How To Start Your Career Part II
Becoming a Working Musician
by Shannon Kennedy
One of the greatest difficulties of becoming a musician is
starting to get work as a musician. Most kids that graduate from college do not have steady work as a
musician, and are not even sure about how to approach beginning their career. The music world is enormous,
and when you are fresh out of college, it can be overwhelming. You go from competing with musicians 4 to 6
years older or younger than you to competing with people who have been playing 40 years longer than you when
you start to try to get work as a musician. It may not seem fair, but showing initiative and using what you can
do to your advantage will go a long way in establishing the foundation of your career in music.
The first thing to do is hit local venues such as cafes and senior citizen centers. These are places where you
will find your presence and playing the most appreciated. Especially in senior citizen centers, they will love
anything that you do. A lot of these venues also do not already have live entertainment, and will most likely
love the idea of introducing it into their centers.
Create a demo CD that is three or four tracks that you feel is the best representation of you or your group and
send it out to local venues. A lot of the time, people will want to hear you before they hire you, so it is best
to have a sample of your ability available.
A lot of young musicians tend to rely on their schools – this is the biggest mistake someone can make. School is
not always going to be there to help you out and pat your back and push you along. It comes to a point that your
career is 100% of what you do and what you are doing to get out there. There is no one that is going to do anything
for you. If something is going to get done, it is because you are going to do it.
Jam sessions! Can’t get your own gig? Go show up at a jam session just for the experience of performing live.
Some young musicians have the misinterpretation that you have to be paid to play anywhere other than your own
bedroom. This is definitely not true. You will find that a lot of your playing initially will be for free, and
you have to be okay with that. By taking “charity” work, you are getting out and exposing yourself as a player,
which is more important than doing one gig every few months that pays however much money. The more you play, no
matter how much it pays, the more people see you and hear you – creating more popularity as an artist. If you
are popular with the listeners, you create a more likely chance to be hired by other musicians because you have
a following and will bring more listeners to the gig. Have people come to a gig is important because it increases
the chances of the venue hiring the group again because they are making more money when you are there.
Put yourself around other people who are going to want you to get better and pressure you into working hard. The
fastest way to improve is peer pressure. But be careful that it is not negative peer pressure that will make you
want to quit music instead of just get better.
Remember that you really figure out how to do something well by doing it poorly a few times. If you are not
ready to start working as a musician now, you are never going to be ready. It is really important just to get
out there, market yourself, and show initiative – it goes a long way.
