Are you in a hurry, rushed for success to find you?

There is a physical and mental stress to wanting something too soon.  This can result in high stress and anxiety levels, mild depression, physical exhaustion, digestive disorders, low sex drive, unnatural weight gain and low self-esteem.  If you are expecting success overnight you can be disappointed easily and give up.  You just might give up right before the big break you’ve been looking for.  People who want it now are easily distracted when the success doesn’t come right away.  Some will bounce from goal to goal never completing anything.

Patient persistence is a key to success.  Be patient in the understanding that the effort and time you are giving to your project and yourself will pay off.  It doesn’t always come in the ways you are expecting.  Don’t get caught up in results.  The action steps you are taking are more important than the results at this stage.  You should however give yourself a timeline at which to reevaluate the actions you’ve taken which should have produced the results you’re looking for.  If you are persistent and consistent in your action you will move ahead and grow to become that which you want.

Allow yourself to be in the moment.  Enjoy the baby steps as well as the big leaps.  The journey is the prize.  What you become through it is greater than what you get from it.  Chinese Bamboo takes five years of care and protection before you see any growth.  Then in the course of six weeks it grows 80 feet.  During all that time you are learning patience, faith, diligence, and persistence.

Are you focusing your action on your deepest destiny?  Or are you just trying to stay busy with no focus?  Did you hate the busywork given to you in school?  Don’t do this to your goals.  Is your action going toward your major purpose?  Or do you find other “important” things to do and then find you have no time left to accomplish what you really should have done in the first place?  Next time do that one thing you know you should do and then move on to the other “necessary” things that must get done. 

Keep working toward your goal with purposeful action steps and enjoy every minute!

Pamela Doyle

www.coachpamela.com

Looking for interviewees... ((and please pass this around))
to provide insight for a book on band dynamics. I would like to outline the magic behind a cohesive band.

Questions: send answers to... thebook@coachpamela.com
more info on www.coachpamela.com/Performance.html

You don't have to answer all the questions BUT please answer THE LAST question.

You can be as specific or general as you would like. If you would like to provide your answers anonymously please state this and I will not divulge any identifying particulars.

Please include a contact email address in case you are chosen to be interviewed further.
Tell me about yourself, your band?

Thank you.

How did your current members come together? (How did you meet? How long have you known each other?)

How many member changes in this band have you had?

How many other bands has each person been involved in? (How many are you involved in currently?)

Do you do things together outside of playing music?

Do you have regular (non-rehearsal) band meetings? (Having drinks before a gig doesn’t count.)

Do all members have outlined responsibilities? (shared equally or paid a percentage)

What is the ultimate goal for the band?

Do you also have immediate monthly and yearly goals?

Does every member have the same vision for the band?

What is the most difficult aspect of being in the biz?

How do you handle creative disagreements?

How do you handle the varying personalities?

When you are performing and you know the band is “off” what is typically the cause?

What have you found to be the key to your success?

What have you learned through your failures?

What would you say to a group just starting out?

++ Any last words? ++

The BIG question I'd love answered is...

How do you balance your day job, relationships, and your music?

If used in blogs or on the web I'll link your website or myspace page ---so remember to include contact info!

Pamela

Most guys in bands started playing in high school or junior high with different groups before finding one permanent group. Many times band members are well into their 20s when they finally get signed. So they play a certain style for 5-10 years before touring regularly. As each year goes by the band gets older, but the fans stay in the same age group.

Being on a record label is not as glamorous as some people make it out to be. The record label is an investor that pays for the recording, manufacturing and marketing of an album. Quite often the label needs to recoup their initial investment before the band gets paid. On a $14 CD a band might only receive $2 per unit sold. So when I learned this it became clear to me that getting rich this way is a fallacy.

The other thing about bands that is difficult is the time commitment. Touring interferes with jobs, girlfriends, wives and children. Touring on the road and sleeping during odd hours can also take a lot out of you. In a band you drive from city to city, you set up, you wait around, you play your set, you greet the fans and then you pack up to go on to the next stop on the tour. With the price of gas and lost time from work, there is little money to be made from touring if your band is not drawing a significant amount of fans.

There was a time when I wanted to be a rock star, but then I discovered I couldn't fit into the jeans or sing very high. I've come to realize that the musician's life is very difficult and the dream is a mirage. Success in the music industry is fleeting and touring is hard work. I still live the dream vicariously through the lives of friends, but I don't envy the commitment to that dream.

Their discography:

• Rame-Rame (1993)
• Semua Oke (1994)
• Jangan Marah (1995)
• Tanteku (1996)
• Tari Samba (1997)
• Katanya (1998)
• Bus Sekolah (2001)

Right now, what remains from this group is only history, since they have grown up and some of them actually doing solo career in music, and acting in some films. However, they still contact each other and their friendship still goes on until now. Thanks to that old “Trio Kwek Kwek” group that introduce them to each other. I wish every one of them luck for their careers.

One of  my major interests as many will know is creativity and its application to all areas of our life, but particularly in music.  These players (particularly the drummer who rates himself as 'good')  were so creative I was confused.  Just about every other line of various songs were treated to a variety of styles, few of which fitted, and none of which added to these particular songs.  It was a great example how when we lose sight of our role and forget to listen to the music, we add little to the song, in fact we run the risk of killing it! "Less is more" was more than adequetely substituted by "More is Less" in this case.

Some will accuse me of being rather hard on this player especially those in the Church who feel that criticism is not allowed, particularly if you belong to certain families (with which I totally disagree).  I tend to agree that criticism that discourages people should be avoided wherever possible and try to offer help rather than criticism.  But when the help falls on deaf ears and those we try to help continue to do things as they've always done them, at that point, the swear word 'responsibility' comes into play.

Maybe if he spends a bit more time listening to what others in the real world say to him things would move forward. The adulation of family and friends, whilst well intended only makes things worse. 

Here in Loughborough we are part of an Easter initiative called the bigger picture and are hoping to set a new World record for the largest ever painting by numbers.  This is a great analogy of playing as part of a band or team ... we all have our part to play as part of the bigger picture.  Interestingly one panel has been painted in totally diffrent shades to the several hundred others.  Where is the eye drawn?  To that one panel that stands out.

Today's musical events are so applicable to the picture ... we choose the wrong colours and textures, or ignore what the rest of the picture is saying and we stand out for all of the wrong reasons. 

So did I enjoy my Easter celebrations?  Yes I did!  And despite what people may say about these things being individual, I feel that where people meet together to celebrate, such as in a church, they are also very much corporate.  We celebrate Easter together and therefore, each of us has a responsibility to help others celebrate too.  We're all bricks in the wall or pieces in the jigsaw, and just as a missing brick or missing piece weakens the structure or spoils the picture, so we have the ability to kill other people's celebrations when we contribute to that hole in the wall.

I really do wish you a Happy Easter ...

and I really do wish some drummers would hang up their sticks until they learn to be part of a band ... not star of the show.

Until next time!

9.30 a.m.  Jo, our vocalist feels really quite ill so puts down guide vocals and hits the sack wth her paracetamol and cold relief medication.   Not such a good start to the day after all!

1.45 p.m.  Lunch arrives; always welcome.

10.20 p.m.  Early finish for the day!  Four cajon tracks laid down with additional percussion added; and sounding good.

So what have I learnt today? 

Mainly the value and importance of encouragement. It is a real joy and privilege working in a band where everyone is so encouraging. Some parts seem to present more of a challenge than others and it is at these times when the real values of friendship and relationship pull through. I must make a note of this for when I next deal with people who are struggling, rather than thinking that I've conquered that problem and completely missing their need.

Bed calls so I'll think on this as I fall asleep and hopefully it will come back to haunt me when I revert back to my critical self!

Looking from this side is always exciting: potential, passion, intensity, critical appraisal, exhaustion, late nights, The Compton Lounge, making new friends, renewing old friendships, opportunity for creativity ... all these things and more will be part of the routine over the next week or so.

With a new band it's always an interesting time, often littered with many questions that can be difficult to answer:

"Do we cut a CD that reflects our live sound or do we go for a sound that is more commercial?"

 I love these times because there is so much potential, and no doubt as the five different band members and the Producer exchange views and ideas, that magical spark of creativity will once again burst into a flame, and we will all come away having gained more than we've given. 

So as One Big Skystarts tentatively on its journey, I look forward to the lessons I will learn that will enable me to be better equipped to contribute and receive in all areas of my life.  Sometimes there is pain; sometimes there is heartache; always there is hard work.  But just as with childbirth, all of this pales into insignificance when we see the end product.

More tomorrow ...

Report: Jackson 5 to Reunite for Tour

Nov. 27, 2007, 10:47 AM EST

MSN Entertainment

The Jackson 5 will reunite for a tour in 2008, Jermaine Jackson told the BBC on Monday.

It will be the group's first tour in since 1984.

"We feel we have to do it one more time. We owe that to the fans and to the public," Jermaine told the BBC.

The group included Michael, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine. Younger brother Randy and little sister Janet would later join the group, which stopped touring in the '80s after Michael and Janet started taking on solo careers. The group officially disbanded in 1990.

"There's been so much going on, getting over all the hurdles that we all were faced with during Michael's trial," Jermaine told the BBC. "But we are stronger than ever."