Why You Need A Mentor To Start A Career In Music And How
To Find One
By Tom Hess
Do you have a strong desire to become a professional musician,
but are unsure about how to start a career in music? If so, you
are not alone. Every day there are thousands of musicians just
like you who are jumping head first into the music industry with
high levels of enthusiasm but very little experience.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these musicians do not end up
with a career in music because they either do not know how the
music industry works or do not know how to use the information
they learn to quickly advance their music career.
In order to build and sustain a career in music it is important to
seek out the training of a mentor who has already achieved a
high level of success in the music industry. By finding someone
who has already accomplished what you want to achieve in music
(and is willing to guide you along), you will drastically increase
your chances for success.
To illustrate this point, think about the legendary basketball star
Michael Jordan. Considered by many to be one of the greatest
athletes ever, Jordan won many championships and awards
throughout his career while making millions of dollars in the
process. Although he certainly had talent on his own, he did not
accomplish all of these things alone. Throughout Jordan’s career
there was not a single moment where he did not have the
guidance and training of a personal coach or mentor. By having
access to people who had already achieved the things he wanted
to achieve in basketball, Jordan was able to use his natural
playing abilities to their full potential and reach truly legendary
success in the sport. It would be unthinkable that any world-
class athlete would proceed without a coach even after winning
championships, MVP awards or Olympic gold medals.
Like Michael Jordan, if you are serious about pursuing a career in
music, you can benefit greatly by finding a mentor who can show
you how to utilize your natural talent to achieve truly great things
in your music career. In order to help you find your own mentor,
I have created a list of the 3 main characteristics that a mentor
must have in order to help you successfully build a career in
music:
1. Has already achieved a high level of success and can help
you find solutions to the unique challenges you face in your
music career.
When you start a career in music, it can be very overwhelming.
Fact is, there exists a nearly endless amount of information on
the music industry through various forms of media (such as
internet, books, etc.). The problem is, these sources usually offer
generalized advice that is intended to appeal to musicians as a
whole. This can be confusing for you as you are just starting a
career in music, because you are not yet able to distinguish the
valuable information that you can actually use from clutter that is
totally irrelevant to your musical goals. That said, it is very
important that you find a music career mentor who has already
achieved a high level of success in the same area of the music
business that you are looking to pursue (for example, recording
successful albums, touring nationally or internationally, etc.).
By finding a mentor like this, you will be able to get personalized
advice that is 100% relevant to your specific goals in music. This
person will not simply provide you with generalized advice.
Instead, they will be able to answer your specific questions in
order to help you overcome the challenges that are unique to
your own music career. This will enable you to approach a career
in music with a clear and focused understanding of the actions
you need to take on a continual basis.
2. Understands how to guide you while keeping your biggest
music goals in mind.
One of the most common reasons why musicians fail to sustain a
long term career in the music industry is that they do not keep
their ultimate music goals in mind with each action they take –
they easily become distracted and stray off course. These
musicians start a career in music and go through the motions of
practicing their instruments and writing music, but ultimately lose
direction because they never really established a solid strategy
for reaching their musical goals and then stick to that strategy
with pig-headed discipline. This frustrating process can go on for
years until finally the musician gives up entirely on a career in
music and settles for an unsatisfying job outside of the music
industry.
A good music career mentor will be able to evaluate your goals
and help you identify various strategies that you can use to reach
them quickly and effectively. That said, even with all the right
strategies in place, many musicians tend to slowly get off track
from their goals due to lack of motivation, distractions or
procrastination. When this happens, it can often lead to a career
in music that slowly declines and fades away. Your mentor
should also be able to quickly spot when you are heading down
the wrong path, and will know how to guide you back on track
toward your ultimate goals.
If you have not yet decided on your specific goals for a career in
music, it is crucial that you figure them out as soon as possible.
Read this music career goals page and learn how to dig deep and
identify your biggest goals for music.
3. Has already helped many others achieve success in their
music careers (and can prove it!).
Unlike with many other industries, building a successful career in
music does not require special certifications, college degrees or
standardized testing of any kind. That said, anyone can easily
‘claim’ to be an expert in the music industry, when in fact they
have done very little in their own career. As you are looking for a
mentor to help you build a career in music, it is very important
that you avoid following the advice of people who do not TRULY
understand how the music business works and what will make
you valuable to it.
One of the best ways to identify a mentor who CAN help you in
your music career is to look at success of the musicians he is
currently training (or has worked with in the past). If the mentor
you seek is truly worth investing in, he will not spend a lot of
time trying to ‘convince’ you of his musical skills, music business
understanding or strong industry connections. Instead, he will let
his reputation do all the talking for him. A great music career
mentor has already helped many musicians reach their own
success. As a result, these musicians have a lot of gratitude and
volunteer to provide testimonials of their achievements. You
should be able to easily find testimonials like this all over the
website (or elsewhere) of the mentor you are considering.
After mentoring and training musicians around the world to
achieve high levels of success, I can tell you from experience that
finding a mentor will make a MASSIVE difference in your music
career. Whether you are just starting a career in music or have
already worked in the music business for some time, it is
absolutely essential that you find a great mentor who can help
you reach your full potential as a professional musician.
Get started building a highly successful career by reading the
information on this music career mentor page.
Still not sure about working together with a mentor? Take this
free music career analysis to learn the details of your current
strengths and weaknesses as a musician, and see if working with
a mentor is right for you.
