What Musical Skills You Need To Be A Professional Musician
An up-and-coming professional musician on my list recently asked me this question about building a music career:
“You often talk about how musical skills are not the end-all, be-all of the music industry. How do I know if my musical skills are good enough to become a professional musician and have ea music career?”
Good question.
The answer is in 3 steps:
1. Think about the ideal band you want to play in. (And/or the most demanding musical scenario you think you might find yourself in, given your music career goals as a professional musician in the music industry.)
2. Make a list of musical skills you need to reach that level. (Or, if you don’t know, get a good music teacher to lay those skills out for you.)
3. Get your musical skills to be slightly higher than that (so you have a buffer that allows you to play well, even on a bad day... which will sometimes be needed when you are a professional musician).
Done.
And the reason this is such a good question is:
Being good at your instrument is just ONE of many skills that goes into becoming a professional musician.
And being that we all just have 24 hours in the day...
After your musical skills are good enough to become pro, you should invest more of your time to learn how to build a music career in the music industry.
I'm talking about learning how to:
- phase out your day job and replace it with music career income
- build a fan base (so that, when you release music, there are people who eagerly want to buy it). And later – turning those fans into super fans who will attend all your gigs, tell their friends about you and even (in some extreme cases) tattoo your band’s name and logo on their bodies.
- make record companies (and bands) interested in working with you (e.g. sign you to a record deal, help you release albums and help your music career grow in other ways).
- go on tour (where you grow your music career fan base, sell your albums and merch)
- develop other skills you need to build a thriving career in the music industry (negotiation, marketing and selling, to name just a few).
- balance your music career ambitions with family life and/or other goals, so you can build a truly fulfilling life you can feel proud of.
These are just some of the music career skills you’d better have if you are serious about making it in music.
To learn even more about what it takes to break into the music industry and become a professional musician, check out this article on building a music career.
Build a highly successful music career by working together with a music career success mentor.
