Champion the Musician Mindset (15 non-music skills to hone)
Mindset is everything. It’s cliche, but it really does have a powerful impact on our wellbeing and creativity. So welcome to here: how to foster and master the musician mindset.
I’m no expert – no guru – no Buddhist who’s achieved wise enlightenment. But I have studied the things, took the notes, and experienced my fair share of setbacks and rebounds.
One thing that’s clicked and continues to be a heartbeat and rhythm I can reset to is my mindset. It’s like my personal metronome.
So I’m pumped to have you here. I hope this post helps inspire you.
Now let’s get it.
What Is A Musician Mindset?
I’ve been playing music and writing songs for over 20 years. But I always struggled with calling myself a “real” musician (let’s blame my imposter syndrome).
Still, deep down, I knew I was an artist.
Eventually, I was able to accept this role. But it just took me a while to get here.
And the things that made the biggest difference was my mindset.
So what is a musician mindset?
A musician mindset is a mental framework built on beliefs and habits that support creativity, external awareness and discovery. A musician mindset is not exclusively music-oriented.
My musician mindset has been instrumental (pun intended) in me growing as a creative person both inside and outside of my life as a songwriter.
So let’s explore the top skills I personally like to focus on.
15 Non-Music Skills To Crush the Musician Mindset
This list is living, dynamic. It started as a quick 6, and quickly grew from there.
So I’ll be updating things as life moves forward. But for starters, these are my current top non-music skills that are essential for cultivating a musician mindset.
These ideas are built on top of research (sources linked below) and my own personal experience as an artist and musician. You can think of many of these ideas as soft skills.
If I’ve left off any good ones, definitely let me know in the comments – I would love to hear your ideas.
Otherwise, do enjoy!
1. Emotional Awareness
Music is highly emotional. Being connected to your emotions creates authenticity and quality.
But having a high EQ (emotional quotient) isn’t just helpful for musicians. Strong emotional intelligence is connected to relationship building, better self-awareness and stress management.
2. Taking Inspiration From Others (Not Comparison & Envy)
Being inspired – not envious – is healthy and pretty powerful as part of a resilient mindset.
I also understand that inspiration can quickly and suddenly turn into low-grade jealousy. It’s natural, we’re only human.
But being aware of these tendencies and staying in the I’m-inspired lane is not just more healthy, but incredibly powerful for growth.
3. Passion
Passion is our fuel. It’s the food scraps, banana peels and leftover beer that takes us to the future.
1980s movie references aside, it’s fair to say that most will agree that passion generally plays a pretty significant role in success (as does happiness, for that matter).
And that passion is an instrumental piece to the musician mindset (pun intended).
The thing that keeps us going is our love for what we’re doing.
We can’t be just half-in on whatever goal we’re seeking and we can’t have fully misaligned values to the point that deep down, we actually hate what we’re doing.
This all seems pretty obvious, but I can tell you first hand I’ve made this mistake. My very first blog was a general marketing blog.
I was excited about the industry and the new information and opportunities, sure. But it wasn’t me.
I worked in the marketing niche for a few years, and my original blog eventually evolved closer to my real passions: marketing for artists, musicians and creatives.
4. Taking Action & Being (Consistently) Proactive
This one is obvious. But the ability to follow through and take action is one of the biggest prerequisites to success, even when you’re not feeling ready.
Taking that first step can be daunting, but it’s like taking off the bandaid – you’ll quickly realize it wasn’t that bad.
Beside, first attempts are rarely successes, so the sooner you start taking action, the quicker you fail forward and find solutions and real successes.
5. Flexibility and Adaptability
There’s a Japanese proverb that goes something like this: “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists”.
Deep. I know.
But being flexible and adaptable are fantastic soft skills. And as a musician, it’s super useful for process feedback, adapt to changes and stay relevant and competitive.
A musician mindset is not fixed and staying agile in your approach and understandings will go a long way in sharpening your cognitive abilities.
6. Self-Confidence & Not Caring (Too Much) What Others Think
This one is tricky, because being confident can be difficult, and it’s something I used to struggle with a lot – especially when it came to my music being “good enough”.
Still, if you can start becoming more aware of self-limiting thought cycles and start believing in yourself more, this will be one of your most valuable assets.
After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, then who else will?
7. Problem Solving Skills (With An Attention for Detail)
Writing great music is all about problem solving, finding creative solutions to personal and unique problems and paying close attention to the nuances.
A stark example is when I first transitioned from writing music on an acoustic guitar to producing sounds in my laptop with a MIDI keyboard.
Saying there was a learning curve would be an understatement.
It was totally different and I wasn’t even sure how to ask the right questions that I needed answers to. But I pushed through, and found my way using all the amazing free resources we have at our fingertips.
Now here I am today, way more confident in mixing music. I’m not trying to win grammys over here, but I can do what I need to do.
8. A Never-Stop-Learning, Growth-Mindset
A willingness and interest to continue learning and improving is essential for any skill or expertise.
A large part of the musician mindset is continued practice, education and growth.
We can always improve our skills and expand our knowledge, so keep this one in your mindset’s back pocket.
9. Attitude: Prioritizing Happiness, Gratitude & Fun
I’m not sure if happiness is a “skill” per se, but it’s incredibly important and I implore everyone to prioritize this.
There’s a quote by David Lynch that goes: “Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they are like poison to the artist. You must have clarity to create.”
When I read that, I felt so relieved. Here I thought I was the only artist who couldn’t thrive off of sadness and negative emotion.
I mean, isn’t that the deal? Musicians and artists experience heartache and rain and make masterpieces to their stories?
I guess that works sometimes, for some people – but I was ecstatic to learn it was also one big lie.
So the moral of this story is: focus on gratitude and your happiness. Clarity – and everything else – will flow way easier then.
If you’re experiencing strong dissatisfaction or negativity that you just can’t seem to shake, that’s OK. But it always helps to talk with someone.
10. Discipline & Perseverance
Not every day is going to be perfect. And motivation won’t always be there. The concept of discipline and perseverance definitely isn’t exclusive to musicians or artists.
But I feel I can speak for the average creative when I say we have more than our fair share of unfinished projects and songs sitting in limbo.
Mastering discipline and the ability to persevere to finish half-baked projects (even though we’ve stumbled upon a shiny new idea) is incredibly powerful.
11. Patience
Is patience a virtue? So they say. I definitely struggle with this one sometimes, but the whole “trust the process” mantra definitely works.
As a musician, we need to have a connected mind and heart – logical clarity and emotional input. It can be tricky to always juggle these, all the time.
So if things aren’t hitting right, give it some time and be patient. Trust you’ll get there and know that taking breaks is just as important as pushing through.
12. Modesty
I wasn’t going to include this one, but I feel it deserves mention.
While struggling to find confidence is certainly a problem for many, unhinged certainty-in-self can be equally problematic.
This point is more philosophical and may be just a personal preference of mine, but staying modest and low-key – especially in the early stages – is an effective game plan.
We all love an underdog and “talking too much”, to me, just feels like you’re tempting fate.
13. Listening Skills
Maybe this is too on the nose, but a musician mindset requires great listening.
We take inspiration from others and digest the theory and knowledge.
But we also need to listen to criticism, listen to ourselves and our subconscious mind, listen to our music with fresh ears after stepping away for a time.
Listening is an incredibly important skill, not just for musicians. So it’s safe to say that we should all practice this one a little more.
14. Enjoying the Journey
Don’t get me wrong, finishing music and seeing results is amazing. But at the end of the day, musicians (and anyone pursuing a passion) are obsessed with the journey.
I love coming up with new ideas, tweaking old ones and strategizing how my next projects are going to be presented, marketing and used.
It’s exhilarating and the results that I’ve experienced would be nothing without the journey I took to get there.
So enjoy the ride, my friend.
15. Thick Skin
Not everyone is going to love you and your music, project, job or “thing”. It seems statistically impossible to be liked by everyone.
The time always comes when we have to face some harsh reality or review about ourselves that we don’t like.
While it’s natural and important to care what people in your life think of you, don’t get caught up in the words of strangers and keyboard warriors.
I think Gary Vee has a pretty healthy handle on this one.
For him, he ignores the praise just as equally as the hate and shifts anger to compassion. It’s a cool trick to flip the script on this one.
Want More? Check Out These Sweet Reads
