We’ve all been there, honestly – the devastating review. The audience that turned on you.  The missed high note.  That early embarrassing recording making the social media rounds that you really wish wasn’t. The avoiding eyes as they mutter, “That’s… interesting” when you play your latest track for them.

The road to success isn’t easy, and there are always going to be people trying to tell you that you can’t make it. Just let it go in one ear and out the other. The Internet is large, and with endless music-lovers on it, there’s an audience for practically anyone.

As long as you keep searching for new musical inspiration, even in the face of adversity, you’ll find them.

Stop trying to show them, and show them!

There’s a horrible psychological trap that’s easy for musicians to get into: When they realize they have to perform at a certain level, they suddenly become aware about how they’re performing. Once this habit is formed, it’s difficult to reach the same heights as they had before when they were just going with it and jamming out.

A sense neediness and longing for their fans approval are feelings that overcome most musicians. After a show, walking off the stage feeling disappointed in themselves, knowing that the crowd wasn’t impressed, muttering “I’ll show them…” But they never do.

A rising musician shouldn’t do that, at least aside from Gary Neuman.

You have to commit.

You’ve got 22 other hours in the day to worry about your performance and fret about your Twitter stats. The two hours that your fans paid for are theirs. You owe it to them to give it your everything, and if that’s not good enough, take the time after the show to work on getting better.

But The Show must go on.

Look for new musical inspiration.

No one creates music in a vacuum – we are constantly bouncing ideas off each other to come up with new variations on things that others have done. Or you could try the whole flying-off-to-India thing, which seems to work surprisingly well for people.

The point is, if you’re feeling a creative dry spell coming on, exposing yourself to something new -or even accidental exposure- is often just the thing to give yourself inspiration:

• A trip to Utah inspires the band U2’s Joshua Tree album.
• A scoffing executive tells a young band that their act would go over like a “lead Zeppelin.”
• Ke$sha dates jerks.
• Darius “Don’t Call Me Hootie” Rucker walks away from rock to blaze a new trail for black country acts.
• Pink Floyd sees firsthand what the music industry does to a mentally unstable star or two.
• Prince encounters the court system and becomes unpronounceable.
• The Beatles. India. (and drugs.)
• The Beach Boys discover Rubber Soul (and drugs) and create Pet Sounds in response.

New musical inspiration is literally anywhere you can find it.

As long as you feel the music, you’ll keep getting better.

That’s what it really boils down to. When you’ve got that artist’s fire in you, to take what you see around you and shape it into music that connects you to your audience, you’re not going to let disappointment get you down. Music is too important to us – it wins in the end. We just can’t help but keep playing.

And even if all the musical inspiration you need to get over disappointment is a few hours locked in a room practicing, then get to it! There’s an audience out there waiting for your music, and you have to get it to them if you expect to get paid!

When you play, if you just turn off your brain and let it flow, you’ll see yourself reach your greatest heights.