how to make money as a guitarist.

so anyways, im a 14 year old guitarist whos been playin about 5 years, i consider myself above average (sweeping tapping, sweep-tapping) and im just wondering how you can make money off guitar/music

Well, you can play and/or you can teach.

You could play in your own band, or as a session musician, or in the house band at a theatre, or you could sell tunes for movies, or samples for commercials or.... well pretty much anything.

You could teach through a school, store or privately... groups or individuals. A mate of mine does lessons over a webcam...

Bottom line... there are all sorts of options. Reading music is pretty much essential for some things, but you can take it where you want. If you don't already read, you should... :cool:

Ask Kevin Taylor, I seem to remember him posting some informative details on this a while back. Around the same time he changed his username from Schmange to Kevin Taylor, in fact.

Easiest way to make money as a guitar player? Sell your guitar...... :D

Just kidding, couldn't resist......pay attention to ren and earthman buck, they make much more sense than I do....

But I can say that it's not easy to make money as a musician.....

Cover bands make more money than original ones for performing, unless you make it big.

Teaching is your basic thing.

private teaching is an excellent way to earn extra money, and it can work around your schedule quite well.


the best thing about being a teacher is that YOU decide what is right, when its time to do things, and people (parents especially) look to you highly, which is a cool feeling if you're used to being a 20 year old college student and getting the 'i have more experience' card pulled on you on a regular basis.

obviously, i wouldn't reccomend teaching unless you have a firm basis on theory, a relatively universal view of music, and decent skill on your guitar. the knowledge you retain in your head is infinitely more helpful than the skills you have on guitar, though. remember that most of your clients are going to be 13 year old kids that want to play AC/DC, or want to learn to play along with their friends. proper method and an ability to communicate is your most formiddable weapon.

on second thought, being 14 is gonna be difficult to get clients, considering many of them will be your age/older. start with friends and teach them for free. build up your confidence to be able to instruct complete strangers, and even when you do that, charge them nonimal fees. being young means that many doors are not open for you yet, which is quite unfair when you see crap-ass guitarists living a life that you could do 10 times better. it all comes with age, my friend.

some things i would look into if i where your age are to get involved with music in school, and stay with it. play guitar for your jazz band, get little gigs anywhere you can. connections can be built when you're young and they are essential to being successful later in life, especially when you have experience on your side.

i don't know if you dig the jazz guitar thing, but something to look forward to when you're older...you can play on cruise ships and tour the world while getting paid for it. pretty cool summer excursion, if you ask me.

Main thing about making money in any endeavor is getting yourself "out there." Get your name, what you do, and what you can do for others out to the public. Start networking and talking with other guitarists in your area and anyone potentially involved with music. There is alot of oppportunity out there and opportunities for you to create that you don't even know exist until you find a need for your skills or services. Also, people not even involved in music are sometimes the very people looking for people like you, to teach, to perform, to transcribe, etc. Weddings, parties, birthdays, get-togethers are all oppportunities to show others what you can do (and do for them) and make a little money also.

Besides teaching and performing, one thing that comes to mind is that you could transcribe songs to sheet music for beginning guitarists or guitarists in cover bands who don't have the time to learn a song. You could sell these songs directly to people or in a newsletter or an e-newsletter. In fact, once you have a catalogue of songs built-up, you could sell the catalogue or just on a per song basis. Just an idea. You could write a book on a particular area of guitar or just a book about playing guitar in general - Lord knows I've never seen any worthwhile, comprehensive book on guitar playing explaining basic concepts in detail and putting it all together - ever.

Don't limit your thinking to musicians or guitarists. Everyone enjoys music. Your skills and talent could be used in a lot of ways for alot of people.

learn as many styles as you can become good to excellent w/in the guitar world ... learn basic ii v I's IN JAZZ AND HOW TO SOLO OVER THEM... EVEN SIMPLER IS LEARNING (I IV V's) in basic blues progressions and develop blues chops , REAL BLUES CHOPS ARE NOT PLAYING RANDY RHOADS LICKS THAT ARE IN THE PENTATONIC SCALES !!! YOU NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS TO PROGRESS... learn STYLES AS BLUESY AS BUDDY GUY , ERIC CLAPTON AND BB KING , also more difficult blues stylings of JIMI HENDRIX , S.R.V. , DANNY GATTON (whose really more country flash w/ some dangerous chicken picking) , learn music theory , not just diatonic harmony but non-diatonic harmony which is very useful in jazz... not every progression will make sense in terms of major key and relative minor keys , GOD there's so much more man , chord modulation , chord substitution , learn intervals and the relationships between the modes in parrallel and non parralell ways...

teach guitar , do session work for k.d. lang , or any bunch of artists in need of good session guitarists...

learn as many styles as you can become good to excellent w/in the guitar world ... learn basic ii v I's IN JAZZ AND HOW TO SOLO OVER THEM... EVEN SIMPLER IS LEARNING (I IV V's) in basic blues progressions and develop blues chops , REAL BLUES CHOPS ARE NOT PLAYING RANDY RHOADS LICKS THAT ARE IN THE PENTATONIC SCALES !!! YOU NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS TO PROGRESS... learn STYLES AS BLUESY AS BUDDY GUY , ERIC CLAPTON AND BB KING , also more difficult blues stylings of JIMI HENDRIX , S.R.V. , DANNY GATTON (whose really more country flash w/ some dangerous chicken picking) , learn music theory , not just diatonic harmony but non-diatonic harmony which is very useful in jazz... not every progression will make sense in terms of major key and relative minor keys , GOD there's so much more man , chord modulation , chord substitution , learn intervals and the relationships between the modes in parrallel and non parralell ways... OPEN YOUR MIND TO STYLES YOU DON'T REALLY DIG... YOU MAY FIND AS YRS GO BY YOU'LL WANNA KNOW MORE THAN THE STRYLE YOU'VE LIMITED YOURSELF TO... I'M A SUCCSESSFUL SESSION GUITARIST WHO CAN WALK INTO A STUDIO AND GET PAID DOLLAH DOLLAH BILLS YO !!! YOU'VE GOTTA TEACH GUITAR AS WELL AND GIVE THE GIFT BACK !!! ALSO , WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS , PRAY !!!(NOT EVEN KIDDING) PRAY YOU YOUNGSTERS !!! GOD WILL PROVIDE , WHATTAYOU WANNA DO...??? YOUCAN BE A ROCKSTAR ,UHMM MAYBE ? BUT IF THAT FAILS YOUY CAN TEACH AND DO SESSIONS STILL KEEPING PROUD THAT YOU'RE ACTIVE... I PLAY IN BANDS , SEVERAL , I SUPPORT MYSELF THRU MUSIC SEVERAL DIFFERENT WAYS... BUT YOU'VE GOTTA SACRIFICE THE MANY LONG HOURS !!! GOOD LUCK !!!


teach guitar , do session work for k.d. lang , or any bunch of artists in need of good session guitarists...

GOOD LUCK , Frank M. shheeeerrreder !!!

wow,frank seems pretty psyched about it :)
thats great news, i figgured lessons and a band would be about it, thanks a bunch guys!

One big thing to remember if you want to get into teaching is you need to have the utmost patience because 9 times out of 10 your student won't be nearly as dedicated as you.

I taught flute and saxophone for about 7 months my senior year of high school and I hated every minute of it. Most kids don't practice regularly and expect to get good over night just because they're taking lessons. You need to be able to not get frustrated with students like this or you might end up making them cry (that was when I knew it was time to move on).

There's all kinds of ways.. private lessons, internet video lessons, selling your own CD's and songs, writing music for TV/Film, providing guitar parts either in a studio setting or over the net, making loop and sample CD's, selling merchandise associated with your band. Doing workshops and in-store demonstrations either for pay or to attract students. Selling ring tones.
Over the next decade or so, as the internet speeds up and progresses there's going to be even more money to be made from live video lessons or demonstrations, or collaborations with other musicians and providing your services as a studio musician (at $360/hr minimum).
Also, the good thing about the internet and things like web phones etc, is that once you've recorded something like a video lesson, it's always going to be there making money for you. You can take a long vacation and still be making money from prerecorded video lessons, royalties and CD sales.

Some people mentioned it already, but I just wanted to reiterate how important it is for you to know theory if you want to teach. I can play great right now, and my guitar teacher from back in the day is to thank for that, but he only taught me the mechanics. I regret not learning theory, and I still don't know anything. You can play without knowing theory, but you will never be a great musician without it.

Possibly join a band but if you can't find one or just don't want to then you can also just do this on your own. FIND GIGS. Get your name around locally, cut a short demo c.d. and go to random places to get gigs. It's sometimes a slow process and you have to have patience with it, but it's a good way to make money.