Becoming a successful musician is by no stretch of the imagination easy. One might say that it is one of the hardest tasks that a person could accomplish. At any given time, there are hundreds of millions of people vying for fame and celebrity. Setting yourself above the rest of these can be very difficult, but it is not impossible mind. Many people, regardless of circumstance, have been able to dominate the music industry despite adversity and hardship and make a name for themselves as successful career musicians.
If you want to become a successful musician, then this page is for you, for in this article, we are going to offer you a comprehensive guide on how you can become a successful musician and how you can jumpstart your musical career. We hope that by the end of this article, you will feel confident enough to tackle your dreams. Anything is possible, and as Walt Disney once said, if you can dream it, you can do it. However, while it is most certainly possible, it is very difficult and will be a long, arduous road – not something that you achieve overnight.
So, if you are ready to tackle your dreams and become a successful musician, then read this page in its entirety, take what we offer you here into consideration and apply it to your own life.
Here is a comprehensive guide to jumpstarting your career as a successful musician.
What Career Do You Want?
Many people, wrongly I might add, believe that there is only one type of musician to aspire to be: an award-winning, multimillionaire pop musician. This is completely wrong; the scope of musical careers is huge. You may not become a multimillionaire or a household name, but you can still make a name for yourself and a living off of your talent elsewhere. While it is fantastic to aspire for greatness and to aspire to become a household celebrity name, it is not something that everybody will be able to do.
With that said, do not let that quell your spirits – keep pushing and persevering and believe in yourself. You can become whatever you want to become, it might just take longer and be a little harder. Additionally, do not think that setting your sights lower is any less of a task or challenge most successful household celebrities started in some of these careers:
- Freelance Musician
A freelance musician’s work varies from day to day, they may work on stage one day, then teach the next, compose, ghostwrite, blog, or work in a university. The world of a freelance musician is huge – they are never in one place for too long. If you fancy a nomadic lifestyle where you are free to do anything you want, this could be the career for you.
- Employment
If you prefer more stability and less flexibility, you may want to pursue full-time employment as a musician. Full-time employment is a great way to make a name for yourself as a musician – you may work at one music venue as a consistent in-residence performer or may work at a university in music administration or the arts.
Even though you might work in full-time employment, there is a strong chance that you may do a bit of freelancing on the side. The reason for this is quite simple, there is such a high demand for musical careers now, and if you can provide a service, there is a strong chance people will want to pay you for it!
Job Opportunities
When you have decided what it is that you want to do as a musician, you can begin looking for job opportunities. The best way for you to do this is by getting an agent or by browsing talent websites. It is not particularly difficult to find work as a musician, providing you are persistent and that you are a good performer. Several talent websites will send you weekly updates on the newest jobs available to musicians. If you want to find jobs, tools, resources, and info for musicians, then these websites are the best place to look. Give them a go!
Documents and Resume
When you are starting and building a career as a musician, you want to build a resume and gather a few documents. A resume, or CV, is an integral part of succeeding as a musician. You may also want to gather some headshots together so you can attach them to your resume and distribute them out to various talent scouts and agents. Your resume should feature everything that you have done as a musician, successfully mind you, so that agents and scouts can see all your achievements.
Online Presence
Building an online presence is a very important part of becoming a successful musician in the 21st century. As we all know, social media governs many aspects of our lives; how we dress, talk, what we listen to, and who we go to for information. Social media, in many ways, has taken over the world, even to the degree that it was able to shut out Donald Trump, who was at that time the most powerful man in the world, and some say, influence the outcome of the presidential elections. An online presence is a very important part, it’s fair to say, of becoming a musician and achieving things.
If you want to build an online presence, you can start by posting information and content online on a dedicated profile. Some of the best platforms to start on our Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, though the latter two are used more by younger people, while the former is most often used by adults and teenagers. Instagram is, without a doubt, a great place to build your digital empire and get your name out there as a musician. With one post, you can go viral and gain millions of followers.
Writing
Writing professionally is a very important part of becoming a musician. While yes, your musical talents are a very large component in becoming a successful musician, you must also be able to write professionally and concisely. You have to sell yourself on your resume and in the various other pieces of information about yourself that you will put online.
On your social media platforms, you will need to write high-quality content. It is important to write your content concisely and precisely – you must sell yourself – you must learn to write properly, almost academically, for your online and digital presence and resume.
Confidence
Confidence is a very important part of becoming a musician, especially a performing musician. How are you going to go onto the stage and perform in front of people if you do not have confidence? Confidence is a fundamental part of becoming a musician. Confidence is, without a doubt, a foundation for your musical career. It is not easy to just ‘become confident’, though there are things that you can do to learn confidence and to become more confident, such as group activities and one-to-one mentoring, as well as introspective practices and meditation. Being confident on stage is very important.
Academic Studies
If you are going to become a musician, you must study music academically, or at the very least, study your favourite genre at home when you have time. You need to do this, quite simply, because if you do not study music academically you will have a hard time writing and creating your own. If you do not want to study music academically, then you can at the very least, as already suggested, study music that has already been created by your favourite artists and breaks it down to understand what went into the songs, and how they were created.
If you play music, then you should know how to read sheet music. Sheet music, for many, is an absolute nightmare, but if you learn sheet music it will give you superiority over other musicians when you are applying for jobs. Sheet music is much like a language and can take a long time to learn – but it is beneficial and will prove to be very useful in your career. You could even learn sheet music at home if you were dedicated and determined, but it might take a lot longer than if you took a class.
A Message
When you are a performing musician, you need to be able to decipher the message that some songs are attempting to convey. Many songs carry messages that are indecipherable to the average person; if you can establish what a song’s message might be, then you can communicate that to the audience through your performance and potentially win them over. Getting a message across in your performance is, undoubtedly, a fantastic way for you to promote your music and convey yourself as a musician.
We thank you for joining us and reading this page in its entirety – the information that is contained within this page should serve you very well if you apply it carefully and give it some serious thought. Becoming a successful musician is achievable, providing you have the determination and want to succeed. Thank you, again, for reading, please come back and visit us again soon.
