artist

Mental coaching is dark and dangerous! 2

Mental coaching is quite common in sports. Many athletes use it to enhance their performances. They become more motivated and happier with mental coaching, they are more focused, run faster, react quicker. The effect of mental coaching has been proven by the registered improvement of the performances. With artists it’s different, especially with rock-musicians and DJ’s. While athletes perform at daytime, rock musicians and DJ’s are creatures of the night. They love the darkness. Many musicians are afraid that the […]

Art is trial-and-error

Last week I got a bit philosophical, with the flu clouding my head. Somehow I could accept from myself to be less than 100% perfect. And while looking around me, I noticed that everyone is actually messing around a bit, trying to adjust to expectations, trying to find a bit of happiness, trying to make ends meet. Even if someone has a great plan, in the end it’s about trial and error. I see the trial-and-error approach with our IT […]

Wake up, rise and shine!

Yesterday I was getting tired on Trump getting the headlines again with one of his discriminating laws. Tired also of all the posts on my FB timeline from people sharing their outrage. You only reach like-minded people with it, so what’s the use of it? Actually, that’s exactly what all these laws are about. They want us to get tired of being outraged, they want us to get used to it! It’s time to wake up. Since January 20, Trump […]

Artist’s passion and burnout

Last month I did a ‘Career Clinic’ about passion and burnout for students of the pop department of Conservatory of Amsterdam, earlier this month I did a masterclass about this subject for students at the Herman Brood Academy in Utrecht. Passion gives you a positive vibe that can protect you against burnout. And the same passion can make you go too far, so you are more likely to burn out. In Amsterdam I talked to a small group of students. […]

A fresh start – how to make it work?

A new year feels like a new start. A clean slate of 12 months. Somehow we all think that in the new year, we will be able to avoid all mistakes and to seize all opportunities, unlike previous years. Every year again, we truly believe that the new year can become different, better. Even after the hang-over on new years day we still believe in it. But how can it become better, if we think and act the same? If […]

Peace and music 1

2016 was a very loud year, especially in politics. It was loud with attacks and with rude political discussions. Last year ended with the attack in Paris, this year we had attacks in Brussels, Nice, Berlin and there was an attempted putsch in Turkey, followed by repression of everyone with a different opinion. The whole world was watching Clinton and Trump on their way to the elections. Putin was loud in bombing hospitals in Syria. We still hear the screaming […]

Limitations – block or inspiration?

How do you deal with limitations? They can become a real block! This week a friend saw a post on FB. One of his friends asked to share bad jokes with him, but the jokes had to be political correct, not racist, not sexist. My friend is a good joke teller and usually has a good pile of jokes in his mind. I think that all his jokes are political correct, not racist, not sexist. But he blanked and couldn’t […]

Positivism and burn-out

When I was giving a guest lecture to students of music management at TAMK last month, the subject was positivism. I planned to tell a lot about research of positive psychology and how that can help artists and people working with them. When comparing people who work with art or artists with people working in other businesses, you see that people who work with art and artists follow their passion. They do what they like. They have a very positive […]

Privacy – we all need a place to hide

We loose more and more of our privacy. We post on Facebook what we do, what we think, where we are. Many apps have access to all contacts on our mobile devices. Google and Facebook know what sites we visit on the internet. But why bother, if we have nothing to hide? Last week I saw a very interesting documentary on TV: “Super Stream Me”. Last year, two Dutch guys, Tim den Besten and Nicolaas Veul, started the experiment to […]

Creative and sensitive

Are you creative? Do you see yourself as an artist? I believe that we are all creative, all of us. We are all born to be creative. It’s what makes us humans. Creativity can be expressed in all facets of life, in the dress you pick to wear today, in the dinner you prepare, in the way to do your work. And of course it shows in paintings, songs, dancing, films. If we are all creative, what makes artists more […]

Enhance social skills of musicians to prevent drug addiction

The most common explanation of drug addiction is, that if you take too long a certain amount of a drug, you will become an addict. It’s the substance that makes you addicted. This theory is the basis that the US war on drugs is based on. But it doesn’t explain why so many famous musicians turn to drugs and have to go to rehab again and again. It doen’t explain why too many talented musicians die of an overdose, like […]

Should athletes learn form musicians?

The Olympics 2016 in Brazil are over. And again it was all about the medals. The Dutch ‘Chef de Mission’ Maurits Hendriks is very disappointed. His task is, according to himself, to motivate the athletes. But they didn’t perform as expected. Very disappointing! What about the Olympic creed? “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The […]

Why “good” can be better than “better”

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. After finishing a task, I always see something that could have bee done better. Do you recognize it? A big advantage is, that you keep improving yourself. Once you manage a certain task, you put the bar higher and higher. Next time you will do it better. You challenge yourself with everything you do. With this attitude, I found it difficult to relax during holiday. I not only wanted to […]

Fame and a cup of coffee

Last year I was talking to a friend about fame. She works in the music business too, with world music artists. Sometimes I wonder why conversations with colleagues from rock/pop are always so worked up, as if they have to proof themselves, all the time. Conversations with colleagues from world music or jazz are much more relaxed. You can also experience it in the atmosphere at conferences for the genres. But that’s a different subject. With a cup of coffee […]

What’s more important, myth or mental health of musicians? 9

Last week The Guardian published an article from Fiona McGugan, general manager of the Music Manager’s Forum, about the mental health of musicians. The article is about the role of managers in noticing and addressing mental health problems of their artists. “Maintaining an artist’s health is in the best interest of everyone – the label and the management as well as the artist themselves.” (Rumer Shirakbari) Still, short-term financial interests of the manager can be in conflict with the long-term […]