Welcome To Community Band 101 – pt.4

Invite “Intrapreneurship” to your Community Music Group

     Just in case you have not heard of Intrapreneurship, it is describe as “the act of behaving like an entrepreneur, except within a larger organization.” Let’s not get it confused with Entrepreneurs; these are people who assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.

     Why am I discussing such business-type lingo in this edition of my community music blog? Because of a well known tern in the world of education, “HOTS.”  I’ll come back to this shortly.

     In your community music group, there will be a person with a unique talent, besides outstanding instrumental performance, for taking the responsibility of turning your community music group into a successful, and hopefully profitable, well-tuned product through risk-taking and innovative methods. And this person will do it without being asked to do so.

     There is still room for your community music group to provide an outlet for musical growth while concentrating on transforming the group into a profitable venture. Why think about profit, because remember that the main goal for the group is the promotion and presentation of your talents as instrumental music performers. Have I failed to mention that the voice is also musical instrument, so don’t forget about the vocalists.

     What better way to introduce “HOTS” (Higher Order Thinking Skills) to your community music group than to introduce business ideas that, when implemented within the organizational environment of the musical group, can be not only applied to improving the musical performance skills of the group, but can also be applied to increase the profitability of the group. This, in turn, provides much needed operation funds for the group. Just think, not having to worry about reeds for the Saxes, valve oil for the brass, sticks and mallets for the percussionists.

     Don’t forget, while encouraging the members to practice, also encourage the members to think like entrepreneurs for the entire group and maybe somebody will come up with a business idea that will turn into a musical idea that will turn your community music group into a self sufficient musical group that will just play and play and play and play…(you get the message).

Reference

Roberts, J.S. (2013). Infusing Entrepreneurship within Non-business Disciplines: Preparing Artists and Others for Self-employment and Entrepreneurship. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts Volume 1 Issue 2, 53-63

Welcome To Community Band 101 – pt.3

Artistically Managing your Community Music Group

When it becomes time to display the talents and hard work your community music group has put in during the months of rehearsal preparation, it is time to think like an artist manager, and conduct yourselves as music professionals looking for exposure in order to get gigs. According to Paul Allen, in his book “Artist Management for the Music Business”, managing involves the use of science, business, and a great deal of creativity.

There are four specific functions that must be accomplished when managing the community music group. The tasks are: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. These tasks should involve members of the group, or the group can appoint one individual to cover all of the tasks. But remember, most community music groups consist of members that have responsibilities to family, jobs and sometimes life in general, so it might not be a good idea to dedicate all of the tasks to just one individual.

Let’s take a short look at these specific tasks:

Planning – Can be the difference between getting major exposure and just being a social club that gets together to socialize. Remember that a community music group gets it’s drive from ‘performance”, meaning playing in public. According to Dr. Carter McNamara, in his book “Planning in Organizations”, he says “planning is identifying where you want to go, why you want to go there, how you will get there, what you need in order to get there and how you will know if you’re there or not.”

Organizing – The act of putting together, in a logical order, all of the necessary resources needed to achieve the tasks in the plan.

Directing – Taking all of the resources involved in reaching the goal and using them to achieve the goals. These resources will also include the musicians in the community music group.

Controlling – Monitoring the progress and effectiveness of the plan and, if necessary, make any changes in order to make sure that the resources are used to advance the goals of the plan.

Let’s not forget that the main reason for the existence of the community music group is for the act of performing. You have put so much time and emotion in preparing instrumental music, you owe to yourselves and your community to perform. Artistically managing the group can prove to be one of your most important tools to the survival of the group.

“It’s repetition that creates perfection, Play On, Play On”

References
Allen, Paul. Artist Management for the Music Business. Taylor & Francis, 06/2007. VitalBook file.
McNamara, Carter, 2006, “Planning in Organizations,” www.managementhelp.org.