The Beatles Hamburg Invasion of 1959
2009 January 31
Hypebot posted a link of Malcolm Gladwell speaking about the success of The Beatles. Once again he is talking about the incredible work ethic that molded The Beatles from a band that by all accounts was not that good, into the world’s greatest rock act.
Malcolm Gladwell has gotten some flack recently. Some folks have been claiming that his research is anecdotal and other such things. I couldn’t care less because he is on point with one thing. Practice makes perfect.
Although his 10,000 hours theory can get a little depressing, there are a few things we can takeaway from The Beatles work ethic:
- Write more songs: Your songs are what your band is made of. Write more songs, in fact try writing a song a day. Push yourself to it. Every song does not have to be Across The Universe, but keeping at it will hone your ears, and your gut, into recognizing whats good and what’s shit.
- Play more with your band mates. Set up a Jam session every week where there is nothing on the table but creating improvisational music. I know we’ve preached about this sort of thing before but artists can get so distracted with useless bullshit that they forget they are in a band to have fun!
- Say Yes to more gigs. So the likelihood of your band getting a gig where you play 50 hours a week may be slim, but you can still push yourself to play more music. I know you’ve been offered gigs that pay shit and expect you to play for hours. But why are you in a band? To PLAY MUSIC. Say Yes and go up there and wank off. . . note: please don’t literally wank off, and if you do, YouTube it and send it to Heavy.
Take Control of Your Music,
Voyno
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I had a band once called Musical Mosquito and all we did was record like, half hour jam sessions.
That is awesome man. That’s where real music lives, between musicians.
Yeah. Stuff like that really changes the way you look at music.
We play on the streets 3 hours a day, 5-6 days a week as well as 2-4 venues a week at night. We have been doing this for a long time and it definitely shows. Too bad we don’t have the funding to make what we will, A SICK ALBUM