I’ve known a lot of guys over the years who have sought to either formulate a plan of advance for a career in music, or to try and further their own musical career through branching out…..and it’s important to realise that the guys who make money doing what they love are both lucky, and in the minority……education DOES help but I’ve known degree-educated guitarists who work in other fields, and I’ve known players with a little education who actually achieved some measure of success.
Lets see:
Music Teacher – either private, at an Educational Institution, on a website, or all of the above. It’s important to recognise that you can teach to a wide variety of players and levels of ability rather than simply aiming for Berklee.
Composing – a friend of mine works in this capacity for TV shows…but equally you can make jingles, theme tunes, movie scores or write pop hits for others to perform…….the list is almost endless.
Clinician – displaying a companies products to their best advantage is a respected field and many guys seem to do well in this capacity.
Session work – being able to read is a massive advantage, as is the ability to play competantly in a wide range of styles. Remember these days you are quite literally competing with players the world over so your standard needs to be accordingly high.
Band – self explanatory but don’t expect to make much money unless you really do hit the “Big Time”. This actually deserves a discussion of it’s own with the merits of merchandising, paying to play, record deals, promotion, Internet Publications……it’s a massive subject and nothing is certain.
Owning/working in Music Retail. It’s an old and much-maligned profession but there are still opportunities…again, hotly contested because it’s viewed as easy work and yet the amount of inept staff never ceases to amaze me.
.
