career in music?

Question

i know it sounds bad but i want to look around for careers i just dont know what...... i LOVE music with a passion.... to get involved with music would be my dream (not saying a musician but other careers with music) i love writing music and playing it but the chance of becoming a successful musician is slim to none. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Currently music is not a great career to get into. It's very competitive and the wages are dirt poor most of the time.

The top of the heap is a Rock star of course. Most Rock stars don't make very much money. They live a flashy lifestyle but the record companies get all the money. Bands who sell milllions of records wind up filing bankruptcy oweing the record companies millions and without a penny to their name soon as the record company drops them. Many others who actually make money after being around long enough to demand a decent record deal wind up wasting all that income and still wind up destitute at the end of the peak of success. Only a few groups who went into it knowing what they were doing or the guys who stay around forever and have a huge following actually get stinking rich playing music.

The record companies are dinosaurs who are dieing a deserved death right now. Can't be too soon in my opinion. Many talented musician has been forced to play garbage, stripped of name and rights to music they did compose, unable to play what they really felt and wanted to play by record companies. Record companies are always trying to create one hit wonders and fads. So good music is shelved because it's been around too long. Bad music forced down everybodies throats.

The good news is that Indie artists are making it now. Sattalite radio is a chance to break the monopoly on the airwaves. MP3s are a chance for unsigned artists to make it big. The whole music model is changing. Selling CDs is no longer the way to make money with music. Live performances are for spending cash mostly. A whole new economic model is appearing and a good group with a good sound and perserverance can make a good living today without ever touching a ruinous record deal.

Most proffesional Rock musicians make a living by playing in a band and supplimenting that income giving music lessons, doing a day job or working in a music shop/recording studio or other music related area part time. Many make a decent living as studio artists and by giving lessons. The biggest problem with bands is we musicians are tempermental flakes :) Bands come and go and come and go again. So many ways for a band to break up and so hard to keep a band going long enough to gain the necessary recognition. So plan on music being a part time income. Even with a decent sized city, gigging unless you play cover tunes is not going to pay the bills. Playing cover tunes is for new musicians learning how to gig and for old vets who have given up and just want to make a living playing music. It's not where the real money is and who wants to play other peoples stuff when you write your own?

Other outlets are as a music teacher, working in a studio, doing music for movies and playing in a symphony. All of these require hard work along other paths but can finance your attempt to make it big. Music for movies is actually well paid but almost as competitive as making it big.

Get good at your instrament. When you date a gal take her to a band practice on the first or second date. Make SURE she knows that music is your life and that you are not going to grow up and get a real job as she'll put it too you later. Many a talented musician's career ended when pressure from the home front caused them to trade axe for shovel in some dead end job as a part of their soul slowly dies.

Get your gear and keep a full bands worth if you can. Remember musicians are flakes. As important as gear is all too often really talented musicians will be without it. I'm a guitarist primarily but my basses are usually what the bass player plays when we jam even when the bass player has thier own. (Spectre 4 string that just growls and purrs. For old school stuff got a Gibson Grabber that have such a gravelly bottom end it's perfect for certain tunes/styles) Times when I played bass for a group my guitars have been used for recording or special gigs)

You've got the talent, got the gear then it's time to make it happen. That means hooking up with hungry musicians who are dedicated and that you can work with. This is actually the hardest part by far. Substance abuse, spouses, injury, economics, band infighting, musical direction, egos, all some of the many poisons to a band. I've heard guys that blow anybody the record companies have signed away. They couldn't keep it together long enough to make it though. Some are impossible to play with. Every song a long solo or getting them to actually show up to practices is impossible.

Once you have a group with the talent and dedication then it's just a matter of getting your stuff out. Groups like Blue October and Brand New Sin are groups that are on the verge of forcing mainstream music to let them in. Getting big without a record company is very doable today. DRM is making it harder, if Microsoft and the record companies get their way it'll close the doors on indie artists again. So quit buying CDs from the big record labels. By them from places like www.cdbaby.com and dump windoze. Use a Mac or Linux instead. Both are far better sound editing platforms anyway. Every penny you give Microsoft and the record companies is a penny they will use to try to prevent you from making it in music. The old school method is very anti-artist and strangles music. Don't let them kill the music a second time.

Having a gimic never hurts. Name recognition is the big thing to open doors. People hear of you they will be more open to listening too you. In modern music don't confine yourself ot a single sub genre. You have the whole world as an audience now. If you play in 3 or 4 genres thats even better.

Good luck with things. Hope to hear your stuff in a few years or sooner.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Please develop your listening power. Reading and writing does help of course. But if you have have powerful ears, and if you are able to remember a musical piece, you save a lot of time in playing by not looking at it as a text.Love music by heart.

To develop skills to excel in memorising any musical piece, takes a lot of time (years). .This will happen if you hear the music again and again for several hours and play in bits and pieces. When you join those bits and practise it, you will find wonders in the creation.

If you want to become a famous musician, you have to learn Piano(not Key board/Synthesisers) and play it well. It is the complete instrument of music.On Piano you can innovate as well. Once you are through, you can play most of the instruments.

Get some of the famous musicians' numbers and get stared

Incidentally, I must tell you that my son, aged 13, can play Piano for eight hours with short breaks, without looking at the notations, and has been termed as a Master Pianist by a leading news paper. Although he was studying Music from Royal School and passed a grade, he did not feel that it was important to read and write notations. Some numbers, he plays are truly very fast. Once it was calculated that he had played 2000 notes per minute. This was possible because he spent very little on notation reading.
Keep it up, donot feel that you are inferior or superior. Be dedicated to music and love it from the bottom of heart and you will be successful musician one day. Best wishes to you.

Answer 4

It's true, being a professional musician is not easy--but then again, being a professional *anything* in a specialized field is not easy. You have to take it seriously like any other profession--study hard/practice, network, get internships/get noticed.

There's all sorts of things you can do with a love for music--be a publicist, a recording engineer, a studio musician, a producer, a record promoter, a songwriter, a music teacher, or a music therapist. Get a feel for the industry by seeking out internships. Study music from all angles--music history, classical music theory, world music. As you get to know more, you'll be more able to narrow down what you want to do.

Answer 5

If you're serious about performing and writing professionaly, contact your local Musicians Union and ask about literature. It's a hard business to get by in, you may go months without being able to effectively pay your bills, so don't give up any job you have just because you got a gig. Those last only one night and it's easy to spend your earnings on a few well-deserved treats. The best thing you can do is whore yourself to whoever is willing to hear what you have to offer, eventually someone will show interest. Talk yourself up like you're the next big thing and BE PERSISTENT! Don't worry about bothering people. If you find you're pissing someone off, back off. Just try and try and don't get discouraged. Good luck, let me know how you do and how I can help.

Answer 6

If you can't be the musician, well you should at least try. However, there are so many other jobs.

You could write songs, and sell them.
Recording Engineer
Mixing and Mastering
Studio Musician
Running Live Sound/Lights
Manager
Tour Manager
Booking Agent
Roadie
Guitar Tech
The guys who run the monitor mix (the sound the entertainer hears in their IEM or wedge)
There are a ton more, but you get the idea.