Preparing for Success A Practical Guide for Young Musicians

If you are interested in performance, music therapy, music production, arts administration, instrument making, music teaching or research, and whatever music tradition you come from, this book will prepare you for success. It tells you about today’s music business and gives expert advice that will help you get to where you want to be. It shows you how to make the most of your talents and creativity, widen your networks and get your career started. Musicians with different experiences and successes talk about why they do what they do and illustrate important areas such as: (1) Motivation; (2) Practising and preparing for performance; (3) Overcoming performance anxiety; (4) Making the most out of tuition; (5) Learning from experience; and (6) Health and well-being. You can find out about different music careers and see what fits your skills and ambition. You can dip into this guide to prepare for an audition or interview, create promotional material, identify new performance opportunities and more. If you are keen to pursue a career as a professional musician, this book will help you to understand what it takes to be successful and how to avoid common pitfalls. It will challenge you to think about how determined and passionate you are about being in the music world. It is also a very useful resource for music teachers, lecturers and careers advisers in secondary schools, colleges, music services, conservatoires, universities and the music industry itself. It connects the topics to practical exercises and recent findings from research, and suggests further reading.