Amelia+James

Three questions i want to answered about this job...
1. How do you become a professional musician? 2. How much at the most can you get paid? 3. What qualifications do i need?

About the job
Being a musican is a career that most people find a struggle to find a job to do with it and that involves it. It can include teaching music, performing, directing musicial shows, backstage work, conducting, dj work, concert premoter, record album/track producer, songwriting, managers, or music theropist along with many others. In order to become a musican in some form, you need to have determination and great passion for music, as it can take a lot of hard work, learning and patience to go through many steps and lessons. As it is sometimes a struggle for people to make the right choice and find what they want to do and what will be right for them, its something that you need to know if its definitely want to do with your future or not. Just like most jobs, your decision needs to be definate and you need the drive to be able to put your hard work into learning and working hard. You need creativity skills and to able able to use your imagination well, as the better it is in some ways it will get you further in your career for things like recording, directing, songwriting etc. You must be prepared for sometimes irregular hours including weekends and evenings. Travel is a big part of touring in music. You need to have a responsible and respectful attitude, as you meet alot of different types of people, cultures, religions and personalities in others countries and cities. You need to be able to handle pressure and be able to take criticism well. Practising is very important if you want to go far, so you have to be dedicated to working on your skills.

Q1. How do you become a professional musician?
A 'Professional Musician' is somebdy who gets paid for playing/making/producing/performing/teaching music. To become a professional musican you need to have had a lot of experience and knowledge in many areas of music. These areas may include performing, producing, entertaining, teaching, and songwriting along with many other. You must develope certain skills, knowlege and talents for what you want to do, depending on what it is. For example, if you wanted to be a music teacher you would need the skill of knowing theory, chords, playing instruments, knowing how to explain and comunicate with different types and ages of students, and have a teaching degree. If you wanted to be a recorder, you would need to have a good ear for knowing what improves the music and what sounds best, know what type of effects you can change in sound and tracks, and having the right equipment. For whatever area you would like to be in with music whether its one or a mixture of many, you just need to focus souly on the main thing you wnat to do, and study music in university once you reach the level and standard. Once you become better and more well known to people, and the more people enjoy what you do the more often you will most likey work so therefore the more you get paid. To be professional, it is quite important for a lot of people to know you and like what your doing. Just work hard with the area you enjoy most and the more you do it the more professional you will become.

Q2. How much at the most do you get paid?
There is no set pay for a musicain, as it all depends on your ability and what your doing. The better you are at what you specialise in the better pay you will get. If you perform with a band, group or by yourself, you have to have a pay rate for how long you entertain and your ability judged by the audiance with dancing, singing along, feed back etc. If your a recorder, you may get paid for the kind of gear and equipment you have for the recording because more people will come to you for cd producing and also your ability to make great sounding tracks. If your a teacher, things like advertising and promoting your business make a big difference on how many people you get to come to you. The more students you get to teach, the type of instrument or skill you teach or what it is that you teach (with popularity possibily) and mostly the teaching skills you have you will get the better paid.

Q3. What qualifications do i need?
The General Certificate of Secondary Education certificate is a major qualification needed. Like is also know as the GCSE. Secondary school students must pass through all years of exams to get to university. Qualifications are different for what ever type of musician you wnat to be. For example, a jazz performance degree is useful for becoming a jazz musician. But for a degree, such as a Bachelor of Music, is useful for becoming a classical musician. So there are a few degrees that would be more useful than others to go for depending on the type of music you like and would like to make.

The qualifications and conditions
Some useful subjects that should/could to taken and worked hard in at college are Music, Tourism, Travel, and very importantly english. On which subjects you choose to take depend on what exactly you want to do specifically.

You need to be able to...

 * Know basic music theory
 * Play musical instruments and an understanding of how they work
 * Know acoustics and tuning
 * Have learnt recording methods
 * Have vocal and performance techniques, and correct breathing methods

To be a music producer you don't really need any music qualifications as such. If you wanted to go further with a music career, it is a good aim to try work hard to get into a music school/university. To become a music teacher, you would need to learn as much as possible and acheive the highest of your standards at school and audition to get into university, studying teaching music. If you get a degree in teaching then you are able to do any type of job to do with teaching wheather its teaching in business, in primary or secondary schools, teaching privately etc. Many community colleges offer certificate and associate-degree programs in music. The National Association of Schools of Music accredits such programs. Coursework often includes ear training, sight singing, music theory and applied instruction in students chosen instruments. Bachelor's and master's degree programs in music typically allow students to focus their studies on particular types of music or specific instruments. Entrance into a college or university music program generally entails an audition.

Conclusion
I think that being a musican would be a hard job as you would always be very busy, but very good because the better you are and the more people like you the more you get paid. I am very interested in this job, and would love to study music in university and take the career as far as i can go with it. I enjoy sharing my music with others and entertaining, so i would fing this job very good for me. I think it would be bad because there is not an offical pay rate that you get for it and it takes up a lot of time, but i would still like to build my career around music. I would like to make a career out of the performing, making and entertaining side of jobs, and i would be quite interested in teaching a little. To be able to develop the knowledge and skills for this I would have to get very used to performing often. I would have to study in many different areas in able be professional such as the theory side, the teaching, creative, and performing side of things. Over time this job could likely change because of maybe the type of music you like and produce, the amount of money you make, the time it takes to study and the amount of people who know and follow you with your music. These changes could be either good or bad changes, but I hope to keep all changes positive ones.

Sources of useful information I used were;
1. Careers New Zealand 2. Music teacher 3. My own knowledge