Question: What Do I Need To Be a Working Musician?
Answer:
A lot of people fantasize about being a musician.
• That touring life…
• Being on big stages…
• Just playing music all the time…
• Not having a 9 to 5…
• Doing what you love…
It’s kind of romantic when you’re not a full-time musician.
Because the things that most people imagine tends to be the fun part of being a musician.
The real parts that make it work is less sexy.
Like:
• Hustling to get more gigs
• Writing your new band bio
• Writing promotional Facebook updates
• Raising money to record your new EP
• 4 hours of waiting around before your show begins
• Meetings to get gigs
• Back and forth e-mails (just like any kind of work)
Then, there’s the bigger picture long term things like what kind of career do you want to build or what streams of income do you want to focus on.
So, what do you need to be a working musician?
1. Good musicianship – be able to play your instrument or doing the things you want to be hired for
2. Good business skills – be able to manage & work on your career
3. Good social skills – be able to communicate with other musicians, clients and people in general
I talk about these things in The France Monologues, a video that documents my thoughts on the life as an artist. To be honest, it’s probably one of my least selling products that I made last year. But, it contain the most amount of honest reflections as an artist & how to make it work.
Sometimes, you make your art & that means that it may not sell as much.
Sometimes, you make something with commercial considerations. That means you consider how much of it will be able to make money for you.
This is personal of course! But, it’s important to think about.
Anyhow, if you want to be a working musician, if all this is TL/DR (Too Long/Didn’t Read) it all boils down to this:
- Be good at what you do
- Hustle
- Keep getting better
- Find the kind of work that you want (get paid, get satisfaction, get closer to your big goals)
- Be patient
Being a musician or an artist is not for everyone. But if you read this, it might be for you.
Az
Jan 28, 2020, 1:04 PM
Az Samad is the author of the new eBook, Make Your Art. To find out how to make more art, check out the new eBook here at this 50% discounted link for the next 15 people: https://gum.co/makeyourart/nevergonnagiveyouup