How To Play The Guitar And Make Money Doing It!

As a pro musician I am inundated with requests to review various offers and music sites. I have a number of blogs that I run to give information to budding musicians. As a musician myself I love the music culture that surrounds those who share music as a passion.

Every budding guitarist wants to become a star but unfortunately it's always been the case that 'image' often counts more than musicianship. Over the years I have had some amazing opportunities to play my music to audiences of all sizes and have performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena and the Marquee Club in London, England and also in universities, clubs and bars all over Europe. I was even involved in a charity working in the developing world, so had the opportunity of playing on the streets of Calcutta, Kathmandu and La Paz!

It's extremely gratifying to be able to share your music with an audience who appreciate what you do, are entertained and are made to think about the messages you are singing about. I support my songwriting and performing heroes over the years have been Sting and Peter Gabriel - but that's another story.

The secret ingredient to success

Over the years I have received countless letters and demo tapes from up and coming bands and artists wanting to discover the secret ingredient to success. Wanting to know how to grow their fan base and how to turn their craft into something profitable. So here are a few tips that might help.

1. Learn your craft!

Obvious really, but success only comes through hard work. Anyone who tells you there is a short cut to stardom is leading you astray. The popularity of TV shows like the X Factor demonstrate how many people there are who want to become famous. The reality is that very few make it and those that do never seem to last very long. In the 70's the Beatles needed to sell tens of thousands of singles to get to number one in the charts. These days bands get into the high numbers by selling a few hundred but they come and go like the dust in the sahara desert! If you want to be fulfilled in your music, work at it.

2. Get out of the garage and onto the stage

Once you have a well rehearsed set of songs, it's time to let the world know! Take any opportunity you can to perform your songs live. The local youth club, bar or pub are good places to start. It's not difficult to get a chance to play as long as you don't expert to earn mega bucks on your first outing! It doesn't work like that.

3. Stage presence is key to survival and success

Once you have opportunities to perform, you need to work on stage presence. Where you stand on stage, the way you relate to the audience, the way to interact with your band members, the way you intro the songs and take a bow at the end of the performance - these are all keys to success. If you can make a connection with the music through your personality as well as your songs, you could be on to a winner. It's also important to think about presentation, not just of your show, but also of the environment - stage backdrop, corporate image, merchandising, your latest CD. All these things are easy to do and highly cost effective.

4. Use the internet to promote your music and your band.

There is really no excuse these days. Social Networking has opened up hundreds of opportunities to make connections with potential supporters and buyers of your music and it's very easy to open accounts with Facebook, MySpace and the hundreds of bookmarking sites that will give you backlinks to your blog or website. It's also easy to get your music out there on iTunes with a variety of outlets who will take a small commission to get you listed.

5. Make an album!

It's really not as difficult as it sounds! In the old days, when I recorded my first album, it was in a nice studio using 2inch tape. Any editing was done by splicing the tape with a razor blade! These days you can buy software for your computer that works just as well and produces high quality digital music that can be uploaded to your website or blog on MP3 format and given away as a sampler or sold. Easy. It's not in my remit to expand on this subject in this article - but I'll certainly be adding more resources to this site to give helpful advice on software and technique

Happy playing!