Music has been a dream of many people; those who manage to achieve it are humans like all of us. It tells us that there is not a thing that we cannot do to become a good musician. It’s all about determination and devotion to your dream; how much time you can provide it and how far you are willing to go for it.

However, apart from the idea that you absolutely want to do music, everyone faces one question which is difficult to answer: Where do I start? That’s right. A lot of us know that we want to follow our dreams but we don’t know where to go to take that bus.

Whether you are past this question and now on the track or you are still struggling to find your way, you don’t have to worry. We have built this article around the answers to all of the most commonly asked questions regarding “becoming a musician.” And this article contains 4 steps that you take now to become a successful musician later in life.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

1.  Select Your Niche

A musician is of many kinds, defined by what kind of instrument they play. When we listen to music, we listen to the genre that we can vibe to. However, when we are actually composing music, we need to figure out who we want to be, what we want our identity, and our “claim to fame” to be.

You need to keep your head clear about what kind of music do you want to play; select your niche. To be clear, it’s not easy as it sounds. Some people are not married with one thing, they like everything, yet they have to choose for their “major.” That is when things get tricky because people can’t simply figure out their career paths overnight.

You like playing piano, but is that want you to want to spend your time and energy on? Or would you rather be playing the guitar if you could? These are the kind of questions you’ll have to answer.

Take your time, try out different options, explore different instruments, try out your vocals, and then make a decision.

2.  Take Lessons

When you have landed on a decision to play the instrument of your choice, it’s time for you to start taking lessons for it. It is true that some people don’t take lessons and learn everything on their own, but those who have some kind of mentor or a teacher have a better potential of making it big in the industry. They are also more likely to get carved into an optimally talented musician.

You can do everything on your own, or just learn it off the YouTube videos, but in that case, you wouldn’t have any schedule. You’d be deciding everything by yourself, and you might miss opportunities by making the wrong or delayed decisions. Apart from that, since no one is looking over you, your mistakes can go unnoticed, which will hinder the improvement.

Therefore, it is crucial to have a mentor that can guide you about the rights and wrongs of the instrument you are about to play. In fact, in a modern world, you can take online lessons anywhere in the world from right at your home—of any instrument. If you are interested in guitar, you can look up guitar teachers, if you are into drums, you can have private drum lessons too.

Along with music composition, some people also go for singing. Although singing is a matter of a voice—if it’s naturally talented or not—but there is more to it. People take voice lessons from a young age and shape their voice into something that fits with the kind of music they play. So, if you are up for singing too, you can take voice lessons in your home.

3.  Create Goals for Yourself to Achieve

Creating objectives is important, your mentor will also tell you that. If a coach tells you to make a pitch run, you will probably abide, or if a teacher tells you to write a 5-page essay, you will do it. That is because other people have set that goal for you and challenged you to do it. But do you think you will be able to achieve those goals if you have given them yourself?

Well, that is what you have to do in your life as a music student. Create objectives for yourself. And if you don’t know what objectives to set for yourself, take help. There are numerous resources to get help from.

If you are up for guitar learning, tell yourself that you will learn all chords within a single week. In the second week, you’ll try to learn the combination of these chords.

Similarly, if you are up for piano learning, have a goal to cover a basic tune by yourself within two weeks.

These small goals might seem insignificant to you, but they definitely help you become a musician who knows how to get done with tours, assignments, and music projects in practical life.

Apart from that, it is important to remember that the goals should be realistic. You don’t set a goal to be as good as Ludwig van Beethoven in 3 months, you know that is not likely to happen.

Once you have set your goals, take them seriously.

4.  Be Mentally Prepared

Suppose you have learned everything there was to know, you have proper talent, and you have mastered your skill. Still, there would be so much for you to face in the practical music industry, and for that, you need mental preparedness.

After you have learned the instrument or vocals, became a performer, got some exposure and reviews, and received some attention along with cheques, you might think that you know enough about the music business, but if you really are planning to live a life of a musician, you need to be ready to face everything; a lot of which would be unpredictable and uncertain. And if you are mentally prepared, there is a good chance that you easily overcome every hurdle that is thrown in your way and build your reputation.

Apart from mental preparedness, a few things are also important, which include knowledge, skills, physical strength, patience, and a mentor to guide you through things; in the professional industry, musicians usually keep managers to help them do business and music together.

Final Word

Those were the four steps that you need to take to start your life as a musician, and later on, become a successful one. You might think that “just 4 steps” are not enough to achieve what you want, and the steps listed above probably don’t even matter that much in practicality.

That might be your thinking for now, but we assure you that it’s going to change after you have become a businessperson along with the musician. When that happens, people would not only judge you for your talent but basically everything that you would ever do.

So, you need to only polish your skill, but also your schedule, mentality, determination, and all the things that are described in this article. Good luck.