I offer coaching for professional musicians and college students that deal with the non-musical aspects of being a successful musician. In over 20 years of experience I have found that it is not enough to simply be a good musician to achieve your goals in music. I like to share my experience and show you some skills that you most likely will not learn in college:
Album Production
We won’t go into the technical side of mixing and mastering an album since this is the job of an engineer - although it is good to have a basic knowledge of these things. However, I will talk you through the different steps in the production of an album from rehearsing, recording, editing, mixing, mastering, release, to promotion and marketing. These involve organisation, planning, financing and basically just leading a team of freelance professionals.
Band-Leading
There are certain skills in leading a group of people that I have acquired through the years and am happy to share with you. This concerns leading rehearsals or soundchecks, communication via e-mail or text, but also organizing payments and handling conflicts within a band.
On being a sideman
An important part of being a musician is playing in other people’s projects as a sideman. This is how I make of most of my money and it can make the job rewarding and divers. If you want to be good side-man there are some non-musical aspects that will help you get more gigs.I will share them with you.
Acquisition, booking and application for grants
How do you get gigs? I will offer you some tips and tricks on organizing your own concerts and booking gigs for your band. Also, if you make art it has to funded and a lot of the time it costs more than you make. A solution for this is to apply for grants and subsidies.
Marketing & Promotion
This involves content production for video, photography, websites and text. Again, this does not necessarily involve the technical aspects although it helps if you know the basics. It is more a question of transporting and communicating your artistic vision to a professional graphic artist, photographer or video-artist.
Teaching
It can be very rewarding to share your love of music and skills with young people. Also, many professional musicians teach music to have an additional source of income. I have over twenty years of experience in this field and can give you some useful tips.
I once asked a professor at my music college if a course concerning some of these aspects might be useful for the students. He told me that if he had to learn it himself the students could do the same. I would like to save you some time so feel free to contact me.