What is is like being a professinal GUTARIST OR MUSICIAN?

Question

How much money do you make? Do you sight read? Do you enjoy it? How old are you? How long have you been doing it?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Its a hard life. Sometimes the money is great, then there are times you worry if you can pay the rent. Very unstable career, only possible if you have great talent, people skills, money management skills, and business sense.
I average around 30K a year, but that is counting supplementing my income in the slow season doing dj shows. Still better than a day job(lol).
Sounds great huh? well as the years creep up I realize I have no health insurance. No retirement. No clue what else I COULD do if I had to make a living. Scary.
I do sight read but 99 % of the time learn the new material by ear. Do I enjoy it? Of course, or I would be doing something else. Im 42 now, been playing professionally for over 20 years. No day job for14 of them.

Answer 2

By mentioning guitarist, I'm not sure I'm the right kind of musician to be answering this question.
I'm a classical clarinetist and music teacher. I'm just starting out in my career because I'm a few months from graduating college. At this point in time I'm taking any gig I can get my hands on. I am not employed by any professional group at this point, so income is not steady. It's a supplement to my income when I begin teaching.
Yes, I do sight read. I do it often. After so long it doesn't phase you very much. Many employers looking for solo musicians don't want to have to re-visit music because of a sight-reading errors simply because they don't want to pay the money for your time.
I've been playing for 11 years and I love it like no other. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Answer 3

Ok well I dont know how you would make 129k with music! Music is a hard business it takes about 10 years to get yourself established in the scene! The more popular your instrument the harder it is! Being able to sight read in a must in music. Most musicians have to teach to suppliment their income. Some make as little as $50 a night (for the whole band of about 5 people) Been playing since I was about 7

Answer 4

If you're referring to a studio guy, I'd be curious to know myself. There doesn't seem to be a big market for those guys. It seems like there's a few top guys that get all the work while they're the "it" guy. At least that's how it used to be.

I've been playing guitar for 30+ years and I've known many musicians. Some were extremely gifted, but in all those years of playing in bands and many more jams, I've never personally known anyone to make a living solely from music.

But, you get paid to do something you would do anyway so that's cool. My gear is mostly been paid for by gigging. So it's cool to not go broke doing your hobby.

I think if you really wanted to be a profressional musician, you might have to think along the lines of cruise ship guy. A guy playing music he may have liked at one time, but the 1000th time you play it, how fun can it really be?

I took my kid to the circus and happened to be sitting next to the orchestra pit. I watched the band, especially the guitarist, These guys were really good. They had to play fast and intricate stuff, all choreographed to the circus performers. All from sheet music and only their music stand was lit. These guys were so good and we never even got to know their names. You got to be so dang good to be a pro. Unless you're a singer-songwriter that doesn't have to depend on a group situation to earn a living, I'd work just as hard on my fall back career as my music career.
Good luck.

Answer 5

read music a must

love it

120 k per year Plus

16 year

started playing when 15