An old school friend recently asked me for my thoughts about her son studying for a career in music in 2013. This is a series of blogs based on what I wrote to her….

How do I stand out in the crowd?

EVERY young person I know wants to be in a band. We know this because now every other TV advert is aimed at budding ‘musicians’. Empires are being built on the hopes of these young people, who have been promised a short cut to stardom. As a result, everyone now wants to be noticed, whether they merit it or not – resulting in a massive amount of content now on sites like You Tube, Facebook etc.

Yet some genuine talent is still out there if we care to look hard enough. The key to being noticed in a world overflowing with content is having something unique and of great quality to offer, so that you’ll get noticed when that rare opportunity arises. How is it possible to achieve this?

I believe this: only by giving ourselves every opportunity to learn all we can about our chosen field/instrument, will we be able to compete with the hoards of others who are all striving for the same thing. Knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon once said. For this reason I’m an advocate of higher education, because it gives us more CHOICES.

Qualifications vs Experience

Now it’s true that many of my successful colleagues in the business don’t have a degree or performance diploma. What I would add is that they are now very limited for choices, because now we’re all older and the business has changed, there’s very little work of the kind they prepared themselves for and a great many players are all vying for it. More every year, as each music college and ‘tech’ in the country empties out a fresh batch of talented, young, enthusiastic and ambitious players.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to fall back on the education I had at music college, renewing my acquaintance with orchestration, composition etc, as well as using the essential skills I’ve picked up running a commercial recording studio for 20 years, all adding up to an extra string to my bow in TV and production music. This has been a life-saver during the down-turn in sessions and has substantially supplemented my income, to the extent that I now wish to explore this avenue further. Educating myself continually throughout my career (learning from friends & colleagues at work, reading trade mags, visiting forums etc, it doesn’t always mean obtaining written qualifications) has given me choices and an edge over my competitors. And it’s fun and keeps me excited about my work!

Whatever your passion and talent (trying to be realistic about whether you passion IS in fact, your talent), immerse yourself in it to become the absolute best you can be, whether that means a degree, masters or just pure hard work and experience (many successful producers started as tea boys in major recording studios – although those positions are very rare now).Taking advice from professionals in the business can often help, but ultimately you are the one who has to make the decision and live with it.

Remember, there is NO short route to the top. Having the ‘X Factor’ is actually all about having the staying power, the focus, the consistency and the willingness to work as hard and as long as it takes to reach our goals.