We recently connected with Holly Jones and have shared our conversation below.

Holly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Listening to my intuition to downsize my 20+ year physical therapy private practice to one day a week, treating patients in my home, and working on my music the rest of the week.

Although this occurred in June 2020, I made this decision to close my office practice and begin a home practice prior to Covid. It began with reading a passage in a book that spoke of the necessity of rest.

This was not referring necessarily to sleep or relaxation.
This passage referred to being at a state of rest, no matter what one is doing.
It is like something clicked, and I decided that it was time to put music first, instead of secondary, to PT.

This was no small decision. Although it was simple in my gut, all kinds of thoughts and fears presented themselves. The financial implications alone were enough to completely stall such an idea. However, looking at it from that perspective, it was very doable. I had to let go of each fear and follow the path of least resistance, and now, looking back 3 years later, I still pinch myself! Bottom line: listen to those gut urgings. They are the real stuff.

My wise husband once said in response to my expressed thoughts of fear of failure: “Wouldn’t you be more regretful if you knew you were supposed to follow this guidance, and you never did?”

So now I get the best of both worlds because I get to continue treating patients with something that I love (the art of manual therapy, and “unlocking” a dysfunctional system) one day a week, while cultivating my music the rest of the week.

Interestingly, there is a common theme between both pursuits. Both take the artist into the present moment; that space between thoughts. I love exercising that spiritual muscle of accessing inner peace and our inherent God-given intuition.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began violin at the age of three and piano at the age of eight.

I started composing around the age of nine. Although I can read music, the freedom of hearing and working out a unique composition is a priceless process for me, where I find reading sheet music a confining process in contrast.

For me, the art of composition and the spiritual journey are one and the same.

Musical composition is a way of processing life and putting out to the world what comes into my head. The more I compose, the more I work on simply getting out of the way.

I started releasing singles on all digital platforms on a consistent basis in June 20 2020.

I am blessed to have a Spotify monthly listener base of over 500K and be featured on Spotify’s Peaceful Piano, as well as multiple editorial successes with Apple Music and Pandora.

My intention is to compose and record solo piano compositions that can transport the listener to a state of peace, calm, and focus.

Do you have any advice for pianists that are trying to get traction on streaming platforms, and, more specifically, how to get on editorials, mainly Spotify?

Listen to Spotify’s Peaceful Piano; play it in the background, for the style of composition and sound to sink into your subconscious. Note that the pieces are short (approx. 2 minutes), have one or two ideas to a composition, are simple in that they don’t require the listener to go “too deep,” and have a specific sound. More on the sound later. Compositionally, I call it the art of being “unpredictably predictable.” Listeners and editors like something that sticks in their head; things that are familiar, yet fresh.

Find an artist in this genre that you love. But DO NOT copy their style. This is the art. Realize that what you like in that artist is something that is there to develop in yourself. This is the beauty of the art right here; the nugget. Pursue that vein of creativity in yourself, to find your unique compositional “brand” or style, that still fits within the bigger umbrella of the Peaceful Piano style/“rules.”

Above all else, authenticity rules. Authenticity is of the heart. Art occurs in absence of thought. It is not to be figured out; it just occurs and the beauty is the artist’s ability to let the art’s purity come through. This is a different brain pathway. The correct use of the mind is to surrender and follow, not be in charge and in control and figure out. The world yearns for and embraces authenticity.

Release a new single every 3 – 4 weeks. This naturally trips the algorithms, giving you that organic global boost. If this sounds daunting, well, it can be, getting started. It took me over a year to get that rhythm of release going.

Returning to “sound;” the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter how great the composition is, if the sound isn’t there, the track will get a very limited response. What do I mean by sound? First, the quality of recording. I have learned quickly to build a team, so I have IT people, mixing/mastering people, etc. Realize your limits. Don’t be afraid to ask a trusted friend or mentor if your quality of recording needs improvement. It can save you years. Secondly, in the classical contemporary solo piano world, the felted piano is the rage. Who knows how long this will continue, but it has been on the front line for many years. Having an excellent quality felted piano sound either through a felted upright or using VST will open playlist doors.

Join Facebook groups like “Piano Promotion” and others that will pop up with your search. Do searches for questions you might have and look through the group’s old threads to get information. Follow individuals and learn from them by the style/composition of music they write, the content of their posts, and the team they use, which they will credit in their posts.

Create a Spotify playlist and do facebook ads (there are FB groups that go into how to do this) to create a playlist with *real* listeners, NOT bots, so you have something to offer other artists, instead of just wanting to find a way onto their playlists.

Which takes me to…be of service. When I was younger, I knew I had a musical gift, and I was looking for the “big deal” to land. Now, many years and life experiences later, my agenda is to have no agenda…for two main reasons: 1) it makes me truly happy and 2) it opens big doors. It’s that simple. If you can let your art be of service to the world, it will truly shine, and organic doors will open.

Which takes me to…follow the yellow brick road. Follow the open doors. They are always there, but they won’t be right in front of your eyes; and once you develop the knack for seeing them and following them, you’ll be looking for them and they’ll find you. Those open doors are the path of least resistance. I find they usually are the most uncomfortable thing I could imagine, and require a lot of surrender, and hard work. They require us to have faith and put faith into action with consistent follow through. Matthew McConaughey calls these “green lights” and I highly recommend his book!

Realize that more doors are opened when one takes their own initiative, looking things up, vs. just asking someone, even if the latter is easier. Being proactive by looking things up on YouTube or through other research demonstrates a maturity which leads to more open doors.

Don’t be precious about your music. Starting out, I would compose a piece and think “this is the one!” And while I’ve seen initial pieces hit it big, for the most part, it is the law of averages, and one must release excellent quality, and consistently. I released a new single every 2-4 weeks for two years before getting on my first Spotify editorial. Don’t be attached to your art. Do it, let it go, and let it have wings.

I can’t stress the importance of daydreaming! It is the creative, causative “stuff” that yields the outcome in our world. Whatever is that peaceful, yet burning desire…visualize it happening right now and hold onto that dream. Don’t obsess and choke it; just be in the consciousness of it happening right now. I spend time every morning in meditation and prayer, and receive what I should be visualizing; then I go about my day in that consciousness, to the best of my ability 😊
Develop the art of looking within for your answers, instead of outside of yourself. While we learn from others, it is too easy to give away our own inherent intuition and rely on others outside of us to answer the question “what should I do?” Here’s an example of an open door, a lightning bolt in my life if you will, that presented itself after I had been pursuing the yellow brick road…in 2018, I was a full-time private practice physical therapist. Doing my music on the side, in the evenings and on the weekends, I had completed my third album in 2017 and was convinced that for me to have traction in music, I had to pursue orchestration and instrumentation (one of my favorite stations is Spa XM, and at the time I was listening to a lot of New Age and Windham Hill music). Well, one day, a musician patient emailed me a Rolling Stone article about solo piano and streaming. As I started reading the first paragraph, I felt my knees go weak; I knew reading this article was going to change my life. I actually set it aside for about ten days before picking it back up and reading it. It was about Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, and listed several giants in our solo piano industry.

Here is a link to the article: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/solo-piano-music-pandora-mclaughlin-nevue-749894/

And *that* is how my solo piano career began! I created a new album, entitled ‘Art On The Piano,’ submitted it for consideration to be a Whisperings artist, and it was actually nominated for that year’s Whisperings Album of the Year (2019).

From there, using the principles outlined above, I continue to learn from fellow artists about streaming and releasing, and everything that goes into promotion and the development of our craft, in this ever-changing, dynamic world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hollyjonespiano.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/holly_jones_piano
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollyJonesPiano
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollyLJones1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfYg0oX8rDGwZVjsoAyirLQ
• Other: Follow Holly on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Ub8jxQatQvncgReWsJ5XC?si=3w1_8QYQRoiFqjMhB7kIsA Bandcamp: https://hollyjones1.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
1st image uploaded: Jonathan King #2, #3: Spencer Gibb #4 – #6: Sara’s Photo Creations