Question: I am really passionate about being a master of the guitar before even thinking about pursuing my music career. How many different teaching books and software do I need to be a great guitarist?

Tom Hess's Answer: If you want to become a professional musician you MUST begin studying how the music business works RIGHT NOW. Learning how this industry works (and how it doesn’t work) takes just as much time and effort as learning to play the guitar. If you want to continue practicing and developing your musical skills further, that is great. But do not make the mistake that many musicians make, which is waiting until they “master” their instrument before starting to think about a music career. This approach fails most of the time when the musicians realize that their awesome musical skills alone will not put a roof over their head and food in their mouth when they finally decide that they are “ready” to become a professional musician. They failed to prepare for a music career ahead of time and now their only option (in the vast majority of cases) is to quickly find a non-music related job and cling to it as if it were life support until retirement.

So my sincere advice to you is to not delay and begin studying about how the music business works TODAY. Read my music career articles to get started.

Discover the best approach for building a career in music.