Your Brand

What comes to mind when you hear the brand names of Coca Cola or Pepsi?  I won’t dive into personal tastes, but if you happen to like either of these sodas or pops or soda pops (had to acknowledge multiple regions here), then the words good-tasting, consistent quality, good value (depending where you are and how broke you are), and entertaining advertisements are some that can be associated with these brands.  Now think about the branding of names like Exxon (especially after the oil spill), Enron, and Monsanto…

Q:  What does this have to do with music or playing an instrument?

A:  Everything.

Really?…why?  Think of your musician self as a product for a minute here; what are some attributes both musical and non-musical that apply to your brand name?  Be honest with yourself.  If you can say words/phrases such as:  consistent sound/intonation/accuracy, always has a presentable and appropriate appearance, always on time, always prepared for the gig, can play any style, can read well, acknowledges/interacts with the audience, and improvise in multiple styles appropriate for the situation, then you have built yourself a highly-reputable brand.  If thoughts of being habitually late, wearing jeans and a tux-printed t-shirt at formal events, trying to play every known Coltrane lick at a dixieland gig, and/or consistent ear-covering-evil-eye glares from the saxophone section enter into your mind, then chances are that your brand may need some work.

The topic for this blog post comes to you because I was recently reminded about my brand name/image that I portray.  Fortunately, this time it was good.  I go out on cruise ship gigs once in a while over the school breaks when there aren’t many gigs on the books and am currently on one in Alaska at the time of writing this.  Princess Cruise Lines now has an electronic appraisal/review that each manager gives to every musician at the end of their contracts.  These appraisals are saved in the company database and are accessible by any music manager and the head office.  They cover everything from your performance to appearance to interaction with the guests to adherence to company and safety policies.  I had forgotten about this until my manager came up to me upon joining the ship and said, “I see you worked with blah blah blah; well, our band just got better with you here”…and I hadn’t even played a note yet!

I’m not saying this to brag or anything; I am just thankful that my professional approach to every gig I take is being noticed.  It also created a little more pressure to keep everything at a higher level and to strive for improvement.  This cruise ship situation is nice because you know immediately or right before it’s over if you’re doing the right thing or not.  In other gigs (on land), you won’t know if you’re doing something wrong until you haven’t gotten a call for a gig in 4-5 months.  A long time ago, I played poorly (not going to say why) on one $10 reading/fun gig that I thought people didn’t take seriously.  When it came time for a friend of mine to move on from a steady decent-paying cover gig, he recommended me as his replacement.  One of the other members of that band was on that $10 gig and remembered that one time I played like crap.  Despite my friend going to bat for me, the guy said to not hire me.  That guy (not my friend…obviously) had the reputation for being a bit of a wanker as the Brits say, but that’s not the point here.  I learned my costly lesson.

You make or break your reputation every time you pick up your instrument.  If people hear you playing something bad or you sound like you’re needlessly showing off when you’re warming up in front of others, they instantly base their opinions on that.  If you’re at ITG and pick up a horn or multiple horns at each single table in the vendor area and play as loud and high as you can on each instrument, people instantly base their opinions on that.  If people hear you messing around and not playing what’s on the page when you’re supposed to be doing so, they instantly base their opinions on that. Would those opinions be good or bad?

My hope is that you do not become a timid player because of this stuff going through your head.  The idea is to become self-aware, not self-conscious.  The great news is that if you have less than desirable adjectives associated with you or your playing, you can resurrect your image through diligence and constant awareness (and practice).  Brand awareness is the reason why you see lesser-experienced players (using this terminology to be polite) playing great gigs while some top players get fewer calls.

As cattle ranchers used to say, happy branding!  (disclaimer:  I do not know if they actually ever said that.)