of..."!

by Shenole Latimer

February, 2011 Tour: Reflecting Back

Well it is now March and I've been home from my first tour of the year for 2 weeks. Actually, that isn't entirely acurate because I've really only been home for 1 full week. As soon as I came home from my tour, I had to hit the road again for a few days because of some performances I had in New Jersey and also in Buffalo, New York.


In any case, now that I've had a quick second to breath, I figured now wouldn't be a bad time to reflect upon the tour and how I think things went. It's true that, every single time I go out on the road, I learn something new. This tour would be no exception!


I guess the first thing I should do is mention that, as a whole, this tour had to have been my most successful to date. Not only was I very well received in all of the new regions I visited, I managed to meet some wonderful people and make a number of great connections in new markets for me. I even had the chance to do a few things that weren't planned, like getting on stage and singing with Jefferson Starship during their concert at the Magic City Casino in Miami, meeting Bonnie Tyler and spending some time with her and her husband in their tour bus, and even seeing old friends that I haven't seen in years.


It certainly was my most ambitious to date, with 26 bookings in 17 cities located over a total of 5 states in the southeastern portion of the United States. However, beyond my blanket statement of, "everything went great", here are some things I learned, observed, etc.:

1. 
   
   What To Pack? - This is something I agonize over everytime I have to hit the road. It doesn't have so much to do with what clothes I should bring, but more so with how much equipment should I take along. I'm slowing learning where the areas are that I can compromise with in regards to bringing certain items.
   
   The main thing is, I need to have a good understanding of the venues involved. That enables me to figure out what is the maximum and minimum audio requirements I'll need. This tour was probably the best I've done in that department, but I do see room for improvement and will undoubtedly be able to take even less gear next time around.
   
   


2. 
   
   Eating Habbits - I have actually got eating down to a science! I've been watching what I eat anyway, because I'm trying to loose weight. In october I reached the heaviest I have ever been in my life...275lbs! Since October and watching my diet, I have lost about 40lbs, but would like to loose about another 30lbs. My goal for my 6'3" frame is to reach the 205lbs.
   
   That said, I mostly ate chicken and turkey instead of beef, rice, a variety of vegitables, and drank mostly water. If I did have fast food, it was either Panera Bread, Chipotle, or Boston Market. The time I had to get away from this a bit was when I was in the deep South...the pan handle of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Pretty much the only choices I had regarding food was either deep fried or came in the form of "all-yo-can-eat" buffets.
   
   Lastly, it seems that the $25/day food allowance that I set for my tour budget is the magic number. I was able to eat just fine and actually ended up spending less than $25 a day on a number of occasions.
   
   


3. 
   
   Rest Habbits - This tour was the most well rested, over all, I have been on a tour...ever! That's not to say that I wasn't particularly tired on a few occasions, but I managed to schedule my appearances in a way that allowed me to have more time to get from city to city. The result was that I was often in a location I needed to be in the day before the engagement I had, which allowed me to sleep in more.
   
   Also, this is the first tour where I decided to follow a "6 hour rule". In other words, any day that I needed to drive more than 6 hours would not have an engagemnt booked for it. This worked very well for me and I plan on implimenting this rule on all future tours.
   
   Regarding bedtime, I imposed a curfew of 11pm on myself for evenings where I had to do "significant" driving the next day (2 hours of driving or more), and a curfew of Midnight for evenings where my appearances for the next day were all within a "regional" driving distance (less than 2 hours of driving).
   
   


4. 
   
   Help with Merchandise - This is a problem that has plagued me since day one of any of my performances, let alone my tours. More often than not, I don't have someone to sell my CDs for me while I talk to fans and people who have questions for me after a show or educational presentation.
   
   I can't even count how many times I am surrounded by folks who want to ask me a question or just have a comment after an appearance. And, while I'm being talked to, I see several people with money in their hands, who are waiting to buy a CD, turn around and give up because the wait got to be too much. Turning people away while they are talking to me, so that I can take care of some CD sales, is far more easier said than done.
   
   The only REAL solution is to have somebody sell my CDs while I'm talking to folks. The problem is, I don't make enough money to hire somebody and have them tag along with me during a tour. There's the volunteer route, but there's issues with that as well. This is a little something that I will certainly have to sit down and spend some time on to resolve, because I'm missing out on a large number of CD sales opportunities.
   
   
   
5. A Place for Everything - An important lesson that I learned during the tour I had in April of 2010 was to always have a specific place that I keep things so that it's easier to know if I'm missing something or not. I learned this the hard way when I lost both my cell phone and my wallet during that tour. Fortunately, I was able to back-track and figure out where I left my cell phone, but I never was able to recover my wallet.
   
   This time around, I had very specific places that I always kept things like my Flip video camera, digital audio recorder, etc. However, I still managed to leave my Ipod behind on a gig. But, because I had place a little extra wiggle room in my budgeting for the tour, just incase any emergencies came up, I had plenty of money to replace the lost Ipod with a new one and then I simply reloaded it with everything from my back-up Itunes library.
   
   
   
6. Family - As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I personally believe that the hardest thing about being a musician is spending long stretches of time away from home. With this past February 2011 tour being the longest time I've been on the road to date, I think I have found the limit for the amount of time that I feel I can stand to be away from my wife and, in particular, my 2 year old daughter.
   
   I doubt that I will book any future tours that will go past 3 weeks away from home...unless of course there is some real SERIOUS money to be made.

So, to round things up, touring has so far proven to be a great part of my developement as an artist, because going on the road has a special way of sharpening your skills that you simply can't achieve at home or in a practice room. Also, expanding into new areas seems to be the next phase for me anyway, since I have pretty much covered all of the bases in the New York metro area.


But, more to the point, this particular tour was a hugely rewarding experience that provided me with another platform to gain new fans, meet some wonderful people, and broaden my network. Not to mention, I was able to learn some important lessons and gain valuable insight that I can put to use with my future tours.


And so, onward to my April, 2011 Tour!






by Shenole Latimer

The Hardest Thing

It's been a while since my last post. This is mostly because I've been so busy with performances, booking appearances for 2011, upgrading my website, and a laundry list of other things that would be too long and boring to go on and on about.

But here I sit, in my hotel room in Columbia, South Carolina, at the beginning of my first tour of 2011, and I've been giving deeper thought to a question that someone asked me earlier today.

"What's the hardest thing about being a musician," was a question that a gentleman asked me, who has a son thinking about majoring in music in college. Of course, I explained that the level of competition is extremely intense and that it isn't enough to be really good at your instrument. I also mentioned the thick skin needed for the numerous rejections one receives over the course of time. However, now that I think of it, none of those things are the hardest thing about being a musician...at least for me.

To me, the hardest thing about being a musician is leaving my family and loved ones for weeks at a time when traveling for tours.

Touring isn't the partying night after night that MTV, VH1, and the movies like to portray it as. Just like everything else about being a musician, it's A LOT OF WORK! In order for a tour to be profitable, you need to cram in as many performances within a given time span that you can. In the case of the tour I'm on at this very moment, I will be doing 26 engagements, in about 17 cities, in 5 states, over the span of 3 weeks.

Yes, going on a tour is exciting, but if you were to ask me if I'd rather go on tour or stay home and spend time with my wife and daughter, then that is a complete no brainer...stay home, of course! There are things that help bridge the distance...Skype, for example. I always look forward to calling my family on Skype because then we can both hear and SEE each other. But it's still not the same as actually being there.

When you're traveling far from home and leaving family behind, there are the added stresses of wondering if everything is alright back home, did you forget to take care of anything important before you left, etc.

In any case, I guess I should wrap up this blog post. I'm looking to go to bed early. It's just that I found it funny that, as much as I was excited to be able to go on this tour (or any of the other tours I've been on for that matter), I'm just as excited, if not more so, to get back home to play with my daughter and spend time with my wife.

By Shenole Latimer