MUSIC
SUCCESS
GUIDE
Knowledge is key
The most straightforward guide that every guitarist should own if they intend to succeed in the music industry. This guide is key to your success.
MUSIC
Why
ALWAYS
REMEMBER
WHY
You should know why you want to become a successful guitarist from the start and keep it in mind at all times. As you progress, it’s easy to get sidetracked and forget the main reason.
You should know why you want to become a successful guitarist from the start and keep it in mind at all times. As you progress, it’s easy to get sidetracked and forget the main reason. Keep a note of it where you can read it frequently. It seems silly, but a lot of people don’t know why they want to play guitar or forget it as they progress.
It is important to set a clear goal, no matter what your primary motivation is, whether it’s making money or getting attention. You’re not just learning an instrument, you’re opening the door to a whole new way of life by becoming a guitarist. Being successful can sometimes bring a better lifestyle. It can also bring disaster, depending on what you do with it.
People usually think of fame, fortune, and women (or men) when they think of becoming a great guitarist. It’s true that they are some of the benefits, but they’re not the most important ones. By becoming a great guitarist, you’ll have taken a big step towards mastering yourself.
Many guitarists have become successful, but very few have maintained their success without sacrificing their personal lives or getting jaded by the music industry. A superstar’s lifestyle is something few people can handle. If being a great guitar player is your goal, think about why it’s important to you and what good things could come out of it.
It is likely that you will encounter several traps on your journey that could ruin your dream if you forget why you got started in the first place. Therefore, write down your goal somewhere you can see it as you make progress so that you never forget why you started.
Make Music
MAKE MUSIC
Don’t let skills or theoretical knowledge interfere with your ability to make music.
The road to success in the music industry is pretty simple. Way too simple that it is psychologically difficult to comprehend that makes musicians dig too deep into academic knowledge to have a valid reason for striving. The biggest problem most musicians face is not believing how simple it is.
Simple does not necessarily mean easy, but rather it can be achieved by any musician who understands what music success entails.
So what is our role as musicians?
Although this question seems obvious, it is worth answering in a way that makes more sense by taking a different approach.
In many ways, our role is similar to that of a construction worker. A construction worker is in it to build something with the help of the tools he has at his disposal. It doesn’t matter what kind, how many tools he has or how skilled he is with them. They are meaningless if he doesn’t build anything.
We are in it to make music. If we do not create music, our skills mean nothing. Talent and skills mean nothing in the music industry without music. I can’t emphasize this enough, but the reality is that a lot of talented guitarists are emerging every day, and the majority of them are so focused on learning skills and acquiring the wrong type of knowledge that they completely forget about the main asset that could make them successful – which is making music.
Understand Success
UNDERSTAND SUCCESS
When you see success as a series of rewards, then it is easy to achieve smaller goals that will eventually lead to a more successful experience.
Make sure that you have a clear understanding of what success really means to you.
Taking advantage of the dynamic nature of success, and preventing it from becoming static, is the key to success. When you see success as a series of rewards, then it is easy to achieve smaller goals that will eventually lead to a more successful experience.
You need to understand that success in music is dependent on being able to make sense of how it all works within the music industry and how the music business operates.
You have to be open-minded in order to achieve your ultimate goal. If you have to make changes to your songs in order to succeed, then do not resist the changes or blame people in this regard.
Many musicians with the potential to go far have resisted this fact and ended up never reaching the success they had intended from the beginning. As long as you remain open-minded, you will be able to adjust without hesitation to what the world is asking for in order to make your music valuable.
Stay Humble
STAY
HUMBLE
There is so much power that comes with it that it needs to be handled with care.
As you climb up the success ladder, you will start to feel like a rockstar. This is an amazing feeling and it is going to feel like a dream come true. It is going to be hard to maintain at times without crashing. There is so much power that comes with it that it needs to be handled with care.
No one wants to start a journey or career that ultimately will ruin their lives. It is not uncommon that so much power can ruin someone’s life. This is what happens to a lot of musicians once they have achieved some level of success.
It is important to think of success as an overall experience in life rather than a singular event.
When you become a superstar, you will be entering a lifestyle that is filled with so much power, but if you know how to handle it, you will learn how to use that power to enhance your life and the lives of those you love.
Stay humble.
Stay Simple
STAY
SIMPLE
Learn how to build a house with just a hammer and nails before you decide that you need more tools.
Keep it simple throughout your entire journey and never let the journey overwhelm you. Success comes down to creating something your audience likes.
As a musician, you should know that your audience does not care at all about your skills and how a song that you created came to exist. Your theoretical knowledge of music does not matter to them. They only care about the song you are making and the message behind it.
Learning how to build a house with just a hammer and nails is a way for people to express the idea that success is about the end result you just achieved regardless of what tools you used to achieve it. An entire house can be built using basic tools. Extra tools will not make your end result any better. They will simply make your work easier or faster.
It’s the same with music. You can’t make a song better simply by adding more theoretical knowledge to it. As long as the song from the beginning already had the elements that make a song successful, you can make it and record it with basic equipment.
Be Everything To Someone
BE
EVERYTHING
TO
SOMEONE
Be everything to someone, not something to everyone. It is not possible to mix different types of music and expect everyone to remain your fans.
It is important to know that being everything to someone is inherently more successful than simply being something to everyone. Not understanding this is one of the reasons why so many musicians fail.
If you are a rock guitarist, you should be a rock guitarist. Don’t try to become an electronic musician to make your audience more diverse by mixing different styles of music. It is not possible to mix different types of music and expect everyone to remain your fans.
If you are everything to someone, in this case a specific group of people, you will be able to focus only on that group of people, which will make it much easier for you to determine how you or your music appeals to that group, or to that specific person.
Businesses often do the same thing. Some businesses try to provide a product or service for everyone, instead of focusing on what their businesses are good at. This happens when they don’t understand their audience or try to expand. This isn’t the best approach.
In the same way, musicians who want to gain more fans or followers should consider a bigger niche from the beginning or be satisfied with the results of what they already have. Mixing different styles will not help you get there. Simply be creative and do proper marketing to multiply what you already have.
Awesome Guitar Skills
AWESOME SKILLS
Awesome guitar skills are nothing until you make music with them.
Awesome guitar skills are nothing until you make music with them. It is all about making music.
It is, it has been, and it will continue to be that way. We’ll eventually forget how simple it all is, and we’ll start digging for more to later find out that it was all about creating music.
We’ve all been there: showing off starts to feel more vital, and the more abilities we acquire, the better we feel. But most of the time, we don’t know our present audience, and so we start to sound like we’re just trying to impress everyone. People can sense it, and they will eventually dislike you.
Awesome guitar skills can’t guarantee positive results; keep that in mind at all times.
If you want to know whether or not you’re on the right track, just ask yourself if what you’re playing is something that you’d listen to in your car or with friends. If you answered yes and are being honest, you’re probably on the right track. However, if your answer isn’t convincing enough, stop immediately; this is a clear indication that you’ve started focusing too much on technique and have started to overlook the musical aspect of it.
There are ways to show off without falling into the trap that is, in most cases, motivated by ego.
In this course, we’ll go through ways to show off your existing skills while still maintaining the impression that you’re a true artist rather than simply another skilled guitarist.
This is crucial since understanding how to listen to your audience rather than attempting to wow them will determine how successful you will be. No one cares about how excellent you are; they care only about how you make them feel. If you make them feel good by playing great music, they will be your lifelong supporters.
People are generally very competitive. They won’t like it if you just mention that you’re superior to them. Whether they play guitar or a similar instrument or even have a brother or a buddy who they admire, they will not appreciate it if you imply only that you are better than them.
If you make them feel uncomfortable in any way by attempting to demonstrate your skills in front of them, they will most likely never be your supporters.
Attention To Detail
ATTENTION
TO
DETAIL
Every little detail in music does matter.
When I first started playing guitar, I remember very clearly that if I wanted to learn a song that I liked, it had to be exactly what I heard on the recording. This included any details the artist used during the recording process. Some of them were details that the artist created, others were very small mistakes that only trained ears could detect.
As most artists didn’t seem to care much about details when they performed covers or their own recordings, I wasn’t expecting it to make such a huge impact. It does matter, and a lot!
So, whenever I played any guitar cover, I would take into account every detail or mistake the artist recorded. That impressed people and as a result, they considered my playing better than the other guitarists they had heard before.
Initially, I did that naturally, but over time I realized details matter more than people realize.
In spite of the fact that artists still get positive feedback when they perform in front of an audience, it doesn’t seem to really matter to them. However, when you do it naturally, or you add the details because you recognize the impact it has on others, you will naturally be considered better than others.
You should not underestimate people’s ability to recognize your talents and play every song as well as you can, especially when it comes to covers. They don’t lie about it. Although they won’t tell you, they want to hear you play the song as close as the original version recorded by the main artist before considering your rendition.
Attention to detail matters!
Be The Best At One Thing
BE THE BEST AT
ONE THING
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.” – Bruce Lee.
Be the best at one thing and not just OK at a lot of things.
Try to master one skill that is one of the most desirable ones. Just by becoming good at that one, you will naturally become good at others. Instead of trying to master hundreds of them that you probably never will use only pick one that you could be considered the best at.
In the history of music, some of the most successful guitarists have been able to achieve their highest levels of success by simply mastering a few skills, if not only one main skill.
It was evident that they understood this, and they used it to their advantage, allowing them to remain at the top of the world of music today. Do you think this is coincidence or just luck?
There is one quote from Bruce Lee that continues to remain one of my favorites: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.”
Pick A Niche
PICK A NICHE
Choosing the right niche will ensure that your fans will also support you, attend your shows and purchase your music when it becomes available.
Getting into the right niche when it comes to music is a very significant part of the process of becoming successful. It can go hand in hand with being everything to someone.
If you choose the right niche you can better understand the chances of success you will have. Some niches are smaller than others, but at the same time, some niches can be more supportive than others. As in the music industry, this is very significant since the industry is looking for ways to profit from it.
Even though your preferred music style might be rock, if the most suitable marketplace for your music when it comes to purchasing it would be 90’s rock, then you might consider embracing the small adjustments you may have to make in order for your music to achieve the success you are looking for.
Picking the right niche helps you build a more loyal fanbase since you will have less competition. Choosing the right niche will ensure that your fans will also support you, attend your shows and purchase your music when it becomes available.
Develop A Signature Sound
DEVELOP A SIGNATURE SOUND
Create your own signature sound or style, practice it thousands of times and become the best in the world at it.
It is very important to understand that simplicity and developing a signature sound are two very effective ways of achieving success in your work. It is important to develop a sound that you can be recognized for. It is important to develop a sound you like most and that you are good at.
You could recognize some of the most famous guitarists in history by listening to one or two simple riffs that they played on their guitars. The sounds they created were unique and made them iconic. The reason for this is that they mastered that one skill and practiced it over and over again making them the best or the most renowned musician at that particular sound or skill because they made their mark on it.
This is almost like the process of choosing a logo for a company or designing your first signature, where only you can sign your name effortlessly. In the music business, it works the same way.
Most of the top guitarists in history were recognized by just a very few or one main skill or sound. B.B. King was known for his classic blues bending and vibrato, Slash for his fast vibrato and melodies, Eddie Van Halen for his tapping technique, Yngwie Malmsteen for his picking speed and classical style, etc.
Create your own signature sound or style, practice it thousands of times and become the best in the world at it.
Master Convenience
CONVENIENT
As long as your guitars are stored in a case, there is very little chance that you will practice with any consistency, so make your guitars as convenient as possible.
When it comes to success, convenience is one of the most useful tools that you have at your disposal. While some successful people may believe that if you want to succeed you have to work hard regardless of your current circumstances, I believe that convenience is more beneficial than merely being harsh on ourselves.
There is no doubt that convenience is the only tool that actually works when we live busy lives that are full of activities and it is difficult to find the time to practice or to undertake any other tasks besides those that we have prioritized.
A stand for the guitar will make it more convenient and easier for you just to grab it and practice, rather than having to keep it in its case. If the guitar is stored in its case and must be pulled out from time to time, you are less likely to practice due to the inconvenience.
In all honesty, I didn’t think this would be such a big deal. My favorite guitars were always stored and in their cases, and because of that I rarely used them. The guitar I use most is always on a stand. The little extra step of getting the other guitar and taking it out of its case is a bit more of a hassle than I thought. Even though I’m not lazy, especially when it comes to music, I just do what’s convenient for my schedule.
As long as your guitars are stored in a case, there is very little chance that you will practice with any consistency, so make your guitars as convenient as possible.
Quality Sound
QUALITY
SOUND
It’s not about speed, it’s about the quality of sound you can produce that makes some guitarists top of the world. Quality is better than quantity.
It’s easy to play a note or riff, but making it sound great might not be that easy. Fortunately, there are ways to make each note sound great. Instead of rushing, make sure you take your time with each note. It is better to play one high quality note than a lot of low quality ones.
Today’s guitarists are in such a hurry to learn and play fast guitar solos for the sake of showing off, making every note sound terrible. A single note that sounds great is better than a bunch that don’t.
It’s not about speed, it’s about the quality of sound you can produce that makes some guitarists top of the world. Quality is better than quantity.
To get the best results out of your notes, you need to play them in different ways. When you have found a quality you like, learn to play it that way.
In order to learn how to make a note sound great, it is best to practice with a guitar, either acoustic or electric, unplugged. When you are able to make a note sound good without any effects, then no matter what kind of guitar you have or how many effects you use, you will always sound good. That builds your quality as a guitarist.
Improvise Over Mistakes
MISTAKES
DON'T EXIST
IN ART
There is no such thing as a wrong note in this world of music until you admit it. If you make a technical mistake while performing, just make it part of your performance and move on.
There is no such thing as a wrong note in this world of music until you admit it. It could pass for part of the show until you admit you’ve made the mistake. Replace the mistake with improvisation or making it look like it’s been part of the riff. Ultimately there are no wrong notes in music.
If you make a technical mistake while performing, just make it part of your performance and move on.
When it’s an obvious mistake, such as falling, and you know that people saw it, it’s time to be proud of it and act like you don’t care but also admit it. It is important to acknowledge your mistakes because it shows the respect you have for who you are and what you do. The fact that you didn’t care to tell them about your mistake makes them respect you more. It’s simple; just say something like: “wow, I didn’t see that coming, smile and say oh well.”
There is a saying in the arts that mistakes are never seen until they are described as mistakes.
When we see a person painting something, we usually don’t question them or tell them that they have made a mistake, simply because we don’t know if they really meant it to be done this way or not. Art is a place where anything is allowed. Although some of the top painters in the world don’t seem to be making sense, they are still considered to be some of the most talented in the world.
In music, it is the same. Each time you play a note, you need to keep in mind that it is a flat note or a sharp note away from your next note. As soon as you land on a flat note or a sharp note, you are now using the chromatic scale automatically. It is unknown to your audience that you made a mistake until you acknowledge it. No matter what they think it sounds like, they are still waiting for you to resolve the riff.
There is no need to be nervous when people raise their eyebrows at your mistake; after all, they don’t know whether it was your intention to land on a chromatic scale or not. It is the weirdness that is what makes a song or a performance memorable than others, not the perfection.
Feeling
PLAY WITH FEELING
When you play with feeling, it really doesn’t matter what you play. You can make simple riffs sound amazing, just as long as you put your heart into them.
In music, feelings and emotions are everything. If you are not able to make people recognize the feeling you express in a song or a performance, then there is not much value in it. When you play with feeling, it really doesn’t matter what you play. You can make simple riffs sound amazing, just as long as you put your heart into them.
The ability to play guitar with feeling is not an easy task but is one of the most significant skills a guitarist can develop. It is this one skill that has the potential to make your music known throughout the world.
Many of the most influential guitarists in music history have left a mark because of how simple and heartfelt their music was, but they did so in a way that affected the world in a very positive way. Some of their songs did not only move the world, but some of these songs are still favorites today.
There is no easy way to add feeling or emotion to our performances, we know that. How did some guitar legends manage to do that? The answer lies in plain sight; you hear it constantly whenever you listen to them play their music.
It is all about keeping things as simple and basic as possible. That’s how they managed to achieve that. Albert King, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Clapton, to name a few, all share one thing in common: they were all able to achieve top levels of success with just a few if not one main skill.
The value of a song lies in the way it expresses feelings. The right song could change the world if its message is well expressed.
Stay Away
STAY AWAY
Stay away from anything that could adversely affect your journey in any way.
I don’t know who came up with the idea that playing fast was a good thing. I don’t know who started that horrendous trend. Now many young guitarists are trying everything they can to become fast, as if music is all about speed. Beware of this type of influence.
It is important to be extremely vigilant and avoid anything that would hurt your journey in any way. Try to stay away from anything at all that could put you in a negative position. Stay away from anything that could adversely affect your journey in any way. I cannot stress this enough.
A good example of these dangers is that people tend to believe that just because playing fast or difficult things is physically hard, that it will be easy for them to succeed. The idea that guitar players nowadays, or in general, have is that just because they play fast or know so many skills, they will just succeed for some bizarre reason, does not make sense to me. There is a strange phenomenon, which only those involved with it can provide us with answers to. However, I believe that we all know it already, and that is ego and a lack of self-confidence.
When guitarists or musicians in general simply try to show off their skills, they are trying to gain attention in the wrong way by doing so. Their lack of confidence is the main reason why they go for whatever is physically hard to achieve. In their minds, this is success. When approached correctly and maturely, music is not competitive. There is a song for everyone, there is music for everyone, so there is no need for competition at all.
Competition in music only exists within the music industry, in the music business itself.
We have to be aware of the danger of falling for things that are irrelevant to our ultimate goal just because they seem attractive at the moment. Unfortunately, due to our social lives, it’s hard to avoid them. Even so, if you simply avoid these dangers, you will have a clear path to keep going on your journey and eventually get closer to your ultimate goal in the end.
Flash Back
FLASH BACK
One of the best tools to keep you on the right path is to have to go back to the beginning and reevaluate what got you interested in music in the first place.
One of the best tools to keep you on the right path is to have to go back to the beginning and reevaluate what got you interested in music in the first place.
When you feel like you are losing your path or you are not sure how to keep going because you have been influenced by one of the dangers and misconceptions about music, it is a good idea to go back to what got you started in the first place, even if you feel that the topic you are talking about is outdated or that the music you are listening to is not relevant anymore.
Suppose you have always been interested in becoming a famous and recognized musician from the very beginning of your career, and then you find yourself in a position in which financial goals are becoming more appealing to you. If you begin to think that having the best skills is the only way to achieve your goal of becoming famous, you might wish to go back to what got you started in order to remind yourself of what was your main aim and probably to get you going again.
Because of this, you will be reminded of your ultimate goal and you will be able to wake up from whatever negative influence you may be experiencing at the moment so that you are no longer influenced by it.
Nail Care
NAIL CARE
In order for your fingers to perform at their best, you have to keep your nails at the right length.
Although I believe that this is a very self-explanatory topic, it is not one that is widely discussed, and if you are going to practice the right way, then it is an essential thing that you need to learn in order to do so.
Generally, men don’t take care of their nails like women do, but if your nails get in the way of pressing the strings correctly, you’ll end up playing them incorrectly, which eventually affects your ability to play.
Especially when recording music. Make sure your nails are not touching the fretboard when you are pressing down the strings. If they do, they are longer than they should be.
This could be hard for you if you are not used to maintaining your nails as they grow much faster than you think. In order for your fingers to perform at their best, you have to keep your nails at the right length.
TASK
This task’s objective is to get a real-world point of view on what goes on when guitarists who are seeking the same outcome get mixed up in two worlds.
The idea behind this is to have it printed somewhere where we can see it often. You could have it near your guitar or a guitar amp so you are able to see it often while learning. It will be there to remind us of the main points of the lesson.
You can refer back to each section of this lesson for a more detailed explanation of the meaning of each of these phrases. Alternatively, you can click the phrase to get to the section you would like to read more about.
- Don’t lose sight of your motivation for becoming a successful guitarist.
- You should always be creating music, not just practicing guitar solos.
- Have a clear understanding of what success really means to you.
- Stay simple.
- Stay humble. Being a successful guitarist comes with a lot of power.
- Be everything to someone.
- Awesome guitar skills are nothing until you make music with them.
- Every little detail in music does matter.
- Be the best at one thing.
- Develop a signature sound.
- Master convenience.
- Prioritize sound quality over speed.
- There is no such thing as a wrong note in the world of music.
- Play with feeling.
- Stay away from anything that could adversely affect your journey/future in any way.
- Always keep your nails at the right length. They affect your technique.
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Trust The Process
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