 Hi guys, this is Jason here from Nathaniel and here are 10 suggestions which are tips Which I have for musicians during this time of the the corona virus Which is hitting everyone and just forcing us all to stay home and be isolated, but There's a lot you can do with technology with social media to Keep working hard as an artist and also touching lives as well touching the fans of music Who will continue to love music and at this time more than ever it's important to get things out there and get people to to unwind and Take their minds of what's going on as well, right? So here are 10 I would say 10 into 5 tips for For for all your musicians out there try to set up something in your home to record music Something like a bedroom studio assemble a basic set of gear like a microphone you can get a dynamic microphone like an sm57 for about 6000 bucks Indian rupees Get a cable or a couple of them a DAW for recording Try a free one like Reaper because what you don't have to spend much reapers are very good software and can do the job for you And a couple of affordable or free virtual instruments that will also help you going if you use MIDI, right? All of you would have a lot of musical ideas right in your head Seeds as I call them something which you would have recorded on the phone a voice memo app Or Basically anything and you would have some thoughts running through you, right? use the studio In your bedroom, which is now where you're going to set it up to just sort of plant and grow these seeds so record them Even if it's not professional just record them keep them and hear them back it can really inspire you and To learn recording and to just get into production if you're new try rearranging a cover That can really help you could take any song you like and if you have a couple of bandmates Work with them, right? You could send them what we call a stems which are Basically each individual track as a mono or a stereo or MIDI you could send it to your Musician friends or bandmates and work together. It's a lot of fun, right? And try to learn a few things about production I'm sure you you perhaps play an instrument like the piano guitar or you sing try and learn a little bit about production because In this time you you really need to learn technology. I think that will really help you moving forward So learn how to record learn a bit of midi Perhaps learn how to optimize your stage rig, right? This could be a good time to get that going your processors your your tech basically, right? Learn a bit of looping And of course maybe a little bit of mixing effects and stuff like that, right? And you always have YouTube and a lot of other online resources to help you learn further, right? So that's about a studio what I call a bedroom studio now, right? Point number two be adventurous and collaborate, right? Everyone's at home use the internet So reach out to all the musician friends, you know in the country or globally this touch base with them you know ask them how they're doing what they're working on and Get get them to work on some of your music if you have originals or some some track You want to work on and also offer to work on this. I'm sure it's a great time to collaborate, right? Don't brand yourself as just an instrumentalist or a singer, you know think outside the box You could find people in other industries, which you have not really worked with like theater, maybe ads short films radio and so on and so forth and This may be a good time to think of something new and fresh that you could contribute to The field right and it's all free. It's just it's just your mind working So get that pumping in order to work with people and collaborate during this time try to set up a few technical aspects around you like You'll have to learn maybe a video conferencing tool like Skype or zoom try to learn that well Get get to know a few music apps which a lot of which are there on phones like For example music memos if you have an app like that on an iPhone Well, which is pretty much free use that and learn how to use it. It's quite an inspiring singer-songwriter tool You may also Download few things like a metronome a few loops practice tracks things like that, right cloud storage Very very important if you're working on music if you're recording collaborating Perhaps you want to bump up your Google Drive subscription or Dropbox something like that And anything else which will help you work with people remotely basically right point number three I think you should try to rediscover yourself By going back to your roots, right play some of the songs which have Inspired you, you know during your formative years Especially when we were kids we tended to learn a lot faster and taken a lot more information So whatever you liked listening to it you could have been part of a choir. So get back to that choral music or You may have played another instrument growing up possibly right go back and start playing that Okay Figure out why you loved all those songs, right? Figure out what made all those songs inspire you. That's a great learning path Right most of all those artists or bands have made you who you are today So try to go back to these artists and ultimately those have formed your strengths as a guitar player or as a musician in general So try to focus on those strengths as you practice okay Try to also rearrange some of those songs, right try to not play it exactly as it is you could try rearranging it and Go back to some of the old workflows the old ways in which you used to You know arrange and discover music, right and another tip Now use all your favorite bands. So if you liked, let's say Metallica try to find artists similar to Metallica try to listen to them and since you've already had a way you already sort of Digest Metallica's music. You already know how to play their riffs, you know a bit of how they think you can also widen your You know growth by trying to find new artists which are fairly similar to Whichever artist your you've been inspired by growing up, right? Point number four time to practice, right? You're all in your homes. You don't have much to do. I guess You're not gigging that often or probably not gigging at all. So yeah practice It's it's something we all need to do as musicians. So Focus on all your strengths make all your strengths stronger and Convert those weaknesses which you you know have always been worried about now is the time to just enjoy Practicing and convert all those weaknesses into strengths You might want to prepare like a very organized practice regiment during this time like give yourself Maybe six days to practice take a day off or whatever chilling with Family or watching Netflix or whatever you like doing. I mean Basically one day off from music it also helps and that allows you to really maximize those six days Which you put in right and when you're practicing music Try to make a list of all the aspects of music music theory year training Focusing on rhythm or timing improving your improvisation Growing your repertoire right Practicing how to read music site reading working on backing tracks or anything else which you sort out to do and probably didn't have a lot of time earlier, right and Yeah, by practicing music getting back to that whole regiment of doing that You also kind of remember how how how fun it is to play your instrument in the first place You're not playing it because of a goal or anything You're just playing it because you love playing it and you just love that that that that thrill or that rush which it gives you right of It's sort of like playing a sport in some ways you you play a Game and you sweat it out, but I mean that's fun. Isn't it? Okay? And yeah use YouTube Make a list of all your online resources which you could benefit from and Focus on subjects that interest you and start practicing them Right point number five discover your own sound Try to focus on your own music. Just compose. Just try and see how that works, right? Maybe you've been doing a lot of covers some commercial stuff Well, you can't do that now. So just compose make music. It's a lot of fun. Isn't it, right? Yeah, and keep writing, you know when when the world goes back to normal I'm sure you'll have a lot of new refreshing stuff, which you could start digging with When when everything returns back to normal. So be patient that that's very important at this time If you're doing a cover try to learn from the cover and try to put your own stamp on the cover you're trying to do very very important, right? And don't focus entirely on, you know, riding the wave Don't look at emulating people focus on what you like to do Focus on what made you who you are focus on your strengths, right? And yeah, just do that and Try to try to go against some of the usual musical norms right improvise go out of your comfort zone and just enjoy the music you play The including the bum notes as well, right point six unearth your unreleased works of art So with all your gigs and touring you might have forgotten all the awesome songs you wrote and you know Have never released wake them up very very important, right? And maybe make folders in your computer divide your content as Recorded but unmixed slash mastered you've not sent it to that final hurdle Maybe it's like a scratch idea, but then it's not produced Maybe get to producing it or produced but just not yet released. Maybe it's just waiting Or it's underlies because there's no video music video. So what just release it and Let people hear it and enjoy Or maybe it's just residing on your voice memos app. Just find all that name it and And start Getting it out there right and give yourself maybe a tough goal like something to Give you a good distraction and push you at the same time and EP or Maybe even a full-length album if you if you can collaborate with your friends and get it done, right? Check all your prehistoric emails Some of your old hard drives forgotten cloud folders You never know there might be some forgotten ideas there which you could start bringing out right and You need to really respect the music or rather your music you need to respect it and don't judge it based on how Popular it will get it doesn't matter Especially at this time. So just get it out there Streaming platforms are still working. So get it out there now work on it all the best Right point number seven teach and share So with all the gigging a lot of musicians depend on gigging right for pretty much your main source of income So you might want to consider teaching to help pay those bills and sort out all your overheads so make a list of all your musical skills, whatever you can offer and prepare like a basic resume pretty much for yourself and then share that with people and Now with teaching you'll have to do it online. You can't do any classes in person. Obviously, so set up I mean, I'm sure you have an internet connection, but just Maybe a right time to get to internet connections if one if one fails. So See if that's possible Learn a few softwares which will help you teach video editing softwares as well because Ultimately, you're gonna shoot a video like this and then you have to put it into an app and do some basic editing, right? learn Skype or zoom which will help you to Broadcast or conference with your students Also learn the DAW for audio touch-ups You might want to learn a little bit of camera Or if your phone camera works well and good and also some accessories which you might need for all this like cables Anything anything to just help Organize everything and tighten things up for your classes the eighth suggestion. I have is to seek fan support, right? We as musicians are very passionate about serving the community at large So we generally pitch in so it's not wrong to Ask for help during these times from your fans or followers, right? Offer your fans something cool and unique if possible like your merchandise some artwork, right? private Skype or online gig or something right? Or anything else you have to offer besides your gigs which you anyway are going to do soon Right try to grow your existing fan base Maybe through some of your loyal followers who can help you bring in more people into your community and Release a ton of music at this time. I think this is the time for Recordings to increase more right because gigs have stopped so Release some music and ask people to support you Put it out on streaming platforms. Yes, but you can also use Tools like patreon, which is a website which where you can request your fans to Support you right for the work you do so give them music and ask request some loyal fans to support you I'm sure that works out for so many people, right? And this is also the possibly a time to work together so find similar artists maybe who have the same musical vibe as you and Develop some nice creative content, which you could Share and engage with with your mutual followers or fans right point number nine use social media really well Now some of us old-school musicians myself included Prefer to stay away from all this stuff, but now you need it more than ever There's no option so post regular content consider going live on Instagram Facebook YouTube as well right and why not do some online gigs just get out your guitar and just play and sing I see a lot of My bandmates and friends doing that I think it's a very good practice to to keep sharing music Right, even if you're just playing the guitar and singing it really helps people to unwind and other music fans to Just enjoy and not keep thinking of the news, you know and all this other stuff right Yeah online gigs a lot of famous artists are already doing this like I saw John Mayer I saw quite a few artists so so get that done and study a little bit about social media Especially if you're an old-school musician and yeah, just study about it a bit figure out how to Approach the entire ecosystem Okay, the the world is always a better place through music, right? So do not stop sharing right that will definitely inspire people it will also touch a lot of lives So do not stop playing your music if you play the guitar Just keep playing it and sharing it right so social media is the only tool right now Which can help us do all this right? So the final point will be to pretty much stay positive, right? Not musically related of course, but but very important one thing I have been doing Recently is just sweating it out doing some kind of exercise Be it going for runs walks, you know as far as it is permitted Cycling or any other solo activities of course You can also do a lot of things at home like workouts or yoga if that works for you and Exercising I think just makes everything positive You you sort of clear your mind and can just tackle the day as though it's a new day Focus on some of your other talents as well You may be a musician as I'm sure but what about some art which you used to do get back to theater Get back to writing Tech cooking Well, I think I'm gonna learn cooking from my mom now at this time that could work a chess or anything Anything you'd like to do which you which you were damn good at earlier, right? So don't forget all that just because you are an awesome musician, right? Use the downtime you have to touch base Obviously online with old friends colleagues family Learn about the world in general try to not distance yourself from the happenings around you and the world at large and Finally, yeah Like all of us take care of all your loved ones be very aware of everything which is going on React promptly to all the changes around you and stay strong. Cheers and I will catch you soon