Going Pro: A Guide For Aspiring Guitarists
I've written before about how I became a professional guitarist. For me, it was total luck—I happened to be playing the electric guitar for a church that my first professional bandleader attended, at the time that he fired his guitarist. He and I spoke, I tried out, played a few worship services with them on a trial basis and went out tour with them that Fall. I'm forever grateful for that experience.
Now that I'm back in Tennessee—and I've been back in my hometown for five years—I guess you might say I'm semi-pro. I work a soul-crushing day job and then get paid to play weddings, funerals, and church services. The cool thing is that it's enough for me while I'm working full-time, trying to pay off my student loans. The not-cool thing is that sometimes I want more.
To that end, I asked five of my friends, who each made the transition to go pro (three of whom moved to Nashville to pursue professional music), to share some of their best tips for getting gigs, getting the right gigs, and keeping the gigs that they loved. These are their responses, with some tips of my own mixed in.
Editor's note: I compiled these tips over hundreds of text messages and rewrote them for grammar and coherence within this post, but I used direct quotes when directly quoting.
Another disclaimer: Everyone's path is different. Don't feel inferior if you've got to supplement your income doing things that are less enjoyable than music. Find a way to view that soul-crushing day job as giving you the freedom to explore your passion without having to squeeze money out of it. Think about it.
Be good at your craft. Some of these tips will go without saying, and this is one of them. This tip was given first by every working pro I spoke to. Me, I'm a Knoxville 8 and a Nashville 6 on guitar, but I'm always always working to improve. And you should be too. Know your instrument, know the pedals at your feet, know your amp (which is part of your instrument), know your fretboard. KNOW YOUR FRETBOARD. I felt like that one needed all caps.
Be teachable and easy to work with. I wrote a post on criticism a few weeks ago that might be helpful here. Put simply, be so confident in your ability that you don't mind switching it up and playing something different at your bandleader's request. Don't see the feedback you receive from bandmates as personal insults. Serve the song and your bandleader's vision over yourself.
Be a good listener. Listen to your bandmates. Listen to your drummer especially! But also, listen to music critically, listen to develop your ear, listen as a hobby, listen to the music your bandmates suggest, listen to the albums that were influential to them, listen to their heart when they're talking about themselves and sharing their story, listen in conversation—put your phone away.
Be personable. Or, "Be a good hang" said my pal Gideon. Be nice. Be cool. Have an opinion. Have interests. Be genuine. Share. Don't be shy. Crack a joke once in awhile. Smile. One of the guitarist-friends I solicited for advice, Seth, said, "You can be a great guitarist, but if you're not personable, what good is it?" If you're an impressive guitarist but a bad hang, you'll get a lot of gigs but no callbacks. But if you're fun to be around, you'll secure the right gigs and you'll keep them. Seth followed up, "You'll find the people and the place that are home."
Be confident in your skills. This is an extension of the first tip in many ways. But second to having the skills is knowing how to showcase them with confidence, how to communicate them to future employers (I wrote about this yesterday), and how to frame them in conversation. Don't be so down on yourself, so self-deprecating. If you have the skill, let people know. I'm not the world's best guitarist but I'm happy to tell people I'm a good guitarist, I'm a great listener, I do a lot of things to fit in a band's overall mix, I know the songs. This leads me to my next point, actually.
Know the songs. Know the songs inside and out. Know your part. Know your bandmate's parts. This is not to remind them of their parts when they slip up, but it's to anticipate them in the mix and help yourself listen well. Have the songs so well-rehearsed that they're muscle memory by the time you perform. This affords you the freedom of expression to be a performer and not just a musician. If you're not so worried about what your hands are doing, then you can focus on engaging with the crowd, smiling, and not letting the camera catch you in a goofy guitar face.
Be able to play around the other guitarists. Know how to gel and fit in with other guitarists onstage. This, too, is an extension of the first and second tips I shared. Know your parts, know their parts, avoid colliding with them sonically, listen to them intently. Stay out of their range on the fretboard. From a sound guy's perspective, this will widen the overall mix and prevent clashing sounds or over-accentuated frequencies. It will also help you all sound better; doubling your fellow guitarist or harmonizing with him or her can be difficult, whereas avoiding their sonic space is much simpler. If you're E2 in a band, your E1 will thank you for clearing a lane he or she can drive through.
Show up on time. Heck, be early. My friend Andrew, a working bassist in Nashville with a steady stream of paid gigs, says, "Be 15-20 minutes early for EVERYTHING. That may sound extreme, but people notice that. Rehearsal, load in, coffee meeting, whatever. No matter how small it may seem. It says something to an artist when you're loaded in, setup, and ready to roll 10 minutes before downbeat of rehearsal." See his full response here.
Answer your phone. This tip came from a friend of mine, Jerry, who's a fantastically talented drummer. He shared this story with me a long time ago, so Jerry—if I botch this—text me and let me know! One day he got a phone call from a number that he didn't recognize. He answered, and it was the tour manager for Trace Adkin's band (I'm 99.9% sure Jerry said Trace Adkins, but regardless, it was a HUGE country act). The tour manager said their drummer had an emergency and that Jerry's name was given to them as a recommendation for a stand-in. That night, Jerry played for something like 8,000 people. After that, he said he always answers those unknown numbers.
Put your phone away. Put your damn phone away when people are talking to you. I want to talk to you—not the back of your iPhone. Get it off the dinner table. Don't text during rehearsal, that's so annoying. Don't text while your band is meeting at all. If your bandleader is talking, give him your full attention. This tip isn't just for the aspiring professional musician, it's also for people who aspire to be decent humans.
Lastly, the 'Look.' I talked about this at length with a couple of friends. To what extent do you have to look the part of a rockstar musician? On the one hand, it certainly helps with photos and in your press kit to look good, to look like someone your bandleader might want to stand next to. And it's always best to dress appropriately: Wear a suit to formal gigs. Never EVER wear shorts onstage. If you're playing in church, honor their dress code. But on the other hand, each of my friends in the Nashville professional music scene said something to the effect of, as long as you're good at your craft and you're a good person to be around, it doesn't really matter how you dress. Here are some practical tips for stage clothing from a buddy of mine who worked as a cam op and a lighting tech: Dark solid colors look best onstage. They don't clash with the lights. and you don’t light up like a Christmas tree when whatever par is pointed at you. Don't wear stripes. In stripes you look all weird on camera, as the camera struggles to track.
I hope that you find value in these tips as you aspire to play music professionally. I think everyone I spoke to (Gideon, Seth, Dillan, Jerry, Andrew, and Blake the cam op) came up with some incredible responses. The only thing I might add is, from a financial perspective, you're not going to be making much money at first so learn to live within your means. No debt is good debt!
As mentioned before, I'm offering a follow-up to this post to share my friend Andrew's response verbatim. Andrew is a fulltime bassist in Nashville and is playing nearly every day of the week, touring, writing, and recording. His response to my question was incredible and incredibly helpful and incredibly well thought-out, so I wanted to host his full response in a separate blog post. It's just that good—really, go read.
Lastly, if you have any tips on going pro, any questions, anything at all to add, comment below! Thank you for reading.