How do Mentor Sessions work?

[Paulie]

Frst-timer question: Do all RR attendees get a mentor session? How do they work, do they listen to your music or do you just ask them questions? Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope...

[Casey H]

Frst-timer question: Do all RR attendees get a mentor session? How do they work, do they listen to your music or do you just ask them questions? Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope...

All Taxi members get a 15 minute mentor session. When you register, you select who you want from the long list. However, popular ones get booked up quickly. This is one of the advantages of getting on the registration line VERY early and doing the wait. It's first come, first serve as far as choosing a mentor.

They will have a boom box and listen (briefly) to tracks from your CD. I assume they also can simply plug their headphones into your music player instead of listening to a CD but I would have CDs. (You want them with you anyway).

The session goes by lightning fast so be prepared with any questions you have or things you want to discuss.

The short answer to your question is Yes to both... They listen to your music and answer questions.

HTH
Casey

[oldmattb]

From my experience with several mentor sessions:

1. Don't assume the mentor will be able to listen to your music. On one of my sessions, there was a player but no headphones. Show up with an alternative.

2. Don't assume you will get your time without being assertive. On one of my sessions, the person before would not stop, and the person after me was shoving my shoulder two minutes before. It is hard to do much with six minutes.

3. Don't assume the mentor will want to hear your stuff. Some mentors are focused on promotion, image, etc., and don't really care to hear your music.

4. If you are not open to brutal criticism, you might pass on the mentor sessions. On one of mine, I got the comments "This is not good," "You need to learn to sing," "I don't like this at all," "I don't know what this is supposed to be," etc. If you are not of stout mind and ready to view your stuff openly, you may get hurt.

Matt B

[beesea]

Hi Paulie
I've been to 4 rallies, but last year was the first year I did the one-on-one mentor session. Here were my takeaways:

1) Be ready to answer this question, both to yourself and your mentor: "What do I hope to get out of these 15 minutes?". Could be a song critique, mix critique, biz advice, workflow advice - but I'd pick one main thing so you can get right to it. 15 minutes is not much time. Remember, the mentor has no idea who you are or what your ambitions are

2) Casey is right - popular mentors will fill their time spots for sure. There are a fair amount of mentors though - if you have a specific person you want to talk to, get there early. If not, just be sure to look over the mentor bios to find someone who looks like a good fit to what you want to learn. I got the mentor I wanted to meet with, but I only had 2 time spots to pick from.

3) Bring a CD, notebook & pen. Lyric sheet for your song if you are doing a song critique. Take good notes. I'd also give yourself 5 minutes right after the mentor session to sit in the lobby and write down anything that didn't make it to your original notes, or go over your notes to make sure they will make sense to you later.


Definitely worth doing though, I learned a ton in those 15 minutes last year.

[Casey H]

From my experience with several mentor sessions:

1. Don't assume the mentor will be able to listen to your music. On one of my sessions, there was a player but no headphones. Show up with an alternative.
That's one you should mention to Taxi if it happens. Even if you can't get it resolved for THAT rally (a big disappointment, I know), they need to do what they can do to prevent that from happening in the future.

2. Don't assume you will get your time without being assertive. On one of my sessions, the person before would not stop, and the person after me was shoving my shoulder two minutes before. It is hard to do much with six minutes.

3. Don't assume the mentor will want to hear your stuff. Some mentors are focused on promotion, image, etc., and don't really care to hear your music.
That's a matter of picking your mentor according to their bio. There are some mentors (or at least there have been in the past) whose expertise is just that- promotion, etc. Get on the registration line early to have your best choice. Be prepared by reading the bios and circling your top choices before you get there.

4. If you are not open to brutal criticism, you might pass on the mentor sessions. On one of mine, I got the comments "This is not good," "You need to learn to sing," "I don't like this at all," "I don't know what this is supposed to be," etc. If you are not of stout mind and ready to view your stuff openly, you may get hurt.
Sometimes this brutal criticism is what you need to hear.

Matt B

Casey