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Posted by: Solo Master Sep 5 2007, 09:37 AM

Hello, My name is Kris and ive been playing guitar for around 4 years. It sounds like i should know what im doing but i never learned any scales or notes. I just jammed with people and learned many songs by metallica rammstein and etc. Thats why Im here hehe.

Anyways I always wondered how does someone start a musical career? Do you go to music school and look for some members and hope to start a rock band that hits it big? I love playing the guitar and id love to do it for a living as well, is there some kind of process or points i should try to follow on fulfilling my dream?

Posted by: Ayen Sep 5 2007, 10:36 AM

First off, welcome Kris. You're going to have a great time at GMC. Andrew's Theory lessons are a great place to start if you feel you're ready to learn them.

As for a musical career, I don't know from personal experience, but I'm nearly positive there isn't only one definitive way of starting a musical career.

Posted by: krimzen Sep 5 2007, 11:30 AM

from personal experience, i would say your better off to keep jammin with buddies.. put together your own music, however you achieve that.. and then just go and rent some studio time.. network with the right people and get your music out there..

Posted by: MickeM Sep 5 2007, 05:03 PM

When I look at friends and friends of friends in my surroundings I can see that it takes hard work.

One guy is a killer guitarist, he's been on stage since 13 or 14 and was always practicing. When my brother was at his place he'd be sitting with his guitar practicing even when he had friends over to visit. He's now in a band, they have released a couple of records and are at least a little bit known here in Europe.
In his case he's got a tremendous technique and got shredding ability among the top performers. He's a typical bandmember though so I doubt he'd ever make it solo with his chops.

A closer friend was once a local happening, well still is since papers write about him, his studio and his hits once in a while. He also worked real hard, practiced a lot and played lot of gigs. his band(s) made it in their home town (of 100-150k ppl) and had some hits on the radio charts but never got bigger than that. He was a music maker rather than a performer, he's now writing music for famous artists here in Sweden but hasn't yet quit his dayjob, only cut down the hours.
He's a social person and knows how to talk and make himself and his band interesting without bragging. He used to make up fantastic stories to the local newspapers which they swallowed and printed. One way to look interesting and be seen. Lie
He can't shred but knows how to write catchy music, does it real well.

So there's a few different ways. Develop some amazing shredding ability. Or write catchy music. Or just find the right people to play with. David Lee Roth said that when he met and lended a PA to Edward Van Halen, he thought - This is my food ticket

Posted by: Robin Sep 5 2007, 07:11 PM

Get a band, try to make good and unique songs, record a demo, send it everywhere you can, to festivals, record labels, websites and magazines that does demo reviews and other important companies/people. And practice all the time, make songs all the time, and play live shows even though you're not getting payed anything. Be serious ALL the time, dont screw around with other things on bandpractice, take every opportunity you can get and practice often. Not necessarily 3 hours each time, but play your songs or make new songs maybe 1 hour each day or every second day. I know this because I was in a band once, we only played Iron Maiden cover songs, and when we practiced, we played for 10 minutes, then the rest of the band went playing pool or tennis. I left them and instead I went serious with this band I am in now. They got local fans with their boring and totally standard style, but we play at festivals around the country and have recorded 21 songs so far(2 demos and some other songs).

Thats my personal experience, even though we dont really have a musical career yet, but I think my band is well on our way, and we're not giving up.



If you want to do it the easy way: Copy In Flames' style a 100% and have nude girls in your music vidoes.

Posted by: Guitarman700 Sep 6 2007, 12:52 AM

"If you want to do it the easy way: Copy In Flames' style a 100% and have nude girls in your music videos."

ROFL!( i love that word)

Posted by: shredmandan Sep 6 2007, 01:42 AM

Hey man
If you had the option to go to school for music i think it would be a good idea.Not that going to get a degree in music is definatly going to make you able to live from it,but it's great knowledge and a place to meet all other musicians.Cool thing to is regardless if you didnt become a music teacher with your degree you still get payed more at any job just for having any college education. If you want it bad enough it will happen.You just really have to put the work in not just say i want i want.

Good Luck

Posted by: Tank Sep 6 2007, 07:35 PM

If you are asking "how do I make money in the music business?" There have been a couple of threads which have discussed similar topics before which might help:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=4333
(brandon has some good advice from his recording experience)

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=5031
(What might be necessary to consider if you are serious about going to university to study music).

Don't fall into the trap that most people do. That to become a professional, you need to be as good as Satriani or Vai. You don't, you just need to have a professional work ethic.

If you are thinking "I want to become a great guitarist" what do I need to do?

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=2032

Which ties in to something that Kris and I spoke about back in 2005 on Freelicks.
http://www.freelicks.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26 (Oh, by the way, I'm still working on this!!!! )

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 6 2007, 08:38 PM

Insightful as ever Tank - thanks! I really like the idea of equating your practice to a degree level endeavour - it makes the whole thing a lot more systematic and tractable.

Posted by: Tank Sep 6 2007, 08:47 PM

It was something that Kris and I discussed (I can't believe that's 2 years ago now!!!) I think at the time it was a backlash to all the "play like steve vai in 24 hours" things that you see advertised on the net.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Sep 6 2007, 08:50 PM

So did you apply the suggested schedule? How did it work out?

Posted by: Tank Sep 6 2007, 09:30 PM

I applied it to an extent (in the past year I've moved house, job, and been studying a course). I've seen an improvement. I can pretty much tackle any song to a certain standard now and be comfortable about performing it live on stage. The "bar" is currently set that I'm able to play things like Eruption, Sweet Child of Mine, and was able to learn Sweet Home Alabama in less than a week, and perform.

Of course I'd like to be able to tackle more difficult stuff now, and write more elaborate leads, so once my course is finished (October), my weekend free time iwill be ploughed back into practice!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Sep 6 2007, 09:33 PM

Great!

The key is definately to keep a "doable" routine somewhat even!

Posted by: bart m Sep 6 2007, 10:10 PM

yep...reasonable goals should be made, therefore, reasonable goals can be acheived.

Also, if you are really interested/serious in music as a career, then make the time and balance your life appropriately. What does this mean? Unplugging your t.v.? Going out with friends only once, maybe none each week? Finding a cheaper place to live so you can cut back your hours at work to stay home and practice longer? Going back to school..There is NO ONE WAY that works for everyone. It is relative. You have to know yourself, your weaknesses and strengths. I think the biggest reason for failure is people aren't honest with themselves. Find that which distracts you the most(without shunning your responsibilities, my wife and children are first) and remove it from your life(for me it was T.V. and to a certain degree reading, I was a book junkie) I also think its important to reward yourself once you have met some goals(for me that means BEER!)
bart

Posted by: erik Sep 6 2007, 10:58 PM

A musical carreer sounds really hard to achieive. I have big expectations for my band making it, though I know it will probably never happen But there is no point worrying about how it will probably end up when I'm having so much fun with it now! I just try to practise more and more anyway.

A musical carreer would be heaven! But on the other hand, music is probably still fully enjoyable just because it's not your job!

My advise for a musical carreer (though I have no experience with it neither..) would be to join/start a band. Something I think might be important is getting bandmembers that got something special. A certain playing style, experience, being able to reach out to a crowd and talk to people. Having all of those are not "a requirement", though they can be an advantage. Second is finding a uniqe style. Simply copiyng somebody elses style doesn't quite get you there (watch out metallica-cover bands! yeah i've been there ). Third would be to get your name out! An interesting band name doesn't hurt, all PR is good PR. It's important that people know about you, you should try to get to know other bands and get connections. Your connections might help you get signed some day. But whatever you do, dont quit your day job or drop out of school. Unless ofcourse you are already a rockstar.

Posted by: muris Sep 6 2007, 11:25 PM

Welcome Kris!!
I've been professional musician for about 10 years.
I started with club gigs in smaller bands,got into few bigger,was called to play with some big artists and that's it.
I wasn't thinking that much about were do I go,it just took me...

Posted by: tonymiro Sep 6 2007, 11:36 PM

One other bit often missed is a good professional manager who is actually supportive of you rather then seeing you as a meal ticket and who has good contacts in the industry and so can help open doors. One of the things that is a real premium is time - you don't necessarily want to use yours chasing down a contact/contract when you should be practicing/recording/gigging.

Perhaps the difficulties here though are at least two fold: in my experience there are more under-performing then good managers; good ones are more likely to seek you out once you've acquired enough reputation/signed a contract etc. The only group I've been in that had a record contract the manager we had came after we sent the demo and had the first meeting with the A&R - in fact they recommended her...

Nonetheless in the UK there is an industry year book that details industry contacts - managers, lawyers, A&R, producers etc. There might be something similar where you are and can't hurt to look.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: Solo Master Sep 7 2007, 10:58 AM

I understand. Its not an easy thing at all. Im pretty sure not many people out there woke up and said their going to be a rockstar and it happend. I guess ill keep practicing and hope that one day ill meet the right group and hit it big! Thanks for all the advice and information!

Posted by: Gustavo Sep 18 2007, 10:37 AM

i just can say something

play live (always as u can)

go to a music school (there r musicians like u , lot of contacts too )

record a demo

use the internet man! XD

internet is the world conecction