9 Warning Signs of an Amateur Artist

[hibidy]

4dmind? Nah, he's just pointing out that it was an interesting article.

I'm a pessimist. When I see something like this, I read between the lines. It's annoying to me that this reads as a typical "how to lose those extra pounds" article.

But It's not like they are BAD points. It's just so one dimensional.

[bailees7irish]

Makes some sense, doesn't say anything of long term. How many artists have tried hard, put long hours & made good commercial releases, got a lot of money, and suddenly they are uninspired. That's pathetic.

Agreed.

[bailees7irish]

the very foundation of the article is flawed.

"I’m not talking about if you have a corporate sponsorship or whether or not you are earning the big bucks"

the one and ONLY requirement of being a "professional" anything...is that you get paid for it, i.e....it is your profession. the rest is incidental.

things you do NOT need to be a professional artist:

talent
skill
creativity
drive
commitment
knowledge of art

sure...those things will help you (maybe), and you probably wouldnt even be in a position to to be a professional artist without at least a couple of them, but not a single one is a requirement. there are plenty of professional artists who have none of those things. especially in the entertainment industry.

[zethus909]

sounds about right!

[4damind]

I wonder if the OP think he's an amateur or a pro based on this list?

It's not my list, I posted only the link because it shares some interesting ideas I've heard also from other commercial successful artists. To give it some names... Boris Blank (Yello) stated he has his studio time every day from 9 to 6pm. Same with Christopher von Deylen (Schiller) he works more in the early morning but stated that creative stuff must be ready at 6pm. Both having a time frame in the studio and that's also why they have so much output. This shares this "Amateur Artists work until something else comes up" part.

I would not focus too much to this "amateur vs professional" thing and would see more the ideas behind this.
This "Amateur Artists wait for Inspiration" for example... the main point is not to wait for the right mood to make music. It's also somewhere written in this article that it needs often a "warm-up exercise until their fickle muse finds them worthy of her attention". Something where I would agree too! It's often this thing to break the deadlock where the mood is bad, no inspiration, no ideas... but very often the mood/ideas/inspiration comes back after some time of playing with sounds etc. (yes, it's to overcome the inner temptations).

For this "Amateur Artists believe that success will happen quickly" it's not the title, it's the content which follows like this sentence: "While an amateur artist believes that it will only take a year or two to create their reputation and have their career take off, a professional artists knows that this process will often take much longer than they imagine so they understand the importance of getting started immediately."
We all know that in real life most artists needs years to have a first (commercial) success so I agree with the importance of getting started immediately and yes.... people starting with music often believe that (commercial) success will happen quickly which is in most cases not true.

and so on...

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

agreed that 'working when you don't feel like it' can be 'productive'.

lol at the bit about 'reading books and taking workshops'; that did remind me of 'surfing internet forums'.

'never being 'done'... i've seen that; have even lived that. i've seen it to such extremes, that a person will talk about what they're going to do, and never do anything. it could be that the 'perfect creation' is best left as a theory or concept, and that actually creating leads to some inevitable messiness. in any event, i find that it's tough to compete while comparing my own, existing wips with such perfect theories and ideas from non-starting artists.

the part about 'needing to listen to other artists' music' is not always true. i've read of successful musicians who have consciously blocked out all other music, in order to find a music all their own.

many parts of the article -- focus, marketing, avoiding isolation, scheduling, etc. -- do seem to be at least partially true. ymmv

[jancivil]

Boris Blank (Yello) stated he has his studio time every day from 9 to 6pm. Same with Christopher von Deylen (Schiller) he works more in the early morning but stated that creative stuff must be ready at 6pm. Both having a time frame in the studio and that's also why they have so much output.

Amazing! More time working means more output. WHO KNEW

[nasenmann]

The "fickle muse" part i definitely agree with absolutely. I need that warmup most of the time, even though it can be immensely frustrating.

I think it's one valid strategy to turn your music making into a more regular job, go to your studio like you'd go to the office. It's ok to suggest that.

Another valid strategy is to do completely different things and find out which things tend to put you in a more inspired mood, then find the right timing to channel that into your music making.

Personally, i'm at a stage right now where i want to learn to combine these two approaches better. I had a pretty productive period for the first third of the year or so, not without blocks, but i could muster the focus to get past them.
Right now, i'm pretty frustrated with the whole sequencing deal again. Instead of trying to break through the wall, i've switched it up and started playing the keys more, without any intent of recording yet.
I think it's most apparent with live instruments how a nice walk outside or a good conversation can result in more fluent and relaxed creative output.

Now to carry that over to my sequencing...ugh, not easy. Ideally, I wanna record more and click less notes in, but my sloppy playing still hampers my confidence.

[Macangelo]

Xcellent article...
I loved it...

[stanlea]

Amateurs post on KVR instead of working their art.

Seriously, this article reminds me of the old Selection of Reader's digest philosophy back in the 60's or before. Same old bullshit, same arguments that proselysts use, dust for the brain, nothing to comment here.

99% of such internet opinion writings are crap and tend to laminate brains at a middle-morron level.

[vurt]

A interesting article I've found with very good and helpful points to be more successful as an artist.

http://skinnyartist.com/9-warning-signs ... ur-artist/

may I ask what your definition of a successful artist is?

someone who doesnt make their bed.

[Shabdahbriah]

A interesting article I've found with very good and helpful points to be more successful as an artist.

http://skinnyartist.com/9-warning-signs ... ur-artist/

may I ask what your definition of a successful artist is?

someone who doesnt make their bed.

: someone who can't find their bed.

[trimph1]

A interesting article I've found with very good and helpful points to be more successful as an artist.

http://skinnyartist.com/9-warning-signs ... ur-artist/

may I ask what your definition of a successful artist is?

someone who doesnt make their bed.

: someone who can't find their bed.

Can't find their hotel.....

[The_Hidden_Goose]

To me, "professional" means that it's your profession. Your job. Not just that you make some money from it.

I'm an amateur by their and my own definition and will never be a professional musician. If I did it as a job I would very quickly dislike doing it and be looking elsewhere (this has happened for other hobbies of mine that are translatable into a career or profession).

If you want to make it your job/career/profession then the points made in the article are mostly pretty valid, and read more like common sense wrapped up in self-help lingo. There are one or two points that I thought were too general and couldn't apply to everyone in either camp and I feel they didn't really mark a professional or amateur distinctly.

I'm alright with being an amateur. I'm alright with people who are making some money from it being an amateur. Professional art doesn't mean better art.

[Hink]

A interesting article I've found with very good and helpful points to be more successful as an artist.

http://skinnyartist.com/9-warning-signs ... ur-artist/

may I ask what your definition of a successful artist is?

someone who doesnt make their bed.

...good to see you vurt