Someone once told me, “sometimes you gotta fake it to make it”. i know i know —being artistic means to be real. authentic. sincere. and most importantly true.

You want your musical skills to get better and better, right? Of course you do. If you are nowhere close to reaching your peak performance it’s because you don’t understand the process that helps you produce your best music all the time. Here’s what you must do to constantly improve your talents:

Before I ever trained my voice, I could sing. I had good pitch and a heart full of soul, but the more I tried to convey my deepest feelings, the more strained I sounded. I tried singing louder (which caused more strain); I tried to mimic Aretha (which made me feel small); and I tried giving more emotionally (but ended up sounding like I was trying too hard).

I measure my success as a recording artist by the growth of my mailing list. The best way to get someone to subscribe is to offer something in return, and a great song is a powerful incentive. Here are ten techniques to negotiate that delicate exchange:

Do you struggle with playing guitar fast? Is your lack of guitar speed making it difficult for you to express yourself fully as a musician? Although playing guitar fast is not every guitarist’s most significant goal, those who do want to improve their guitar speed desire this skill very much and are often frustrated with being unable to develop this part of their guitar playing.

In this part of my Not-So-Liberal-Arts series, I will do more of the same, but focus on selecting a college by location and opportunity, the next step towards a successful arts venture.