who here plans/planned to be a rock star/professional musican?

What is/was your plan, and do you think/did it turn out?

That´s almost amazing to know. Chanches are not to big though but it would be nice.

It's a cool dream , but I'm continuing my studying & playing guitar as well ... If it turns out to be a rockstar , that would be great ... If it doesn't , I'll try to find another good job for living , and I'll always play guitar for my own amusement .

I would love to be in a famous rock band and do kinda aspire to it. But due to where I live (a isolated English town with few musicians in) this task is practically impossible. It means givin great sacrifices at which I can't really gamble with and I don't have enough drive. Although being in the position where it has work and doing the sacrifices may make it a different game. But as it stands at the moment not a chance. Guitar is a huge part of my life but there are other parts to it as well more important.

That´s right. You want get anywhere in a small town. In a big though, you might start in a band, than move on to another and so on and eventually, it can be somthing.

My philosofi is to, practice practice practice and than later on move to a big city, get a job there and frequently visit music clubs and start plan´ in a band. Than if you´ve practiced hard enough you´ll get reputation as a nice guitar player among hopfully lot´of people and eventually you´ll get somwhere. Maby get a great sucess with your own band, maby back up a famous artist our maby work as a studio musican. Our maby you´ll end up in a cover band and earn some sirious extra money. Hey, that´s nice too.

Same here, if it happens great, but I'm not gonna go kill someone because it didn't happen.

I think if you set your self up right, like someone said, like moving close the big citys and build a rep it wouldnt be that hard if your good enough. but backup plans are a must. thank god we have the millitary to help with collage.

My plans all include music, performing, teaching, playing as a session guy, it would all be fun. I'd be happy doing anything involving music.

same here

I am from a hick town, and my neighbours play in a "ska" band. Now I'd never heard any thing like this before, but the first time I saw them I thought they were amazing. We live about 20 minutes from the nearest big city. They are making a name for themselves. They've won competition's and recording time.

My goal was to make a living doing something music related, preferrably something that involved creativity. It's still a work in progress, it's hard to get the big breaks, but I've been fortunate to make a living doing nothing but music related stuff for 4yrs now without having to take a part time "side" job.

I´m working realy hard to achieve that goal.

I dunno what "fame" is for you. For me it is playing my own music with my own band all around the globe infront of 500 to 5000 peeps like other well known metalbands (SymphonyX, BindGuardian, etc). Or beeing a stand-alone artist like satch or vai.

I´m not after that megastar kind of thing where you barely can go anywhere without beeing burried under tonns of fans who all wanna say how much they love you.

However - as i said i´m working hard on this goal and i believe that it has got nothing to do with where you live and how many or few musicians there are around you - thats just excuses for not working hard enough.

I have several projecs, ideas, bands, etc that i am working on and i will definitely get something started. i also plan on contacting someone of the already famous dudes and get them involved in some of my stuff. i have worked out a plan which might work pretty well. that will get me into the "scene".

so theres my way - and i´ll make it - no matter what.

I hope to be in a successful local, regional, or national band. I don't care about the money, but I guess thats what everybody says before they become famous. If it does happen Guitartricks.com will get a big donation from it.

I think this commercialism-talk is quite ignorant.
As if the "good musicians and bands" where not commercially interrested.

Manowar did never give me their CD´s for free - nore did any other band who says that they are not making "commercial" music. But if they arent, then why are they selling Fan-articles, T-shirts, Stickers and why are the concerts not for free?

As soon as you are seling something, no matter how small or unimportant you are - it is commercialized music. thas the way it is. and i can live with that. what use is it to make the music you love when you have to sleep in the sewers? As soon as you plan to make aliving out of music, you have to accept compromises. in order to be able to make the music you love, you have to sacrifice yourself and maybe do some stuff you actually do not like too much. thats the price you have to pay.

and as for those who claim not to be interrested in making money with their music - when a majorlabel knocks on your door and tells you you get 2000 bucks a month or more as a start, then you´d say "no i dont want to make money with my music cuz that´d be commercialism"? oh common!

I want to have a life.
Yes,I would LOVE to make a career out music,to make music that people appreciate,to tell people my stories,to give people a peek into my perspective of life.
And to have a life doing it.
I want to get into business.Big business,but mostly afrocentric businesses,seeing as I'm African and have no plans to go anywhere.
And to have a life doing it.
I'm in my final year of my undergrad physics course.I hope to go beyond where I am.I don't necessarily want to win a nobel and all that,but I do want to contribute to knowledge.
And have a life doing.
I guess having a life is what I want to do most of all.
It's not a crime to be a dreamer.Coz in any case,for a dream to come to true,you need to dream it first.
And like Lennon said,(in "Imagine"):
You say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.

medical student... 4 more years to go till i get my "DR"..
I've planned to do solo music work for my self, for ages, but now it's even better because it's secondary i dont have to please anyone and i dont have to worry about selling out because music is my only source of income, because it wont be...
There's a thriving music scene in Lincoln, which is weird for a small town. Leicester is bigger, so it's more of a struggle to get to know alot of poeple, but there's alot more going on... but to honest I dont like scenes and band, i find it all too pretenious, and everyone has thier mystical laws which they've layed down... I just wanna record my musical out pourings to honest

Originally posted by Azrael
in order to be able to make the music you love, you have to sacrifice yourself and maybe do some stuff you actually do not like too much. thats the price you have to pay.

I think this is generally applicable to everything in life.

I do some things that I don’t enjoy doing (too many hours at work, another experiment that hasn’t worked, boss is in a bad mood (nothing to do with me) etc) however, I put up with it because it enables me to do the things that I do enjoy doing, like some other bits of my job, pottering round my project studio and spending quality time with my wife.

Some years ago I was talking to the professor who supervised my PhD and we were talking about career structure. Her take on her own job was that for every 1 thing that she enjoyed doing she would do roughly 10 things that she didn’t particularly enjoy doing and that was seen as a good batting average....makes you think !

I did want to be a rock star in my early teens however I have excepted that it is not very likely to happen now (poo) however that doesn’t stop me from playing, jamming and recording which I enjoy immensely. My motivation is not fame and fortune it is simply that I enjoy doing it. Im my humble opinion, if the music industry had more people doing music, just because they enjoyed it would be in a better shape than it is today.

So, Brittany, clone boy bands, other unmentionable, bland, textureless, talentless, plastic, mass produced acts...(the monkeys), they all seamed to have screwed it up for the rest of us and all I have to say is ... screw ‘em!

No market, no brightly colored empty boxes ! I do appreciate that their has to be a degree of commercialism in the music business for it to survive however…….I do thing we need to shoot a few advertising and marketing executives just to even the score a little !

Rant stomp rant stomp,.......and further more .....!!!!!

Dr.Simon,you're probably the kind of guy I should beb talking to about college degrees and careers and stuff.I'd hoped to work my way to a phd inphysics,but the way things are going,and the way my grades turned out,I probably wouldn't get admitted back to high school again.
Anyway,I'll send the e-mail when I get time.

Never really wanted to be a rock star. One ambition fulfilled then. All the industry bull****, doing endless interviews for ****e music mags, having to make albums because your contract says so. The only good thing is that you get to screw groupies. A good enough reason in itself. Did like the idea of making a living from music but in most UK towns unless you're doing covers of crap like Oasis it's hard to get a gig anywhere. Doing a cover of 'Wynona's brown beaver' wouldn't work here. Now I'm approaching 30 it's a bit late now so I guess obscurity beckons.