Advice on getting my name out there

[PaulGuterl]

I am not looking to get my original music heard by record companies or trying to get tons of people to shows or anything (I gave up on the idea of making a living writing the music I want quite some time ago).

 

What I do want advice on is how I can get my name out there for studio work, sideman jobs, and things like that.

 

Currently I am teaching, but having recently started I don't have a huge student roster (currently 6 students after teaching for about a month and a half).

 

I am also working on a music degree (want to teach at the college level) but I want to do more than that. I want to get more students, start doing studio work, the sideman thing I can understand not working because of my situation, and anything else I can do to make money at music right now.

 

It was also suggested that I try getting in on playing in musicals but I don't know how feasible that is when my main instrument is guitar (and the other instruments I play I probably am not good enough at yet).

 

Sorry for the long post but my dream is to one day be making a living at music doing everything basically, playing in high level cover bands, private teaching, studio work, arranging, transcribing etc. Basically doing everything.

[daddymack]

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1618583

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1614518

 

Many come here looking for simple answere to very complex questions.

 

If we all knew how to succeed at this, we would be doing it, right? It is a roll of the dice, you have to be darned good at your instrument, sight-read, play anything you are told...and you have to network your butt off. Find the local studios, the ones that maybe do the radio jingles or background music for the local TV ads. There is no set way to do this, you first of all have got to be one lucky S.O.B., believe me!

Good luck

[BlueStrat]

Yes.

 

The recording market has changed a great deal in the past 20 years. It used to be that a lot of solo artists were making records with studio musicians. Today, evey kid with a guitar fancies himself as a songwriter, so very few acts use studio musicans anymore compared to the old days. And the ones who do hire people they know, by and large.

 

I'm producing a 3 song demo for a 20 year old solo artist right now, and I was having this conversation with the engineer just last Wednesday night. We used studio players I hired. They were great players, but the bass player and drummer had never worked together, and one tended to favor the downbeat and the other favored the backbeat, so it was difficult. We were eventually able to get it worked out, but all this is a product of these guys not getting much studio work, even though that's part of what they do. Where a good studio guy might have a full calendar back in the 80s, the guys I know who do it now don't get many calls anymore. Maybe it's different in Nashville, LA and New York, but even then, most of the studio work is done by a tight knit group of about 20 guys that's almost impossible to break into. But if you're willing to relocate and pay your dues getting a reputatuon, it could work for you.