1. Inspiring and motivating your students – teaching guitar well is often more about inspiring your students than teaching a new scale, chord or song.

2. Teaching them ‘new things’ to play/practice – Most guitar teachers understand this basic concept, but often struggle to know exactly how much ‘new content’ is too little or too much for each student. Most teachers ‘overwhelm’ their students with simply too much material in a short amount of time.

3. Helping them to solve their playing/musical problems – The best way to improve your guitar teaching is to understand exactly how to help any student overcome any problem.

Each of these areas has its own challenges, but for most teachers it is the last category (helping students solve guitar playing/musical problems) that can be the most difficult to consistently do well.

When teaching guitar to solve problems and bad habits, the first thing to do is be clear about  the process itself:

Identify the true cause of the problem. Remember that ‘symptoms’ of problems and ’causes’ of problems are often totally different things. A misdiagnosed problem (just like a misdiagnosed medical problem) can make things worse than doing nothing at all.

Find proven solutions to overcome this problem. Yes, this seems like an obvious point, but often teachers ‘guess’ or use the trial and error approach to teaching guitar. Surround yourself with other experienced guitar teachers. Ask them for their advice on your specific challenge, doing so may save you and your student a lot of time and frustration.

Communicate the causes and your solution to your student’s problem. Again, this may seem like common sense, but fact is, most teachers do not fully explain the cause and solutions to the problems students have, they sort of skip this part and move directly into implementing the solution. The reason why communicating the cause and solution to your student is so important is that, without the student truly knowing what these things are, they often won’t truly practice your solution diligently at home.

Implement the solution (training). To be the most effective, you need to do more than ‘teach what to do’, you need to ‘train’ them to do it. The ‘teaching part’ can usually be done quickly, but it is the ‘training’ that takes the time. Think more like a sports trainer and less like a school teacher as you implement solutions while teaching guitar (more on this below).

Hold their hand – You do not need to treat all your students like children (unless they are children), but when teaching guitar, it is important that you monitor your students’ motivation level and help them to keep it high. A mediocre guitar teacher who keeps his/her students highly motivated will almost always get much bigger results than a great ‘technical’ teacher who does little or nothing to keep students inspired and motivated – yet this is an area most teachers don’t do consistently well in – because they underestimate its importance.

Because students typically have multiple problems in their playing (inconsistent articulation, weak sense of timing, excess body tension, inefficient hand movement, excess string noise, just to name a few common ones), and because there are typically multiple causes to each of those problems, the hardest part about teaching guitar, as it relates to solving students’ playing problems and breaking bad habits, is knowing the best order to deal with the causes of a student’s problems. Timing is critical and so is the order.

Many (well intentioned) teachers make the mistake of trying to use ‘linear logic’ to help students break bad habits and overcome challenges. There are many problems with this, the main one is we don’t teach machines, we are teaching people. Everything we do, and when we do it, has a positive or negative impact in the mind of our students. In theory it might make perfect sense for a teacher to make the student deal with the most basic problems first. That seems logical right? Well, those that follow this all the time will have a hard time keeping students long enough to help them become the guitar players they wish to be.

Contrary to what many guitar teachers believe, fixing the most fundamental problems your students have in the beginning (or trying to break too many bad habits at once) does more harm than good for most students. Yes, problems and bad habits must be dealt with in order for your students to reach their maximum potential, but too much of this at the same time may kill the will for your students to endure the natural frustration that comes with learning to play guitar.

Each student is different and you need to get a sense of how much tolerance the student sitting in front of you can handle in the present moment. If you overestimate this, the result is likely going to lead to massive amounts of frustration for your student and he/she may give up lessons and playing guitar completely.

How long does it usually take your beginning guitar students, as an example, to sit or stand with ‘perfectly correct’ posture, use perfect left and right hand positions, use the correct picking motions and articulation etc. etc. when playing and practicing? Sure you can teach this in a minute or two, but how long will it take that student to instinctively do this all the time on his/her own without you reminding them? For most students, it takes a long time.

Is it okay to let your students continue to play and practice guitar when you know many basic things are wrong and that they will form bad habits by allowing them to go on in this way?

Most guitar teachers would say, “no, it’s not okay” and then proceed to immediately try to correct all of them as soon as possible. Other guitar teachers simply don’t notice or don’t care enough to address these things. They figure as long as students keep coming back to lessons, everything is good.

The best approach for teaching guitar is neither. To be clear, your top priority should be to keep your student coming back for as many lessons as possible – not simply because you make more money that way, but because, if a student gives up lessons, you can do nothing to help him/her. Obviously, you must deal with problems and bad habits though (to not do this would be the same as only feeding kids candy and never real food).

When teaching guitar to solve a problem, avoid dealing with the entire problem and all its causes at once. Begin with the one thing you can do for your student that will be easiest for him/her to correct. This will help to build confidence that he/she can begin to overcome the problem and that doing so wasn’t extremely hard to start with. Pay attention to how much of this you think they can handle right now. If it looks good, then give them the next thing to fix.

Although some guitar playing problems and bad habits can be really big issues to deal with, try not to make the entire lesson only about solving problems. Most students need to get a sense of forward progress and even though solving problems is forward progress, they can’t always see that themselves even after you explain it to them, so give them something else that is fulfilling for them to play and practice.  A little sugar with the medicine helps it go down easier .

Test your guitar teaching skills.

About the author: Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He coaches other guitar teachers on how to teach guitar

© Tom Hess Music Corporation All Rights Reserved

The popularity of the guitar continues to increase, so the demand for good guitar teachers remains strong. The question is, are you the right sort of person for the job?

Part of my activity over the last several years has involved the recruitment and training of a great many music tutors. I can say with certainty that the four items uppermost on peoples’ minds when they apply for a job as a music tutor are:

1. You have to be an expert musician
2. You should have some sort of teaching qualification
3. You have to be a university graduate
4. You need to be a music theory wizard

But these four items aren’t even on my tutor recruitment checklist.

I’d like to explain why:

Item 1. You have to be an expert musician

Of course you have to be a reasonably good musician for two reasons. First, you have to have credibility. Second, you have to know something about the territory into which you are going to lead your clients. After all, if you were hiring a guide to lead you up a mountain, you would want to hire someone who had climbed that mountain before, wouldn’t you?

But being an expert can actually be something of a liability when teaching guitar. This is because the vast majority of your work is going to be with people in their first year of playing. If you have played for twenty years and performed on stages all over the world, cut albums and written hit songs, you’ll have heaps of credibility. However, you are really going to struggle to relate to the guy sitting in front of you, with five thumbs on each hand, who is trying to understand why the ‘top’ string is at the bottom!

If you have been playing three years or more, are committed, and making good progress yourself, then you have every chance of being a better guitar teacher for beginners than any “expert musician.”

Oddly, people who themselves learn slowly are often better teachers. I think that’s because they’re conscious of the small details that new students often need help with, but that are invisible to people who learn like greased lightening.

Item 2. You should have some sort of teaching qualification.

If you have any amount of experience in teaching or training, you would definitely meet one of the requirements on my recruitment checklist. Expertise in teaching is undoubtedly gained from experience more than any other factor. But qualifications from mainstream education of teachers do not by themselves make you a good teacher. All of us can think back to our time at school and bring to mind teachers who were certainly qualified but perhaps shouldn’t have been!

Item 3. You have to be a university graduate.

A university education provides you with a chance to hone your intellectual skills and discipline your mind. These are fine things to do and there is little doubt that, when it comes to grappling with the intricacies of advanced music theory, an academic background is definitely going to make things more comfortable for you. But, to be honest, this is a relatively unimportant aspect of guitar teaching and generally overrated. What matters more is the ability to put yourself in your client’s shoes, to empathize, to understand and to accept people as they are.

So, if I had to choose between someone coming from four years at a university and someone who had spent those years travelling the world, working in a variety of settings, rubbing shoulders with rich and poor and generally experiencing contact with people from all walks of life, I would not hesitate to choose the latter, all else being equal.

Item 4. You have to be a music theory wizard.

Music theory is not something you need to understand in order to start teaching guitar. Music theory is something you will grow to understand as you teach guitar.

The process of teaching guitar puts a natural demand on you to continually think about the subject and work with its basic elements, so a deep knowledge of music theory is a result of being a guitar teacher!

Most of your teaching time is spent getting people to string a few simple chords together or playing some basic scale patterns. Every now and then a student will ask a question about what they are doing. You will either know the answer or not. If you don’t, and you believe answering the question is appropriate to the level of the student, be honest and say, “I’ll check that out for you and answer it in full next week!”

After a few hundred lessons your own knowledge and confidence with the subject may lead you to take on more advanced students. At this point you will need to have a higher level of understanding. You will find a wealth of resources on the Web to help you with this.

So if you don’t need to be an expert musician, qualified teacher, graduate or theory wizard, what do you need? What does it take to be a good guitar teacher?

I have isolated four essential qualities a person should have before I recommend taking up guitar teaching as a career. Here they are in order of importance:

1. Patience – an infinite amount of it

Patience is essential because you have to create a safe space in which people feel they have time to apply themselves to the tasks you set.

2. The ability to communicate with confidence

Students’ confidence in their ability to learn is the energy that you work with as a guitar teacher. Confidence is contagious, so if you communicate confidently then some of that rubs off on them.

3. The ability to play guitar reasonably well

As mentioned above, you are going to lead them up the mountain. So it helps if you’ve made the climb before!

4. Commonsense

Teaching is a specialized form of communication. The art of teaching is based almost entirely on the application of commonsense. Having said that, you can gain a lot of insight from reading articles by experienced teachers who have distilled their knowledge gained from many years of teaching experience.

Finally, here are some of the positive rewards of developing a career as a guitar teacher:

1. You’ll be doing what you love and – better still – sharing that love of music with others.
2. You’ll have the freedom to work the hours you want to work.
3. You’ll be in control of your income. Want more? Teach more hours or put up your prices. Need less? Allow natural fall-off to reduce your teaching hours.
4. You’ll be your own boss. You’ll have no one to answer to but yourself.
5. You’ll have plenty of scope to express your creativity, both as a musician and teacher.
6. Best of all, you won’t even notice you’re working!

I hope you have found this article stimulating. If you would like to look closer at teaching guitar as a career, or if you are already a guitar teacher and would like some support, then please visit my website www.teachguitar.com, where you will find a wealth of resources to help you.

There can be more than one reason why a student may struggle when trying to change chords smoothly. So the first thing to do when dealing with this challenge is to diagnose why the problem exists. You need to determine if your student has one of the following problems:

• A. A physical coordination problem
• B. He/she has not been practicing
• C. A lack of understanding of what needs to be done
• D. A mental processing problem

Most guitar teachers assume the reason is either A. (a physical coordination problem) or B. (little or no practice). Fact is, most of the time this is wrong. The majority of students actually do attempt to practice. And true physical coordination problems are rare.

For most guitar students almost all guitar playing problems are caused by their brains, not by their hands! This is why many efforts to help them may not work well.

As I mentioned before, there can many reasons why a student is struggling with this (or any other issue) so it is not possible to give a one-size-fits-all solution in an article. There are however three powerful guitar teaching tips that can help solve this problem with beginning guitar students.

1. Get your students to keep their strumming hand moving in correct rhythm no matter how far behind the fretting hand may be in forming the next chord. In other words, tell your students (when practicing this way) to not allow the strumming hand to wait on the fretting hand! Practicing in this way will solve a lot of other rhythm and timing problems in the future for this student! The student should practice this way about one third of their practice time until the problem is resolved.
2. Get your student to not use the strumming hand at all and simply change chords with the fretting hand quickly (rapid fire, one after another). The student should practice this way about a third of the time until the problem is resolved.
3. Make your student play a chord he/she needs to master. Tell him/her to grip the strings hard when playing the chord, then to relax totally (without taking fingers away from the strings/chord), then tell the student to squeeze again all fingers at the same time! Then relax.

The goal here is to train his/her brain to make all fingers move and relax together and not one finger at a time (which is how beginning guitar students make chords on their own – big mistake)… Repeat this exercise until the student can do it well.

Next, have the student move fingers off the strings but maintain the basic chord shape while hovering over the strings…. Then press down on the strings and make the chord… repeat this many times and then gradually move further and further away from the strings before making the chord again. Eventually from an open hand the student should be able to form the chord easily… but in each case you must be sure all fingers are moving and relaxing at the same time, not one finger at a time! The student should practice this way about a third of the time until the problem is resolved.

Notice that these solutions of the problem are all ‘physical’, but they are designed to overcome the student’s “mental processing problem” because the student has not learned to separate and isolate each motion. The beginning guitar student’s brain is overloaded with too much information to apply at the same time, this is why we work on method #1 and #2 above to free the brain from too much processing at once. The last method (#3) is designed in order to break the student’s mental processing habit of sending separate and linear messages to each finger of the hand. What we want is to train the brain to process and send one message to all fingers involved.

To get more help on teaching guitar and building a successful guitar teaching business, check out these fifteen free guitar teaching tips.

About the author: Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He coaches other guitar teachers on how to teach guitar.

As the famous saying goes, “you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.”‘ And, as guitar teachers, this saying is paramount. As our business dealings are periodic, it is important that from the start students have trust and understanding in their learning which in turn will bring them back week after week.

Student goals

It is imperative to establish student goals early on so you, the teacher, are able to create an appropriate route to which they can be attained. When asking new students why they left their previous teacher I am often given answers like, “They had me playing chords when I wanted to play lead,” or “I like Punk but was learning Blues.” These answers show that the students’ goals were never explored and they were taught on the teacher’s standard syllabus.

Always start lesson one with a few questions such as:

• What made you want to learn the guitar?
• Have you ever played any other musical instruments?
• What sort of music do you like?
• Who’s your favourite guitarist?

These four questions will give you an overview of why the student wants to learn the guitar, allowing you to start planning the most appropriate route to take in achieving his or her goals.

What to teach?

All students will be different, each having his or her individual learning needs. But having a core teaching syllabus (consisting of essential scales, chords and exercises) is essential and most beginners will be happy to follow the same syllabus. Once the rudiments are in place you can then focus on their particular style of music and personal goals.

Remember “quality not quantity.” Many teachers will pile work on students in a vain attempt to “get their money’s worth,” hoping it will bring them back next week. But what usually happens is the student leaves feeling swamped and disheartened. The best thing to do is start slowly, gradually building the students confidence as you go. Start small by firstly introducing the instruments’ main parts and string names then introduce the plectrum and how to hold it. Next, look at the frets and how they are used to produce sound. The student will now not only better understand the instrument but more importantly feel confident enough to start playing it.

A good first song is “Horse with No Name,” as it only consists of two chords. It will not take long till they are committed to muscle memory and the left hand can happily go back and fourth between them. Next, introduce a few simple strum patterns to work in the right hand.

A good rule of thumb to remember here is “ears before eyes.” For example, have the student strum once, twice, three and four times on each of the chords and only when he has truly mastered that should you introduce the strum patterns in notation.

For the last part of the lesson I like to end with a guitar riff such as “Smoke on the Water” or “Sunshine of your Love.” It is a good way of introducing lead guitar and tab reading and gives them something cool to go home with.

Before they go

The first lesson is the ideal time to explain payment and cancellation policies and other terms and conditions, it is a good idea to have a guitar teaching agreement or studio policy, listing what the student can expect and also what you expect from your student. Having such a document leaves nothing to chance and everybody knows exactly where they stand.

Here is an example learning agreement. This document can be freely edited to include your details and also any extra conditions such as a maximum number of cancellations per term.

I hope this article has been of interest and given you a few useful ideas, pleas visit onlineguitartutor.com for more information on guitar teaching and loads of FREE resources.

Practice to become a professional musician - Continuously work on improving your musical skills, but before you think, “That’s obvious. Tell me something I don’t know,” there are important things to consider. It’s not necessarily about learning more techniques, improving your guitar speed or increasing the size of your chord vocabulary. Think about what a professional musician really needs to know and do musically. Playing your instrument well at home is one thing, but playing well consistently in the studio or on stage is completely different, thus the training and practicing required to play well in those professional environments are also very different.

Yes, you should continue to improve your overall musical skills, but if you want to get started on a music career you will need to specifically practice your ability to play well “consistently” in a variety of higher-pressure situations. Amateurs practice something to “get it right.” Professionals practice to “never get it wrong.”

So the next time you practice your guitar, instead of trying to play something “faster” or to learn something “new,” focus on playing whatever you can already play “consistently well.”

Think about a professional guitar player like Eric Clapton. He’s not a great technical guitar player at all, his knowledge of music theory is probably not vast, but one of the reasons why he became successful in his early days (and continues to be successful today) is because he can play on his own level “consistently well” every night in any environment.

In addition to the “consistency factor” just mentioned, there are other things professionals have practice that most guitar players typically don’t implement in their practicing. For example, having a really good ear is something that professional musicians rely on heavily, yet most guitar players don’t dedicate practice time to develop their aural skills.

Your Recordings - If your music skills are good and your songs are good it might be all for nothing if your recordings suck. You do not necessarily have to invest huge amounts of money to record in a great studio, nor do you have to invest huge amounts of money in a great home studio (although it is nice), but you DO need the playing on your recordings to sound TIGHT (making everything rhythmically PERFECT, appropriate dynamic playing, etc.)!

Do NOT make the mistake of thinking, oh this is only a demo, so tight playing is not that critical when making a simple demo. I assure you, IT IS! Virtually anyone in the music industry today who hears your music will immediately notice if the performance recording is not tight. And if it’s not, they won’t be interested. Why? Because your “demo” is supposed to show others both your songs and your musical abilities. The assumption will be that if your demo is not tight, then your live sound will be amateurish and putting you in the studio will cost a fortune when you have to play something five hundred times to get it right.

So if you want to build a music career, you should practice recording yourself frequently in order to make your studio playing as tight as possible.

Your Live Playing - It’s been said that successful music careers are built on the stage. While not all musicians start their music careers this way, it is true that your live playing is a critical component and can make or break your chances of developing a music career.

Record companies want bands that can sell themselves from the stage. That means when a band plays live, people listening should want to actually buy the band’s music, and all other band-related merchandise. It’s a fact that your fans will buy more during and after a great live show than after a mediocre one even if the songs played are exactly the same. The music industry (or successful bands you might like to join) look very closely at your ability to create a great live show experience for audiences.

Most musicians and amateur bands don’t truly work to improve their live performance skills. Great live playing is much more than simply playing songs while standing (and hoping not to make mistakes), yet for the majority of local musicians and bands this is all they really seem to focus on when playing live.

Where your fans live is really important - If you want to get signed to a major record label, which do you think is better?

1. To have 5,000 fans in your country (or around the world).
2. To have 5,000 fans in your local area only.

The answer is “B”. It is much easier to get 5,000 fans around the country (or the entire world) than it is to get 5,000 fans in your local area. Everyone in the music industry knows this (including record companies). If you sold 5,000 copies worldwide of your new album on your own, that is good accomplishment, but if you sold 5,000 in your local area on your own that would be a major accomplishment in the eyes of record labels.

Why does it matter? Record labels know that if you can sell 5,000 copies in one location on your own, then it makes sense that a record company could probably sell even more copies not only in your area but in many cities/countries.

By having so many fans in one area you demonstrate to the music industry that you have a lot of proven value to offer and their willingness to invest into your music career will go way up!

Although the Internet is a great tool for musicians many artists are focusing on reaching out to the whole world at once and don’t invest enough time and energy into building a valuable local foundation of fans.

Before the internet, bands typically tried to build a strong local fan base around their city. Those that succeeded in this area were most likely to build a successful music career. But since the Internet has opened up so many new possibilities, many unsigned musicians/bands have forgotten the basics which are still very relevant to getting signed to a major record company.

What’s next? - Obviously there are a lot of things you need to do to develop a music career, but this article is designed to get you started now so that you will be in a better position to do the next steps after you have implemented the concepts above. Here’s a quick summary of action steps to take now:

• In addition to improving your overall musical skills, practice to play ‘consistently well’ with the skills you already have.
• Practice recording yourself frequently in order to make your studio playing as tight as possible.
• Work on improving your live performance skills (stage presence, playing in totally different environments, etc.).
• Build your fan base locally as well as internationally (using different strategies for each).

Get fifteen additional free music career tips that will help you build your career.

About the author: Tom Hess is a professional guitarist and mentors musicians to start a career in music

© 2009 Tom Hess Music Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

All these things are very common problems guitar teachers have when teaching beginners.

I’m going to show you five mistakes that most guitar teachers make when teaching beginning guitar students and how you can avoid them.

But before I go into detail about this, I strongly encourage you to test how effective you are in teaching beginning guitar students. I have prepared an assessment where you can easily find out if you are giving your students the best you can. New teachers erroneously assume that teaching guitar to beginning students is easier than teaching more advanced students… fact is, this is totally false.

Teaching beginners effectively is very critical and assumes a great deal of responsibility. Get it right and these people will learn to love to play guitar and do well in the process, get it wrong and they will often leave disillusioned and discouraged to play guitar.

Before reading further, test your effectiveness on how to teach beginning guitar.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

Mistake #1 Using linear guitar teaching methods with beginners.

The vast majority of guitar teachers teach beginning guitar students in a logical linear way. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work well for beginners. Students progress slowly, or give up, leaving both teachers and students very frustrated. Reading this, you may think: ‘But all books for beginning guitar students are written in this way?’ You are right, they are written in a very logical linear way, and this is a huge part of the problem. The linear teaching approach makes perfect sense if you are teaching a topic that is linear such as mathematics or science, but you are teaching music – an art that requires a different method to teaching and learning. Yet the conventional way beginner books are written (and the conventional way beginning students are taught) is typically very linear. When some teachers realize that it doesn’t work, they start to not use any book at all and instead make their own attempt to teaching beginning students with their own version of the linear teaching approach. This often produces mediocre results… some teachers simply ‘accept’ those mediocre results, while others begin searching (again) for a better method of teaching beginners that will work all (or at least most) of the time. One of those better methods is the “geometric guitar teaching method”. With this approach students learn to apply and integrate a wider range of necessary musical skills from the beginning of their training.

Mistake #2 Teaching total beginning guitar students the wrong things in the first several lessons such as: music theory, finger exercises, how to read music notation. Although each of those areas are very useful for most students to know (especially music theory), it is simply not the right time to introduce those topics at this point. Why? Well, there are several reasons, but the main one is that most total beginners will become bored, quickly lose interest, and may hurt their confidence at this point. Of course there will be some students who can respond well to learning these areas from the very beginning, but many will not.

Some teachers feel they are being an irresponsible teacher if they don’t teach this stuff right away. They insist on teaching total beginners these topics, usually causing the teacher to make mistake #3, listed next. For the vast majority of total beginning guitar students, the primary teaching goal should be to build the students’ confidence by getting them to actually do some guitar playing as soon as possible – this will help you to also avoid mistake #3.

Mistake #3 Not building the critical self-confidence that all students need (especially beginners). New students of the guitar (total beginners) are totally clueless about learning to play guitar, guitar lessons, and most importantly, about ‘themselves’. Beginners don’t know if they will actually be able to ever learn to play guitar. They don’t know if they have any potential. They are wondering if they have any natural talent at all. They’re wondering if they actually need to have natural talent to play guitar. They worry that they might be too old, or too young. They worry that maybe their hands are too big, or too small. They don’t know if they will enjoy practicing or not. They worry they may not have an ‘ear for music’ or if they have any rhythm.

You must help your students to remove these self-doubts as soon as possible… but encouraging words are often not enough. You will need to use guitar teaching methods and materials which will naturally and quickly show your beginning students some very real tangible proof that they really can, will and are learning to play guitar well.

Mistake #4 Teaching beginning students using a similar (but more simple) approach to teaching intermediate and advanced students. As mentioned above, building self-confidence in the student should be the foundation with which to build your lessons upon, but after this is established and nurtured in your beginning guitar students, there are still aspects of your approach to teaching which should be different than it is for more advanced guitar players. For example, advanced students are more likely to understand, appreciate and be willing to practice a tedious exercise countless times in order to achieve something on the guitar – most beginners cannot (or will not) fully understand, appreciate these ideas nor actually be willing to practice in this way for long periods of time. Your teaching methods must match the general mindset of the type of student you are teaching. Focus on teaching ‘people’ more than teaching ‘music’… It’s all about your student.

Mistake #5 Using the trial-and-error approach to learn how to teach guitar. Fact is most guitar teachers try to learn how to teach guitar by treating their students like laboratory rats in an experiment. Of course you can learn some good things from hands-on teaching, but it’s unfair to your students to learn ‘only’ in this way. With all of the resources available for guitar teachers today, there is no excuse for teachers to gain all their teaching experience using the trial and error approach. Seek out proven training programs for guitar teachers, acquire guitar teaching resources, or at least read more articles on how to become a better guitar teacher.

When you avoid the guitar teaching mistakes mentioned above both you and your students will benefit in many ways. You will both experience a greater fulfillment during your lessons. Your students will make much faster, easier and better progress in their guitar playing. You will likely keep your students active in taking lessons from you for a longer period of time. And your reputation as a guitar teacher will only be enhanced in the process.

Since you are still reading this article, it is clear that you have a sincere interest in helping your beginning guitar students (that’s good!). If you have not already done so, test your effectiveness on how to teach beginners guitar.

About the author: Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He coaches other guitar teachers on how to teach guitar.

©2009 Tom Hess Music Corporation.
All Rights reserved.

Most aspiring musicians receive a lot of advice from friends and family about the best approach to take with building their music career. Among the many things suggested, is the idea of having a backup plan. Many people give advice about “the need to have something to fall back on in case the music career doesn’t work out” or “a Plan B”. Typically, musicians are encouraged to go to school and get a degree in something they can easily find a job in, and do music on the side, in their “free time”.

If/when you reach the point where your music career begins to develop, you are probably advised to work less in your day job and focus more on the music until you can leave the day job and make the music career work for you. This advice sounds good in theory, but in reality fails to work as intended in almost every case. Why? Usually the job that most musicians get to support themselves until their music career kicks off, has nothing to do with music in general, or their music career specifically. As a result, most end up in a very frustrating situation that makes it virtually impossible to achieve any kind of lasting success as a professional musician.

Four Reasons why this kind of “backup plan” is usually doomed to fail

Before I go into detail about some reasons why this kind of “backup plan” is usually not working as intended, I want you to test yourself and the effectiveness of your strategy to become a professional musician. It will really help you to take this test BEFORE reading the rest of the article, so that you are not biased in your answers.

Do you think that your “backup plan” will work and will lead you to a rewarding and stable long- term music career? Take this survey to find out before reading further.

Reason #1: Not having an effective exit strategy

The idea of slowly phasing out your day job while building your music career is good, but in order to work, it needs to be done in the right way. Most musicians have nothing planned or prepared that will allow them to gradually decrease the time spent at their day job and focus more on music. When choosing a “backup plan”, musicians typically find a job that is the most “safe and secure” and the one that pays the most money. However, most people fail to plan the “exit strategy” and think ahead to the time when their music career situation will allow you to focus less of your time on the day job. When they finally reach that point, they realize that they are trapped in their day job and are unable to “gradually” phase it out. They are faced with the choice of either quitting the job entirely, or sticking to it until retirement (more on this shortly).

The best exit plan is to have a job that will allow you to gradually decrease the number of hours you spend on it: from 40 hours per week to 30, from 30 hours to 20, from 20 to 10, until eventually you can quit the job altogether! So you must take care to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. That means you need to be careful to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. This way, when the time is right, you can make a “gradual” transition into a full time music career. Unfortunately, most traditional occupations (such as being an accountant, computer programmer, office manager etc…) do not allow this flexibility. Remember, your boss at work will not all of a sudden allow you to “work three or four days per week instead of five”, simply because you want to work on your new CD an extra few days per week. It is possible to begin by working in a non-music related job at first, BUT do not select “any” job offer without considering the exit strategy first.

An ideal job for an aspiring professional musician is teaching guitar. Not only can you make very good money doing it, but you are in complete control over how many hours you choose to work. Not everyone may desire to teach full time for the rest of their life (and this is fine). But as long as you are going to be working anyway, why not do something that is already related to what you enjoy, help students reach their goals faster and make money in the process? In addition, teaching is already a “music related” activity that is probably much more fun to do than sitting in an office!

Another possibility is to work as an independent contractor in sales or marketing or doing consulting work for hire. Always check about the flexibility of work schedule before accepting a job offer. Remember that in most industries, the 40-60 hour work week is the norm, with little or no possibility for part time employment. This makes it impossible to make a smooth transition to a full time music career.

Reason #2: There is too much risk involved

Slowly phasing out your day job seems to be a very ‘safe and secure’ approach, but it can actually backfire and “trap” you by its sense of security. If you are making $60,000 per year at your day job, and have managed (through working nights and weekends) to build up your music related income to $25,000 per year, then, all together, you have a total income of $85,000 for the year. Here is where the reality catches up to you. Should you decide to go full time into music, you will invariably need to quit your day job completely at some point. Until you can recover and build your music career to higher and higher levels, you will be making $60,000 less per year than before! This kind of risk is uncomfortable to think about for most people (especially those who get married, have kids and/or have significant expenses), and keeps them trapped at their day jobs their whole lives.

Reason #3: You are often not able to take advantage of opportunities.

What if you put extraordinary effort on nights and weekends into recording a great sounding CD with your band, spend a lot of time promoting it in hopes of getting signed by a record company and go on tour, and then you really get the opportunity to do a 10 week tour in another country in the world. It is VERY probable that you would NOT get paid a lot of money while on a first tour, but as a whole, this kind of tour is exactly the kind of breakthrough you have been searching for. What are you going to do? Are you going to turn down a huge opportunity to advance your music career? Or are you going to agree to take a huge cut in pay by quitting your day job to do the tour? I think you can agree that neither of these options sounds entirely appealing. Wouldn’t it be great to do the tour and not worry about how you are going to feed yourself (and your family) while you are gone?

Reason #4: There is not much quality time and energy to get anything done.

This may seem like a more subtle issue, but it is actually very important. If your most productive hours in the day are spent on the least productive activities, then reaching your goals will take MUCH longer than it needs to. Think about it: if you wake up at 6:00, get to work by 8:00 or 9:00 and spend eight to ten hours there, and another one to two hours commuting back home, by the time you are ready to begin working on your music career, you are already tired! This is also not taking into account the time taken up by other things in life that you have to tend to. It will take a truly extraordinary effort to get anything worthwhile accomplished during the time on nights and weekends, to build multiple streams of music related income that will enable you to quit your non-music related job without putting yourself and your family in financial struggle.

Now that you see why this kind of backup plan isn’t as good as it seems to be, you may ask yourself what you should do instead.

What is the solution?

Well, having no backup plan is definitely NOT the solution. In order to build a successful music career, you need to be prepared and you cannot simply hope that “things will work out”. The underlying problem with the conventional backup plan I described is that it originates from thinking about how not “to lose”. This type of thinking lacks real ambition and it forces you to stick to that which is the most familiar and so called “safe and secure”. As a result, you typically end up with what you wish for: a familiar, average, safe and secure life. However, this attitude rarely leads to significant achievements, breakthroughs and victories in the music industry.

What the most successful musicians do is arrange their backup plan or Plan B around their MUSIC CAREER GOALS (Plan A). This requires real ambition and courage, and it is based on thinking about how “to win”. This also requires you to think how you can integrate Plan B with your present and future life as a professional musician.

There are many possibilities for truly effective “back up” (which are more like “support”) plans. In many cases, they involve designing systems and multiple income streams coming from music business sources that will support them continuously.

It’s important to put a lot of thought into which kinds of “backup plans” and approaches are best suited to your specific goals. To find the right plan for you, there are two important things you need to do:

First, study how the music business works. This is key! Understanding it will greatly help you with designing the most effective strategy for reaching your goals in the fastest period of time. Building a successful, long term career takes a lot of focused effort and dedication. The more you understand about the music business, the easier it will be to design the kind of backup plan that will help you reach your goals instead of restricting and trapping you.

Second, be careful about taking advice from people who may have great intentions, but lack knowledge and experience about how the music industry works. Very often, our friends and family, with the very best intentions at heart, attempt to give us advice on what to do to “make it”. However, if you pay attention, you will notice that this advice has a common theme, which is “here is what you must do in order not to lose”. Very rarely do you get advice about how “to win”! This mentality (as described above) keeps you away from taking steps that will propel your dreams forward.

To make matters worse, although your friends and family may have the best intentions in their heart, most of the time, they simply aren’t qualified to give advice about the music business. It will be similar to you asking your brother who is a plumber (for example) about how to cure a disease, or asking your uncle who is a carpenter (for example) about how to solve a legal problem. It doesn’t matter that these people have your best interest at heart. If they don’t know what they are talking about (in a particular subject), they are not likely to give helpful advice.

If you truly want advice that works and if you want to learn the strategies of how to reach all of your music career goals, you need to find a mentor who you can rely on for effective advice. This means learning from someone who has already done what you want to do, and ideally someone who has trained many others to do the same.

The most effective, predictable and safe strategies to “phasing in” your music career

Now that you know about the problems with the conventional approaches to backup plans, I will show you the characteristics of a good backup plan (Plan B).

1. Flexibility

Your plan must be flexible. This can mean many things. One of them is having the ability to “gradually” decrease the amount of time you spend working on Plan B and increase the time you invest into Plan A! This can also mean the ability to integrate (leverage) the skills acquired (or the results earned) from Plan B into Plan A.

2. Passivity

Your plan should be mostly passive: it will really help if your Plan B mostly consists of passive income streams that you have created by only investing the work once! It should be pretty obvious to see how this will free up a lot of time to dedicate to your Plan A (your music career)!

3. Diversity

The plan should be diversified: do not become so dependent on only one stream of income! Many people argue that a music career is not secure, when nothing could be further from the truth. Which do you think is more likely, that a company lays off an employee in the blink of an eye (cutting off his one and only source of income, the paycheck), or that a music teacher with forty students (who essentially has at least forty “diversified” income streams) will suddenly lose all of his clients overnight?

By making your Plan B options diversified, you also build your own financial security, without depending on anyone else. I don’t know about you, but I feel much safer knowing that I am in control of my own future, rather than putting my faith into someone else’s idea of security.

4. Congruency and Relevance

This means that Plan B needs to make your primary goal (music career) MORE likely to occur! This also means (ideally), that the time you invest into developing skills and experience in Plan B can be easily used to enhance Plan A. For example, if you are known as an excellent guitar teacher, you can easily integrate teaching clinics and workshops with performances of your music, selling your future music CDs, other merchandise etc…etc…

I hope that you can see now how this strategy is vastly different (and superior) to the conventional wisdom of getting a day job, and then doing your best on evenings and weekends to launch a music career from scratch.

As you design your own path to a successful music career, compare the steps you are taking against the criteria above and modify your strategy if necessary. This will help save you from the frustration felt by most of the ‘wannabe’ musicians, who realize (much too late) that their strategy leaves them no way to manifest their dreams.

If you have missed the survey mentioned at the beginning of this article, check it out here.

© 2009 Tom Hess Music Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Most guitar teachers struggle with at least some of the areas mentioned above. Many years ago, I was no different. I used to have a difficult time balancing the challenges of trying to help more students, become a more effective guitar teacher, grow my teaching income, and have time left at the end of the day. When I began teaching guitar, I had only a few students and struggled to support myself on teaching income only. My biggest challenges were getting consistent results with different types of students, having reliable systems in place for attracting more students and keeping my existing students from quitting before reaching their musical goals. I also couldn’t see an effective way to increase my income other than increasing the number of hours I taught or raising my lesson rates to very high levels.

Unfortunately, I could not find much help from anyone on how to change my situation. Although there were some very good musicians teaching guitar in my area, very few had anything that I considered to be a thriving guitar teaching business, meaning one that ensures effective, powerful and consistent results for students as well as financial success for the guitar teacher.

It became clear to me that following the conventional approaches to teaching guitar was not going to bring me the results I was after, neither for myself nor for my students. It took a long time of studying successful business people (outside of music), and a lot of trial and error, before I finally began to understand why my earlier attempts to become successful teaching guitar were so ineffective. Eventually I realized what I needed to change in my approach before I would be ready to start a highly successful guitar teaching business.

In this article, I will share with you nine of the biggest mistakes I used to make as a guitar teacher and that I notice many guitar teachers make. By correcting these mistakes, I was able to completely transform my guitar teaching in very powerful ways. This article is focused specifically on how to improve the business side of your guitar teaching, the ‘teaching side’ of your teaching business will be discussed in a future article.

Before reading further, it will be useful for you to assess your current level of readiness to become a highly successful guitar instructor. Take this five minute guitar teaching test before reading further. It will help you discover if you are making one or more of the top nine mistakes guitar teachersusually make.

1. Having limited teaching models.

The vast majority of guitar teachers only engage in one form of teaching: one-on-one lessons. While this approach certainly has its place, it is not the only guitar teaching method that could be or should be used to maximize the benefit to both your students and yourself. Contrary to conventional wisdom, students do not “always” learn most effectively in a one-on-one lesson format. Unfortunately, very few teachers ever venture outside of this traditional method. Many teachers simply aren’t aware of the benefits that other teaching formats have, or they follow what other guitar teachers do. There are many cases where a group class could be a more appropriate model, or at least be a useful addition to private lessons. The wide range of group teaching formats (when designed and taught in the right way)allows your students to interact and learn from one another. This is obviously not possible in private lessons. Also, group classes are usually more focused on one specific topic, allowing students to master it in less time. Finally, including group formats into your teaching can make your teaching business much more lucrative, less time-demanding and add more value to your students (plus it becomes more affordable for them!)

2. Not achieving meaningful results with students.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that really matters is the results that your students get from you. If you are able to consistently turn out good or great guitar players, then your positive reputation will begin to spread and referrals will come to you. So if your business is not growing at the rate you would like it to, one of the questions you should ask is: “How effective am I in getting powerful results with my students?” If your students are not happy with the results they receive, then you need to take a closer look at your teaching methods and ask yourself: How can I teach more effectively? How can I add more value to my students? Do the lesson formats I use produce effective results? Do I inspire my students or do I simply give them “information” about guitar playing? How can I lead my students through a literal life transforming experience as their guitar teacher, trainer, coach and mentor? One great way to improve as a teacher is to find the most successful guitar teacher you can, and take lessons with him or her on how to TEACH. Remember that the more you are able to fulfill and transform people’s musical lives in genuinely empowering ways, the faster your teaching business will grow.

I explain more about the topic of getting powerful and consistent results with students in my free 7 day e-mail mini course about teaching guitar.

3. Working too much “in” your guitar teaching business and not enough “on” it.

It is very common for music teachers (and business owners) to get so caught up in doing the daily work of “teaching” that little action is taken to actively expand and grow the business further. As a result, a business owner doesn’t really own a business; he/she only owns a “job”. Of course your teaching may expand on its own to some extent, but it will grow MUCH faster if you invest some time each week into doing things that will speed up this process. Focusing on promotion, analyzing and improving your teaching effectiveness and business models, creating referral programs, joint ventures and partnerships all create opportunities for you to maximize the value you add to your students and expand your business! Schedule some time each week to plan the direction you want your business to take in the next three, six, and twelve months. By being proactive in this way, you will see many positive results.

4. Not knowing how to distinguish yourself from the competition.

The best way to distinguish yourself from your competitors is to not have any. Read the last sentence several times and think about what it means! How can this apply to your situation as a guitar teacher? There are probably dozens (or hundreds) of guitar teachers in your local area, so it may seem impossible to “not have competitors”….or is it? One effective way to make all competition “irrelevant” is to offer something that no other music teacher in your area does. Having several teaching models in addition to the standard one-on-one lessons is one such possibility, but there are MANY others.

The options range from changing the way you conduct lessons to thinking of innovative ways for overcoming objections of prospective students that will make them want to choose you over the competition every time.

Here is another common competition problem and something you can do about it:

Very often you may only be able to attract students who live close to your teaching studio. When a prospective student lives further away, that distance creates a barrier of inconvenience and the student is more inclined to find a guitar instructor who is closer. Most teachers would simply give up and allow the person to study with someone else. But have you ever thought about what that inconvenience really means? Most of the time, the “distance” isn’t the problem. The problem (the objection) is the “time” that the student feels is wasted each week as they travel to and from your guitar lessons. They may love your lessons but hate wasting an hour to travel to you. Have you ever thought about what that means for you and how understanding this difference can be of great benefit to both you and your prospective students? There are several things you could do to turn this situation into a positive one. The question on your mind should be, “How can every minute they invest into traveling to me be reinvested into something useful for them?” Asking this question will likely inspire you to create some powerful resources to offer to your prospective students that they can study while commuting to and from your lessons! This is one of many examples of how you can differentiate yourself from the competition. The more you set yourself apart, the easier it will be to grow your teaching business.

5. Not understanding how to achieve geometric growth rather than linear growth.

Most music teachers only know how to grow their business linearly. They take one action in one area, and achieve some result. Then they repeat that same action and receive more results. Of course there is nothing wrong about this, but such an approach limits the amount of total growth you can achieve and the number of people you can help. Here is an example.

Most guitar teachers have only one or two ways of acquiring new students. Perhaps the most common method is advertising locally (posting flyers or placing ads in newspapers). So to recruit more new guitar students, most teachers either increase the number of ads they release, or change the ads to make them more effective. Let’s assume that last year you were able to recruit twenty new students. To increase this number, you publish more ads than before. As a result, this year you recruit twenty-five new students. Certainly this is good progress (a growth of five students or 25% per year), but you have only achieved linear growth. What if, in addition to advertisements you also focused on keeping your existing students longer, establishing joint ventures with music stores, and focused on converting a higher percentage of prospects into students? Most music teachers are completely unaware of how these elements can contribute to their guitar teaching business, and miss huge opportunities for MASSIVE growth!

If each of these elements provided you with 25% more students, your growth would now become geometric! The growth in each of these elements would compound on top of the others. Instead of expanding by only 25%, you can now grow by 144%! If your current state of business is at level 1, and you expand it by 25% (multiply by a factor 1.25) from 4 different business elements, your total growth is about 144%! (1 x 1.25 x 1.25 x 1.25 x 1.25 = 2.44 or 144% increase!!!). This means that your student count can go from 20 to 48 instead of 20 to 25 in one year!

6. Not being able to think of unconventional ways of attracting more prospective students.

Even if all you do is post flyers in your area and take out ads in newspapers, what have you done to maximize the results you get from these efforts? If you simply try to copy what everyone around you is doing to attract students, you will get the same results as everyone else. But if you want to grow your business and help more people than the average guitar teacher, then you will need to use approaches that are better than average. Taking some marketing classes will help you to greatly increase the response rate to standard ads. But in addition to the obvious, it is often the most unconventional methods that bring the best results. Have you thought about partnering up with a music store around your area to refer students/customers to each other? This idea can result in much more business for both parties, and it costs nothing to set up! I have a guitar student right now (who is a professional guitar teacher) who does this in his area and almost all of his fifty-seven students came from this single idea!

7. Not having effective systems in place for converting prospects into becoming students.

Students will be so much more likely to take lessons from you when you can prove to them beyond any doubt that their life will be enhanced by having you as a teacher. One of the best ways to do this is to show the results you have achieved by helping other people. No matter what you promise “in words”, there must be clear proof to back up your claims. When it comes to conversion, there is little else as effective as solid proof of your success with other students. Some guitar teachers make the mistake of acting like salespeople, trying to “sell” the lessons to students. What you need to do instead is to make the prospect see on their own that you are the most logical and most viable solution to their musical problems. Nobody likes to be “sold” to, so you should let your massive evidence of success with students speak for itself. You must also find out as much as you can about your prospective student’s specific goals, musical challenges, and current playing level. After you know this, it will be easier to prove to the person that you can give them the help that they need. Most importantly, you MUST back up every claim you make. If a prospective new student asks to study with you, but you are not comfortable teaching in his/her style, skill level, or musical ambitions, then do NOT teach that student. The fastest way to destroy a business is to fail to deliver what you promise!

8. Not knowing how to keep students for a long time (years!)

Your students will continue studying with you as long as you continue to find unique ways to add value and enrich their musical lives. When you do this, it is possible to keep students for five, six, eight, ten or more years! One effective way to ensure that students remain with you longer is to have something to offer that will allow them to continuously advance as musicians. This becomes easy to do if in addition to private lessons you teach several group classes that go in depth on very specific topics. This will allow your students to learn more from you in a new setting while also learning from your other advancing guitar students. Think about the students you have now. You know them well (or at least you should). Ask yourself, in what ways might you be able to provide additional benefits and value to each person you work with? To be clear, I am not implying that you should create an environment of “dependency”. Certainly our goal as guitar teachers is to make our students grow so that they may become totally independent and not “need” us forever, but that does not mean you should not constantly look to add huge amounts of value to them for years to come! They should WANT to remain your student for a long time because of the benefit you provide them (not because you are holding them back). Although this might seem like simple common sense, the truth is the VAST majority of music teachers in general, and guitar teachers in particular, don’t do a very good job in this area, and that is why so many teachers and students struggle unnecessarily.

9. Not knowing how to motivate existing students to refer new students to you.

Growing your student base through referrals is a very powerful method of expanding your guitar teaching business. However, in order to encourage referrals, you need to have incentives strong enough to make your existing students to WANT to refer their friends to you. One of the strongest incentives is to consistently turn your students into great players and help them reach their musical goals. In most cases, the more satisfied your students are, the more referrals you will get.

Another possibility is to offer bonus lessons or bonus instructional items that your students can ONLY obtain when they refer their friends to you. There are many more possibilities, but these are just two to get you started thinking. Don’t simply rely on word of mouth to work for you! An effective, organized and systematic referral system will bring you exponentially more students!

It should now be more obvious why guitar teachers struggle with teaching more effectively and earning more money in the process. I hope that by reading this article you have seen that this situation does not have to be this way! Although the list above is not all inclusive, if you take action on each of the nine points discussed here, you will surely see your level of success and effectiveness as a guitar teacher begin to grow more rapidly. If you haven’t taken the test mentioned earlier in this article, I encourage you to do so now to find out how prepared you are to establish a highly successful guitar teaching business. Test yourself here.

Also, I highly recommend checking out the free 7 day e-mail mini course about how to become a truly exceptional guitar teacher.

©2009 Tom Hess Music Corporation. All Rights Reserved

If I gave you my complete list of music industry connections (key people I have established important relationships with), do you think it would help you develop a successful music career? … NO! Why? Because a mere ‘contact’ is not worth anything. Contacts need to become meaningful connections. Meaningful connections are developed by building good relationships… More on this later…

However, even if you have good relationships with the right people, this won’t help you until and unless you work on having the right things in place which enables your contacts to feel confident enough to work with you. You can see more about this specific topic in a free video on how to become a professional musician.

So, who are the people you should be contacting? … And when you get through to someone, what do you say to him/her? How can you make these important people pay attention to you if you don’t yet have a ‘name’ in the music business?

Let’s explore the first question, “Who are the people you should be contacting?” To answer this, you need to ask a series of other questions such as:

• Who are some music industry people who have great influence and power?
• Who are the music industry people who have the greatest number of key relationships with other music industry professionals and companies?
• Among the most important music industry people, who are the easiest to locate in your local area?
• Who are the most accessible music industry people?
• Who are the music industry people who you can help to solve THEIR problems and/or help them to reach their goals?

Is there a single “type” of music industry person or (company) who fits ALL the above criteria? The answer is ‘Yes’. And if you do not have music industry connections, this ‘type of contact’ may be your best place to begin… So, who is this type of person or company? Record company executives? A&R people? Producers? Publishers? Managers? Entertainment Lawyers? Famous bands? No. The answer is “Concert Promoters”.

Serious concert promoters have massive power and influence in the music industry. They are the real entrepreneurs of the music business. They deal with thousands of very important music industry people every year, such as well known bands, record labels, artist management, tour managers, entertainment lawyers, production companies, merchandising departments, the venues, booking agents, radio stations, the press, etc., etc.

If you live near an urban area, you won’t have any trouble finding promoters who live and work locally (use Google). Unlike most other important music industry contacts, promoters are generally accessible and will be willing to talk to anyone who has ‘something real’ to offer them. That’s where you come in.

Generally speaking, concert promoters take on more risk than any other person or entity in the entire music industry. All promoters lose large sums of money every year, because some concerts lose money. The successful promoters make (and keep) more money than they lose throughout the year.

What every promoter wants is a bigger and stronger team of people to help ensure that the concerts/tours they promote make more money! Obviously, it’s expensive to employ a large team of experienced people. However, you can join their team, at least on a part-time basis, if you are willing to volunteer, intern, or earn a small salary. You may not yet know anything about promoting tours, but some promotion companies would be eager to train you if it isn’t expensive for them to do so.

Think about it from their perspective: If you were a big time promoter taking on huge risks, wouldn’t you want another person to work for you, for free or for a very low salary? Of course the answer is ‘yes’, even if that person could only work part-time.

Many musicians who want a music career are told to do an internship for a record label. The conventional wisdom is that when you do this, you will learn a lot about the music business. The reality is, most of these interns never get into a position where they can truly learn much at all as an intern. However working for a promoter, your ability to learn how the industry really works (at least on the touring and promotional side) goes way up! In addition, the number of contacts you can make are 200 times more than what you would likely make working at a record label. And compared to record labels, there is a lot less competition, currently anyway, for internships or jobs with a promoter.

As excited as you may now feel, knowing that you CAN actually do this, there is a catch and it’s a big one. In order to have any real chance of pursuing this opportunity and using these contacts to help launch your music career, you must work on having the right things in place which enables your music industry contacts to feel confident enough to work with you. The truth is, nothing in this article will help you until and unless you do take this step. You can see more about this specific topic in a free video on how to become a professional musician.

©2008 Tom Hess Music Corporation. All Rights Reserved

Take it a little at a time, and let the student build up the calluses like the rest of us have! Even just strumming Em /A (the beginning of Somebody to Love, or Summertime) which may be easier to hold down may be ok. You can consider nylon strings for a year or two. They don’t sound as rich as the metal, but may be easier to hold down and strum. A luthier (if you know one, or if there is a good guitar store near you) may be able to lower the guitar’s action, making it easier as well.

Learning to read music is a good idea. Both of my kids learned to read music via the piano when they were 5 or 6, and I took lessons from that age as well. It’s a skill that will be useful for the rest of one’s life.

From the Editor: In addition to Laura’s comments, I’d also like to recommend a couple of things – first off, many teachers start off their younger students with partial chords, using just the first three or four strings. For instance, you can play a G like this: xx0003 and a C like this: xxx010. Another thing that one can do is to use an open tuning (usually G or D). This is especially good if the child it adept at strumming. You can show where to barre the frets (or even use a slide) for your typical three chord song and the two of you can have a blast.

For even more on teaching guitar to children check out Laura’s lesson How Young is too Young to Play. Laura’s latest article discusses children and musical instruments. How young can one start? What things should be taken into consideration? There’s some wonderful tips and advice here.

Because you are reading this article, I can imagine that you have probably faced similar challenges. I know how you feel, because I went through the same depressing struggle for years and have seen hundreds of great musicians travel along the same path. But over time, I have discovered that in many cases the lack of success is caused by the musicians (including myself in the past) simply not knowing what it is the music industry companies want from new artists.

You probably already know that record labels, producers, entertainment lawyers, and managers seek artists who have a lot more to offer than talent alone. What they want from you is a “total package” which includes many things, but the two main factors are: adding more value (in terms of money and/or opportunity), and reducing potential downside risks to the music company. I am going to tell you more about these two elements of value and risk in this article.

Prior to signing my first record deal and doing my first real tour, I read dozens of books about the music business. Although some of these books were helpful, I quickly discovered that the reality of the music business was very different from what the books described. In most cases these books weren’t necessarily ‘wrong’, just very incomplete.

Entering the industry as a professional opened my eyes to many things I had never heard of or thought about before. Eventually I came to know and understand many important details about the companies I worked with: their needs, challenges, problems and mindsets. I paid very close attention to things that others around me often overlooked. I did this for two reasons:

1. I wanted to advance my own career to the maximum extent possible while remaining in control of the ways in which that growth occurred.
2. I was already mentoring other musicians, so going deeper into my understanding of the music business was something I needed to do for their benefit as well.

The central theme which kept coming up in my earliest conversations with the record label executives I worked with was “partnership”. Today, it seems perfectly normal for me to think that record companies might see their artists as “business partners”, but at the time, I didn’t think that the term had a genuine meaning. Over the years that followed, the concept of ‘partnerships’ began to show up everywhere, but I probably would not have paid much attention to it if my first meetings with the record label and management hadn’t been so focused on this fundamental idea.

Record labels, managers, and successful bands, are looking for artists who think in terms of mutual benefit. You must think in this way before any company in the music industry will want to work with you and invest their money and resources into your career. Imagine you are in a band, trying to get a record contract. Obviously you know what YOU want from this deal (access to the record company’s resources that will be used to propel your career forward, attract new fans, sell more records, make more money, go on tours, etc.) But have you thought about what THE COMPANY wants (besides the obvious)?

Now imagine for a moment that you are the president of a record label. Would you take $250,000 of your money and invest it into a band which is good and has marketable songs??? I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t do this, UNTIL AND UNLESS it was clear to me that my investment into the band will not be a waste of money, and will bring back substantial returns. It’s highly unlikely that a $250,000 record label budget will be enough to take a band anywhere significant if that band is ‘only’ a good band with marketable songs. It’s going to take a lot more than good talent and good marketable songs to get the type of serious commitment and investment from a label which is needed to advance your band’s future over the long term. It takes a partnership (not merely a contract and a budget) to make this happen.

What about you?

Do you think you have what it takes to become a successful business partner of any company in the music industry? Take this 5 minute survey and find out: http://www.tomhess.net/WhatDoesTheMusicIndustryLookForInYou.aspx 

Here are a few things you need to think about when approaching any company in the music industry:

Key mindsets you need to acquire:

• Don’t seek to be merely an “employee” of a company, instead, think in terms of a win/win partnership.
• Do not feel like you are entitled to receive money or opportunities simply because you are talented. It is not the company’s job to reward you for your music. It’s their job to reward you for the value you bring to them (beyond the music).
• You must become a partner in what they want to achieve. And you want them to be a partner in what you want to achieve. Note that I am not talking about “selling out”. Selling out would involve giving up your musical integrity for money (or other benefits). What I am describing is simply one of the most basic and universal practices of business. You must give the other side what they want in order to receive what you want from them. If you follow this principle, success in business (and life) becomes so much easier!

Too often artists and companies are at odds with each other because each is out to reach its own objectives even if those objectives are in direct conflict with the other side’s goals. When either side feels “entitled” to something without a win-win strategy, everything breaks down between them. And sooner or later both sides lose (and so do the fans!).

Until you begin to think and work with the win-win partnership concept, the people and companies with the greatest power to help you will typically not be interested in you…. And the bad people (“sharks”) in the industry might seek to take advantage of you, if you are talented but ignorant to how the music business world works.

Here is How These Mindsets Help You:

The good music business people expect you to know how the music industry functions BEFORE they begin to work with you. They get tired of answering basic questions about how things work. While the companies could teach you these fundamentals, they would prefer for you to learn them yourself. The reason they want this is because it saves THEM time (and resources).

Remember, when it comes to getting other people to associate with you, think in terms of what they stand to gain or lose by signing you to a record deal or putting your band on tour (or anything else).

These music companies prefer not to waste their time teaching you about the music industry, general business, mental attitudes, image, stage presence, logistics, etc. At first glance, this may seem like an inconvenience for you, but it isn’t. It is in YOUR interest to see these resources spent on promoting your career, helping you sell records, tour the world, attract more fans, make more money etc. If instead, a big chunk of money and time was spent on teaching you what you should already know, who do you think loses the most? YOU do! This is because the company’s resources SHOULD be spent on helping you achieve what you could not do on your own (and learning the fundamentals of the business is not one of them).

Also, remember that since music companies are directly investing money into your career, they will expect their investment back, with interest. Therefore, it is (again) to your advantage to minimize any waste in that investment. Here is an example.

Let’s say that your band was put on tour by a record company, but the management believes that your band does not know how to conduct yourselves on and off stage. They will require you to be coached in these areas (and believe me, they WILL). If rehearsals take an additional week (at the rate of thousands of dollars per day), then money will be spent on this new expense instead of being invested into other aspects of your tour, record and career. Remember, this extra money will need to be paid back to the company FIRST before your band sees any profits from the tour OR your record (yes, your label will require to be recouped for all expenses).

Many new bands feel a sense of ‘entitlement’ and think it is the tour manager’s job to coach the band how to conduct themselves on and off stage. This, as already discussed, costs the band and the label a lot of money. However, when you see yourself in a win-win partnership with the label, then you know that it is in everyone’s best interest to take the initiative to prepare yourself in all possible ways before money is spent. If you are not prepared beforehand, you are creating a higher investment risk for the company you work with!

Here are the most important things to remember from this article:

• Find out as much as you can about the companies you want to work with before approaching them. This will help you in many ways. First, you will familiarize yourself with their goals, business desires and challenges. This will help you to anticipate and come up with win/win solutions to business negotiations. Also, the people in these organizations will be impressed that you took the time to learn about their needs before approaching them. They will remember you.
• Always try to see all business situations and proposals from the point of view of the other side. This will allow you to better anticipate their needs, challenges and possible objections toward working with you. Then you need to demonstrate this understanding in both words and actions.
• Think in terms of win/win partnerships. If you develop a reputation for coming up with business ideas that meet your needs as well as the needs of the other side, you will find many more attractive opportunities coming your way.
• Seek ways you can add value while reducing risk. In all of business, (music industry or otherwise), your success will be greatly affected by your ability to deliver high value with low risk. Before approaching any company with a business proposal, consider all of the ways you are planning to add value to the project. Can you expand this list? Do the same analysis of all of the potential risks of a particular business partnership (whether it comes from you or other people in the project). What can you do to minimize or eliminate these risks? If you do this, you will definitely have a great advantage over most musicians who are more concerned about how much their paycheck is going to be, rather than trying to enhance the value for all parties involved.
• After you have done all that you can to add value and reduce risk, you again need to demonstrate this in both words and actions. Think of how most bands try to get signed, they play local shows, try to increase their following, send their promo kits to labels, management, entertainment lawyers, etc. In this way, you compete with all the other unknown bands. Here is a huge tip, why not focus directly on showing and proving to these companies/people how your value is higher and your risk is lower than the thousands of other bands who are sending their press kits every year. Although there is much more to the story, this is the basis for how I landed my own first record deal. This approach helped to further separate myself from literally thousands of other excellent guitar players who pursued the same opportunities I received. And I’ve used this strategy to land several other fulfilling and lucrative music business related deals.
• Lose the feeling of entitlement. As I alluded to in the article, no music company in the world will want you, unless you have something to offer them which they find valuable. Nobody is “entitled” to a record deal or more money simply because they may be a great musician. Feeling this way is a mistake that a lot of musicians make and one that I hope you will avoid, now that you are aware of it after reading this article. What you need to do instead is prove to the other party how they would be passing up a great opportunity if they didn’t work with you. When you can do this, you will find that the other things will fall into place much easier.

You should think deeply about the issues that I brought up and consider the ways some or all of them can apply to your current (or future) music career. I have given you some good starting points to begin thinking and planning for success. Use them to take the actions you know you must take to reach your goals!

If you missed the survey mentioned at the beginning of this article, I encourage you to test yourself here: http://www.tomhess.net/WhatDoesTheMusicIndustryLookForInYou.aspx.

© 2008 Tom Hess Music Corporation All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission ]]> http://www.musiccareers.net/career-articles/pursuit-of-the-record-deal/feed/ 0 http://www.musiccareers.net/career-articles/begin-your-music-career/ http://www.musiccareers.net/career-articles/begin-your-music-career/#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:04:50 +0000 Tom Hess http://www.guitarnoise.com/musiccareers2/?p=117 Why so many good musicians struggle to begin their music career.

If you are like most people who want a career as a professional musician, the first question you ask is probably, “What do I have to do?” You ask this because you are not sure what you need to do first, second, third, etc. And it seems obvious that you must actually do things in order to move forward and launch your own music career.

Whether you are just starting out, or already have some experience in the music business, there are important steps you must take and many things you will need to do. However, the order in which you take each step will make a big difference in the results you get.

It’s not about what you must do… It’s about who you must become.

Some years ago, I had a great mentor who was a very successful entrepreneur. At that time, I was not yet very far along in my own music career. I asked him all the usual questions like, “How can I get on a world tour?”, “Where should I send my CDs to?”, “Who do I need to talk to at the record company?”, “How can I make more money with my music and talents?”, “What do I need to do to sell my music in other countries?”, etc.

He replied, “Tom, you aren’t ready for any of that yet. You might be ready as a musician, but you haven’t really prepared yourself mentally. When you ‘do things’ now, you will make some progress along the way, but that isn’t success – that won’t create a lucrative and stable career over the long term. Successful people are successful not because they are intelligent or talented, nor do they succeed simply because they ‘do the right things.’ When you become ‘success-minded’, you will have the power to achieve success in anything you want to do. Don’t worry now about ‘doing things.’ Let’s begin working on ‘who you must become.’ Your success needs to be built from the inside first, then the external things you must do will fall into place much more easily.

I only proved him to be right when I reacted by saying, “I already know all this positive thinking stuff, I need specific advice on what, when, where and how to do things now.”

His response back to me was, “Okay, Tom, if you really know this then I challenge you to show me at least twenty-five ways in which you have already implemented these mental concepts, on your own, into your music career.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. He continued, “The entrepreneurs and business people in any industry will know you are not really ready. They will smell your inferiority like a lion smells fear in its prey. And when they do, it generally won’t be good for you. It would be like going into the jungle without a weapon, without shelter and without a guide.”

After our discussion, I became convinced it was time to work more on who I needed to become before concerning myself with what I needed to do. Our first major task was to define exactly where my mental skills and preparedness for general success were.

To discover your mental preparedness for launching your own music career, take this three-minute quiz to find out.

7 Things You Should Do Now to Begin Your Music Career

1. Don’t get caught speeding. Listen to the advice already given above. Focusing first on who you need to become is more important to your long term success than focusing on ‘what actions you should take’. Don’t get caught speeding through Step One in order to get to Step Two faster. Who you will become will dramatically influence the results you receive when you are busy doing things in the future.
2. ‘inspect’ what you ‘expect’. What do you expect from yourself? What do you expect from life? What do you expect from others? Your entire life, up to this point, is a reflection of your own expectations. You alone control your own expectations. Only you can choose to expect greater things out of yourself, your life and your surroundings – when you do this you will become ready for the next step…
3. Demand and Command. To expect greater things from yourself and life is an important step. But expectations won’t have real power until and unless you demand from yourself and command yourself to do what is necessary for you to move forward no matter what obstacles, challenges, fears and setbacks you may encounter along the way. More importantly, you must demand and command even more from yourself when things ARE going well. Success often causes some people to lose their momentum. This happens to people who are not truly “success-minded,” but have only been granted some shorter term success. When you become “success-minded,” you will maintain high levels of demand and command in your life in all situations. This is key for long-term success – especially in the music business.
4. Shoot Fire! How do other people perceive you? As a quiet, private, introverted or reserved person? Or as someone who is so filled with passion, intensity and commitment that they can see flames of fire shooting out from the back of your head? You already know that passion is the fuel which drives your actions to move toward what you want. Beyond this obvious point is another important component. When you are on fire, other people notice it and become attracted to you, what you do and what you have to offer. Highly successful people have an intensity about them, which most people do not possess. Many successful people will look for this quality in you as an indicator of what they perceive your success potential may be – this is especially true when you first meet a person who may be in a position of power to either help or hurt your career.Of course, be cautious not to come across as arrogant or obnoxious. Show people your attitude of expectancy, confidence, passion, determination, conviction and…. FIRE!
5. Get Congruent. It should be your goal to align all (or most) of your daily thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, plans and actions with what you want to be, do and have. Although this might seem obvious, very few people truly focus on this in their daily lives. Typically, we may want to manifest a particular outcome, but we divide our mind into opposing directions. Here are two common examples…
   1. A guy constantly thinks about becoming a touring guitar player, but does not really expect it to actually happen. The lack of “expectance” leads to further incongruity, because, by wanting but not “believing” he will really become a touring guitarist, he won’t make the necessary plans, contacts, and other actions which could take him there.
   2. College students, who want to become musicians, often major in a non music related (and non-entrepreneurial related) subject. In this case, most of these students’ time and energy are spent doing things which take them only further from their musical aspirations. As a general rule, the more congruent you are, the faster and easier you will get where you want to go.
6. Weed your garden….You might not always have the freedom to choose the physical location of where you live, but it is not always necessary to relocate your home. You can find success from virtually any physical place. In addition, not all of us have been blessed with supportive family environments. Although we cannot choose our family, we can choose our friends and other people we associate with (both on and offline). If the friends you have don’t support you, find new friends who will. The environment where your mind lives is very important. You must find supportive, positive and empowering peer group environments. People who have similar aspirations, ambitions and experience in the areas you seek are like good soil for which your career can develop and grow. Negative, pessimistic and disempowering people are like weeds. Do people around you build you up or tear you down? Associate with other success minded people, surround yourself with them. It’s hard for flowers to grow among weeds, so weed your garden.
7. Don’t depend on the sun and rain alone…. use fertilizer! Your musical skills (no matter how great they may be) will not be enough to create and sustain a significant level of success in the music industry (sad but true). You may even already have a reasonably decent understanding of how the music business works today (though most people don’t). Becoming a successful professional musician is a lot like being a gardener. To be sure your career grows, you need high quality seed (your mental preparedness), lots of sun (knowledge and skills), rain (physical action), and fertilizer (a mentor). Yes, it is possible to grow a blooming flower without fertilizer, but the chances of long-term life and maximum healthy growth go way up when you use fertilizer. The same is true with your level of success as a professional musician.

The average person’s score on the assessment mentioned above is 4 out of 10. Take the assessment yourself to find out what your score is.

It matters little where you are now, it matters greatly what you are willing to do now….

About the author:Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He teaches, trains and mentors musicians from all around the world. Visit http://www.tomhess.net/MusicCareer.aspx to discover highly effective musician learning resources – free advice, lessons and online assessments.

©2008 Tom Hess Music Corporation

The following highlights some of the most ground-shaking and, (in my opinion), enduring “metatrends” currently shaping the biz.  The intent is to give guidelines to both musicians and industry careerists to help set their forward sails on this crazy ocean we call music.

METATREND 1: Empowered Music Consumers

Today may be the very best time to be a music fan, especially one looking for a connection to a favorite artist or guidance and access to the exotic or rare.

Be it the iPod, alluring satellite radio services such as XM, the fan-beloved minutiae posted on Web sites, the availability of live music performances on AOL, the esoteric music videos streaming off Launch.com or the self-tailored satisfaction of burning a homemade mix on CD at home, there is a singular zest to the modern fan experience today.

The public is now driving the market. The challenge to the industry is to respond positively in such a way as to secure the future of music while satisfying customer demand and providing choice.

It’s becoming increasingly more difficult for companies to treat us like “mass market” ciphers.  The trend is towards “mass customization” where consumers’ unique needs are front and center.  Some marketing gurus call this trend “The 1-to-1 Future” and the companies that can dance with this trend will prosper.

What You Can Do About It

• Get to know your fans.  They are your chief asset going forward and the better you know them, the better you can communicate with them, build loyalty and enlist them in lending their support to you and your music projects.
• Involve them, empower them, mobilize them, let them co-create with you.  None of us knows what all of us know.  Build a community, a fan club, a subscription service and learn how to pool the wisdom of your following.
• Provide potential customers with as much choice as possible.
• Learn the technologies that will help you customize your communications with customers and fans.

METATREND 2: Music Product to Music as Service

Presenting music as a service, like radio or TV, would seem on the surface to be less profitable than selling millions of CDs, but actually, this change will be positive for the music industry. It will be able to sell more things associated with music. But the actual sale of music as a product will make less sense. It will be a move from transaction-based push to flat-fee pull.

Consumers have clicked, and they demand access to content by any means necessary. Just as AOL has gone from selling you five minutes of access to a take-whatever-you-want model, music too will move to a flat-fee model.

We’re not there just yet. But in the next few years, the requisite technology will fall into place. Then most of us will carry a wireless Internet uber-gadget wherever we go – a unified cellphone/MP3 player/ digital assistant/Blackberry/ camera/GPS locater/video recorder/co-pilot for life. This device will receive wireless Internet audio, a loose term I use to describe the various forms of streaming audio starting to appear on the Internet. With streaming audio, you can hear the music you love any time, anywhere.

The future isn’t about a change in distribution, it’s about the atrophy of distribution itself. Instead of distributing things, we’ll get access. It’s a critical difference.

The future isn’t about downloading songs and burning CDs. It’s about just-in-time customized delivery.  Music as on-demand service not as industry-dictated product. Just as in the early days of the record industry (c. 1900), music publishing will once again assume the primary role in the biz.  Music will become available for diverse uses dictated by consumers and businesses.

How fast will the sun set on the compact disc?  Quarter-size CDs that can float among compatible music players, computers, game devices, digital cameras and personal digital assistants are already developed.

Of course, a massive installed base of CD players means that the traditional recording industry markets are not going to disappear or even be impacted by digital distribution in the short term.  But rising consumer interest in downloads and an increasingly multi-media business-to-business economy opens new opportunities for composers, editors, sound designers, and all forms of audio producer.

What You Can Do About It

• You should be figuring out how to distribute your work through digital music services now.  The Net is your Open Mic to the world. Get yourself onto iTunes, Rhapsody and MusicNet. Learn the virtual ropes.
• As the industry moves away from physical product, it becomes increasingly important for musicians to learn the rules of licensing (read, ‘renting’) their music.
• Seek out users of music as well as buyers.
• Prepare for a multi-platform approach – value-added packages containing your music, artwork, DVDs, etc AND a container-less presentation using various online showcases, messageboards and portals.
• Develop marketing plans for both your selected singles as well as for your full-length albums.  50% of current online music sales are in the singles format.

METATREND 3: The Next Music Companies

The writing is on the wall for traditional music companies. The record industry grew rapidly, matured, and is now in the throes of transformation. How successful this transformation will be depends on how creatively the musical industrial complex can dance with all the changes spiraling around it.

Unfortunately, so much of the music industry is beholden to corporate owners, itchy for quick profits, and driven by rigid corporate imperatives.  This wreaks havoc with artist development; hell, it wreaks havoc with business development, and necessitates high turnover of both artists and employees. Major labels are also saddled with legacy problems regarding production and retail.  Thus the geologic tempo of industry change.

But the same forces undoing the larger music companies are empowering individual musicians and micro-businesses.

As with most modern industries, a silent computer on a desk is the wildcard that makes so much tradition redundant. Perhaps the term “record company” itself is becoming outdated – “Music Company” might be more relevant. Many music biz execs echo the words of Steve Becket of Warp Records when he says, “I think we’ll mutate into a new type of company – mixture of artist management, publisher, marketing consultant, agent and promoter.” “We’re a communications company,” agrees Marc Jones of Wall of Sound,  “and that’s what we’re becoming more everyday. I don’t think the model for a traditional record label will exist in this environment anymore.”

But we don’t have to solve the dilemma for the mainstream music business about which future to embrace.  We’re living the side-stream music movement that may inspire the majors but, God willing, will never be completely controlled by them.

Unlike mainstream commercial music, the farther you get out onto the fringes, the more helpful people become. The more participants, the greater the chances that something truly interesting will emerge from the collective rabble.

A new generation of music entrepreneurs is rising with a power in its corner it has never had before.  The times are ripe for change and these creators are the spearhead.

What You Can Do About It

• The appetite for music only grows around the globe and you can satisfy it. You’ll need to employ your maverick instincts over conventional “business rules”, take fuller responsibility for your own success, and beware of “standard industry practices” that can chain your career.
• Concepts like “company”, “work”, “job” and “career” are morphing.  The entire business economy is passing through a transition the likes of which haven’t been seen since the industrial revolution.  Rather than seeing your “career” as a ladder, think of it as a rouge wave full of rises, dips and switchbacks.
• It’s time to think outside the normal channels of business and imagine new kinds of companies. Creative alliances and partnerships are the key. Combining good music, cheap, global distribution and business savvy almost guarantees success in today’s music-hungry world.

METATREND 4: Segmenting Music Markets & Niche Music Cultures

I often hear musicians moaning about how consolidation and the monopolization of the media by companies like Clear Channel and Viacom threaten musical diversity, yet I can hear and obtain more interesting music today than I could ever hope to in the 1950s.

The menu of music choices and styles expands daily.

When the Grammys started in 1958 there were 28 categories of awards; last year there were 105!  Check out the “Music Styles” page at the allmusic.com and you’ll find over forty styles of music, each with a drop-down menu of several “sub-styles.”

Even the pop charts, which have made room in recent months for PJ Harvey, Modest Mouse, Diana Krall and Franz Ferdinand, suggests there’s an audience starving for something other than junk food.

The music market continues to segment and each segment is a “world”, a portal, through which small companies can create value and success.

While good news for niche companies, this is bad news for the musical industrial complex.  The major labels cannot justify going after these smaller markets because they are optimized instead for the larger, pop mainstream.   These niche music cultures can’t generate the sales needed to float the major label boat. While 20,000 unit sales are a cause to celebrate at a micro-label, they hardly register a blip on big company radar screens.

The times call for focus.  Mass customization and a segmenting market encourage the development of products and services of a “niche” nature. Since few of us have the time, money or energy to mount national marketing campaigns, it is in our best interest to discover and concentrate on a niche, a segment, that we can explore towards successful enterprise.  Whether your specialty is house, trance, bluegrass or neo-soul, learn to work that niche and scope out relationships and opportunities within it.

Micro-media targets the tributaries off the mainstream and if the artist occupies one of these “niche streams”, they have an open and ready channel for exposure to their target audience.  Each niche stream has its own burgeoning media culture and the smart combination of high-quality music, creative event-making, perseverance and strategic alliances gets people talking.

What You Can Do About It

• What is your niche? Maybe it’s arranging music, or the history of rock, or the intricacies of music software. Whatever it is it will lie at the crossroads where your most compelling desires intersect with your background resources and current opportunities in the real world.
• What is your music’s niche?  If your music can be slotted into an established category, then master that area both musically and business-wise.  Know the inlets and outlets for your music, become familiar with the influencers and tastemakers in that realm, and start communicating with them. If your music defies categorization then lead with that.

METATREND 5: The Next ‘Big Thing’ is Small

The analogy is television.  30 years ago, the three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) had a ninety percent share of the viewing audience.  Today it’s less than forty.  Where’s the other 50%?  Watching cable channels.  Though cable channels have miniscule ratings, they’re profitable. Why?  Because they’ve discovered and developed their niche.

And this is what smaller, indie labels do – the Americana sounds of New West Records, Red House Records’ focus on singer/songwriters, the creative acid jazz of Instinct Records, and the deep reggae catalog of Trojan insures listeners they can expect quality discs from each company within their respective niche. Indie market share is on the rise!

Lacking vision beyond their own profit lines, major record companies fail to see that the revolution in music delivery occurred in reaction to the industry’s mismanagement, not to mention its complicity in force-feeding the public a flavorless diet of sonic pabulum.  With the increasingly conservative (read, “risk-averse”) stance of the majors today, indie market niches become all the more important to the creative development of music.

The implosion of the musical industrial complex has also resulted in the availability of many formerly-signed artists and talented executives. The past ten years have seen veteran artists like The Pretenders, Rod Stewart, Foreigner, Aimee Mann, Sinead O’Connor, Carole King, Sammy Hagar, Dolly Parton, Hall & Oates, Hanson, Steve Vai, Sophie B. Hawkins and dozens of other either starting their own labels or signing on with smart indies.

What You Can Do About It

• The paternalisms of yesterday have given way to personal responsibility for your own success.  The holy grail is NOT a record deal; it’s waking up to your own power.
• Signing with a major label today in most cases is a career risk.  These divisions-within-corporations are unstable and anti-art environments, and best avoided by aspiring recording artists.
• If you’re up for it, start your own company and release your music through it.  If you want to delegate the heavy lifting seek out a successful indie label to partner with.  But only do so when you’ve achieved a level of success appealing to a business partner (that is, you’re showing net profit for an extended period of time).

Record company bosses think society’s top priority today must be restoring record-company revenue and profits. But music lovers and musicians have a different perspective. They want to know how musicians can exploit the extraordinary technology of the Internet to expand the audience and enable more musicians to make a living doing what they love, and improve the quality of life of consumers.

In a sense musicians may be in a better place today than they’ve ever been before. Taking a cue from the cyber-bard John Perry Barlow, I believe we could be seeing a paradigm shift from the domination of the “music business” to that of the “musician business.”

The more things go digital, the more we crave authentic, roots-based music; the more music that’s available to us, the more we seek niches that provide meaning and navigation through all the choices; and the more worldwide radio shows through satellite radio, the more we desire shared cultural experience via local djs.

If we had to, all of these trends can be placed under one banner that reads: the larger the world economy the more powerful its smallest players.

Hey, we’re talking about you.

1. Hone your talent and realize there is a place for you. Not everyone is a Quincy Jones, a Beatles, or a Bruce Springsteen, but if an artist like Tom Waits is a vocalist, then there is definitely room for you too. Do the work necessary to excel in your niche, whether it’s writing a chart, engineering a session, providing backup vocals, or teaching kids the basics of music.

Your goal, to use marketing lingo, is to “position” yourself in your “market” as the go-to person for that particular skill or talent. Don’t worry too much about industry rejection. Every record label in Britain initially passed on the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The key is believing in yourself and persevering beyond others’ opinions (even those of “the industry”).

2. Connect with as many people as you can because relationships drive music careers more that anything else, even talent. Music is a “who-you-know/who-knows-you” kind of business. The quality and quantity of your relationships will be the primary engines of your progress. Try developing creative projects with fellow-musicians. Perhaps you can combine your live show with two other acts and present the package to a local promoter. There is strength in numbers. Finding the right combinations takes experimentation.

If you’re interested in working in the business side of music, then interning at a music company is the best way to both learn how the biz works and connect with those who can help move your career along.

3. Accept the new powers in your corner and take responsibility for creating your own success. The last twenty years has given you the means to both produce and distribute your own music on a global scale. New models of business are emerging in the world of music. A “record deal” is not necessarily the goal any longer. The Internet has clearly become your “open mic” to the world, and desktop technologies provide you with ways to have the look, reach and efficiency of larger companies. Dare to be different.

Remember, new power also means new responsibilities. Global reach means a potentially far-flung audience. You need to be ready for the incoming messages and questions from this new market. Have you created the best business structures to hold and express your work? Are you setting up effective systems to communicate with your audience? It’s up to you to create your own success and not merely rely on a record company or agent to do the work of making you visible in the marketplace.

4. Understand that every business is becoming a “music business” and so musical opportunities are multiplying. It took a coffee company and a computer manufacturer to teach the music industry how to sell music in the digital age! Non-music businesses everywhere are seeking creative ways to add music-related services to their mix. This means that you needn’t be dependent on the traditional “music industrial complex” for music career success.

Think of companies you already resonate with and try brainstorming ways you can link up. Start on a local scale. It might be a gift shop, bookstore or arts organization. It may even evolve into a full-fledged sponsorship for a tour or recording project. Finds ways to add value to what these businesses are doing with what you have to offer. Forging creative alliances is key to building a multi-dimensional music career.

5. Prepare to be versatile and to wear several hats initially, until your “brand” is established. Most musicians I know have had to cobble together several revenue streams in the early stages of their careers in order to make enough money to support themselves. Many have also had to take on a non-music “lifeline careers” just to make ends meet, pay down debt, or supplement what they earn from music.

I tell musicians to not so much look for “a job,” but to seek out the work that needs to be done. It might be arranging a song, playing a wedding gig, helping organize a concert series, doing a jingle session, offering private music instruction, or writing a review of your favorite band’s new CD. Eventually, all the different experiences merge together into the roaring river that will be your music career. At that point you’ll be visible, in demand and able to name your price. And that’s career success.

As a complement to these contributions, I’d like to offer some thoughts not so much on trends in the biz, but on music career development amid these trends. I will try to open up some of these trends and look at their career implications and applications.

I hope both musicians and industry careerists will gather some guidance for setting their sails amidst the mercurial waves of a transforming entertainment business.

First, some noise from the trenches:

• Of the 27,000 albums released last year by the recording industry, less than 5000 sold over 1000 units.
• Since 1988 only 16 classical albums have sold more than a million copies in the United States; five of them were put out by Victoria’s Secret.
• The source of most music listening hours is neither Cds nor radio; it’s video games.
• When pop star Sting needed a marketing partner for his 2000 album release he chose Compaq Computer.
• “Ten years ago, rock musicians would never listen to dance music and dance musicians would never listen to classical music. Now, most of the rock musicians I know own samplers and most classical composers I know also are listening to dance music.” — Moby
• Worldwide entertainment and media spending will reach $1.4 trillion by 2006, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers).

The New Music Economy

The news is good and bad. We’re seeing nothing less than a global restructuring of the economy. This isn’t a brief shudder; the organizational structures of the last century are being torn apart. Business worlds are deconstructing and reconstructing. Everything is blurred, fuzzy and vague. And the meanings of ‘work’ , ‘career’ and ‘job’ are being re-written.

We’re also witnessing (and feeling the effects of) the end and beginning of the music business. Like humans, industries pass through developmental stages: birth, youth, maturity and death (or transformation).

Our industry grew rapidly, matured, plateaued and is now in the throes of transformation. How successful this transformation will be depends on how creatively the musical industrial complex can dance with the changes.

Unfortunately, so much of the music industry is beholden to corporate owners itchy for corporate-size profits and driven by rigid corporate imperatives. This wrecks havoc with “artist development”; hell, it wrecks havoc with business development, and necessitates high turnover of both artists and employees.

Complicating industry maturation is an event no one saw coming: a new distribution channel called the Internet. The big labels are contracting as a vast Web is spinning around them. The Internet is both threatening to take the rug of necessity out from under vast sectors of the traditional music business AND providing musicians and songwriters with direct access to global audiences.

All of this adds up to a picture today where it is no less risky to “go indie” than to “get signed”, signed, that is, as an artist or as an employee. Choosing to go indie is exploding across all industries not just music. We need only think of indie film or book publishing. Independence is a mark of the times we’re living in. We are profoundly on our own in this milieu.

And that’s the rub.

We’re beginning to accept that we will never return to the more static, less opportunity-rich but also more comforting world in which most of us were raised. The changes we’re living through are both permanent and dynamic. The real social revolution of the last 30 years is the switch from a life that is largely organized for us to a world in which we are all forced to be in charge of our own destiny. That’s the scary challenge.

And also the exciting opportunity.

Today we have three different music ‘industries’ developing side by side:

1. The mainstream pop/rock business, which will continue to market established stars like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.
2. The chaotic illegal record business, involving at one extreme pirates and bootleggers, at another experimental and political artists refusing to accept the restraints of copyright law; and in between the usual variety of pirate broadcasters, home digital distributors, and so forth.
3. The indie, genre music scenes, local players connected through web sites and digital radio, but commercial in their niche, making enough money to go on making music but not necessarily seeking to play ‘the game” of ever-increasing ladder-climbing success.

The first industry is contracting; the second is and always will be present; and the third is poised for quantum development.

The lesson: Unless you’re seeking Britney Spears-level fame, then avoid the major labels and prove yourself in the independent sphere first. Someday you may want to partner with a major company (record company or otherwise) but, for now, focus on creating your own success, building your value, maintaining control of your career and music trajectories, following your muse and your spreadsheets with utter dedication and focus.

From The “MUSIC BUSINESS” To The “MUSICIAN BUSINESS”

In a sense musicians may be in a better place today than they’ve ever been before. Taking a cue from the cyber-bard John Perry Barlow, I believe we could be seeing a paradigm shift from the domination of the “music business” to that of the “musician business.”

The same forces that are undoing the larger music companies are empowering individual musicians. And as a result, the idea of a ‘music career’ is sprouting new wings as artists and industry careerists begin discarding intoxicating myths and tapping into some new-found powers.

Powers deriving from desktop computers and digital recording gear, from a hyperabundance of entrepreneurial and self-development resources, a segmenting (and reachable) music marketplace, and most importantly, from the Internet – the first tool that puts a global communication and distribution “channel” into the musician’s hands.

As venture-funded dotcoms rose, crashed and burned, a quiet revolution has been slowly but surely mounting; one that threatens to turn the music industry on its head.

In a peculiar way, the computer sets the music industry back 300 years. Consider: Musicians of the past performed songs for royal and religious “patrons” and received support (patronage) in return. It was a direct connection between musician and audience, as small as it was.

Today, with the Net, musicians are capable of galvanizing global audiences, nurturing them through generous communications, and building support models to help them earn a sufficient living.

In other words, the Net allows the patron model to re-emerge only this time, rather than having one exclusive patron, a musician may have thousands. It’s a slow-growth strategy but with a pace and quality entirely in the hands of artists and their teams.

“Patrons” subscribe for a reasonable price ($30-40/year?) for access to the artist, first call for all new tracks, and extra values like discounted tickets, fully-packaged recordings, posters and exposure to any other works of the artist.

Musicians and bands like Jonatha Brooks, Scooter Scudieri, Maktub, Christine Lavin and Aimee Mann are all using the digital channel (alongside recordings and performances) to grow and nurture supportive fan bases in this way.

Again, slow but sure.

If you’re putting out awesome music, then build it and they will come.

The lessons: Accept your new power. See yourself as an entrepreneur – one who creates forms to hold and deliver creative works. Befriend technology and rigorously apply yourself to understanding it. Throw out the “quick fame” idea and commit yourself to long-term career success.

Every Business Is A Music Business

Every business is becoming a “music business” or, more accurately, an entertainment business.

Management guru Tom Peters claims that “it’s barely an exaggeration to say that everyone is getting into the entertainment business.” Peters counsels his corporate clients that “the bottom line in commercial life is the sum total of conjured-up dramas created by our customers.” The new operative words, says Peters, are myth, fantasy, and illusion.

It’s no mere coincidence that other industries try to model the way the entertainment industry is organized. What do the cultural industries – including the recording industry, the arts, television, and radio – do? They commodify, package, and market experiences as opposed to physical products or services. Their stock and trade is selling short-term access to simulated worlds and altered states of consciousness.

The fact is, they are an ideal organizational model for a global economy that is metamorphosing from commodifying goods and services to commodifying cultural experience itself.

Companies way outside the orbit of the traditional music business are waking up to this all around the planet. As a result, you are no longer beholden to traditional “music industry companies” to achieve music success.

We’d mostly agree that the major record companies served their purpose well: they made recorded music available to us on a fairly vast scale for seventy-plus years, instilling an insatiable appetite for music in the process.

As a result music “sells”. Music has accompanied just about every product that’s come to market since the thirties. In fact, today some of the most interesting music is heard more readily on TV commercials than on the radio.

Wherever we go we hear music. Why? Because we love it and we want it. We want it when we drive, eat breakfast, shower, work, make love, shop for stuff — it’s the aural landscape of our lives.

We hear music on recordings, at concerts, on commercials and at the airport; we listen to music over the phone and in our video games, Walkmen, iPods, Rios and cell phones. The global demand for music is chronic and ever-growing.

We’re purchasing music just about everywhere too. 25 years ago you bought records at record stores; today you can get them at record stores, grocery stores, drug stores, book stores, consumer electronic stores, department stores, plant stores, tattoo parlors, bars, gyms, museum shops, thru the mail, over the Internet, at kiosks, at the airport, at MacDonalds, at Starbucks, at Victoria’s Secret, thru 800#s, and hundreds of other places– MUSIC IS EVERYWHERE!

Why?

Because it’s a universally loved value and activity, and companies across the board are looking to associate themselves with music and its fans.

The lesson: These trends require a new way of thinking about the “music business” and “industry careers.” It’s time to stretch our minds and get outside the box of traditional music business models. The “digital common” brings all kinds of non-music businesses into a space where creative partnerships can develop. Non-music partners are fresh and unjaded and excited about associating with musical and entertainment arts as a way of adding value to what they’re offering.

We should reflect on where musical skills are used rather than on where music has traditionally been sold. Think of companies you personally resonate with and then focus on those that may have an affinity with the kind of music you produce. Make an alliance and use that alliance to market your music. Consider Craig Dory and Brian Levine of Dorian Recordings who get their recordings played on all the new hardware at consumer electronics shows. Smart alliances.

Remember, the economic structures of the last century are being torn apart. The rules are being rewritten. Anything goes in the business world today.

Therein lies your opportunity.

Less Precious, More Valuable

Some fear the devaluing of music simply because of its ubiquity and, to an extent, this may be true. “We are teaching a generation of consumers that plastic costs money and music is free,” Albhy Galuten, VP of Interactive Programming at UMG once famously said.

And it’s true. By placing the value of the musical content in its pretty package and not in the music itself, by reacting with lawsuits instead of evaluating the validity of their current business models, by focusing their efforts on how to prevent piracy through content protection schemes rather than remove the motive to pirate instead – record companies are indeed teaching a generation of consumers that music is free.

More choice of music should, however, increase consumption and lower price. The business of music should grow and music can be more integral to one’s life with less limitations on how to consume it. Music will get more valuable but less precious (in terms of a ‘collector mentality’) and less expensive. We may need to regard our recordings increasingly as a promotional expense designed to provide access to other arenas for our talents.

Seven Navigational Clues For Setting Your Sails

How can you best position yourself for optimal career development in a transforming industry?

Here are seven ways:

1. Brace yourself for crazy times.

The transitions we’re living through aren’t ending any time soon. We’re in an entirely new game, but we don’t quite know yet how to update the rules. Our situation offers tremendous opportunities for individual fulfillment and self-expression. But it also requires that we expend a great deal of energy making what were until recently fairly routine and straightforward decisions.

As the Internet morphs into the Evernet – turning our personal computers, electronic notebooks, PalmPilots, and wristwatches into the equivalent of perpetually open T-1 lines – the institutions that we have come to know will continue to change shape, crumble, or disappear with a ferocity we can only now imagine. More instability and more opportunity, more dislocation and more choice, will be the result.

And so we have a richer environment today, but a far more daunting one as well.

The job picture isn’t any better.

Higher. Bigger. More. Not so long ago, that’s what getting promoted was all about. The aim was the top. The way to get there was by climbing the ladder, accumulating the badges of power: a bigger title, a bigger office, more people reporting to you. Everybody knew how to win at this game. You got ahead by climbing over the backs of your coworkers. And by kissing the…hand of whoever was in charge.

The game has changed.

Try: down, sideways, and sometimes up. Try: smaller, less. The career ladder’s been hacked to just a few rungs. The new path is full of switchbacks. Plan on zig-zagging in your career. You’ve got to meander – taking different jobs so you can learn more skills. The size of your office? Who cares? You’re never there anyway!

You need to be an “ambiguity survivor” in these times, that is, you need to have a high tolerance for confusion and may even relish it because you know that it’s a close relative of change. You’ll need to be able to live within the paradox of past comforts vs. your vision of a more fulfilling future. And you need to know that the greater the spread between the past and future scenarios, the more your creativity will flourish.

If all of this sounds vague, get used to it.

2. Size yourself up.

If you want to create work that suits your individual needs and talents, you must not only be aware of the forces reshaping your world. You must also develop a through knowledge of yourself and an understanding of what you have to offer. Only then can you set about finding the point of intersection between your opportunities and your gifts.

Know our priorities, values, temperament, character, and ambitions. Understand where your blocks lie, what emotional legacies might be holding you back or pushing you forward. Understand what you fear, what makes you feel stuck or overwhelmed.

The well-known motivational theorist, Abraham Maslow, once commented: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail.” Many of us are walking around today with outdated toolboxes. New challenges call for new tools. If we are to re-create our careers and businesses for the twenty-first century, we must release our outdated beliefs about the way the music industry works and replace our time-worn hammers with a radically new tool kit.

Know your strengths but, more importantly, know your weaknesses and blind spots too. Are you a master player but a marketing dunce? Can you blast out a song in five minutes but find it hard to make friends? Playing and writing are crucial skills but in today’s business world you’ll need to also practice the arts of self-promotion and networking. Find a way to get what you need.

Also, don’t sell yourself short! Be sure to make visible those skills that lie under the radar of your memory. Those swim classes you offered at your neighborhood YMCA contain a rich palette of skill colors: student assessment, curriculum development, customized instruction, group facilitation, etc. Don’t sell yourself short as you inventory what you can offer.

3. Think “skills security,” not “job security”.

In many ways, “job security” is gone. We’re seeing a shift from corporate loyalty and identification to enlightened self-interest. All across the board there is an increasingly prevalent attitude among workers that, in the face of increased uncertainty and a shifting, constantly re-focusing economy, they have to become “free agents” – highly-skilled “units of one” not necessarily attached to a particular company, loyal to “projects” and individual teams rather than organizations, and always looking out for new opportunities.

Think “skills security”.

This comes pretty easy for most musicians who are already wired for flexible works arrangements and are used to wearing several hats at once. In fact, musicians are optimally suited in may ways for the new world of work. Through their diverse activities they’ve learned to “multi-task”, “build coalitions among diverse groups” and use “whole brain thinking”. They quite naturally demonstrate that “flexibility of being” so valued in today’s quick-changing environment. The key is to have confidence in your skills, continue to develop them, and watch for opportunities that beg for them.

This means:

• Writing your own script rather than waiting for someone to write it for you
• Being vigilant on your own behalf, identifying and preparing for opportunities, rather than expecting anyone else to guide you along or do reconnaissance.
• Becoming an independent agent, defining yourself in terms and concepts that are independent of your job title, your organization, or what other people think you should be.
• Changing your mindset from selling to solving.

4. Become a corporation of one.

Telling is the marked increase in the number of actual freelancers, independent contractors, and temps in today’s workforce: now roughly 1 out 5 workers falls into one of these categories. Again, pretty familiar territory for most musicians.

Think of yourself as a corporation of one, with a number of different departments, and you as the product:

• Research and development: What are the areas in which you’re going to learn and develop? How are you going to keep your skills on the leading edge? Now as ever a lack of information – about a new position, a new company, a different location – is the root of most job seeker anxiety; in the end, I feel, the informed careerist is the happy careerist.
• Production: What services or products are you going to offer? How are they linked to you personally? What processes will you employ to develop them efficiently and effectively?
• Marketing: What key assets do you have to sell? What market niche can you exploit? What opportunities can you take advantage of? Do you have a marketing plan? What is your product worth? Have you developed creative and effective ways of selling your services?
• Promotion and public relations: How are you going to promote your product? What are the stories behind your work? How do you plan on penetrating a dense media culture with these stories? And what “affinity partners” will you link up with to mutually expand your visibility?

5. Be a meaning-giver.

Futurist Paul Saffo talks about the different “scarcities” the world has experienced over the past hundred and fifty years. First there was a scarcity of “conduit” (that is, pipeline). Then electric wires were strung coast to cost and conduit was hyperabundant. Then there was a scarcity of “content”, that is, information and programming to fill the conduit. Then content became hyperabundant too until today we’re drowning in information.

The new scarcity, according to Saffo, is “context”, that is, giving meaning to all this information. The increasing flood of information calls for “filters”, “editors” and “portals”. The need for context is so strong that Saffo sees a time when people like Opra Winfrey and Peter Jennings will be licensing their “worldviews” to software companies to create products that screen vast amounts of information and present digestible info-bites in an acceptable framework for users!

A clear example of providing context in the hyperabundant field of music is the compilation. Once a mere afterthought of the recording industry, these “variety packs of music” have emerged as a vital force in the market. Have you noticed all those compilations on the counters of lifestyle retailers Pottery Barn, Structure, Williams-Sonoma and others? One man – Rock River Communications’ Jeffrey Daniel – usually chooses the music. If mixing tapes is an art, then Daniel is the most popular artist you’ve never heard of: his branded compilations have sold nearly 5 million copies. Rock River’s annual wholesale revenue is about $8 million, on par with a midsize record label.

How might you, in your area of expertise, be a meaning-giver in the world of music? Are you an expert in the use of ProTools or on 70s soul? Is bluegrass your passion or is it music education for kids? Are you highly informed about microphones, roots reggae, or lyric writing? How can you put that to use using channels like the Internet and other digital tools?

6. Own your niche.

The times call for focus. Mass customization and a segmenting marketplace encourage the development of products and services of a “niche” nature. Since few of us have the time, money or energy to mount national marketing campaigns, it is in our best interest to discover and concentrate on a niche that we can explore towards successful enterprise.

Niche is an architectural term referring to a special place that’s designed to display or show off an object of some kind, like an ornament, that’s placed in a recess of a wall or an arched area of a room.

And that’s just what a niche can be for you. Finding your niche will set you off from others who do something similar and draw the best possible attention to you and what you can offer.

Examples of niche marketing abound in the world of music:

• Chris Silvers, a Dallas trumpeter, used to take out every Latin music recording from the Dallas Public Library and play along with them, until he mastered the horn lines. As a result, he became a first-call musician and horn arranger for all latin bands passing through the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond.
• Chicago native Joycie Mennihan was always drawn to music’s power to heal. She took this interest and turned it into “Sound Health”, a company providing workshops, seminars and books about music therapy and its health benefits.
• Lee Jason Kibler (aka DJ Logic) turned an interest in sampling and a love of multiple music styles, into a unique production sound so that his chops are some of the most in-demand from top recording artists.
• Boston’s Rosie Cohen, took a love of singer songwriters, a passion for adult literacy, and tireless devotion, and turned it into Big Girl Records’ first release, “Can You Read This Boston?,” a compilation album of singer-songwriters, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Boston Adult Literacy Fund.

Choosing a niche will open certain doors to you while closing others. But just as you’ll never get to see the world if you can’t decide which destination to head for first, so it is with committing to one focus for your career and business marketing. The doors that will open to you once you fully commit to one endeavor will present new opportunities you may have never imagined.

On the other hand, the 21st century musician should remain flexible and be ready to re-purpose when the time comes.

When asked about what advice he had for young players, pianist Ahmad Jamal once said: “Prepare yourself to have options. Many of the greats were lost because they didn’t have options. If there is one exit door when a fire breaks out chances are you’re going to get trampled to death. You can conduct, perform. Teach, arrange, produce, go to an institute of higher learning and get the options, and avoid the exit door”.

7. Use the Force

Nothing speaks louder than something creative. No one can define “creative” but we all know it when it’s present.

Unfortunately, most of us traffic with societies demanding little in the way of creativity. We can get by, and even be very “successful” with partial participation, re-cycling culture and conversation ad infinitum. Studies show that a child’s creativity plummets at around age 5. What usually begins at that age? Right.

Though the word “education” comes from the Latin ‘educare’ (meaning, ‘to draw out’), our systems betray a fear of human nature and instead pour in reams of information that a committee somewhere decided we should know.

In the process, the multidimensional child-artist is flattened and “de-programmed”. To make room for all this intellectualizing art, music and drama are pushed to the margins of education and are often the first activities pegged for budget cuts.

Few of us get any training in how to tap our inner creative. The last few centuries were outward-oriented to the extreme and much of the ancient knowledge about human power went underground. As a result, we hear that humans use only 10% of their brains.

There are two responses to this: accept it as the expert opinion, or push on to the other 90%.

Beginning in the 1950s a more inclusive consciousness began to spread, and people experimented more readily with new ways of thinking and acting. These “new ways” were, of course, often old ways rediscovered and renamed. They included a more appreciative attitude about the body, the environment, and different lifestyles.

Another was a “turning inward” and the power of thinking to affect reality. In its most basic form, it says, ‘you are what you think you are.’ Today we all have the chance to compose our own lives. It’s a liberating prospect, but also daunting, because it requires a high degree of self-knowledge. If we don’t start at the core – if we instead accept reflexive, inherited, or half-thought-out definitions of who we are and what we have to contribute – we run the risk of being overwhelmed by the possibilities that we face.

To break through to those other parts of ourselves that sit submerged beneath our everyday consciousness demands courage.

There is nothing more brave than filtering out the chatter that tells you to be someone you’re not. There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice.

In his 1994 inaugural address Nelson Mandela spoke these profound words: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

Well that certainly turns it on its head, doesn’t it? The poet Robert Frost similarly observed: “Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found out that it was ourselves.” Tapping into the creative means first understanding the qualities creative people share: keen powers of observation, a restless curiosity, the ability to identify issues others miss, a talent for generating a large number of ideas, persistent questioning of the norm, and a knack for seeing established structures in new ways.

Commencement

The only way to lead in the new world of music is to deconstruct the ruling dogmas of our industry (like, for instance, that records are the best vehicles to convey music and they should remain the chief support pillar of the industry), to generate heretical ideas to challenge that dogma, and then to build strategies around those ideas.

There’s a new dynamic in the biz today, one that flies in the face of all received wisdom. It can be said the first phase of the music industry (c. 1935-70) was music-driven, new sounds came up from the treets and clubs, and entrepreneurs responded.

The second phase (c. 1970-1995) was business-driven, lawyers and accountants ascending to decision-making posts and corporate imperatives dictating “hits”.

The third phase (1995-now…) seems to be market-driven, consumers themselves are taking control of their music consumption. There, of course, are elements of all three approaches at all times, but one has dominated each era.

Moving forward to individual audience empowerment brings music back into a more purely aesthetic relationship again, which is good for the art itself, and better for artists too. Artists may never recapture the kind of control of their relationship with their audience that they had in the past (except live, in concert), but a genuine aesthetic interplay with their audience is much better than being beholden to the least common denominator of the average of a mass audience’s taste.

The current difficult climate serves as a form of reckoning. The tougher the times, the more clarity you gain about the difference between what really matters and what you only pretend to care about.

No one knows where all the cards will fall in this industry-wide shake up, but the good thing about radical change is that, during those times, the little person has a chance to make a big difference. It is the time when big ideas are brought to life, big names are made, and, yes, even big money is made.

The power’s in your corner.

Rise.

If that sounds interesting to you, read on! This article will enlighten you to the tricks, tools, and traumas of the transcribing trade, as well as provide a realistic battle plan-if you’re interested in seeking work as a transcriber/arranger-for preparing materials to approach a major publishing company.

What’s Expected of a Transcriber?

Every publishing company that prints note-for-note guitar anthologies of popular music includes all lead and background vocalparts, guitars (in standard notation and tablature), and sometimes other instruments (mandolin, banjo, piano, bass, or saxophone-arranged for guitar) in their publications. The vocals are an extremely significant element in a transcription in that they often dictate the tune’s arrangement. For instance, if the first verse of a tune is 16 bars long and the second verse is only 12, chances are you’re going to need to write out both verses in their entirety without being able to use any arranging devices like repeat signs or D.S. al Coda. The song’s lyrics also need to be written out below the transcribed vocal melody, written in direct accordance to the way they are syllabically hy-phen-at-ed in a dictionary. This means you will need to look up some words! (Also, all capitalized letters need to be underlined in red pencil!) The lyrics to each song are usually included in the sleeve of the compact disc and are occasionally labeled with section headings like 1st Verse, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Interlude, Guitar Solo, Bridge, etc., which you may find valuable in determining the song’s form (the order of a song’s sections, once arranged, referred to as a song’s road map). Early on in a transcriber’s career, this stage can be one of the most frustrating-trying to organize a tune on paper in a “user-friendly” manner (i.e., easy to learn) while keeping the page count to a minimum to save the publishing company in printing/transcribing costs (transcriber/arrangers are paid by the printed page) can eat up a lot of hours! Like anything else, with practice, this process becomes far less tedious. Once you have a good sense of how you want to arrange the song, the next stage is usually to figure out all the guitar parts, using text-based shorcuts to recall figures-like Rhy. Fig. 1, Riff A, etc.-whenever possible.

Transcribing Tools, Tips, and Tricks

Some aspects of transcribing guitar parts are more difficult than others, and vary depending on the artist. The tuning of the instrument (dropped-D, tuned down 1/2-step, open-G tuning, etc.) and/or presence of capos must be assessed at the outset. (In either case, listen for open strings that pop up, either on purpose or by accident-like after sliding out of a note-to establish tuning. Harmonics may also tip you off.) Do yourself a huge favor and subscribe to every guitar magazine under the sun so you can read interviews of current artists to see if they reveal any of their trade secrets. When a new album comes out it’s quite common that the interviewer will mention a specific tune and want to discuss any peculiarities (strange tunings, mechanical/noise-making devices used, harmonizing effects, etc.) that may exist in that particular recorded performance. The ability to hear deep into the mix of a tune is another skill that needs to be cultivated, since it will help you determine how many different guitar parts exist on the recording to begin with. Here are a few tricks to try:

1. If your stereo has an 1/8-inch phone jack and you are using headphones (always use headphones!), try pulling the jack out slightly. On some stereo systems this will actually remove the vocals, enabling you to hear guitar parts more clearly.
2. Invest in a stereo system that has a karaoke feature. This system (I use AIWA) has a vocal fader that removes vocals almost completely, while boosting other frequencies giving, among other things, distorted rhythm guitar parts a little more clarity and definition. I’ve personally encountered a few instances where the initial notes played on a guitar with extremely heavy digital echo (during a solo) were difficult to hear. The delay was on another track and disappeared from the mix just as the vocal did when I used this same feature.
3. Those of you who own a four-track cassette recorder that records at double speed can record an excerpt of a blazing solo and have it play back at half speed. This drops the pitch an octave but allows you to hear more subtleties in phrasing that can help immensely when it comes to trying to discern the exact location of a particular lick. (Make sure you check your rhythms at regular speed though, so you don’t overly notate vibrato rhythms as pitch bends, among other things.)
4. The Eventide Harmonizer has a sampling/real-time compression feature that enables you to record (sample) then play back music at a slower tempo (by time-stretching the audio file) while maintaining the instrument’s original pitch. ( NOTE: This article was written well before the widespread availability of digital recording technology. Nowadays, it’s easy to sample a section of a fast solo and time stretch the waveform on a personal computer, slowing the lick down while retaining its original pitch.)

Extreme methods like the above are often necessary to help speed up the transcribing process, given the publishing company’s strict deadlines for each assignment. (Also, realize that the more familiarity you have with a particular style, the more you can use “guitar logic” to your advantage. Knowing things like chord forms, arpeggio patterns, double-stop moves, etc., will put you on the path towards figuring out stuff that’s difficult to hear.)

Tailor-Making Your TABs to a Specific Publishing Company

Every publishing company has their own copyrighted notational style. This means that Hal Leonard, Warner Brothers, CPP/Belwin, Cherry Lane, Amsco, and others all have slightly different ways of notating pitch bends, vibrato bar usage, hammer-ons and pull-offs, finger tapping, harmonics, etc. Keeping this in mind, if you’re serious about trying to get a career as a transcriber off the ground, I offer the following recommendations:

1. Choose one company to submit a sample of your work to.
2. Go out and buy one of their album folios (transcription book of an entire album) of a band that plays tunes with a lot of metrical shifts, involved background vocals, multi-tracked guitar parts and intense guitar solos. The newer the book the better because every year or so it seems that a company comes up with a more specific way of notating certain things. (An example would be the addition of microtonal bends indicated in standard notation with alterations to standard flat or sharp signs in recent Hal Leonard publications.)
3. Pick a current song containing many of the stylistic elements previously mentioned-one that, to your knowledge, has yet to be transcribed in a magazine or book. Use that company’s transcription book to model every aspect of your work after. That means everything from placement of tempo markings, chord symbols, and figure recalls, to section headings, slurs in tablature, etc. REALITY CHECK: When an editor receives a manuscript, he/she expects that it will be accurate, legible, intelligently arranged, and in accordance to their company’s notational style so it can to be sent straight to the engraver. ( NOTE: The “engraver” is the person who manually inputs notes and TAB from your handwritten manuscript into a notational program like Finale, Sibelius, etc.) It’s important to put your best foot forward!
4. Next, find the name of the company’s Music Editorand the company address (usually listed on the first page of their TAB books). Send that person your transcription, as well as a personal biography (highlighting your music education and versatility as a player) and business card in a large #7 envelope (so big that it can’t fit easily in the person’s mailbox so they have to deal with it). Then toss him/her a call the following week.

Getting Work

If your work is impressive, at the very least, it’s possible your name will be forwarded to another working transcriber in your area who may be looking for an apprentice to incorporate into his/her transcribing team. (California, Wisconsin, Florida, and New York are considered “hotbeds” for this.) This is a “win-win” situation for both parties because a small transcribing team allows the established transcriber to accept even more work. (You will be credited in the book as well, but expect them to take a small cut of your pay because it is they who are getting the work, editing yours, and guaranteeing that it’s all up to par.) Better yet, the publishing company you submitted your work to may invite you to audition by having you TAB out a song for one of their current folios in the process of being transcribed. This means better pay, but possibly less steady work. (The company will also likely send you a Style Manual at this point-a book containing almost all of that company’s specific notation preferences, featuring numerous “real life” musical examples.)

In short, the work is out there. It’s up to you to go out and get it. (Disciplined and detail-oriented need only apply!) Good luck

© 2004 Dale Turner ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
(Originally written/published in 1994; slightly revised in 2004)

Thankfully, Mix Magazine has updated their master list of schools that offer college degrees in Recording, Production, Orchestration, or other music and audio engineering fields.

Note: Mix Magazine is the reference magazine for the Recording Industry, comparable to Guitar Player for guitarists. There are others which have different specific specialties, but the first one to get is Mix. I also like OnStage magazine for their coverage of real-world live-on-stage sound engineering.

Some things to consider:

Size and Facilities: Some schools have very small Production departments, attached to their Theater or Music schools. Some schools have limited equipment. However, look closely, as small can be good. For example, the Hartt School at University of Hartford (CT), only has 30 students in their Production program, but they have 6 state-of-the-art studios, and they interact with the Yale theater department. These students spend a lot of time doing live and studio recordings.

Solo vs. University:

Some schools are dedicated to Music and Video Production (ex FullSail), while others are part of a bigger campus. If you are positive that Production Engineering is your only option in life, then the dedicated schools may be best for you. However, if you are a musician first, looking to augment your career with Production skills, then going to a respected Music school that also has a good Production department may be better.

Alternately, you might want to get a degree in Economics or Marketing, just in case you ever need a “real” job. In this case, look for a Production school that is part of a bigger university.

Location:

It used to be that you had to be in New York or Los Angeles to get anywhere in the Music, TV, or Movie business. This is no longer strictly true, as Chicago and Memphis and other cities have built strong reputations for the work they do, and many people don’t like being a small fish in a big pond. So long as the school offers many chances for real world experience and has a good job-placement program, the specific location shouldn’t matter.

Reputation:

When all else is equal, a degree from a better school is worth more. However, rarely are things equal, and this “tie-breaker” is used less and less. So long as the school you attend has excellent equipment and staff, lots of hands-on class work, and good opportunities for summer jobs and internships, you should be fine.

Your resume and personal demo discs will determine how employable you are. And of course, who you know (or who knows about the school) will weigh heavily. Check the alumni lists for those who have”made it.”

Reader or Player

The Reader

This is the stereotypical studio player who can read anything upside down and backwards in his sleep. This type of player usually gets calls for TV or movie stuff that has been meticulously arranged and doesn’t call for much interpretation. If you want to become this kind of studio cat, you are going to have to get going on your reading chops. Get as much reading material as you can and get your metronome out and start practicing today.

Also, don’t just read guitar stuff; read as much treble clef stuff as you can get your hands on. Because the guy who arranged the music probably isn’t a guitarist, the part he has written for the guitar probably isn’t guitar-friendly. The arranger is usually a pianist who doesn’t know too much about the limitations of the guitar, so he might write a guitar part that is awkward to play. It’s important to remember this: there aren’t many guitarists who are great readers. For this reason, these guys are really busy. If you want to make a bunch of cash, get your reading chops together.

The Player

This is the other kind of studio cat. The player has decent reading skills but generally is a great improviser and chord player. More so than notation, he reads chord symbols well and can play a guitar solo over anything you throw at him. He has an uncanny ability to come up with the perfect rhythm and solo parts for any tune. He gets in the studio and gets his chart, listens to the track and comes up with a part within a few minutes. Although there are probably guys who can do both, I personally have never met any of them.

The Speed of Light

No matter which player you wish to become, the most important thing besides playing the perfect part is speed. You hear guitarists always talking about speed, about playing lightening fast. But to the studio musician, speed means something else.

Studio time is very expensive. The studio is being rented by the hour and the engineer and assistant are also on the clock, so the producer wants you in and out of the studio as fast as possible. The whole thing is costing somebody a bunch of cash. That’s why if you are late or take too much time to get your part together, you’ll never get a call back. Be there early with your stuff set up, guitar tuned and have your track done in a take or two.

If you can’t get it together or are playing something the producer doesn’t like, he will walk in from the mixing room and give you a pep talk. This is the equivalent of the baseball manager walking out to the mound. Consider yourself in slight trouble. You will usually get paid by the hour for studio work. Where I live, I usually make about two or three hundred dollars per hour whether I use the whole hour or not.

Two Battle Plans

The trick is to make the producer happy, not yourself. On one of my first studio jobs, I was lucky enough to get the backing track for the solo part I was to record a week ahead of time. It was this slow ballad type of tune and I decided to do this crying, emotional type of solo that I was sure would fit the song perfectly. I worked it out and came up with the perfect solo. I got to the studio early, set my stuff up, put the headphones on and the tape started to roll. I played my solo exactly like I planned it. For me, it was perfect! I took off the headphones and walked back to the mixing room with my head held high.

I walked in thinking the producer was going to say he loved me. But instead he said, “I have in mind a different kind of thing, I want you to play a blazing, super high speed, burning solo!” I was at a loss for words; I had to rethink the whole thing from scratch. Needless to say, I ended up playing this super fast, mediocre guitar solo that nobody, including the producer, liked very much. The thing I learned from this experience is to plan two solos, one a complete extreme from the other. I usually end up playing one or the other or a combination of the two. Remember, don’t assume anything, and prepare two battle plans ahead of time.

Details Count

Everything you play counts. You may work out the perfect solo but you’ll ruin the whole thing if your vibrato is out of whack or you bend your notes sharp or flat. Most guitarists are so concerned with chops that they overlook the small details. Make sure your guitar is in tune all over the neck. Have your intonation checked. Or better yet, learn how to set the intonation on your instrument yourself. These days I’ve been using a Suhr guitar set up with the Buzz Feiten tuning system, which ensures the guitar is in perfect tune everywhere on the neck. You also have to be careful with floating bridges because the way you rest your hand on the bridge can cause your guitar to go sharp. These small things may not bug you when you are on a gig or practicing with your band but they will make you cringe when you listen to the playback in the studio.

Start by paying attention to everything, every small detail of what you play, all the time. Whether you are in the studio or not, focus on every single note you play, every time you play your guitar, until perfection becomes a habit. Even if you play everything perfect, it counts for nothing if you are not in tune, so never be without a good tuner.

The Fortune Cookie

When I was about fifteen years old I got this fortune in my fortune cookie: “Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.” This statement has helped guide me through all sorts of musical situations. It is way better to play something you can pull off than struggle with something you can’t. As I said before, speed is the name of the game in the studio. Think simple. You can sometimes say a lot more with something simple than something overly complicated. Technique is only important if it helps you play what you have in your head. Don’t play to show what chops you have. Speed should be used for contrast. A good guitar solo should be a song within a song, with a story all its own. It should have a beginning, a climax and a clear ending.

Where to Stand

There are basically two places to do your tracks. Some guys prefer to sit in the control room and run a line to an amp in the next room. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to wear headphones and you can have your amp up as loud as you want. You don’t need headphones because you can listen to what you play through the studio monitors. You can also talk freely to the engineer or the producer or the pretty girl that may be hanging around. The only disadvantage is that you are completely isolated from your amp. You can’t make your guitar feedback (the good kind) and you tend to lose sustain. Although it is uncomfortable, and the headphones make my ears hurt, I prefer to play in the same room as the amp. Some players may disagree but I think you get a much better tone.

Three Guitars

There are really only three types of electric guitars in my book. A Stratocaster, Telecaster and a Les Paul are pretty much the only kinds of guitars there are. I’m not talking about shapes or brands; I mean sounds. Although I play a Suhr, and a 1960 Strat, I can get a Les Paul type of tone from the Suhr because of the vintage-type humbuckers I use in both the neck and bridge positions. I tend to use the humbuckers for rock and jazz. I use the Strat for blues and classic rock. If I need an even bluesier or country tone I have to bring a Telecaster.

Two Amps

Marshall and Fender are the two basic sounds. I’ve been using a Fender Dual Professional and a fifty-watt Marshall half stack for most of my recording these days. Most other amps are usually based of one of the two sounds. I generally use the Marshall for hard or classic rock and the Fender for the other stuff. If you don’t know what amps the studio has, bring your own. It’s a safe bet to always bring your own amp anyway. Even if the studio has some good amps, you never know what kind of condition they are kept in. The tubes could be five years old.

One more word of advice. It comes in handy to carry around with you some overdrive boxes just in case you can’t get the tone you want from the amps available. I have been using some stomp boxes made by a Japanese maker called HAO. They make handmade units that can duplicate vintage Marshall and Fender amps. I also recorded a CD for them to demonstrate their products. If you are interested, go to: http://www.jes-in.com/hao/index.html. The CD is also available from my website.

Dry As a Desert

The studio is a really dry-sounding room. There are most likely no reflective materials in the room, so the sound from your amp doesn’t bounce around at all. What you get is a super dry sound that makes it hard to play. We guitarists love reverb and delay and anything else we can get our hands on. But unfortunately, when you’re recording it is a better idea to put that on later. One reason is that once you record the track, you can’t change the speed or depth of the effects, so you’re stuck with a sound you may not like. It’s better to put the effects on later and tweak them to your liking.

Another reason is that the stomp boxes we guitarists use are usually cheap and therefore noisy, while the gear in the studio is way more expensive and sounds much better. So, you’re stuck in this dry-sounding room with no reverb or anything else on your guitar and you’re hating life. But the good news is that the engineer can put all the effects you want in your headphone mix. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Get Things Straight Ahead of Time

There are two ways to record your rhythm tracks and it’s best to get this straight ahead of time. The first is pretty simple: you play the rhythm part and you’re done. The other is more difficult: you record one track and the engineer pans it right, then you record the exact same track and pan it left. The engineer may want you to use a different amp and/or guitar for the second track. The thinking is that the two parts are slightly different in tone and will sound super fat. The problem is that the two tracks have to be identical, a mirror image.

I once had the experience of recording my rhythm track only to be asked to play the exact track one more time. I wasn’t prepared to do the same track again because I wasn’t really sure what I had just played. I apologized and started over again. If the tracks don’t match up perfectly, the effect will be lost and you’ll get this cloudy sounding track that will sound terrible. Ask the producer ahead of time how he wants to record the tracks and if he wants them doubled. If he wants them doubled, make sure you play something that you can play twice exactly the same.

Sometimes I record using two amps at the same time. You can get a similar effect this way. The other kind of doubled track is more like what Ron Wood and Keith Richards usually play: intertwined rhythm tracks that are nothing alike. Both the rhythm tracks are tonally and rhythmically completely different. They mesh nicely together. Before you do anything, make sure to get all the information you need before the tape rolls.

I really enjoy the time I spend recording in the studio. It not only keeps me on my toes but also keeps me connected with various people from the biz. It also keeps me prepared for doing my own stuff, which is the most rewarding part of one’s career.

Don’t get me wrong, creating the CD had more reward than cost. There’s no doubt about that in my opinion. But witnessing your self-produced music finally completed and packaged beautifully for the first time will fill the eyes of the stoutest musician with warm, happy tears.

I wanted to bounce off the walls and shout to the heavens, “I DID IT!!” No one helped me with it, no one paid for it. It was marvelous and it was all mine! A new problem arose, though. You see, the next day, when listening to your music on the CD again (you’ll do that until you’re just sick of hearing it, and the prospect of playing them over and over again, for the next two years makes you want to gag!), you realize that your work has only just begun.

When you’re signed to a label, the CD gets finished, and you get a tour schedule. The label handles all the marketing, the booking, the distribution, the finances, the merchandising and “concepts”. If you made the CD yourself, you don’t have all of that. Where do you go from here?

Well, you have a few choices. One is to send the CD off in a demo package to record labels, producers, booking agents, and managers and such. Then you have to get real religious and pray like heaven that your package will be one which actually gets their attention out of the hundreds and thousands they get every day. Hey, I’m as good at this as the next person, but let’s be real here!

If you’re not sure about pursuing a label, you might even consider hiring a manager, or producer to help you out in making the right decisions. He or she may even be able to arrange a “showcase” for you with A&R people.

I had thought at the offset that having a manager might be the easiest route to take. So, I interviewed several people, and finally took on a “Leisure Suit Larry” type guy, who had a LOOOOONG list of verifiable references and a track record like nothing I’ve ever seen. He had a small record label and recording studio where he self-produced the talent he had in his stable, and he seemed to know what he was doing.

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave, I had already started my own record label for the purpose of producing, selling, and marketing my own CD’s. In addition to that, I trademarked the name of the label, and the band that I owned the rights to. It was a costly process, but I have never been one to fly solo without a net. I was covering all my bases and covering them well.

In addition to that, having made an intense study of the record industry, and having been stiffed on payment by nasty club owners more times than I cared to count, I began my own little database of information. I had a spreadsheet for notes, contacts, legal information, contracts, and even requests that I had gotten at clubs.

Since I had done so much on my own, my manager’s job basically consisted of booking my gigs, and helping me promote, sell, and distribute the CD. Fortunately, I refused to sign a deal with the man until he had produced a little work for me, and I had produced a little cash flow in return for him. He thought I was really good and had no problem agreeing to my terms, stating that maybe a trial time of thirty days would be a good idea.

At the end of like sixty days, I was beginning to see that this wasn’t going to work out. I always showed up on time for my appointments and the guy was never there. I understood that he was a busy man, and I was more than willing to wait, but weeks spread into months, and he never called, booked me a gig, or helped me out with much of anything.

So one night, about three o’clock in the morning, this guy calls me from his studio and says, “Yeah, Sonata. Look here. I got this great punk band in here recording tonight, and we were discussing the possibility of trade marking their band name. How would they go about that?”

Now I am as understanding as the next person, and I love helping people out. But I’m thinking, “If this guy is representing me, and he doesn’t even know how to go about the legal stuff I’ve already done, what do I need him for?” I asked for the number of the bandleader and promised to give the guy a call with some detailed information in the morning, and then I said, “Oh, by the way, you’re fired!” and hung up.

After helping these young guys set up their web site, their publishing rights, and doing some artwork for their upcoming CD and such, I began to realize that I had been planning to rely on other people, to do what I could just as easily do on my own.

So I contacted the Small Business Administration and asked to whom I could talk about starting my own small business. I had decided that it was high time I treated my musical career as a business. They sent me to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), where I could get information and counseling on the matter for FREE.

I learned that you can’t begin a business without capital and that banks would loan you money for your small business, provided you had some of your own start-up capital, and a good business plan.

I had never even heard of anyone considering the idea of a business plan for a music career before, but the people at the SBDC set me up with one, and counseled me on how best to fill one out. It was hard for them (and for me!) to figure out how to tailor a standard business plan for a musical career, but we muddled through pretty well I think.

When I had first begun the music business, I had, as most musicians do in the beginning, a day job and I made enough to pay my bills (and NOT a penny more than what I absolutely needed to survive). After filling out the business plan, I realized I was going to have to get up some capital, and fast! I networked the internet, the phone, and sent packages in the mail, and pretty soon I was booking myself a mini-tour to promote the CD.

I decided that my day job had to not only pay bills and buy necessities, it would also have to supply gas money to my gigs, and pay for my equipment and such.

Needless to say, I ate a LOT less, and used a LOT fewer utilities. Man, that was the toughest part! But the bottom line was that ALL monies for the music stuff had to be stashed for venture capital.

Soon, I had a few bills fall short of getting paid in full, and I was beginning to think the whole thing was pointless, really. I was VERY tempted to use the money I had stashed in the bank for payment on my bills, but I just COULDN’T do it. If I ever intended to work for myself in a musical career, I’d have to find some other way to make my bills.

I hired myself out to mow grass, and paint houses during the day on weekends, and at night, I was playing some club within a hundred mile radius of my job. God, I was tired! One good thing about having an undying desire and passion to play music, is that you’re rejuvenated, especially the MOMENT you get on stage.

In three months time, I had cleared three thousand dollars from the gigs and stage sales of my newly released CD. I had a windfall – I got a house to paint in the historic district that promised a nice little chunk of money in my pocket.

When I finished paying bills that month, I designed some merchandise, and sent off for key chains and can coolers with my band logo on them, (which was trademarked by the way), and I set to the task of designing my own T-shirts. Being a graphic artist had its advantages. I made my own T-shirts, and made a HUGE profit on them at my shows.

I LOOKED professional, whether I was yet or not. And do you want to hear something funny? When you look professional, you’d be surprised probably to hear it, but you really are professional. In this business, people judge you so quickly by your appearance, that you need it to be as right for you and as close to flawless as humanly possible. By the end of five months, I had about five-thousand, eight hundred dollars built up, and I had finished my business plan.

I called my bank (the one which had been receiving mysterious money-order deposits from me, bought at convenience stores around four in the morning and dropped into the night-deposit box for deposit into my account), and I set up a meeting with a loan officer.

I am not ashamed to say that with a very painful divorce behind me, I had really messed up credit. Fortunately, my deposits over the past few months showed that I was in fact successful, and I autographed a copy of my CD for the loan officer to keep personally. She also got a free T-shirt, a can cooler, and a key chain. Ha ha!

At any rate, because I was able to show a surprisingly good part-time income, and a steady bank deposit record… and because I wasn’t asking so much for a loan, it was granted. It helped that I had done a target market demographic study to reflect what songwriter’s typically make in their first six months. My progress was above it by a mile. I really just needed the loan so I could survive and do this for a living.

I got incorporated under my stage name, had repairs done to my equipment and got a bunch of CD’s pressed. Because I was incorporated as a legal business, all of my repairs and purchases were tax write offs, and I was going to be getting a weekly paycheck from my account that was slightly more than I had been earning at my job of three years. This gave me free time to make music, perform, and market myself.

All of my remunerative transactions were handled through my bank account and I was suddenly taken seriously from a business point of view. I was so busy in fact, filling orders, answering fan mail, booking shows, and pushing the CD, that I rarely had time for recording any more.

It slowed down the ability to work on new material, and pretty soon, after 2,050 sales, and 1,000 or more press kits, I was wearing thin. I am only just now getting to the point where I am seeking any outside aid, and really it’s just to help me manage my career rather than to take it over.

The good news is, that because I took a business-like approach to my music, I became successful rather quickly, clearing a net of forty thousand dollars last year alone, when my goal, according to my business plan was twenty thousand dollars. When I’m ready to go to the bank for a new loan… I doubt I’ll have any trouble getting it, and with their help, I have actually begun cleaning up my credit enough that I hold corporate accounts with my merchandise companies and glass house, which means I pay for their services by the month.

This also makes me hot property where outside influences are concerned, and I have had little to no difficulty getting attention. At this stage in my career, I am interviewing managers, producers, record labels, musicians, and assistants as though they are employees in the business of me, and I have the rare (and wonderful) opportunity to be selective about it.

The truth is that, as artists, musicians are by and large disorganized thinkers. We are so overwhelmed, in fact, by our creative ideas and avenues of expressing them, that we cannot often manage ourselves in a business sense. It’s up to us to take charge of our careers, in order to make ourselves more appealing to the people who will only be managing our “business”.

I was fortunate. I took two years of Business Administration in college, and had been managing companies for other small businesses all along, so I had a jump start in forming my own business. On top of that, I do countless researches into the music industry on a daily basis, and had been doing so for about four years, so I knew not only what to do, but where to go. Basically by becoming our own boss, and strictly sticking to a plan, we can overcome the current system and still turn a profit.

The problem is, that as musicians, it is much easier for us to blow money on new “toys”, and equipment, and waste time doing covers for beer addled patrons, than it is to deprive ourselves of some little luxuries and put our head down to brave the storm.

Let me just extend this word of caution. This is the hardest route to take, make no mistake about it. The responsibility for all your success and failure rests solely on your own shoulders taking this method, and if you fail, you stand to lose everything.

There are going to be times when you don’t sleep for days because you’re running between gigs, studios, and home trying to get it all done. In the beginning, you’re doing all of those things, balancing a day job, and trying to make good contacts for future references, so it can be quite painfully tiring.

I found myself designing merchandise, CD cover booklets, labels, my own business cards, correspondence etc. I mean I even have a template for “Thank You” post cards, business cards, and stationery. I made my own posters, T-shirts, caps, and stage attire. I was a sewing, stamping, ironing, designing fool.

I have had the good fortune to already be something of an artist, and to already have a grasp of graphic arts and templates, so I managed to do this myself. I also grew up on a farm, where my mom made my clothes until I was old enough to make them myself, so sewing is another of my abilities. I can’t imagine having to pay someone to do all of these things for me. The cost would have been too great for me.

If you think you’re going to need to pay for these things, make sure you have several estimates for them attached to your business plan. My ability to “do-everything-myself” helped quite a bit, because I didn’t need extra cash for expenses.

I don’t want to give the impression that my music was just so good that it sold itself either, because if that were true, there’d be a LOT better music on the radio than the crap I’ve had to listen to lately.

The truth is that my music isn’t bad. My new stuff is far better. I just want to make it perfectly clear, that my success was dedicated not only to having many talents suited for the music industry, but because I was determined to see it through, and willing to risk everything. If you have nothing to risk, most likely you’re not going to make it, because you don’t work half as hard at it. If this failed, I was going to have to go back to work for someone else, and put my music on the back burner, and to me that was almost a fate worse than death.

Empower yourself with knowledge. Learn this business inside and out from as many aspects as humanly possible… and as always…hone your craft daily. Once you’ve done these things, and taken over your own work, you have the key to success and you’ll be surprised how heavily the bloodhounds follow that scent. Just be prepared to sweat, starve and bleed for it because it’s the most difficult route to take.

Always remember that YOU are the one offering the service and that the outsiders are to be viewed as employees in the business of you. Once they realize that you don’t need them, and that you are succeeding, they will clamor for your attention. When that happens… your dream of being a full-time musician will be that much closer to becoming a reality.

If I can be of any further help, or if you have any questions, feel free to write to me at:
SoftSonata@hotmail.com

It sweeps throughout my heart like a whisper of love, and lights the fire of passion in my veins. In short…I love music.

It may appear to some, I suppose, that there is some madness in my desire to create the beauty of music, but it is only in the soft refrains of my melodic musical endeavors that I find total clarity and sanity. It seems that no matter how off balance the rest of the world is… there is solace in music.

Music is in all life.
~Sonata Jones
“There is no better time than today…this very minute”

What’s the difference between an artist and a musician?

The Artist

I’ll start with the artist. The artist plays for himself for the most part. His objective as a guitarist is to please his own artistic hunger. He strives for artistic elegance. Don’t get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing for me and you. It’s great. Artists make life for the rest of us better. Artists create art. I have Picasso hanging on my wall, not something a graphic designer drew that I found in a magazine. The problem with being an artist is…it’s rough to make ends meet. Artists are generally only brilliant at their own music or working with artists that fall into the same category as themselves. Artists constantly study art. That’s the reason it’s hard to make a living. The artist is always striving to create better art. He creates art with such high standards, the average Joe has a hard time understanding it. The artist is so involved in creating art that he often creates a gap between himself and the masses. I’m not saying all artists are broke but it’s a gamble.

The Musician

The musician is a different animal all together. The musician is a hired gun. Although he may have musical preferences, he isn’t picky about what he plays to pay the rent. While the artist may be particular about what he has to play to get paid, the musician will play anything. He is well versed in all styles and can mimic various players. These types of players make good studio musicians, session players and teachers. They usually do all these things. Like the artist, the musician is always working on learning new skills. The only problem with the musician is that he tends to find himself artistically frustrated. Let’s face it, deep down inside, we all really want to be the artist. We want our music to live on after we’re gone. We want someone, after we die, to send one of our CDs off into deep space so some alien can find it in a million years and say “them earthlings wrote the most glorious music in the galaxy.”

Balance

Which would you rather be; the artist or the musician? Remember the phrases; “the starving artist” and “the struggling musician.” I personally would rather struggle as a musician while I commit myself to creating art. I think the best way to live a satisfying life as a guitarist is do dedicate your life to both of these ambitions. Most guitarists get themselves in trouble by focusing on only one of the two. Most of the money I have made in the business as a player came from playing other peoples tunes, not from my own CD sales. But to be honest, releasing my own CDs is way more rewarding (mentally, not financially). Doing both makes my career well balanced. One feeds the other.

The rules of making a living as a guitarist

Bite of more than you can chew (almost) – Never turn down a gig. There are two ways to look at doing a gig; first, a way to pay the rent, Second, a chance to learn something. The worst mistake you can make as a guitarist is to turn down work because you think you not good enough yet or you don’t have much experience playing that style. When I was in my twenties, I got a call to do a country gig for about twenty bucks. I had never played country before and I was tempted to tell the guy on the other end of the phone that I was busy on that night. In the end I couldn’t break my own rule so I took the gig. I got the charts and the music, worked out all the tunes, borrowed my roommate’s Telecaster and had one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. Was I scared? You bet I was. That’s exactly what helped me work the tunes out in time, good old fashioned fear. I, of course have my own musical preferences, but I rather play guitar for an hour at a wedding, learn some new tunes in the process and get paid fifty or a hundred bucks than to work at Burger King for minimum wage. My students get to see me real angry when they tell me they turned down a gig for some trivial reason.

Don’t bug anyone – Simplicity will keep you out of trouble. When you’re at home practicing, reach for the unreachable. When you’re on the gig, know your limits. My experience as a studio player has taught me to focus on every single note I play. When you’re recording for another artist, on somebody else’s time, you have to play everything perfect. For every mistake you make, you have to punch-in the part again. The tape rolls and after you record your part; you go back into the room where the engineer and the producer are mixing the recording. They turn down the other parts to check out what you played. Your guitar is really loud in the mix. There is no escape. It’s like looking in the mirror. Every time you play something a little out of time or a little sharp or flat it makes you cringe. My first experience in the studio taught me to listen to every single note I play, all the time, even when I’m not recording. It taught me to know my limits whenever I play, and to stretch those limits by good practice. While in the studio, I try to get the track done on the first or second take with no punch-ins. Next time you are on a gig, pretend you’re in the studio recording for Michael Jackson. See how long you can play without making even a tiny mistake. Let this become a habit.

Love your enemies – When I was learning guitar as a kid, I wanted to crush the neighborhood guitar kids like grapes with my technique! Competitiveness is important; the need to be the best is what drives people to be just that. But don’t let it blind you. Every time Mike Stern or Scott Henderson are in town, I dread going to hear them play. It always depresses me. It forces me to compare myself with them and to truly see what kind of player I am in a true light. I could easily avoid the whole miserable thing and stay home but I force myself to go. After it’s over, I go home, don’t touch my guitar and go to sleep. The next day I force myself to get over it and practice like a maniac. I have had similar experiences all my life. There is always someone who plays better than you. It is important to search them out, make friends with them, pick their brains and learn. It’s okay to secretly hate their guts! Use envy and jealousy to your advantage. The interesting thing is that the guys that I always want to beat in guitar wars, usually become great friends and refer me for gigs from time to time. Players who avoid better players are destined for mediocrity.

Listen to what your mother told you

This is really important. No matter how great a player you are, that is only half the battle in being a successful guitarist. Here are the other things:

Never be late – If you show up late for studio work, you’ll never get called back. Time is money. Get there early, set your equipment up and be ready to go before the session is supposed to begin. The same thing goes for auditions. Even if you are the greatest guitarist to ever walk the face of the earth, you’ll make the producer nervous if you show up late for an audition. He’s running a business so he is going to figure that you’re late all the time and since he’s got enough to worry about he’ll pick someone for the job who is dependable. You won’t get a call back. The same thing is true for rehearsals. A good friend of mine has the touring gig with a super big artist (ain’t gonna tell you who). He was telling me that the keyboardist in the band came to rehearsal and didn’t have all his stuff set up in time. He made the artist wait about a whole minute to get the rehearsal started. Instead of rehearsing he got fired on the spot. He lost a $2,000 dollar a week gig for being a minute late. Don’t make the same mistake.

Appearances count – Before you play your first notes, the audience has already made a decision about you by your appearance. This goes for auditions too. First, go to the magazine stand and get yourself a copy of the newest GQ. I’m not joking. Check the photos and see what guys are wearing these days. Music and fashion walk hand in hand. Dress for success! I know tons of great players who lose out because they wear the same stupid t-shirt everyday. Think of Miles Davis, not only a musical genius but a true fashion plate. The first lesson I learned about this topic was from a band member when I was eighteen. He told me to get some new shoes because mine were dirty. I had figured that nobody looks at a guy’s shoes but when you’re standing on a four foot stage that is the first thing the people in the first row look at. Take pride in your appearance and carry yourself with confidence. Charisma, charm and style carry a lot of weight in the music business.

Wear as many hats as you can – Play as many styles as you can, this will increase the amount or gigs you can do. Also, work on your singing chops. Sometimes this alone will get you the job. A lot of bands are looking for someone who can do both. It saves them the money to hire two guys. If you can sing harmony it’s a plus. If you can sing lead, it’s even better. This is also a good strategy for your band. You can make way more money as a trio than a quartet. Most gigs pay by the band regardless of how many band members in the band.

Education

Get an education – Just like any other kind of job, education is important. Lessons are great but if you have the time and money, enroll yourself in a good music school. I spent a year at Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles where I ended up also being a teacher for six years. The great thing about studying at a big music school is all the students that you also get a chance to learn from. The thing that is great about MI or LAMA in LA or The Collective in NY or the schools that I run in Japan is that they are not art schools as much as they are trade schools. They strive to teach you how to make a living at being a guitarist while also giving you plenty of creative support. They don’t cater to any one particular style of music as an “art” school does. The trade school teaches you a trade rather than an art.

Get in education – A well rounded musical education will also prepare you for education. One of the most rewarding things I have ever done is to get into music education. After I left MI in 1992, I found myself in Japan as the Director of Education at Tokyo School of Music. Teaching will teach you more about music than studying will. When I was teaching at MI, I found myself teaching in the classroom next to Scott Henderson on one side and Paul Gilbert on the other. I would eat lunch with jazz legend Joe Diorio. Just being in the same building as players like these and absorbing what was going on around me was an invaluable experience. Teaching also forced me to organize musical concepts which in turn helped me become a better player. If you are fortunate to get work at a school that also has courses in recording, you may be able to sneak in there and learn a little about the newest technology. One of the biggest advantages of working at a music school is the fact that you can network. I’m always surprised to see how much the teachers at my school end up working together. They refer each other to gigs as subs and even get them on their own gigs. The great thing about teaching is that it is usually a day gig which doesn’t interfere with your night gig; playing. Its extra cash and it’s steady.

Some advice on getting a teaching job

The Interview

Your Manner – A lot of guys ruin the whole thing here. Here is how it usually goes; I get a call from a guy looking for a teaching position. I ask him to come down and he does. I talk to him a while and decide he seems like a decent cat. His eyes aren’t red and he can carry a concise conversation. You may think I’m joking. You would actually be surprised how many guys come to an interview high on something. This is a sure way to not get the job. I don’t care what anybody does in their free time but, anyone who comes to an interview at a school for a teaching job stoned is probably going to come to teach his classes stoned too. Also, like I said before, never, ever show up late for your interview. One of the most important things for a teacher to be is on time.

Passion – I also want a guy who is passionate about teaching. Remember, a school is a business so I want a teacher who is going to teach all the students, not just the gifted ones. Most kids quit school because of discrimination. Not racial, religious or sexual, but talent discrimination. Anyone can teach someone with a ton of talent to be a great player. I’m looking for someone to teach the kids who struggle with the guitar. If you feel that filtering out the students that are not “musically gifted” is a teacher’s job, you won’t be working for me. I want every student who enrolls in my school to graduate. Remember that during your interview too.

Your Profile – Don’t disclose the unnecessary. You will need to give the school your profile. Leave out anything that you may be doing that doesn’t involve music. When I look over profiles for teaching position at my school, I’m looking for someone who is a working player. Anyone who is gigging plus, let’s say, works at the local Kmart is out. I’m looking for guys who are going to teach the students how to work full time as a guitarist so they better be doing so themselves. Don’t lie, but don’t disclose the unnecessary details.

Your Demo – Let’s say the interview and the profile go over. Here is the next thing that a lot of guys screw up. They don’t have anything recorded. I want to hear them play. You’d be surprised how many guys don’t have a decent demo. I generally don’t like cassette tapes. I’m looking for a decently recorded cd. It can be burned at home or at a studio but it needs to showcase what you are good at. This is also true for auditions. A lot of times, before you even get to audition, you first have to send your bio and demo. Be careful not to send a demo of you playing Bebop to a producer looking for a rock guitarist.

Empower Yourself

Don’t wait for a break – This is my advice for those of you who want to satisfy your artistic needs. No matter how much money you make teaching or doing gigs as a hired gun, the truth is, your dream since you started playing probably has been to be rewarded for your playing and your own music. In the past, most artists would make a demo, and shop it around hoping that a record label would pick them up. Those where sad times. Artists had absolutely no power whatsoever. Even today, there are still plenty of artists doing the same thing; they have yet to see what great times we live in. Because of technology today, releasing a CD is a simple thing to do. If you are well rehearsed, you can be in and out of the studio in three days. That includes the mix down. I recorded, mastered and pressed my own CD, “Prospects” for about three-thousand five hundred dollars. That includes the money I paid for the studio musicians to do the session. If you have a band with permanent members you probably don’t have to pay them, so you can do it for less.

Recording tips – Be totally prepared. The trick to getting the session done inexpensively is speed. The misconception that you need a month in the studio to do a good recording is completely false. If you are well rehearsed, you can knock each song out in two takes. After that, you decide which take you like, punch in any parts you don’t like and move on to the next tune. The difference with my newest CD is that we never rehearsed. I hired studio cats who just read the charts. We ran through the tune once, recorded two takes for each song and never did any punch-ins. The musicians where top notch players. If you get in the studio and start rehearsing, you are never going to get done in time.

Selling the thing once you get it done – In the old days, the only way to sell a record was to get a contract with a record company and a distribution deal to get the product in stores, advertise, tour and wait for you measly royalty check. Royalty rates vary slightly from company to company, but I’ll just tell you, you have to sell at least a million records to be able to pay your rent. That’s the sad truth about “a major deal”. But now we live in glorious times thanks to the internet. Once you get your CD done you can sell it from your web site (I’ll get to that after this). You can also send it to cdbaby.com and/or guitar9.com and/or a bunch of other sites that will sell it for you. In the mean time you can send it to some different sites that will review it for you. If you do a good job on your CD, you should be able to get some good reviews from sites that specialize in just that.. Other people looking for new music will go to these sites read your review, go to your site and buy your CD. I used godsofmusic.com, prognosis and some other sites. You just put the link for cdbaby.com or guitar9.com on your site and they will be directed directly to your page on those sites. Guitar9.com, cdbaby.com and most other similar sites such as Amazon.com will sell customers the cds you send them by credit card and they in turn will send you a check from time to time. They take four or five dollars from your sales and everyone walks away happy. You are basically doing your own distribution. With a “major deal” you would make about a dollar on a CD sale, this way you make about ten dollars, about fourteen on the ones you sell at gigs or from your site by personal check. You only have sell ten percent of what you would with a “major deal” to make the same money. But the most important thing as that you are empowered; it’s your own motivation, dedication, footwork that moves your CD. Do it yourself and learn a bunch in the process.

Your Site – If you think putting together a site is way more than you know how to deal with, your wrong. Buy yourself software like Dreamweaver for a few hundred bucks and you are on your way. You don’t have to know anything about code to do it. It’s as easy as “Word” or “Powerpoint”. It’ll take you about half an hour to install it and have your first few pages going. The other thing you need to do is get yourself a domain name and someone to host it. That’s easy too. Just type in “domain names” into your favorite search engine and you are on your way. I think mine costs me about seven or eight bucks a month for 50MB. I need at least 50MB because I have mp3s on my site available for people to download. You may or may not need that much. The only other problem is graphics. Your site will be dull without cool graphics. If you are into that kind of thing you may want to try to do it yourself using “Fireworks” which is included in the “Dreamweaver” package or some other software such as “Adobe Photoshop”. Or, (shameless plug) you can purchase your own custom graphics from a company like ominousgraphics.com for next to nothing. Yes, ominousgraphics.com is my own company that does web graphics for artists for cheap. Once you get your site going, have as many sites as you can add your link and you’ll start getting traffic. Include in your site; audio files, your bio, a cd page with links to cdbaby.com and guitar9.com, a links page, a news page, a schedule page so you can get people to come to your shows (and buy your CD) and photos, etc. It’s important to do it yourself. If you don’t, information will always be slow and your site will be a big bore. Like I said before, do it yourself and learn something in the process. Check out my site if you have a chance. You may get some ideas.

Green

Managing your money – This will probably be the first time you are going to get financial advice from a guitarist. A lot of musicians give up playing as a professional for money reasons. One of the tricks in surviving in the business is to manage your money. No matter what happens, pay yourself first. Before you pay your rent, bills, buy your girl a watch, pay yourself first. Whatever you can swing is okay. Let’s say, two, three, five hundred dollars a month. No matter what happens, every month, you put it away first and you don’t touch it. What if you can’t make ends meet? You make ends meet! If you can’t come up with the car insurance at the end of the month, you’ll work that much harder to find a gig. If I had started doing this when I was eighteen, I would have about a million bucks today. I’m serious. I started doing this in my late twenties; I put the money into a mutual fund that earned me, on average, about twelve percent a year. Here is a rule that you probably never heard before. They never taught me this formula in school.

72 divided by yearly interest earned on any investment = the amount of years it takes the investment to double

Let’s say you are eighteen and invest six thousand dollars ($500 x 12 months) into a mutual fund that earns you ten percent a year. 72 divided by 10 equals 7.2 years for your six-thousand dollars to double. It will double again in another 7.2 years. Let’s just make it an even seven years for demonstrational purposes.

You would retire with three-hundred eighty-four thousand dollars from only one year of properly invested savings. Figure out what you would have if you had done this every year of your life starting form when you where eighteen. You would be a millionaire! You don’t have to believe me, do your own math. Go to yahoo finance and do some mutual fund historical research.

Becoming a guitarist has been one of the greatest joys in my life. I hope that sharing some of the things I learned along the way will help you to be successful in the music business. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me anytime. Next time I’ll get into some more specifics about what it takes to be a studio musician. Until then…