How To Go From Your Daily Job To A Successful Musical Career.

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1. Good music doesn't mean good enough music

If you consider your music to be "good", then make music purely as a hobby. The music industry doesn't just want "good" music, it needs really AMAZING music that will excite listeners and sell. Due to the availability of software and equipment for composing and recording music, as well as under the influence of intrusive advertising, many people have the illusion that everyone today can create excellent music. The sad fact is that since the 1990s, more and more mediocre music has entered the market. Many today record a set of sounds, call it music, and then proclaim themselves musicians and try to promote and sell their records. As a result, the music market is flooded with mediocrity.

2. Know your audience

From the moment you decide to invite someone to listen to your music, you are in the music business. If you don't know who might like your music, then why are you composing it in the first place? Art and trade not only may fit together, in today's market they must fit together. The time is running out when only one musical talent was enough for success. These days, record companies are developing new artists using tried and tested career development tactics, starting with identifying an area of ​​music where an artist can the best way showcase your musical and artistic abilities. Spend a lot of time figuring out who he is - your average fan. Learn all about the lifestyle of your potential fans, their age, gender and income levels. Do this, and a whole universe of opportunities will open up for you to attract the attention of these people to your work.

3. A good idea costs more than a big budget.

Starting a music career from the ground up is not only hard work, but also costly work. However, simple and clear ideas may well receive funding. Take a good look around where you live and keep looking for simple ways that can set your musical career in motion. How about educational institutions where you could speak? Or maybe there is a fair or festival in your city with the participation of local musicians? And local retail stores or service centers - how about talking to them about distributing and selling your music? Ideas are born in our head when we think. Observe yourself - how much time you spend doing nonsense (too frequent gatherings with friends or watching TV, for example). Put your time to good use - come up with at least one new marketing idea each week to promote your music. If you do this, then you will be surprised at the number of brilliant ideas and opportunities that will not cost you a dime to implement.

4. Shortsightedness leads to complete blindness

If you do not have a clear and precise idea of ​​where you are going, then you can easily go in the wrong direction and miss the opportunity that is right in your hands. Don't just focus on the specific things you're going to do for your music. Learn as much as you can about how the music business really works, how it functions as an industry. Look wide - how all the elements of the development of your musical career are interconnected. Remember that every function, profession, area of ​​activity related to the creation, recording, promotion and sale of music is interconnected with each other, necessary to each other and must interact with each other for mutual benefit. Do you have your own realistic plan that provides a clear and holistic picture of the development of your musical career?

5. Do your job and do it well

If you say you're going to do something, then do it and don't look for any excuses why you couldn't do it. Everyone who wishes to help you in the implementation of your business ideas will also be able to benefit from your success. When you need to step over a new threshold - do it. If you interact with people as a non-professional, they will remember you as a non-professional. If you interact with people like a professional, they will remember you as a professional. Your reputation depends only on you. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability. Every artist who is successful in the music business is your competitor. Are you really working on self-improvement as hard and fruitfully as your competitors? Remember that the music business is full of useless husks, and don't become that husk yourself.

6. Reflect in everything you do

Like it or not, as a musician, you are part of show business. Therefore, you must understand for yourself the importance of building and developing a clear, honest and definite IMAGE that will unambiguously tell the public about who you are and what your music is. If you think you don't need any "out there" images, then go ahead and let the music business shape your image for you...but then don't be offended that people think you're something you're not. Only you know who you really are. Make sure your covers, press materials, songs and stage presence reflect who you are. Every time you do something to advance your musical career, think about how it fits with your true personality. Each and every element of your activity should create in the minds of people a holistic idea of ​​who you really are.

7. Collaborate with people, don't use them

The music business is based on relationships. Don't fool people. Cherish the contacts you make, spend time building relationships with these people, especially those who work in the same field of music as you. Find out who are the key players in each area music marketing, in distribution, in retail, in the radio business, in the press and in the organization of concerts. Give them facts and solid arguments that clearly explain why these people would benefit from working with you. Once you have assembled your team, actively participate in its activities, meet with your people regularly. When working in a team, constantly do something for the other team members, and do not care only about your well-being. Remember that the team is created for mutually beneficial cooperation of all its members.

8. Vanity kills

The ability to set yourself difficult goals and the arrogant belief that you can handle everything are not the same thing. Vanity implies that a person puts himself on a pedestal, while in reality he has not yet built even ladders in order to climb this pedestal. You have met such people. Having received the slightest recognition, they absorb praise like a sponge, and it becomes impossible to work with them. All the time these people are not happy with everything. They believe that they deserve recognition, and can easily give up their intended goals, doing something else. They can rest on their laurels, waiting for some invisible moment when something will suddenly push them to a new level. A surefire way to fail your music career is to get a reputation for being difficult to work with and causing problems for other people.

9. The path to success is not always straight forward.

Be prepared for trouble and look for a way out of them. If there's one thing in the music business that you can absolutely guarantee, it's that you're going to have to face a lot of hardships on your way to success. Knowing that problems will arise and being able to find adequate solutions is half the battle. The other half is your ability to apply your strategies and tactics consistently and professionally. Many aspiring artists give up when they get rejected. Be ready for rejection all the time. For every "yes" you will get many "nos". Learn from adversity, from missed opportunities, from broken promises, from reviews that smash your creativity to smithereens. If you have to deal with insensitive label staff, dishonest agents and managers, take advantage of that as well. Look for something positive in every negative situation, at least something that can help you emerge victorious from a similar situation next time.

10. Stop and smell the roses

Passion for music and nothing else but music is bad. Too many musicians forget that the development of an artist must be comprehensive. It's easy to get lost in music and forget about everything else... friends, family, other arts, nature outings and other interesting things are all very important, because without these diverse experiences, your inspiration will fade. Do something that you have never done before. Go to a restaurant and eat something unusual, read poetry, take a walk, go fishing. In other words, get out of the way and do something exciting... something that will inspire you to write. new song. Music is a business, no doubt about it. But music is also an art, and as an artist, you have to feed your soul with impressions, just like your wallet with money.

About the author. Christopher Knab is an educator and independent music business consultant. Based in Seattle, Washington, Christopher lectures on music promotion and marketing at the Seattle Art Institute. As the owner of a consulting service FourFront Media and Music, today he advises musicians and independent record labels on music career development and marketing planning. In addition, Chris is a regular speaker at music industry conferences and seminars in the US and Canada.
Christopher Knab has been named "One of the Most Influential People in the Northwest Music Industry".

Do you want to become a successful musician, but don't know where and how to start? Are you determined to create successful career in the music business, but the fear of failure is holding you back? You don't know what you will do if your plan doesn't work?

Most aspiring musicians hear a lot of advice from their friends and family about the best approach to building a successful music career. One of the many options offered is the idea of ​​having a back-up plan. Most people's advice is to have "something to fall back on if your music career doesn't work out", or "Plan B". The most typical situation is when a musician is persuaded to go to an educational institution where he can get an education with which he can later easily find a permanent job and make music in his spare time.

As you begin to make progress in your music career, you will likely be advised to work less on the "backup plan" and gradually focus more on music until you are able to give up your day job entirely and make your music career worked for you. Such advice sounds good in theory, but in reality they do not work. Why? Because, as a rule, the work that aspiring musicians find to support themselves financially until their musical career takes off has nothing to do with music in general and with their career as a professional musician in particular. As a result, most musicians find themselves in a no-win situation that dooms any attempt to achieve sustained success.

4 reasons why such a "backup plan" is doomed to fail

Before going into more detail about why this "backup plan" doesn't work as it should, I'd like you to test yourself and the effectiveness of the strategy you've chosen to become a professional musician. It is best if you take this test BEFORE you continue reading this article, in which case you will be impartial in your answers.

Do you think that your "backup plan" will work and lead you to a fruitful and stable career as a professional musician? Scroll through to find out the answer before you continue reading the article.

Reason #1: Lack of an effective "transition strategy".

The idea of ​​gradually decreasing the volume of your full-time work as your musical career develops is not a bad idea in itself. However, for it to work, this transition must be done correctly. Most musicians don't plan anything to help them gradually reduce the number of hours they spend on their day job and focus more on the music. Therefore, they choose the job that is considered the most "stable and reliable" and brings the most money when it comes to drawing up a "backup plan". However, most people do not plan a "transition strategy" and do not think about their actions at a time when the situation in their musical career will allow them to give less energy to their permanent job. As a result, the musicians are trapped in it and do not have the opportunity to gradually reduce its volume when such a moment comes. They are faced with a choice: either leave it completely, or hold on to it until retirement. (more on this later).

The ideal "transition plan" is to get a job that will allow you to gradually reduce the number of hours spent on it: from 40 hours a week to 30, then to 20, then to 10, and so on until you finally you can't completely abandon it. You need to find an activity that gives you flexibility in your schedule. So, at the right time, with the help of this approach to choosing a job, you can gradually abandon it and fully devote yourself to your musical career. Unfortunately, the most traditional activities(office manager, programmer, accountant, etc.) do not allow such flexibility in the schedule. Remember, your immediate supervisor won't let you work 3-4 days a week instead of the normal 5 for no reason, just because you need to work on your new CD for a few more days. Of course, it is possible to choose a non-musical job at first, HOWEVER, you should not take on any job available without considering a "transition strategy" from the beginning.

The ideal job for an aspiring musician is teaching guitar. In addition to the fact that you can get good money for this work, you also have complete control over the time you spend on it. Of course, not everyone wants to teach for the rest of their days (and that's okay). But, if you really have to work anyway, then why not do what is directly related to your favorite pastime - helping your students achieve their goals faster, and at the same time earn money? In addition, such teaching activity is in itself a job that is directly related to music, and doing it is much more interesting than just sitting in the office.

Other possible work is an independent contractual job in marketing and sales, or a freelance consultant position. Before taking any job, always consider how flexible the work schedule can be. Remember that in most industries, a 40-60 hour work week is the norm and there is no option to work part-time. This, in turn, makes a soft transition impossible. similar work to a musical career.

Reason #2: It's too risky.

The slow and smooth transition from a full-time job to a career in music seems "safe and stable" enough, but in fact it can stab you in the back and trap you with its very illusion of security. Let's say you earn $60,000 a year from your full-time job and have been able (by working nights and weekends) to generate $25,000 in recurring income from your work in the music industry. Together, this profit will amount to $85,000 per year. This is where reality hits you in the head. If you want to devote yourself fully to your music career, you will inevitably have to quit your day job at some point or another. You will earn $60,000 less until you get back on your feet and develop your music career. For most people (especially those who are getting married, raising children or having significant expenses), such a risk is extremely unpleasant to think about.

Reason #3: You usually don't take advantage of opportunities.

Imagine this situation: with incredible efforts, working nights and weekends, you and your team recorded a great album, spent a lot of time promoting it in the hope of getting a record deal and going on tour. And now, you have the opportunity to organize a tour lasting 10 weeks in another country. It is MOST likely that you will NOT get a lot of money for your first tour, but this tour is the breakthrough in your musical career that you have been waiting for. How will you act in such a situation? Would you turn down a great opportunity to take your music career to the next level? Do you accept the sharp decline in your profits that will follow your dismissal from your job? I think that neither the first nor the second option will please you. Imagine how great it would be to go on tour and not think about how to feed yourself and your family while you are away from home.

Reason #4: Lack of time and energy to do anything useful.

This is a very important question, although at first glance such a problem may seem insignificant. If you spend your most productive time of the day on the least useful things, then achieving your goals will take MUCH longer. Think about this: if you have to get up at 6 00, get to work by 8 00 - 9 00, spend 8 - 10 hours on it, then spend an hour or two driving home, then by the time you can start working on his musical career, you will be very tired. At the same time, we do not take into account those things that any living person spends time on. Therefore, trying to do something on time, create multiple sources of income related to music, and smoothly transition from a full-time job to a musical career without forcing you and your family to fight for survival will require you to truly incredible efforts, work at night and in weekend.
How to solve all these problems?

Not creating a backup plan is definitely not a solution. You need good preparation so that your musical career will be successful, and in no case can you hope that "everything will happen by itself". The main problem with the conventional back-up plan that I just described is that it is built on the basis of thoughts "How not to lose?". This type of thinking is unambitious and forces you to stick to what you know as "reliable and safe". As a result, you come to what you were striving for: the standard life of an average person, "reliable and safe." However, this attitude rarely leads to any significant successes, victories and breakthroughs in the music industry.

It is necessary to form your back-up plan, or Plan B, based on the GOALS OF YOUR OWN MUSIC CAREER (Plan A) - this is how the most successful musicians do. This approach requires ambition and courage and is based on a winning mentality. It also obliges you to think about how you can integrate Plan B into your present and future life professional musician.

There are many opportunities to create really effective "backup" plans (although it would be more accurate to call them "support" plans). In most cases, they affect the project systems and profit streams from several sources of your music business, which will be able to support you for a long time.

It is very important to think carefully about what "backup" plan and what methods of earning are most suitable for you, given your goals. To develop a plan that works for you, there are two most important things you need to remember:

First, learn how the music business works (this is the key to success). Understanding its laws will help you create the most effective strategy to achieve your goals as soon as possible. Creating a long and successful musical career requires a lot of diligence and wisely directed efforts. The more you learn about the music business, the easier it will be for you to create a backup plan that can help you achieve your goals without limiting or trapping you.

Secondly, if you are following the advice of people who, despite their good intentions, know little about the music industry, be picky and careful. Our friends and relatives often give us well-meaning advice on what we need to do to be successful. However, if you listen to their advice carefully, you will find that most of them have one common topic: "Here's what you need to do in order not to lose." But advice on what needs to be done to win, you will hear extremely rarely. This mentality will keep you from taking the steps necessary to get closer to fulfilling your dreams, as described above.

The fact that, in most cases, your friends and family are simply not qualified enough to give advice, despite their good intentions, only exacerbates the situation. You might as well ask your brother who is a plumber (for example) how to cure this or that disease, or your uncle who is a carpenter (for example) about how to solve the problem of legalization. No matter how good their intentions were, in this case it does not matter. If they are not familiar with the issue they are discussing, then you will not get advice from them that can help you.

If you want advice that really works, and if you want to learn strategies to achieve all your musical career goals, you need to find someone whose advice you can rely on. Therefore, you need to learn from a person who has achieved everything that you want to achieve and, ideally, who has taught this to many people.

The Most Efficient, Predictable, and Safest Strategies for a Smooth Transition to Securing Through a Musical Career

Now that you are familiar with the problems of traditional contingency planning approaches, I would like to talk about the criteria for a good plan.

1. Flexibility

Your plan must be flexible. This statement touches on many aspects. One is the ability to gradually decrease the time you spend on Plan B and increase the time you spend on Plan A. Another is the ability to apply skills (or results) to Plan A.

2. Inertia

Your plan should be mostly inert: if your plan B consists mainly of a few sources of inert profit that you have created once you have invested in them, this will help you a lot. It is obvious how much free time to work on Plan A (your musical career) such an approach can provide you!

3. Diversity/heterogeneity

The plan was to be heterogeneous: don't become dependent on one source of income. Many people call a musical career unstable, although nothing is further from the truth than this statement. Which situation do you think is the most likely: the company fires an employee without blinking an eye (depriving him of his only source of income), or a music teacher who teaches 40 people (each of whom is a separate source of income) will lose all his students in one evening?

By making your Plan B more heterogeneous, you work for your own financial stability while remaining financially independent from third parties. I don't know what you think about this, but I personally find it much more comfortable to live knowing that my own financial stability is in my hands, and not rely on someone else's idea of ​​​​a secure life.

4. Consistency and relevance

This means that your plan B should help you achieve your main goal (creating a musical career). Ideally, the time spent developing skills and gaining experience while working on Plan B should also work towards the implementation of Plan A. Example: if you are considered an excellent guitar teacher, you are more likely to organize a concert, negotiate the sale of your upcoming to the release of albums in music stores, schools, etc.

I hope that now you can see how this strategy differs (and exceeds) the conventional one. worldly wisdom, which says that you first need to get a daily job, and then, in the evenings and weekends, try to start your own musical career from scratch.

As you find your way to a successful music career, be sure to check every step you take against the four criteria above and modify your plan as needed. This will save you from the depression that most aspiring musicians fall into when they realize (usually too late) that their strategy will not allow them to achieve their own dream.

If you missed the test that I suggested you take at the beginning of the article, then you can take it

Paul Allen, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, plays the guitar. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, was a professional saxophonist. Businessman and billionaire Bruce Kovner plays the piano. Google co-founder Larry Page played the saxophone in high school.

It doesn't matter if they learned it in childhood or continue to practice music today, many successful people one way or another mastered the skill of playing musical instruments. You may have already heard about the Mozart effect - an increase in brain activity while listening to music. It leads to increased productivity during complex tasks.

But the researchers assure that playing musical instruments is useful not only because of the Mozart effect. Positive influence renders any tool and any musical genre, and if you practice diligently and regularly, you will definitely feel how the music ...

Strengthens your confidence in your own creativity

Music is incredible creative process. When you pick up an instrument and make a beautiful sound out of it, you are developing the skill and understanding of how you can create something from nothing. Obviously, the tool is just a way to manifest your .

And creativity itself is a skill that is required in almost every field. If you're trying to decide difficult problem or want to find new career paths, a creative mind will prompt and help you find the best answer.

Making music is a way to transform the creative flow into something constructive and useful.

Helps to learn cooperation with others

Music, of course, sooner or later leads to communication or cooperation. For example, you can play in a band or ensemble accompanied by other instruments - this is something that all musicians experience.

It's not enough to be a good musician. You need to learn how to play along with others. Good music is the result of harmonious cooperation with each member of the team.

All this is the strongest motivation to learn how to work together and. Music shows you all the positive results of fruitful work in the group. It turns out that having learned how to work with people, we will be able to play in the truest sense of the word and be on the same wavelength with them.

Makes you look for new opportunities

When you play a musical instrument, you don't just play the notes. You try to arrange them in a harmonious sounding sequence - in fact, this is the whole point of music. To create it is to find a way to connect single sounds together so that you get a beautiful melody.

S. Vivel/FLickr.com

Playing music teaches us to visualize all our observations and knowledge about sounds and understand what kind of pattern the notes should form. We begin to realize how sounds connect with each other, why this is harmony, and this is cacophony. Playing a musical instrument allows us to explore relationships and forces us to find new possibilities.

Trains discipline, self-control and concentration

Learning to play a musical instrument is quite difficult. Especially if you are starting this path for the first time. Most of us aren't born great musicians, of course, so we need long hours of practice to be able to produce decent sounds.

It takes a lot of effort, focus, confidence and patience. We have to turn flat sounding music newcomer into something rhythmic, deep and multi-dimensional. But success and progress will be especially long-awaited, and you will understand: all this work was not in vain. This lesson should be taken into account and applied in all areas of life.

Increases emotional intelligence

Playing a musical instrument makes you a sensitive and attentive listener. This is important, because it is precisely such a skill that is key to interpersonal relationships. people transmit different ways- tone of voice or speed of speech. Not surprisingly, scientific studies have shown that musicians are very receptive to interpreting other people's emotions.

Improves memory

Learn to play the selected passage correctly piece of music means to memorize the sequence of notes. Some musicians have an incredible ability to memorize. For example, a soloist symphony orchestra can play 20 minutes without interruption and only from memory.

Attempts to remember the sequence of notes train. Scientists have proven that playing music increases the ability to memorize words and perceive information by ear. Some studies have even shown that musicians can remember much more from text they have just read than those who have never touched an instrument.

Jose Edurado Deboni/Flickr.com

Improves strategic planning skills

Playing a musical instrument is also difficult because it is a complex task for the brain. He constantly coordinates motor skills with what the musician perceives by ear. Thus, you need to line up all the steps correctly, finding and correcting along the way, supplementing everything that happens with a short forecast for the future.

Monitoring what is happening not only connects several brain processes at once, but also creates a strong relationship between the two hemispheres. In essence, music helps to connect most areas of the brain to one process and focus their work on one task.

What university should an instrumentalist choose, what specialties are most in demand now, how long does it take to achieve success, and what points are mandatory for success on the world stage - we talked about this with conductor Mikhail Arkhipov.

What are the important steps to take young musicians for a successful career?
The most important thing is to perform a lot. Perform wherever possible, offer yourself. And you will have to play for a long time without financial reward. First people have to get to know you, no one is willing to pay for unknown names. We need to help other musicians, play in ensembles, youth orchestras. In general, gain as much performing experience as possible.

And, perhaps, to participate in competitions ...
Yes and no. Previously, participation in state competitions gave great chances, but now, unfortunately, the situation is different. Many commercial competitions have appeared in which, by making a contribution, anyone can participate. The level of evaluation of such competitions, as well as the musical level of the jury members, are often extremely low.
Even huge All-Russian competition, which was held not so long ago with the support of the Ministry of Culture, could not give a chance to its winners. Many of them actually turned out outstanding musicians, but they were only given the opportunity to perform in Moscow a couple of times, and that was the end of the support.
Another thing is prestigious international competitions. Participation in one such competition can provide young musician engagements for many years to come. But the level of participants and competition in such competitions presuppose already established musicians as contestants.
Returning to the important stages of growth, I will note the importance of expanding the circle of acquaintances. After all, the more you play, the more people will know about you. Be sure to use the internet. Just don’t post all your recordings, it’s better to select high-quality performances in good halls with high quality picture and sound. Be sure to share your creative successes on social networks with all your friends, but do not offer anyone to evaluate creativity and do not send mass mailings, but simply inform them about new concerts or your creative achievements.
It is extremely important to participate in master classes famous musicians, not only as active participants, but passive ones too. Such an experience will allow you to keep abreast of world musical performance, to understand the criteria of modern performance, plus it will give you the opportunity to get acquainted with musicians from other cities and countries.
Many students in pursuit of "quick money" get jobs in music schools and orchestras while still studying. But this way of developing a career can take a lot of time, which an aspiring musician should spend on perfecting his playing skills.

We touched on education, tell me, where can a beginner musician get a decent education in Russia and abroad?
Russia has a system music education, which is set up for the preparation of solo performers. The leading institutions are now the Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories, Russian Academy music to them. Gnesins. Diplomas of these institutions are highly rated in European countries are highly valued in Asian countries.
However, the Russian school does not provide universalism. For example, if you want to become a concert pianist, orchestral musician, or instrument maker, you will have to gain hands-on experience on your own.
From foreign countries, in my opinion, the best educational institution in Europe is the Vienna University of Music in Austria. It gives students the most complete and systematized body of knowledge and practical skills. In America, this is, of course, the famous Juilliard School, where many musicians dream of studying. If we talk about non-academic genres of music education, the leader here is the Berklee College of Music in the USA. Here you can get an education in any, including rare professions, such as film music composer, jazz musician etc. We have in Russia currently there are no similar establishments.

Is it better for young people to aspire to the capital or try to realize themselves on the ground?
Definitely need to go to study in the capital. Either to Moscow or to cultural capital Russia - St. Petersburg. Here are gathered experts of the highest level. However, if you do not yet feel the strength in yourself, it does not matter. Get the most out of learning, go to competitions and master classes in the capital, get acquainted with university professors. Then you will be remembered and will definitely be noted at the entrance exams. Set high standards for yourself right away, do not pay attention to the level of those with whom you study. And be sure to participate in the cultural life of your city, capital, country.

What specialties or areas are currently in short supply?
The first instrument that comes to mind is the oboe. In almost every orchestra in Russia there are either vacancies or performers of a rather low level of training. From string instruments the most in demand in orchestras are double basses and violins, which require a large number - about 20 people in a symphony orchestra.
Copper instruments in Russia are now experiencing better times: after opening " iron curtain"It turned out that the European, and especially the American school, copper tools has long since left us behind. So any orchestra in Russia will be happy to get a trumpeter, horn player or trombonist who owns modern, so-called "semi-pressure" or "pressless" technique. Thanks to her and high quality instruments, Europeans achieve such a soft and round sound of "copper".

What are some examples of student or simply youth initiatives in classical music relevant now?
There are a large number of free orchestras in Moscow, St. Petersburg, amateur orchestras at non-core universities. But, as a rule, such orchestras do not set themselves the goal of helping the participating musicians in career growth, but rather a club of music lovers, in which a creative atmosphere and an experimental spirit reign.
At the beginning of this, with the support of SuperJob, a trainee orchestra of Young Musicians was organized, in which all the gaps of amateur orchestras were filled, and the musicians got the opportunity to develop powerfully, perform a lot and make themselves a real portfolio for further work.

What career opportunities does the Young Musicians Orchestra program open up?
The mission of the orchestra is to create a fruitful creative atmosphere in which young musicians can show their activity and creativity, get support in all their musical endeavors.
First of all, this is a portfolio that includes high-level solo performances, prestigious venues, high-quality photographs and videos, demo audio recordings.
Particular emphasis is placed on solo performances, which are very difficult for a novice musician to score. Moreover, I offer close work on the concept of the work in a team with an orchestra, accompanists and a conductor. I am ready to rehearse individually with each soloist of the orchestra to achieve the highest result.
Thus, musicians will not only be able to prove themselves as active soloists of the orchestra, but also receive invaluable practical experience which will contribute to their professional identification and more high level when joining professional orchestras in the future.
The task of the orchestra is to make all musicians competitive. Communication within the orchestra of students and graduates of various universities will help the musicians expand their professional ties, get to know young composers, arrangers, vocalists, and producers.

Recruitment to the Young Musicians orchestra is open, we are waiting for initiative musicians to audition http://site/add/2659/

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Mikhail Arkhipov is a touring Moscow conductor, a graduate of the Russian Academy of Music. Gnesins, Moscow Conservatory im. Tchaikovsky, teacher of MK them. Gnesins with 5 years of experience. He performed in almost all regions of Russia, including Khabarovsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Krasnoyarsk. Creator of exclusive projects for festivals with an emphasis on unknown but worthy works. Creator educational initiatives for education younger generation musicians and conductors.

Friends, good day to all! How to start a musical career… A question that has many answers, and some of them I am happy to share with you in this article.

First of all, who am I and how I am related to the music industry. My name is Alexander, 20 years old, this moment I am the frontman of the Ukrainian pop-rock group “ Mountain Breeze”, finalists of the television show Xfactor - 7(Ukraine), participants “ LaimaRendezVousJurmala 2017”, winners of various online music competitions, etc. After participating in the show, we managed to ride our first tour of the main cities home country and now we are preparing to release our first album.

Everything written below is based solely on personal experience, while not so big, but already not useless.

Where to start the movement? As in any other business, the most primary is to determine the big goal and ask yourself: why is it worth taking on at all? musical instrument; how far am I willing to go; do I just want to be the soul of the company with a guitar in my hands and yard songs on weekends, or is my destiny to play in stadiums in front of a huge number of people ... Are you a band, or solo artist, everyone should know a clear answer to these questions for themselves, because how to start your journey without a given course of direction? ..

It so happened that moving up the ladder of a musical career in Ukraine is by no means an easy thing, but when in this life did something come easy?! Many people say that everything is much easier abroad, and it is more realistic to become a successful musician in that environment and with those opportunities than in Ukraine. I don't quite believe it. Definitely, promotion schemes work differently for us, and have a different scale; but there are a number of other factors that influence success in any given environment.

No one will be able to achieve something worthwhile without the most important component of a musician - his professional and unique abilities, for the development of which he will be ready to sacrifice a huge amount of time, effort and material investments.

Justice exists in the world! With these words, I want to note that, no matter what, real talents in combos with their great diligence reach their peaks and their audience. And no matter what schemes you build, without personal work on yourself and your image, without constant studies and rehearsals, nothing will come of it. This is rule number one - work on your professionalism. This is where the right path of a musician begins, when he tirelessly develops his gift, thereby honing his uniqueness. If you want to be a singer, you can't do without singing lessons with a teacher; if you want to be a guitarist, you don't have to go to music school, now the role of a teacher is perfectly replacing YouTube, but still live classes with a teacher will greatly speed up the learning process. After all, how smoothly everything seems when you performed at your first concert and you got your first fans; at such moments it seems that nothing is impossible and the star began its creative way… But without development, all admirers of your music will easily switch their attention to someone else who is more consistent in their work.

As soon as the musician begins his activity, it is right to find any opportunity to perform on stage and start getting the truly necessary experience. After all, it is impossible for a star to become such from the first appearance on the stage. Experience is being gained, professionalism is being honed, the fear of the public is disappearing. That's how it happens. At first, the band plays in ugly pubs and dubious concerts, but after a few years they are already observed playing on the main stages of the city.

Be sure to be prepared for the fact that you have to spend money or save up for your good tool, for classes, for participation even in some festivals, etc. And do not skimp here, because the best investment is an investment in yourself.

But! No matter how cool you play or sing, after participating in more than a dozen performances, thoughts like: “What's next?”, “I already have some experience behind me, but I still can’t move forward ...”

The most driven force in modern world is the Internet, and I see no other direction more accessible for beginner musicians than to share his work through his social networks, YouTube and other services, if he wants more people to hear about him. Actually, we started with the group. Inspired by loved ones musical groups, we told ourselves we wanted to be like them and started recording audio covers and posting them on social media. Over time, we realized that this was not enough for us and began to shoot video covers and put them on the well-known YouTube video hosting. To be honest, everything seemed simple and easy to do for me, but when we had already made several of our videos, and the number of subscribers did not exceed 2 hundred, I realized that everything was far from being so simple. But, as I said earlier, the main thing is not to stop and do the work in constancy, having faith in yourself and in what you are doing. Therefore, after several subsequent videos, we had the first significant achievements. The uniqueness of YouTube is that you never know who can sit and watch your video on the other side of the monitor. And it can be a simple person “surfing” on music video site, it can be a person who is looking for a new idol for himself, or even a musician or a group that you made a cover for ... It happened to us, and it happened quite by accident when we stumbled upon a video on the same YouTube as the participants The Neighborhood bands commented well on our cover of their song “SweaterWeather”.

Therefore, creating new project, which will not be on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube (in some cases Twitter) can be safely called non-existent in the modern world. And the maintenance of which should be as active as possible and filled with interesting thematic content. You know, there is a sign: “They meet according to their clothes, but they see them off according to their mind.” It can also be attributed to our topic, meaning social networks, which are the modern “clothes” of musicians and bands. After all, if everything is in order with this, you won’t have to see off a new admirer of your work!

Also, carefully monitor and analyze your idols. Get inspired by the music you love so much. For creative work inspiration and where he draws it from is extremely important. Look for interesting features, try to apply them yourself, but at the same time - remain a unique performer.

It often happens that under the name of some artist, an association immediately appears inside us with some of his work or song. Sometimes it can be one and no more than that track. Therein lies a certain irony. No matter how long a journey has been made, promotion can appear precisely because of that concert, precisely because of that very song, precisely because of that very acquaintance. By this I want to emphasize that in the life of a musician there are those moments or actions that determined him further fate. And the funny thing is that it may not be immediately clear that this is exactly the case. If you are into music, you will find the moment where your creativity can be divided into before and after. I hope you understand what I mean. Let me give you my group as an example. Until a certain point, we were an amateur band that played at art parties and sometimes in cafes hometown. You can count on the fingers the audience of some of our events of that time. And in parallel, they shot the same amateur videos on their YouTube channel. We may not have come out professionally, but we actually tried to do everything as well as possible. The key moment was the video where we play the previously mentioned song “Sweater Weather”.

It was after seeing this video that we were invited to the casting of the X-factor show, after participating in which, in fact, we no longer called ourselves amateurs, and for us it became more than a hobby. By the way, such projects give a healthy creative breakthrough, so if you have the opportunity to try your hand at TV projects, everything is in your hands!

At first, this is not necessary, but if the intentions for development are serious, all great artists have their own team. It includes PR people, administrators, photographers and many other positions. After all, a musician should primarily deal with music, and not contracts. So having your own team is cool.

I would like to warn you right away, touching on a topic of interest to everyone, that if you start making music for the sake of money, then most likely there is a danger of simply being disappointed in your expectations. The musical sphere in Ukraine, when a musician is just starting his way, will not please with his generosity at all. And before you have a certain income, you need to prove that you deserve it. For some artists, this is given for more than a dozen years.

Taking into account all the above, we will try to draw the appropriate conclusions. In fact, this article is more inspiring than informative. I did not name any exact steps for starting a musical career, but I pointed out the steps that every musician takes at the beginning of his journey:

1. development of their musical skills, which will begin to make it possible to understand music; be a performer, not a listener.
2. readiness to sacrifice one's own means, because there is nothing free in this life, and there will not be, and in the first place it is not even money, but time.
3. look for various opportunities to perform on stage, at first not great, but already there you will begin to get a truly invaluable experience. It's one thing to play or sing in your room or at a rehearsal in calm environment, completely different sensations occur on stage.
4. Make the most of modern opportunities in the form of social networks and services like YouTube, where you can create something like your creative resume.
5. be inspired by the examples of those artists whose success you so admire. For many, things haven't gone as smoothly as they might seem, so it's helpful to see how they got started and what other stars went through along the way.

And you will definitely get answers to other questions, but already from your own experience.

Thank you for your attention! Good luck!