No joke -- and the YouTube vids of basically unknown guitarists are legion.
"...and here they are..."
Posted on 03/13/2016 3:38:53 PM PDT by taxcontrol
My son is 16 and is a fairly good musician. He started with clarinet, then moved to Sax and is really good at sax. From that experience, he is very good at reading music and music theory. For the past couple of years he has also been investing in the guitar and is now at the point that he is not benefiting from his high school program.
We have been sending him to private tutors and he is now studying Satriani, Yes, Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen's arpeggios from hell, and to my untrained ear doing very well. The boy gets his talent from his mom's side 'cause I have zero music tallent. He is doing well enough that we have changed his after school program and now he is starting with an after school program that will get him to concert venues.
The problem that I am experiencing is that I do not know the music profession and do not know 1) how good he is, 2) what his next move / education should be.
Do we try to get him to a music college after he finishes HighSchool? Do we try to get into a cover band? He is writing and composing his own songs so ... do we try to get his work out there?
Any Freeper musicians that are professionals that can give some good advice?
haha! Love it!! Great advice. Everyone throws a bone at times some more than others right?! But yeah. Have a kick butt time out there radiates to the audience.
EXCELLENT advise and true!!
I mean advice! lol. But advise works too :P.
Aahhhh . . . memories. I too have tasted of the life of which you speak ! SWEETEST 15 yrs. of my life ! 1980 - 1995. First & second set: cover tunes, next 2 1/2 hours ALL original !! Sold out venues ( most of the time ) and never had to go to a “clinic” in all those years ( the girls LOOOOVE ‘da boys in ‘da band ) !! Even met my wife of 23 yrs. in a bar, how ‘bout that.
Snoot ;o)
I’ve been privileged to know a number of professional (as in, they get paid for it) guitarists (at least a couple are multi-instrumentalists, and those are the two who have never had a day job). Both of them spent their late teens playing gigs in cover bands, even while they were supposed to be studying, oh! those kids. The younger of the two spent most of his high school years at Interlochen, one of Michigan’s music camps and schools.
That one wound up playing jazz shows, started sitting in with other jazz players who were already in the biz a few years, and in order to pull this off, he had to go to a larger city where there were a lot of such folks around. He’s produced some records on a small jazz-specialty label, has had two or three solo albums on that same label (none of them sold), and was living in the hills somewhere out west last I knew.
The other one has spent the last 40 years or so playing and touring in tribute bands, has spent a lot of those years living in Las Vegas, now lives in Florida and works for Disney last I knew. Again, never had a day job. He did a bit of recording on other folks’ records (very minor stuff) during his years in L.A. Like the other guitarist I knew who decided to bug out to L.A. and make it big, he found out every music hopeful in the world was getting off the bus at the same time, their cases clanked together at the exits.
A musician’s life is not an easy one; also, he needs to remember that, in showbiz, work is work.
I suggest surgery. The money is not as good but, when your wrench slips off the lug your knuckles don't het scrapped as bad.
Met 1 wife playing, lost her and met # 2 (whoops)!
LOL, it was good. Wouldn’t change it for the world.
You're absolutely right, and that applies to almost any profession, not just music. I'm thinking of Jimmy Webb. A couple of his most successful songs he thought were either stinkers or unfinished.
A person needs talent and luck. It helps to be where the action is. But there will be thousands already there also looking for their break. These days a person might be able to find success on Youtube.
Don't confuse art with economics. Except in rare instances, one cannot make money playing music. So another method must be used to provide income to allow the pursuit of the musical art.
I worked as a computer programmer, rehabbed, sold and rented, real estate while playing the 4-string plectrum banjo. I could not have played if I did not have the income. http://www.drplectrum.com. He needs to get some priorities in order. It's bread and butter first.
LOL ! Good on ya !!
Gigged small time for 20+ years. Write & record albums of no particular importance. Best things he can do is practice 2 hours a day, go to jam nights, go watch bands that play the music he prefers & observe EVERYTHING. He also needs to develop a stage persona.
Then its a matter of paying dues, having a specific goal to reach & a mapped out plan on how to achieve it. He needs to know the business is pretty much full blown evil & to be very wary about trusting people.
Good work if you can get it. And if Obamacare isn’t repealed, he can supplement his income being a street musician.
Yep, there are excellent guitarist on every block, in every city.
Some don’t bother to pursue it further, others do.
I am if my 50’s now, and I am sure there is some 14 year old kid down the street that could technically blow me out of the water.
I went to Berklee at 19 while gigging in Boston with three monster music who had graduated 4 years earlier.
They constantly told me not to waste my money in music school, and encouraged me to study privately with this guy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Banacos
I ignored their advice. I was very foolish.
I would suggest strongly that your son study with someone like Banacos. Usually a long waiting list, but the wait is worth it. Huge bang for the buck.
When sonny is ready to start gigging....immediately, if not sooner....encourage him to audition constantly for attractive work. It’s not a degree that lands good work. It’s “ Can you play?”
If he’s got at least a workmanlike talent, he’ll be picked up, and fed really valuable knowledge players he works with.
More: be humble, show up on time, be ready to be humiliated, persevere, and start grooming a good singing voice. There are lots of opportunities that a singing player grabs that non-singers can’t.
Next: build a home studio and begin recording the music in his head. Big learning curve, but ESSENTIAL.
More excellent advice and yep there truly are full blown evil people in this business. There are also some great ones.
Oberlin has a top music program. It’s also strong on hard left indoctrination.
UNT has a good program - soft left indoctrination.
Julliard - I have no idea about their politics.
Baylor - religious music.
“There is no, I repeat no, steady work as a side musician, nor as a lead player.”
There’s a lot more to the music business than being a lead or side musician - for example composing/producing jingles and industrial tracks, playing for musical theater, playing jazz over seas (people in Japan actually pay jazz musicians!)
These days you can bust your ass to be a great I.T. worker only to have your job outsourced, so there is something to be said for trying to make a go of it doing what you love.
Here’s another relevant joke:
Q: What’s the difference between a guitarist and a large Domino’s pizza?
A: The Domino’s pizza can feed a family of four!
"...and here they are..."
One more bit of advice:
If the boy is as good as you say he is, a couple semesters at Berklee can be helpful.
He’ll get ensembles with other really great players, and plug into a priceless network. I saw it happen. Steve Vai was a classmate. I was standing next to him when he unfolded his transcription of Zappa’s ‘Black Page’ in Listening and Analysis. That instructor called Zappa, and said he should look at this kid. The rest is history. Your boy will know who Steve Vai is. He studied privately with Satriani for five years before Berklee. Steve was on his way during his second semester at music school.
If your boy is that good, and he reads very well....
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