How To Prepare For Your First Year In Music Collage

So you got your accommodation sorted, you have your tuition fees paid, you've maybe met a few people online that are doing the same course as you. So what next? 

Well as September rolls in, there are some of us itching to jump into the collage life.

I myself will be moving from Ireland to London to begin my studies as a guitarist in ICMP. Since my course doesn't begin for another two weeks, I have plenty of free time to plan, practice and put together a portfolio. 

I thought it best to share everything I'm doing with you!

1. Getting into shape

This is by far - in my opinion - the most important step that should be taken by an incoming student, about to make his/her first footsteps into music collage life.

I feel that as musicians, it is a pretty important part of our lives to be on top of our game when it comes to our chosen practices.

This is especially true when we are about to enter a society of other musicians who - lets just say - will be better and more experienced than you.

You want to be as prepared for that situation as you possibly can.

I'm practicing everyday, going over my scales and learning new licks, expanding on my musical vocab to ensure that I'm as ready as I can be for anything that could be thrown my way in the weeks to come.

Remember, first impressions are what people will remember... 
You want those first footsteps to be strong ones. Righ?

2. Find a suitable income

Now, the reason I say "suitable" is because as creators, our creative output is dependent on a certain few changeable factors. 
One thing that will most definitely hurt your inspiration and motivation to
create is your health.

In order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to be eating, exercising and socialising, all three of which tend to cost money.
As a dedicated musician I know that I will never be able to upkeep a 9 to 5 job for an extended period of time. It just wont work! 
Luckily as creators most of us are naturally born innovators and have the ability to think outside the box.

In my opinion you should be looking for jobs that require a short amount of time to fulfil or upkeep, this way we can have multiple streams of income which you could potentially build to eventually leave you with quite a reasonable amount of money.

A really good example of a job like this is teaching. As creators and artists we each have something unique to give to the world so don't doubt your ability to teach. 
Even if you got just ten students each week and you charged €10 for 40 minutes. 
Thats already €100 per week!

3. Get to know yourself

If you're anything like me, you have been looked after reasonably well for most of your life, you've been feed pretty well (apart from that one time, mum was out and you had f*ck all idea how to work the oven and when mum came home you'd made some sort of unrecognisable gloop that stank out the house for a week... aha ye that never happened...), you've been encouraged to do some sports to get out of the house and you were always forced to upkeep your responsibilities. :/

Now that we are independent adults and we don't have to do any of that anymore!
However, now that we are independent adults, we also have to be responsible adults...

Getting to know how your body reacts to certain foods, different workouts, different hours etc... is really important in keeping your head in the game and preventing you from getting sick. 
The last thing I would want is to miss that one really important gig because i'm at home dying of strep throat. 

Start listening to your body, find out what you need in your diet and base it around your lifestyle. 
Most musicians will be sitting practicing or recording all day so we would want to be - for example - exercising often and taking in foods that are high in Omega-3 to keep our brains functioning properly throughout the day.

Plan your lifestyle around gigs, studies and social life. Your body will thank you!

4. Put together a Portfolio

So this is one that has been the absolute death of me for the past month. 

This idea hit me when I was desperately trying to explain to a friend, the type of music I play and I just wasn't able to explain myself.
If you have work uploaded to Soundcloud or Spotify it is so much easier to play a few seconds of a song, rather than fumbling around with strange words to the point that you start doubting what you're actually doing with your life...

It's really important to remember that although you would want your work to be absolutely perfect, it's never going to happen.
Just work with what you got and get the best audio as you possibly can. 
Even if you don't have any recording equipment, use your smartphone, play through a song and upload it to youtube. 
That will give you have the beginnings of your portfolio!

5. Make a Website

You're going to music collage because you're seeking a professional career in music right? 

Building a website is one of the best things you can do with your spare time before going into collage.

It's free on so many platforms, it's a simple process and if you have already done Step 4 - you can showcase any material you have created! 

You don't need to spend any money these days when it comes to building a beginners website.

Just make an account with Wix or whoever, spend a few hours customising and then publish it!

It is so handy to link it on your socials and have a reasonable looking hub where anyone can go, read your bio and check out a bit of your music.

6. Plan, Plan, Plan

Keeping up with the lifestyle theme I got going back in Steps 2 and 3, it is really important you get into a productive routine.

This means sitting down with your collage timetable and drawing out a weekly plan.

For me, since I now own a blog, an online shop, a youtube channel and I'll be doing a bit of teaching when I move out, I have those streams of income to maintain on a daily basis.

Luckily i'm a morning person, so I will be able to work on my blog, shop and maybe get to the gym between the hours of 6am - 9am. 

I will record a video for youtube maybe once a week and teach 4 days a week.

So as you can see, getting my income sorted was the first step, once I had that worked out and I knew I could live comfortably, have a social life and maybe a little money left over to go into my savings, then I knew I was absolutely 100% set for collage.

7. Bank accounts

This was such a f*uckin pain in the ass...

Okay, for a lot of you this wont be an issue, but for the unlucky ones who are moving to another country that deals in a different currency as you, this will apply.

Trying to find a new bank in a different country is a really boring thing that just has to be done, or does it...? 

I was lucky because I was told about an online banking system called "Revolut". I opened an account with them and was absolutely blown away that something like it actually existed. 

Revolut is a digital banking alternative that includes a pre-paid debit card, currency exchange, cryptocurrency exchange and peer-to-peer payments

Check them out if you're in the same situation I was. 

I will write a post all about them because it made my situation so much easier to deal with.

For everyone else, I really encourage you to login to your banks online service and get to know its interface. 

Set up a daily budget scheme and a standing order that lodges money into a savings account weekly. 

I enjoy being financially organised, so I have a few savings accounts each taking a small sum of money to be used for different things like buying new gear or traveling.

8. Enjoy every day

This is such an old granny thing to say, but I'm finding that my days are going so fast.

It's so frustrating that time just seems to plough on at such a fast rate and I can't do anything to stop it. 

Just try to grasp everyday as it comes around, use your time wisely and don't forget to have a rest every so often. 

Music has been a hobby for most of us up until now. 

This is where that hobby will quickly transition into a career and as it does you will begin to tire of it in some shape or form. 

As this begins to happen understand that you have to walk away, drink some coffee, hang with some friends and then get back to it.

Music and art brings us so much joy and happiness, but it also brings around intense frustration, so learn to know when to take a break because you don't want to wear yourself out!

Let me know what you thought of this post! 

Thank you for reading