I am having a little bit unusual Sunday. There is so much sport on TV that there was no point in competing with it, and Sliotar’s Sunday show got canceled. I don’t know what to do with my self 😀 But I am not complaining. I had a productive week and taking an extra day off at the end of it might just be a good thing. So today my trusty old guitar rests 🙂

This week I got a little bit ahead of the game 🙂 I got few new songs recorded, mixed and mastered, and kept writing new songs. Also the blog posts had a nice flow to them. But from some strange reason I also seemed to stumble on a lot of inspirational stuff, which some I shared with you guys on my blog.

And I had my ear to the ground, when it came to spotting out the lessons on the way:

1. I learned that it is our ego that often hold us back and learning how to put it a side can be a hard lesson, but well worth it.
2. I learned the importance of salt on ketogenic diet 😉
3. I learned the price of skipping your exercise routine for few months.
4. I learned the importance and the rewards behind sometimes pushing your self that little bit harder.

And most of these lessons made their way into this weeks blog post, so let’s get straight in to it:

This weeks song has a funny story to go with it, and it seems to have resonated with you guys. Check it out the story and listen to the song here and grab a download on my Bandcamp page:

Broke And Out Of Coffee

On Monday I wrote a blog post on a subject that has been on my mind a lot lately. We worry so much about how to monetize music, that we forget about the art. Are we trying to cage art in to a product?

Are we caging art into a product?

We all have ego, and getting up on front of a crowd to sing your heart out does take balls, no doubt about it. But it is often that ego that holds us back as well:

Quick tip 191 Harness your ego

The mindset you approach things with affects everything. Read all about it here:

Think positive and dream big

I believe artists need to offer value past the traditional products in the music business:

Quick tip 192 Offer value past the physical product

In the past few weeks Irish singer-songwriter Hozier made the front page news in the music business as he was accused of plagiarism. Now the whole case has been sorted and the accusations dropped followed by apologies. But the case got me thinking how we might need to  relax about the subject a bit. read more here:

The so-called plagiarism

I actually got just a little bit ahead of the game this week. I did it by working hard to make time:

Quick tip 193 Work hard to make time

I came across this beautiful short film during the week. It got me thinking how we all should ask our selves if we can do better, what ever it is that we do:

Can you do better?

This week a really got reminded of the value of hard work. Read all about it here:

Quick tip 194 Work hard!

As an independent artist you can work hard, tour, promote record, spread the good word, but if your songs are not up to scratch, it’s all for nothing:

Quick tip 195 Get good at Songwriting

Being an artist can be one of the most rewarding professions in the world. The simple fact that you are privileged to do it in the first place, makes you want to try to push yourself as hard as you can. This can lead to a constant internal struggle. I wrote this post as to show my fellow artist and musicians with the desire to grow, that they are not alone in their struggle.

In search for the path of balance

So there we go. Thanks for sticking around this far 🙂 One more thing, as I mentioned before, if you like what I do, consider supporting me on Patreon. This week I posted a video on my Patreon page that you can check out HERE. The video is a glimpse into some of the stuff that I share regularly with the patrons, so consider pledging. You can start from as little as $1 a month. You guys make all this worth my while. Keep doing what you do and I’ll talk to you soon.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE