3 Things That I Always Try to Accomplish in My Mentorship Sessions 

man learning on soundfly

man learning on soundfly

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By Joseph Capalbo

With Soundfly, musicians of all types can learn at their own pace using our in-depth online courses. But for those in need of something more personalized and customized to one’s exact goals, we also offer 1-on-1 mentorship sessions with a professional lasting four weeks. Whether you’re enrolled in a course or just looking for some feedback and guidance on your songwriting or mixing project, you can request to work with a mentor.

As one of those mentors myself, I find that while every session I take on is different from the one before, there are a few standards I try to uphold in my mentorship no matter what; things I need to make sure I go over in each and every session with a student.

I’m going to go over those standards now, but before I do, if you’d like help streamlining your own work from a professional songwriter, producer, composer, or engineer, definitely let us know what you’re working on. We can help you improve, achieve the sound you’re hearing in your head, and get you on track to move forward in your music career.

1. Get to Know Each Student on a Deeper Level Than Just Their Music

One of the first things that I always do when I start a session with my mentee is to get to know them, at this point still a prospective student, by asking about their musical background, any milestones and achievements along the way, their short- and long-term goals, and of course what they like to listen to.

Gathering this information helps us mentors effectively craft and arrange a session that isn’t going to be a waste of their time (and money!). Our mentorship program is only four weeks long, but going into a session prepared means we’ll be able to squeeze every drop of time out of it and get a lot done!

Because our goal is always first and foremost to help push the student as close as possible towards achieving their goals.

2. Be Accessible, Communicative, and Knowledgable

Yes, these are qualities that should be valued in any administrative field, but they are so important when it comes to 1-on-1 coaching. Because we mentors are dealing with actual human beings, not just strangers on the other side of an email chain, replying in a timely manner and providing accurate answers to their questions to the best of my ability is something I always prioritize.

For every prospective student that comes to Soundfly, they’re assigned a personal rep from the staff as well as their personal mentor for the duration of their session, in case any questions arise about, anything.

Students are also provided with lifetime access to our daily active community Slack forum, where one can interact with everyone else in the Soundfly community, in case they’d like to share their work with others, offer peer advice, or just engage with a spectacular growing international cohort of musicians. Slack allows anybody to get extra feedback, whether they’re in a session currently or not. It’s a great perk!

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SIRMA producing music

3. Go Above and Beyond

At minimum, Soundfly sessions require mentors and students to interact once a week in a phone or video call or screen-capture tutorial, to move their learning forward. It’s usually a lot more than that, given all the emails, research, resource-sharing, feedback and advice that comes with each personalized coaching session, but as I said earlier, each session is different.

Yet I always try to make sure I’m going above and beyond for every student I work with.

Going above and beyond includes answering any musical questions that arise (whether they’re related to the session goals or not), offering advice from my personal experience, providing learning resources to further support the content of my lessons, and adding value wherever I think it might help the student along.

Mentors are also trained to break one’s goals down into a digestible schedule of actionable paths, so there’s always a feeling that we’re moving forward — because we always are! This also streamlines the session so as not to overwhelm the student at any point.

Finally, as a mentor, I will always promise to utilize my expertise and make use of our full team’s collective knowledge in order to make the experience the best that it can possibly be, for every student.

Are you ready for a session of your own?

Soundfly’s community of mentors can help you set the right goals, pave the right path toward success, and stick to schedules and routines that you develop together, so you improve every step of the way. Tell us what you’re working on, and we’ll find the right mentor for you! 

Joseph Capalbo, Mainstage Mentor for Songwriting

Joseph Capalbo is a songwriter and producer whose work has been played on major networks all over the world, including NBC, ABC, MTV, E!, Oxygen, NHL, Hallmark Channel, global non-profit organizations, and more. He recently wrote the theme song for E!’s new docu-series, Reunion Road Trip. He’s one of the primary mentors for our Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords course.

Joseph Capalbo is a Soundfly Mentor. Click here to work with him to achieve your next musical goal.

Elijah Fox at the piano

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