What Makes Your Work Different?

Are your concerts just like everyone else’s? Are your compositions or arrangements? Is your improvisational style? Your teaching? If not, what makes your’s different? What makes it unique? This is essential knowledge.  And sometimes it takes a while to really figure it out. 

You need to know what makes your work different from your peers, whether those differences are intentional or not.  This helps you define what you do, why you do it, how it might be perceived by your customers, and why they might support you.  And it helps you answer questions that might seem easy but are actually pretty tough, such as, “tell me about what you (your organization, your ensemble, etc) does?”  Sounds easy right?  Try to answer that in a way that only you could answer.  If you can read your response and imagine someone else giving the same answer, start over and think harder about what makes your work different!