Any Advice on Getting a Mentor?

[DanLuedke]

I’m just wondering if anyone has advice on how to go about getting a mentor. Ideally, it would be someone who has had success composing and placing instrumental cues and is willing to coach me a little. A mentor who specializes in mixing would also work. I have been a TAXI member for a year and half and am just starting to get some forwards (about 15 forwards in the past 6 months). I really want to take my composition and mixing skills to the next level and could also use some help on the business side of things.

I don’t like asking for free help and would like to make the relationship a win-win. I would be happy to split my tracks with my mentor and/or offer to help my mentor with some of the more mundane aspects of their work (meta-tags and website updates come to mind). Let me know if you can think of anything else I could offer a potential mentor (sorry, I can’t afford much $$$).

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Axuel]

Hey, go to the taxi success stories, check out the music and homepage from them and write them a nice mail that you would love to work with them. Get in contact with people and stay in contact. Let them listen to your 3 best songs. Try to get out and meet people when you get the chance.

On the other side I think it`s important to respect someone`s time especially when they are successful. So I think it`ll be really hard to find someone who is not your friend or your family to just teach you composition, mixing and business. Good teachers are even very picky about teaching someone for money. So you already have to be really good. Teach yourself in the meantime. watch tutorials and read books and or go to school.

Getting the chance to work in a studio is tuff and in the beginning you`ll have to get food and coffee and clean it and better do it good and be happy about it. In exchange you`ll learn something.

15 forwards are not bad so keep up the good work. Listening to your music I`ll recommend you better drum samples. When you do rock and it sounds like cheap midi drums it`s gonna be hard to get a deal.

Best Regards,
Axel

[DanLuedke]

Thanks so much for the response, Axel.

So far I have been mostly self-educating and using screener and forum feedback to improve over the last year which has worked well. I was just looking for an additional source of instruction to accelerate growth. Like I said, I'm looking to make it a win-win if possible. Starting at the bottom of the totem pole at a recording studio doesn't appeal to me at this point in time.

Thanks for the feedback on my drums. I mostly use NI Battery 4 for my drums - I'm not sure if this is ideal for rock music, but I'm guessing the MIDI stiffness is coming more from my treatment of the VST than the samples themselves.

Thanks again for the reading, listening and responding!

[simonja]

Hi Dan

I've been doing songwriting workshops with Suzan and highly recommend her expertise and ears!

http://www.suzankoc.com/

Suzan concentrates on pop and songs more than production, but I am sure would help you. She sure has helped me.

Good luck!

Simon

[belindacoomes]

Hey Dan,

I felt my production/mixing skills were lacking so I sourced one-on-one lessons with a mixing engineer.

In the lessons I bring along a song I mixed and get it critiqued. The mixing engineer then mixes that same track so I can watch what they do. It's also good to hear what it sounds like in a professional setup. This helps me learn to tune my ears to what an engineer hears and what they're thinking. It costs money but, I personally, think it's the best way to spend my money. It did however, take me months to find someone willing to give me lessons.

I have now formed a friendship with the audio engineer (who I feel is now one of my mentors) and she is more than happy to crique things for me and help me along my music career outside of the paid lessons.

This was my path. Hope it helps you

[FLadyT]

Hit us up, let's talk.

[Russell Landwehr]

Heh, Dan. I'd say you are doing very well and you are right on track with things.

15 forwards in the last 6 months. You've been a Forum member for about 1.75 years... yeah... I'd say you are right on track.

Instead of looking for a "mentor," I think what you are REALLY looking for is a collaborator (or two or three) to help you step up your game. You are in that zone (apparently) where you have something to offer. If you are looking for collaboration... strike up friendships first. Give and take here in the Forums. Offer to collaborate with others that you think could use your skills. And sooner or later someone (probably one of the folks you've been in contact with for a year or so) will offer to collaborate with you as well.

Russell

[Kolstad]

By offering a mentor partnership to your music, you are blurring the lines between mentorship and commercial partnership. That's one of the first things a pro mentor would suggest that you avoid

Taxi is in many ways already mentoring, as the experienced A&R briefing you with suggestions here in the forums, on Taxi TV, the listings and the screener reviews you can get.

The relationship you are asking for reminds me of the producer - apprentice relationship in a studio. Maybe hit some up locally or online, get in conversations, solicit the information you get, and ask if they mentor or know someone who does.

Anyway, I don't want to pretend to have the answers to approaching mentoring. It's as diverse and complex as there are people. Here's a great article from a mentor's perspective. Understanding that, might provide some insight on how to approach a mentor-mentee relationship in terms of need(s), and some sensibility for what to discuss amongst you https://themanual.org/read/issues/4/dia ... ll/article