How to become a popular musician. What a beginner musician needs to know. Trains discipline, self-control and concentration

Who among us did not have a childhood dream of becoming a singer, actor, model or musician? Perhaps every second spoke about this to his parents, and in response he heard something like: “Well, yes, you will definitely become” or the radical “Grow up - you will understand that this is not yours!”.

But what if a person knows that music is his love and vocation, and therefore the words “I want to become a musician” are not simply thrown into the air by him, but are completely meaningful?

First of all, it is important to understand that the activity of a musician implies a huge responsibility for oneself and one's actions. And it’s not enough just to drive in a search query “how to become a musician” somewhere on the Internet. You need to study a lot, work on yourself, practice and improve.

And only then can you think about how to become a musician. You can't become one if you don't know how to play any musical instrument.

Who is a musician

It would seem that the answer is very simple: a musician is someone who can play one of the many musical instruments. In this case, purely theoretically, a person who can play on an elastic band from underpants or on a toy drum is also a musician. And it turns out that the level of musicians of a symphony orchestra is available to everyone?

That's it, the fact of the matter is that how to become a famous musician - so everyone is ready, but how to really work on it - there are fewer people who want to.

A musician is not an easy person who has mastered playing the piano, guitar, drum set, balalaika or panty elastic. This is a person who not only plays, he feels the music.

It is important to feel the music, because each melody is unique, and only a real musician is able to play it correctly and emotionally. Believe it or not, even an elementary force applied to a guitar string or a piano key creates a certain accent and a certain mood.

In some cases, the person may not even know music. But this is rather an exception to the rule: such people have a phenomenal ear for music, easily reproduce what they hear and often write music on their own. At the same time, if they wonder how to become a musician, they will also be advised to learn the notes, even if they no longer need them.

What are the features of the profession of a musician

We figured out who a musician is, now let's look at what those musicians do who have turned their hobby into a profession.

In any case, a musician has a set of responsibilities, which is prescribed in the contract during official employment.

Musicians often tour with concerts or performances.

At the same time, a musician does not have to be able to sing, but if he can, his possibilities are greatly expanded.

Now let's take a closer look at how musicians become.

Important conditions

To understand how to become a musician, you must first determine whether a person meets the necessary criteria, and if not, whether he can and is ready to meet them. Of the necessary, the following can be distinguished.

  • The presence of an ear for music - congenital (ideally) or acquired (developed in the process of learning music).
  • You need to get a special education: at least graduate from a music school.
  • A higher musical education is a huge advantage.
  • Responsibility, focus on results.
  • Desire and ability to develop and improve.
  • Having your own musical instrument. It is possible to rent or borrow from someone, but this is somewhat ridiculous.

The education a musician should have

Many people wonder if it is possible to become a musician without special education. Theoretically, it is possible: after all, there are geniuses who are naturally gifted so much that they play perfectly without knowledge of musical notation or with minimal knowledge. But these people are one in a million. And even they often start learning when they are already at the peak of their careers.

A music school is the minimum that should be.

Diploma of a university or faculty focused on training musicians - not required condition but an advantage.

Therefore, the question "How to become a professional musician without education?" - a ridiculous question. Answer: no way.

Difficulties in the profession of a musician

It is important to remember that the work of a musician is not easy and cloudless. There are quite a lot of musicians now, and everyone wants to make good money. In other words, the competition is huge. Because how to become a musician is no longer as difficult a question as the problem of finding a job.

It is necessary to be able to interest yourself, your game, personality. A good musician knows how to put feelings, emotions into music: strength or vice versa, weakness, love or hate, warmth or cold. If you don't understand what in question- close this page and look for yourself in another field of art, or better - not art.

You need to be responsible. The profession of many musicians resembles a holiday, and it is important not to lose yourself in this holiday. For example, there are many cases when musicians lost their jobs in nightclubs due to systematic absence from work due to severe hangovers.

Where to find a job

Depending on the instrument they play, the genre and their own desires, musicians can be involved in different projects and work in completely different institutions, ranging from nightclubs to opera houses. In any case, their task is to fulfill their obligations to the institution in which they work.

In addition, musicians may well not be assigned to one specific place of work. They often advertise a solo performance at an event, accept applications, conclude a contract, perform and receive payment. This method is also used by musicians employed at a permanent place of work. In this case, it is necessary to have good management and communication skills or hire a person who will deal with organizational and business issues. It is important to understand that hiring a manager is justified only if income allows. In addition, it is necessary to draw up a contract correctly, and without a competent lawyer this cannot be done. You can develop one sample contract for all clients with the help of a trusted lawyer, and contact him for services in case of changes in conditions, for example, at the request of any of the clients.

You also need to understand that work can be seasonal: in a cafe or restaurant on an open terrace, in a summer nightclub, as well as for the duration of a project, a series of holidays or anniversary events.

Other ways to become a musician and get paid for it

If a musician is not ready to look for suitable jobs for him, but still plans to devote himself entirely to music, from a professional point of view, then you can try other ways to make money through music. All of them do not guarantee high incomes, and generally do not always guarantee that this same income will be, and therefore it is advisable to do any of the following, combining it with other work or study. Here are some examples.

  • Register a YouTube channel and upload videos of your performances on it. With a large number of subscribers and views, you can start earning.
  • Become a street musician.
  • Take part in competitions with grants or cash prizes. But there are not so many of them.

Conclusion

Thus, we conclude that desire alone is not enough. You need to go through the path of self-improvement in order to be able to perfectly play your musical instrument, and perhaps more than one. Finding a job can take a lot of time, or it can be more than simple - a lot depends on luck and the ability to present yourself, to recommend yourself correctly.

Charitable wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting". Issue #65, October 2014.

October 1st is celebrated all over the world International Music Day. It was founded in 1973 at the initiative of the International Music Council, an international non-governmental organization that brings together professional and amateur musical organizations from all countries. The purpose of this Day was "the spread of musical art in all sectors of society and the realization of the ideals of peace and friendship between peoples, the development of cultures, the exchange of experience and mutual respect for each other's aesthetic values." In our country, International Music Day began to be celebrated through the efforts of the famous composer Dmitry Shostakovich since 1996.

“Love and study the great art of music: it will open to you a whole world of high feelings, passions, thoughts. It will make you spiritually richer, purer, more perfect. Thanks to music, you will find new, previously unknown strengths in yourself. You will see life in new colors and colors.”

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich(1906-1975) - an outstanding Russian composer, pianist, teacher and public figure, one of the largest musical figures of the 20th century. The author of the famous "Leningrad Symphony", which was performed in besieged Leningrad on August 9, 1942. The performance of the symphony became an important event in the life of the inhabitants of our heroic city.

- How do you live with "absolute" pitch?

Absolute pitch is not at all the “best” pitch, as is sometimes thought, but one of the many types of musical pitch. This is the innate ability of a person, as it were, to “hear with notes”. When the possessor of such hearing hears a melody, he automatically hears, or rather sees, the series of notes that make up the melody. That's all. Many musicians generally consider absolute pitch to be harmful, as it can adversely affect the development of other types of hearing and make it difficult to enjoy music. There is not a single person who possesses brilliant musical abilities in all areas of music. Someone can easily recognize a falsely performed melody. Someone can immediately understand: on what instrument they play music. For someone, the sense of rhythm works no worse than a stopwatch. All these abilities are developed in different people differently. So we should not envy the owners of absolute pitch, and in general - we should not envy. We are all different, with different abilities, and that's good.

- Can a musician understand from the voice of his interlocutor that he is deceiving him?

Maybe. When a person tells a lie, he unconsciously changes the timbre of his voice, and he almost cannot control it. Musicians who are good at distinguishing the sound of different musical instruments hear this “false intonation”. This type of hearing is very well developed among teachers of theater universities. No wonder the famous theater director Stanislavsky repeated his no less famous phrase: "I do not believe!" He did not believe precisely the false intonation of the speech of the actors. I'll have to ask the actors and scouts how they train!

- Why is my voice so nasty in the recording?

When we speak or sing, sound enters our ears in two ways: through the air and through the bones of the skull. As a result, we hear a kind of mixture of two sounds. A person gets used to such a mixture, to the sound of his voice, and considers it normal. When he listens to his own voice in the recording, he hears only those sounds that come through the air. Therefore, he considers his voice (in vain!) "Unnatural." By the way, any recording, even a very good one, is always less rich than a live sound. Only the middle frequencies of sounds are clearly audible, and all the rest are low and high, which a person also hears remarkably, are “cut off” or distorted. And listening to music in headphones, especially those that are inserted into the ear canal, such small ones, is generally dangerous. There is a lot of pressure on the eardrum. From this, gradually, but rather quickly, our ear begins to deafen. In general, try to listen to music "live", especially the one where the timbre of the instruments is especially rich - violin, viola, cello.

Where did the word "music" come from?


The word "music" comes from the Greek μουσική or "mousike" when written in Latin letters. If the Greek word is completely translated into Latin, then the word "musica" will be obtained. This word is in Russian and sounds like "music". The Greek word comes from the word "muse". That is, “music” is what the “muses” patronize, what the “muses” do. Muses, according to Greek mythology, patronized not only music in our modern sense. They patronized the sciences and much more. The word "Muses" is translated from ancient Greek as "thinking". IN ancient Greek mythology"thinking Muses" are the daughters of the god Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Zeus also produced atmospheric electricity. The Greeks believed that there were nine Muses. And they went about their own business. Calliope - epic poetry. Euterpe - lyric poetry and music. Melpomene is a tragedy. Thalia is a comedy. Erato - love poetry. Polyhymnia - pantomime and hymns. Terpsichore - dancing. Clio is history. Urania - astronomy. If we translate the word "music" as the ancient Greeks understood it, then poetry, theater, dance, history, and astronomy are all music. In general, all sciences and arts are music. In fact, it is. Amazing music sounds in the most beautiful physical and mathematical theories, all self-respecting scientists know about it. Take, for example, "Einstein's theory of relativity", an absolutely perfect thing, no worse than Bach's fugues. Architecture is music in stone. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Indians, music is "frozen mathematics." And Indian music is now the oldest in existence. A piano or organ cannot be well tuned without a good knowledge of physics and mathematics. More precisely, it is impossible to come up with a suitable musical system and the right number of keys for them. So the ancient Greeks were quite smart.
Sarcophagus of the Muses (2nd century AD. Louvre, Paris).

Who came up with the music and how?

This is a very simple question. And, at the same time, like all good questions, it is very difficult. There is no one person who invented the car. Someone invented the wheel, someone invented a way to connect the wheels into a wagon, someone invented the car engine. And there were very, very many such people throughout the history of mankind. The situation is the same with notes. People have been singing since ancient times. Mom sang a lullaby to the child, there were ritual songs and dances before the hunt, the war. All these melodies, songs, music were either composed on the go or passed from one person to another orally, by ear. But then, gradually, people wanted to convey music, songs more accurately. It was then that the first attempts to record sounds with signs appeared. At first, they simply noted where the melody went - higher or lower. Such marks were called "nevmy" and were used in Europe, Byzantium, Russia, Armenia and other places. Here's what they looked like.
The photo shows Armenian neumes from a 12th-century manuscript.

But, as we understand, this way of describing the melody is not very accurate. Above a sound there can be many sounds. And below too. In the 11th century in Italy, in the city of Arezzo, lived the monk Guido. His name, of course, was Guido d'Arezzo, Guido from the city of Arezzo. In the monastery, Guido taught the boys to sing. Every morning they started with a chant. As a chant, they used the "hymn to St. John." The words of the anthem also matter to us. Even though you don't know Italian, I'll still give you the lyrics of the anthem, it's interesting. You will recognize many letters. This is a hymn-prayer that Saint John (the patron saint of singing) will help the voices of the singers to sound, who will praise the Lord, praise without hoarseness. The boys had to sing each line of the anthem a little higher than the previous one. But they were confused and false. Then they cried. To help his students remember the melody, Guido decided to write down the pitch on paper, giving each sound a name. So you could sing, peeping into a cheat sheet.

Guido placed the first syllables of each line of the first verse of the anthem on four lines - in the form of square icons. Four rulers were used as steps, and on them, like on a ladder, there were square notes-notes, each of which corresponded to a sound of a certain height. Guido used red, black and yellow rulers to place notes. He created a clear and visual musical alphabet for children. Now the name of Guido Aretinsky is known to all the musicians of the world.
Commemorative plaque on the house where Guido lived.

Over time, up to the present time, Guido's musical notation has been improved. All rulers and icons were drawn in black, the icons became round, a fifth ruler was added on the stave and sticks indicating the duration of notes. A lot has changed. But the name of the main notes (do, re, mi, fa ...) has been preserved to this day. Thank you Guido!
Modern musical notation.

For different instruments - piano, organ, guitar, drums and others - musical notation looks different. Of course, it has its own specifics, for example, pounding on the drum is not for you to sing hymns! But we were talking about Europe. In China, for example, the 12-note Lu-Lu musical scale was formed several thousand years before our era, long before the creation of the European one. The system of musical notation at the time of Confucius (VI century BC) was very rich, it was not limited only to information about the pitch and duration of the sound, as is customary now, but indicated how to take the sound, what timbre and loudness of the sound should be, and much more. other options. There were ways of recording notes in India and in many other cultures. You can talk about this for a long time. It is better if you grow up and read about the wonderful culture of China, India, Japan, ancient Greece and other beautiful places.

– Is it true that other nations do not have seven notes at all?

Truth. For example, Arabs have 17 notes. Indians have as many as 22 notes. The ancient Indians believed that the sound of musical instruments should be very similar to the human voice, which is probably why there are so many notes in Indian musical culture. And in Chinese - only 5 main notes. The number "five" is considered sacred by the Chinese: they have five main planets, five elements, five tastes, colors, sense organs... Music in China has always been considered a matter of national importance. At the imperial court there was a whole musical "ministry". From among the famous musicians, officials were appointed who traveled around the country and tuned all musical instruments. The Chinese musical tradition dates back several millennia and is perhaps the oldest in the world. Yes, by the way, “we” do not have seven notes at all, but 12 - count the number of keys on the piano within one octave: seven white and five black!

To begin with, let's remember how the keyboard of a piano, piano, grand piano looks in general. The piano has 88 keys and they are divided into octaves. Each octave has notes: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La and Si. Notes are called, for example, like this: La of the first octave or Fa of the counteroctave. All this applies to the white keys of the piano. The black keys are narrower and are slightly further and slightly higher than the white ones. By the way, they were not always black. In the past, white keys were sometimes painted black, and black keys were made white. But now we are accustomed to this kind. From C to one octave to C to the next octave, exactly 12 keys have been added: 7 white and 5 black. It would be possible to make 6 white and 6 black, the music would be the same. These 12 keys in one octave allow us to play almost any kind of music. There are no keys on the violin, but on it the musicians play exactly the same 12 notes within one octave. The breakdown into white and black keys is conditional, as it happened. And why did it happen? The thing is that our European music is a development of ancient Greek, Pythagorean music. Pythagoras in the 6th century BC drew attention to the relationship between sounds and mathematical quantities and came up with a musical scale, a set of sounds with which it would be convenient to play music - 7 sounds within an octave, which approximately correspond to our seven white keys on a piano. But playing on 7 notes is not at all necessary. The Chinese played 5 notes (pentatonic), the Arabs 17, the Indians 22. We just get used to it, that's all. Because of the habit of playing by 7 notes, seven white keys of the piano were formed. But the distance between the white keys turned out to be uneven. Between Do and Re - one tone, between Mi and Fa - half a tone. In order for us to be able to play in any key, to start our music from any note, we need additional keys between the white ones, where the distance between them is large, the tone. And it turned out 5 additional black keys. But, I repeat, this breakdown has almost no meaning. On the guitar, violin, harp, flute, there are no such breakdowns, and music on these instruments can be played no less wonderful than on the piano.
In the photo - a small section of the piano keyboard - an octave.

What was the very first musical instrument?

Let's try to think together. Of course, no one knows which musical instrument was the very first. When it appeared, there was no music yet, and there were no special instruments for playing music. Therefore, people used improvised means, what lay nearby. What is closest to a person? The man himself. And so the man used himself as a musical instrument. He sang, shouted, clattered and made a wide variety of sounds, imitating the sounds of nature and the voices of birds and animals. The second instrument was most likely a drum or just percussion instruments. It was possible to knock with a small mammoth bone on a large squirrel bone, rhythmically. So the rhythm turned out, the music turned out. The third type of instruments were, apparently, wind instruments, all sorts of pipes, horns and flutes. According to Greek mythology, the first musical instrument - the shepherd's pipe - was made by the god Pan. One day, on the shore, he, playing with a reed pipe, exhaled through the reed and heard his breath, passing along the trunk, produce a sad sound. He cut the trunk into unequal parts, tied them together, and now he had the first musical instrument! It is called "Pan's flute".
Pan with his flute. Illustration from the book A History of Greece for Boys and Girls, 1910s.

The lyre of Orpheus, a four-stringed musical instrument, was very popular in ancient Greece. Maybe some Greek came up with it there. But now archaeologists believe that the first stringed musical instruments, small harps, were created in Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Iran. Their age is about four thousand years. In China, according to legend, the Yellow Emperor Huang Di four thousand years BC created the first musical system and the first musical instruments. Two birds, phoenixes, male and female, bit the bamboo stems in the right places and created 12 flutes with different sounds. They created the first scale, six male notes and six female ones. Then Huang Di ordered to cast bells with the same sound as flutes. Archaeological finds in China also indicate that the first flutes and the first bells were made thousands of years before our era. In general, all musical instruments are good. You just need to know how to play them. You can depict a great rhythm even on the cover of a school desk or on grandfather's bald head.
Jean-Louis Doucis. Orpheus and Eurydice, 1826

What is the most modern instrument?

Throughout the history of mankind, people have invented a great variety of all kinds of musical instruments. All of them were very different, and percussion, and brass, and strings. Organs, violins, lutes, harpsichords, banjos and many, many others. But all these instruments had one thing in common - their sound was natural, natural. Something natural, a stretched string, a pipe or a bell sounded by itself, it was only necessary to learn how to extract sound from them. But around the middle of the 20th century, with the development of technology and electronics, completely new musical instruments appeared. There was no sounding object in them, no strings, no sounding pipes. They synthesized sound. Such instruments are called synthesizers. With the help of these instruments, or rather even computers, it was possible to create any sounds, the most diverse. And similar to the sound of a piano, violin or saxophone, and even such sounds that did not exist at all before. Do you have a computer? What about a synthesizer? The sound is created, synthesized, and then fed through the sound amplifier to the acoustic speakers, from where we hear it. You saw such speakers either next to your dad's computer, or next to your mom's TV.
modern synthesizer.

But many people, especially musicians (including me), prefer the sound not from a synthesizer, but from a live, real instrument. And now there are many people who come up with wonderful instruments, acoustic, not electronic, not synthesizers. One of these enthusiastic inventors, musicians is our contemporary American Chris Forster. He made and performs music himself on his instrument, which is called "Chrysalis". This tool can also be called the most modern. Grow up and create your own instrument that you will love!
Chris Forster and his Chrysalis.

What is the loudest instrument?

You must have seen a variety of musical instruments, both large and small. Piano, organ, violin, flute, drum. Each of them can be played so loud that it will lay your ears. But you want to understand - which of them is the loudest? After all, do you want to? Ahh... At first glance, it seems that the largest instrument will be the loudest. It's almost exactly like that. Nearly. The largest instrument is the organ. There are many pipes in it, both large and small, the air is blown through them not by the power of a person, not by the power of his lungs, but with the help of electric motors. And they can have almost any power.

Here is what the organ looks like. Of all the organs in existence today, the largest is in Atlantic City, America. It seems to be that it will be the loudest. But not everything is so simple. We humans hear low, high and medium sounds differently. We do not hear very low sounds (infrasound), even if their power is very high. The stomach can sway from them, and the ears almost do not hear such sounds.
Organ of Saint-Étienne Cathedral (Toulouse, France).

And we also do not hear very high sounds, this is no longer a sound, but ultrasound. And best of all, we hear the sounds that are in the upper register of the piano, on the right side of the keyboard. Such sounds correspond to a frequency of 2.5-3 thousand Hertz. These are the sounds we hear very well, even too well. And the power of sound at such a height, in order to deafen us, is needed a thousand times less than the low sounds of organ pipes. These frequencies correspond to a small flute called a piccolo. Despite the fact that a person cannot blow it with the same force as an organ, we perceive the sounds of this flute as very loud. We can say that this is the loudest musical instrument, and again we will be right. But I was talking about acoustic musical instruments. There are also electromusical ones. In such instruments, the sound is synthesized by a computer and transmitted through an amplifier to acoustic speakers. For such instruments, there are practically no restrictions on volume, the sound can be made at any volume. In stadiums, during rock concerts, sometimes the sound is so loud that birds fly around the stadium for a kilometer. Yes, and people have a hard time, and they fly no matter. And if you dream up a little, then the loudest musical instrument in our solar system is our Sun. Huge bubbles appear on its surface, the surface of the Sun boils. And from this a sound of such strength is born that if we were in the atmosphere of the Sun and would not die from the heat (and it is quite warm there, several thousand degrees), we would definitely die from a terrible roar.
The musician plays the piccolo flute.

Why do stringed instruments have different numbers of strings?

The simplest answer to your question is because different instruments play different music. But let's look a little more. In the ancient Greek musical instrument of Orpheus (lyre), the strings were "free". That is, they were not pinched during the game. How many strings such an instrument has - so many musical sounds can be extracted with their help. But a lot still won't work. It was in these instruments and their descendants that they made a different number of strings - as many as you want to play notes. Probably the richest instrument of this series is the modern harp. It has a lot of strings, about 46. And it's not easy to play. But the sound is beautiful and you can play any melody you want. How many strings, so many notes, for example, on the piano and grand piano.
A schoolboy plays the harp at the International Children's Music Festival in Colombia.

If, however, a plank is placed parallel to the strings, then the strings can be pressed against it, shortening the sounding string. A shorter string will sound higher than a free one. Thus, it is possible to extract sounds of almost any pitch. Such a simple device - a plank parallel to the strings, a fretboard - greatly enriched the musical culture. If earlier we had to make our own string for each new sound, now it’s fashionable to just pinch it in the right place and that’s it. In principle, one string is enough for a monophonic melody. And this has happened in history. The most famous one-stringed musical instrument is the monochord, with which Pythagoras made musical and mathematical experiments. In Russia, they played on a bow-like bow, and so on. But still, one string is rather exotic.
Antique monochords in the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments.

On one of the most ancient stringed musical instruments, the Chinese zither Qin, born many millennia BC by a certain Chinese, perhaps his name was Emperor Huang Di, there were 5-7 strings. The technique of playing it is very complicated. It was and still is a real art. One of the great masters of the Qin game was the ancient thinker Confucius. The ancient stringed musical instruments were mainly played with melodies. And they were played not according to all the 12 notes that now exist in the scale, but according to seven, as was customary in Greece, or five, as in China, or 7 + 15, as was customary in India. The chords that we are now used to were not taken at all. When the musicians wanted to play complex chords, instruments similar to the modern guitar and new musical tunings were born. With neck and nut. So many strings were made in it so that the chords that accompanied the singing sounded beautiful. Usually six or seven strings were enough. On the bass guitar, chords are not taken, individual notes are played there. And four strings are enough, very thick. When a modern musical system with 12 notes appeared (the distance between adjacent notes is the same), the musicians began to play music in different keys, to move the music higher or lower. Such music already required other instruments, where it would be easy to take any note. The classic version of this instrument is the piano. In it, notes (keys) are arranged in a row. There are 12 notes in an octave and several octaves. So it turns out that the piano has a lot - 88 - strings (more precisely, there are a little more strings, there are twin and triple identical strings to increase the volume of sounds). Returning to the beginning of the conversation: different music needs different musical instruments. And a different number of strings. Like this.
"Listening to Qin". Drawing of the Chinese Emperor Zhao Ji, 11th century.

Why does the bumblebee buzz and the mosquito squeak?

To paraphrase your question, one might ask: why does the wings of a bumblebee emit a low sound in flight, and a high sound from the wings of a mosquito? What is sound? This is a sound wave. Remember the waves on the lake? Here in the air there are the same waves, only they are not visible. Therefore, there is no sound. But it's audible. There were big waves on the lake and small ripples, very small waves. Long, large waves do not often change crests and troughs on the water, and short waves often. The waves on the lake change height, and the pressure in the air changes. Scientists even came up with a special name - the frequency of the wave. Try to wave your hand back and forth. Most likely, in one second you will make a movement three or four times. This means that you have created a sound wave with a frequency of 3-4 Hertz. Hertz is an international unit for measuring the frequency of periodic processes (for example, oscillations). It is named after the 19th century German physicist Heinrich Hertz. One oscillation per second is one Hertz; denoted as follows: 1 Hz. If 200 times per second - then 200 Hz, everything is simple. True, you and I will not be able to wave our hands so often - 200 times per second. Have you noticed that we don't hear the waves you create? Our ear is designed so that we can not hear all the sounds of nature. Below 20 Hz (very low sound, barely audible hum) we can’t hear and above 20 thousand Hz (very high squeak) we can’t hear either. Only children hear it, you hear it. And adults already above 12-15 thousand Hz do not hear sounds. That's why they're adults. So, you can wave your arms 3-4 times per second, with a frequency of 3-4 Hz. A bumblebee flaps its wings more often - 200 times per second. And the mosquito even more often - 500 times per second. The higher the frequency, the higher the sound produced. The bumblebee flaps its wings relatively slowly, and we hear a low sound, a bass hum. And the mosquito flaps its wings quickly, and we hear a high-pitched sound, a squeak. Birds, on the other hand, flap their wings, like people with their hands, slowly - less than 20 times per second. So we do not hear how they fly. We cannot hear sounds below 20 Hz. But there are special birds, very small - hummingbirds. They can flap their wings 80 times per second, producing a sound at 80 Hz. And we hear this sound remarkably - such a low, buzzing sound, similar to the sound of a bumblebee or a fat green fly flying.
Bumblebee in flight.

Why do piglets squeak so loudly?

In the Middle and not so Middle Ages, the British, who sailed in the fog on ships around their Great Britain, did not see anything around, as it is not difficult to guess. They sailed away from the coast so as not to crash into the stones, but then they could crash into another English ship. I needed a siren. There were no sirens. But there were pigs, which, if you twist their tail, made a piercing squeal. It was he who was caught by the sensitive ears of the British, who were on another ship, hidden in the fog. English pigs squealed, and still squeal, with a high-pitched sound of about the same frequency. Sounds of approximately the fourth octave of the piano, with a frequency of 2-3 thousand Hz. Why are pigs so useful? After all, you can twist the tail and the bull so that he lowed. Or make the ship's cabin boy shout into the mouthpiece: "A new object is approaching you." No. Pigs are better than bulls and boys. What is better? A person, as you remember, does not hear very low sounds, infrasound (below 20 Hz) and very high sounds, ultrasound (above 20 thousand Hz). So, somewhere in the middle there should be such sounds that a person hears better than others. This is absolutely the same as with light: a person sees best green and yellow light, infrared and ultraviolet - does not see. The sounds that a person hears best correspond exactly to the height of the sounds with which pigs squeal - about 2.5 thousand Hz. So it turns out that if all animals, including people, scream or squeal with the same force (of course, this is a somewhat arbitrary assumption), then you need to choose from all the animals that make sounds, those that a person hears best. Lucky for the pigs. By the way, human babies squeak at about the same pig frequency (2.5 thousand Hz). Apparently, this is no coincidence. So that mom can hear them well. Over time, when mechanical sirens appeared, all English pigs were released ashore, where they now live.
With pigs, everything is clear. And now a little about opera singers. Good singers have the most clearly audible sounds in their singing - in the range of 2-3 thousand Hertz (upper singing formant). That is, this frequency region accounts for most of the energy of sound, compared to non-opera singers singing to themselves or to neighbors in the bathroom. This is exactly what opera singers are taught - the ability to pump sound energy into the region of 2-3 thousand Hertz so that they can be heard well, even against the background of a symphony orchestra. However, they are taught not only this - for example, the Italian language, calligraphy, ear massage and much more. The sound of the voice of people in whom the “upper singing formant” is clearly expressed - sonorous, “flying”, “ringing”. The pioneers and Chaliapin had such voices.

Why is rock called "heavy"? What, is there "easy"?

The very word "rock" is English, it is translated into Russian as "rock", "rock". But rock music is not a lullaby, it's hard to fall asleep to it. But why was she named that? Rock music is such a common name for many types of modern music. It came from the blues. And the blues was born in America, it absorbed both Negro and European music. The blues had an unusual rhythm for the European ear, such a swinging one. The strong parts of the music fell not on the first beats, but on the second ones, this gave an unusual breath to the music. But the main thing that was in this music was the rhythm. Rhythm in classical European music has always played not the first role, but a secondary one. Here he became one of the most important elements. From the blues, the first rock music was born - rock and roll. The rhythm of rock and roll has become even more rigid. Such music is very energetic, it makes you want to dance, shout, have fun and make noise. If you pay even more attention to the rhythm, then the instruments of the musical group should include a bass guitar and a drum kit - then you will get “hard rock”, or as it is also called, “hard rock”. As you understand, it is impossible to play quietly on a drum kit and on an electric guitar. Such music was very loud, it was performed in stadiums and large open areas. Many classical musicians did not like this music, because the behavior of people when listening to such music was not at all like the behavior of people in the philharmonic and conservatory, where people sit quietly and listen to music in silence. And at rock concerts people danced, shouted, sang, behaved noisily. Of course, this does not mean that rock music is bad. Like any other music, it can be both good and bad. The bands Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and many others are made up of wonderful, talented musicians. But there are, of course, many mediocre bands that simply create noise, very loud noise, at the limit of audibility, at the limit of a person's pain threshold.
From "hard rock" several more directions were born: heavy metal, glam metal. It's "even harder rock". The musicians of such groups played very loudly, often the melody and words were hardly guessed. From a musical point of view, such bands are not very interesting. The term "rock" is very broad. Sometimes the music of the Beatles, rather melodic, with uncomplicated words, is also referred to as such music. The excellent composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is also sometimes called a rock composer. He composed completely different music, from the famous rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" to the musical "Cats". Rock music also includes the very complex, difficult music of "King Crimson" and punk rock, where the melody is almost not captured. In short, hard rock is the music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and their immediate successors. And the music of their predecessors - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or distant followers like A-Ha - is much more "light rock".
Led Zeppelin is one of the founders of hard rock. 2007

Why is Japanese and Indian music so long?

It is not easy to answer this question. What should I start with? Well, let's start with history. Until the 5th century BC, the islands of Japan were inhabited by fishermen and farmers. From about that time, the culture of China began to seep into Japan, Confucianism appeared, then Buddhism, art, music, theater and much, much more developed. The oldest Japanese music I know is gagaku music. This is not Japanese folk music, but imperial, ritual music that came from China. The music is not simple, we are not very accustomed to listening to it now. Most of all I like the sound of the fue flute. Far from modern, this music is not created for pleasure. And now almost all the music we listen to is written for our enjoyment. In ancient times, in Japan, playing the fue flutes served a completely different purpose - for Zen Buddhist meditations accompanied by music. The Japanese said: "Playing the fue, you see invisible spheres, in the whole Universe there is only one song." This approach is not similar to modern European, but very similar to Indian. That is, the essence of such music is not getting simple pleasure but spiritual practice, a way to develop your creative abilities. Meditation practices were very long and required calmness. And the music needed the same - long and attuning to contemplation. In India, the history of music is about the same as in Japan, in China. Music there has always been considered only a part of the doctrine of human health, physical, mental and spiritual. With the help of yoga and music, a person tried to achieve spiritual enlightenment. So did the ancient Indians. Yes, and many modern Indians think so. Other tasks, a different mood, so another music is born. Out of habit, such music seems very long, monotonous. Or maybe it really is very long and monotonous - in comparison with the popular pop or even classical, academic. The music of Mozart or the Beatles evokes many different emotions in us, it seems to us more energetic, more meaningful and interesting than the old Japanese music. I assure you, Japanese traditional music is no worse than ancient Greek music, than the music of the classics: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev. It's just that it's different, meditative, tuning in to the same wave.
The musician plays the ancient Japanese flute.

How many years do you need to study to become a musician?

This seems to be a very difficult question. Actually it is very simple. And, oddly enough, music has nothing to do with it at all. If you want to do something in life seriously, to become a professional, an expert in your field, then you can only start doing this - but it is already impossible to finish. Musicians learn all their lives: from their teachers, on their own, from their students. And scientists learn all their lives, very often learn from their students. Do you think your teacher at school doesn't learn from you kids? How to study! And it is not clear who gets more in the lessons - you or she. Do you remember what Alice said in Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland: “You need to run as fast as you can just to stay in place, and to get somewhere, you need to run at least twice as fast!” It's just about studying. But seriously, in order to start enjoying playing a musical instrument, for example, the piano, you need to practice at least 2-3 years. Then your inability to extract decent sounds from the instrument will stop annoying you, and you will be able to play not very technically complex (but no less wonderful) pieces of music. The more you study music, the better your technique becomes, the deeper you understand different composers, the more good music you will be able to perform. Or maybe write something of your own. It's great too. The fact that music is taught in a secondary music school for 8 years, in a music school for 2 years, in a conservatory for 5 years does not mean anything special. These are conventions. But in any case, to a decent professional level, you need to study music for at least 10-15 years in a row and very hard. But then what happiness! What freedom! The whole world! Take the time to study music!
"In the grass Grasshopper sat…"

Is it possible to improve your other abilities by studying music?

Can. And it is necessary. It is known that the brain has many different areas, there are two halves, and they work differently. Some areas of the brain are responsible for logical thinking, others for figurative thinking, others for emotions, and so on. When a child learns music and plays music himself, numerous “bridges” are built in his brain between different parts of the brain (synaptic connections). He successfully uses these bridges when doing other activities, and then in adulthood. We can say that "music trains the brain." Such a child is easier to solve problems where you need to find some unusual solutions. Very many, almost all talented scientists who came up with something really new played musical instruments themselves and loved music.

Is it possible to become a great musician even in childhood?

All great adult musicians were once children. Maybe they were great little musicians in their time, but that's unlikely. Throughout history, there are not many great musicians who have shown outstanding ability in early childhood. Usually they worked for a long time and developed their natural data. The most famous musician, whose abilities manifested themselves very early, is, of course, Mozart. He composed music and performed it masterfully at the age of four. Over time, his talent only grew stronger, until Mozart died. Then no longer strong. Franz Liszt was also a child prodigy. And now there are very capable musical children. The American girl Jackie Ivanko, a soprano singer, already at the age of twelve sings very complex arias, performs on huge stages. There are geek musicians now in Russia, in China and in many countries. But, more often than not, it is not known why, great musicians rarely grow out of such children. Good - yes. Somewhere they stop in their development. Most likely, such children just develop very quickly, and speed is not the main thing here.
So how can a small person become a great musician? First of all, you should think carefully - do you want to become a great musician? After all, their lives are very difficult. They constantly move from place to place, travel around the world, live in hotels, they have no home, they rarely communicate with friends and family, they simply have no time. It's a very hard job, a hard life. Well, let's say you still decided to become a great musician. Then you should go to a good music school or conservatory and test your ear, your musical abilities. If the ability is highly valued - good, this is the next step, you can move on. But if they are not highly valued, it does not mean anything. I will give just one example. The outstanding conductor Valery Gergiev was expelled several times as a child from various music schools for his "complete lack of ability." That did not stop him from becoming a really great musician, he was just so different from standard children that ordinary music teachers could not correctly assess his abilities. True, this is rather an exception to the rule.
So, you've been found to have good musical ability. Now to find good teacher music. But not just good, but suitable for you. And to be a teacher. After all, you have to spend a lot of time together in the next ten years or more. Maybe with such a teacher you will spend more time than with mom and dad. In India, they say that the choice of a teacher, a guru, determines the whole future life of a person. You have chosen a teacher. More precisely - Teachers, with a capital letter. And the Master chose you. Now you have many years, every day to study hard music under his guidance. This is not at all a simple matter. You will want to goof off and play football or a game on the computer, you will not have enough time for many things. But you will have to persevere in music. Otherwise it is impossible. The same applies to sports, and to mathematics, and to anything. Abilities - Teacher - Perseverance. This is how great musicians, great scientists, great athletes are made.
And, by the way, do not believe if they tell you that "a bear stepped on your ear." It is a dangerous delusion to think that something is "not given" to you. The ability to sing out of tune has practically nothing to do with a person's hearing. He just needs to "put the vote." Any choir teacher or solfeggio teacher does this well. One needs to train longer, the other less. But it will work for everyone, with due diligence. There is nothing to complex here. We are all different. Ideally, it is very useful to focus on famous saying Johann Sebastian Bach: "I had to study very diligently: whoever is as diligent will achieve the same."
Little Mozart on tour with his father and sister.

- How does music appear in the composer's head?

Of course, each individual music appears in the head of each individual composer in different ways. And it is unlikely that I can answer for all composers, because I am not even a composer, although I love to compose music, I improvise and play musical instruments. However, some general patterns can be identified. Say, almost all composers have a head.
Let's forget about the music for a moment. Let's take... Well, what shall we take? For example, drawing. Here you are not so many years old and you were asked to paint a half-length portrait of Philip Kirkorov in oil. They will give you a canvas, a set of paints and say - draw. I'm afraid to make a mistake, but Philip Kirkorov will probably be dissatisfied with the result. And why? It probably won't look very similar. And why? Yes, because you still do not know how to draw portraits. And why? Because it takes a long time to learn.
At first, at an art school, they are taught to draw simple objects: balls, cubes, plaster bas-reliefs. Pencil or charcoal. No color. In parallel, they study the structure of the human body, proportions in nature. Learn composition. Properties of paints and varnishes. A lot of things are being studied. And only then, when you have learned to draw simple things, you can move on to complex ones. And then the creativity begins. A good artist will try to capture the emotion, the impression. In good portraits, you can also see what the drawn person thinks about, what kind of character he has. Here, one drawing technique is not enough, talent is needed. But this talent cannot be realized without for long years apprenticeship, without long work on oneself.
The same situation is with the composer and his head. There is no such profession as a composer. At first, all future composers simply learn to play some kind of musical instrument: piano, violin or drum. And they study music theory, music history, learn to sing, study the sound of various instruments. It may seem that what they are taught is not very necessary. But without knowledge of how musical works are arranged, without knowledge of musical harmony, it is difficult even to perform music well, not to mention to compose it. As a rule, composers, before composing their own music, perform and study someone else's, learn to convey their emotions to other people. And then talent kicks in again. It's like a spark, like an unconscious idea, like an image that is born in the composer's head. Music can arise from a dream, from a vivid impression or experience. Such images are born, probably, in all people. But this seed, this idea, must fall on prepared soil. If a person is a musician, he can compose music, create a piece of music. An artist can create a picture from the same image, a writer can write a book, a poet can create a poem. It is as if you had a dream beautiful house or a palace. A common person he will be forgotten, and the architect may want to build such a house. That's when craft, knowledge of construction techniques is required.
"Jack O'Lantern" pumpkin for Halloween.

Dear readers! Send us your "naive" questions about music! We will pass them on to Alexei Nasretdinov and publish his answers in one of the following newspapers. And five authors best questions will receive books from the publishing house "Boslen": "Gimlet on sound waves" and "Gimlet in Greece" with the author's autograph.

Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They ship for free to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions of the city. The publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only logos of the founders), politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as an information "slowdown" of students, the awakening of cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without claiming to be academically complete in the presentation of the material, publish Interesting Facts, illustrations, interviews with well-known figures science and culture and hope thereby to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Please send comments and suggestions to: [email protected] We thank the Department of Education of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who selflessly helps in distributing wall newspapers. Special thanks to Alexei Nasretdinov for his favorable attitude towards the traditions of our project, as well as the rare combination of the depth of study of the material with the ease of presentation style.

Surely, every person involved in music dreams of becoming a musician in the future. And this is not surprising, because this type of activity is currently the most popular. People who think about how to become a musician immediately imagine a crowd of fans around them who catch every sound of your music.

There are currently a large number of options and opportunities to develop your musical talent, because there are many educational institutions. Yes, and the instrument for starters can be purchased for a small amount, and only after you have mastered playing it, it will be possible to talk about a real game and more professional instruments.

musical path

  • For starters, it would be nice to learn some elementary skills in a music school. It also happens that people achieve good results due to their perseverance, but this is all decided by chance. That is why you should first get a musical education, and then dream about how to become a famous musician. Few people want to stand on the street and play for a measly penny, and everything will be just like that without getting an education. Therefore, if people say that I want to become a musician, then they should make the highest demands on themselves.
  • It would be nice to have good connections and be well known and popular among your friends. There are people who, when communicating with others, talk about their work, in particular, about songs. And others can put their song in social network, which will allow you to listen to the opinions of other people, which in the future can correct the creation of a musician, or completely redo it.
  • It is necessary to strive every day for a career as a musician, and not just indulge in dreams and desires, like I want to be a musician. Put more effort and practice will give more and more hope for a positive outcome. But we should not forget that there is a time for everything. Many years of practice and long training will give positive results.
  • You need to be obsessed with your dream and find yourself partners. All this will help to find a bunch of fans and become popular. Indeed, alone it is difficult to believe that you are right, while others will tell you what is better and support you if there are failures.
  • Decide on your talent, or which instrument you can play without problems. After all, what kind of musicians are there - there are those who play the piano, there are those who play the guitar, you just need to first decide. It is better, of course, to be a generalist, but if you choose one tool, you can prove your professionalism, which is just wonderful. After all this, self-esteem rises and the willingness to win "one's" place increases.

Finding a Mentor

Who, if not a mentor, can "pull out" the talent from a beginner. After all, it is he who knows such subtleties that help to spend time usefully for business. And it is quite easy to test your abilities. It's worth wondering how much you've been doing music, and believe me, if you don't get bored of it, then you are disposed to it. Persistence and hard work is a guaranteed success.

In fact, everything is quite simple, and there are no obstacles and restrictions in understanding how to become a musician. If you understand that people are drawn to you, then there will always be a mentor. But don't rely on it too much. The main thing is to believe in yourself and in your talent!

There is a joke in America: So you are a songwriter? And what restaurant do you work at?". Many authors, who are now known to the whole world, made a living in very different things before they became famous in the music business. All these years they took the time to move along the path to songwriting success.

It is clear that it is quite difficult to work full time, maintain relationships with friends and relatives, fulfill all the duties that everyday life, and at the same time, find time and energy to write songs. But practically every author who is now successful has had to combine all this in the past.

If you don't have enough time to write, take a closer look at how you spend your time.

Hours spent in front of the TV, or in Internet chats, or for computer games, can be spent on work on songs. For someone, inspiration can wake up in the morning, then you can get up an hour earlier and write while no one bothers you, or vice versa, it will be more convenient for someone to set aside an hour before bedtime. Instead of complaining that you couldn't find the time to work on the songs, find out what you were wasting it on.

Don't go into debt thinking you can last until you suddenly become a super-successful writer; the road to success is likely to take much longer than you might expect. Realistic forecasts for the future will help you keep the right perspective and not lose hope in anticipation of a real breakthrough.

Meanwhile, as you have a desire become a famous musician (DJ), the author of super hits and achieving this goal, can take many years. The desire to achieve the goal and optimism are very important things. But when some aspiring songwriter says that his song will be on all the hit parades and charts within the next year, you can only smile and tell him that let's hope that's exactly what will happen. The chances of that happening are just as low as being struck by lightning twice in the same day.

The ability to write effective songs is achieved over time, such an ability can be compared with a developing educational process. It's like a child learning to walk. Indeed, in order to learn this, he must master many skills: first develop muscles, learn how to maintain balance, learn many other things so that all these skills lead him to the first uncertain steps. Some of the skills cannot be learned right away - they take time to develop. The same thing happens with authors.

The tips you can find here will help you. But, if you do not have exceptional luck, then the road to success will be long, with many obstacles, disappointments and failures. Hopefully, since you now know this, you will be more patient in the learning process. Some of today's successful authors have lived for years in a state of depression from failure, instead of viewing their lives as a journey on the road to success. There are thousands of stories of extremely successful songs that were recorded and became hits many years after they were born.

Overcome obstacles to success.

There are an innumerable number of songs that the artists initially rejected, but then recorded them and these songs became hits. Sometimes a song can be rejected because it's a little less good than songs written by your competitors, or because it doesn't fit well with a particular project. People who listen to dozens of songs every day can make a mistake. Almost every professional in the music industry has a story (which he may not mention) about not appreciating one or more songs that later became hits. Sometimes the answer "no" can mean that you need to get creative and find other ways to get your song heard. An artist's A&R may not appreciate the song, but the artist and producer may like it. Maybe the song will be evaluated by the director of the artist, or another representative of the company. Don't let failure stop you. Might be worth trying another door.

If the ability to write hits was simple and easy to achieve, then every author would write only hits. There are many barriers that stand between an aspiring author and success. Sometimes the biggest barriers are the ones we create for ourselves. They are the hardest to see.

The number of skills that a successful writer must possess may seem unattainable. Not only do you need to know the structure of songs, the technique of writing lyrics and melodies, you also need perseverance, willingness to work tirelessly, knowledge of demo production, you need to find a publisher, learn a lot about the music business, make connections, find like-minded people, and learn how to promote your songs.

The good news is that you don't have to do it all at once. Make a list of your strengths as an author. Include your skills in writing effective melodies and words, as well as qualities such as perseverance, a desire to work hard, and the ability to professionally run an author's business. When you see your strengths and weak sides written on paper, it will be easier for you to highlight the areas that you need to concentrate on. One or two areas can be singled out, from work on which you need to concentrate first of all, then in the same way take on the rest. It is also important to develop a plan that sets immediate and long-term goals. Don't say to yourself: "One of my songs will be a hit on all radio stations in three months." It won't happen even if you wrote a great song yesterday. It takes well over three months for a song to be recorded, commercially released, and climb the charts. It would be more useful to say to yourself, for example: "I will write for half an hour five days a week, especially concentrating on narrative texts that will attract people regardless of their status, and that will come straight from the heart."

Plans are usually easier to make than to stick to. If you find this difficult, find a co-author to help you follow this plan.

Pay attention to the obstacles you create for yourself. Analyze what is preventing you from achieving your goal, what exactly does not allow you to spend time on creative activity and develop some necessary skills, and destroy them one by one.

In the early stages of your development as an author, it's best to focus on honing your skills and craftsmanship. If you've been writing for at least a year and you have twenty songs ready, you also need to start thinking about the commercial side of things.

One of the basic skills needed to be successful in the authoring business is resilience in the face of inevitable rejection and the frustration that comes with it. What separates writers who pursue their dreams from writers who give up is that they can turn their frustrations from failure into an even stronger drive to succeed. There are at least a thousand reasons why your song might not be accepted. If the response you get suggests that you've written a strong song, but it doesn't suit the company or artist, then you just haven't found the right place for your song yet. But if you keep getting replies that the song isn't up to professional standards, or something in particular needs to be changed, then you need to tweak it.

According to rough estimates, only 5% of the songs written by them bring income to professional authors, the remaining 95% never become commercially successful. Interestingly, in order to become successful, songwriters need to put their heart and soul into their songs on the one hand, and develop a sense of detachment from those songs in order to endure disappointment, which can sometimes be devastating. Remember, your worth as a person is not determined by the level of commercial success you have as an author.

Here right ways, which allow you to cope with disappointment and become even stronger:

1. Learn to learn from every event.

Ask yourself if there is anything positive to be found in this rejection. Is there a lesson to be learned - maybe something needs to be changed in this song, or in the songs that you are going to write, or in the way you do business? Remain receptive to constructive criticism.

2. Increase your focus.

Some of the most successful people in any field are those who use each of their failures as a motivator to work even harder towards their goals. If you say to yourself, "I'll show you how good my songs can be. No matter how long it takes, I'll write a song so powerful that it can't be rejected," that's much more productive than saying, "I think it's proves that I'm not capable of writing songs. I'll never be successful."

3. Realistically assess your capabilities.

Perhaps you need to reassess your expectations. Maybe your vision for the future is too high in relation to the stage at which you are now as an author. If you only write for 1-2 years in your spare time, it's unrealistic to expect your songs to be as good as those written by professional songwriters who have been honing their craft for years.

4. Never give up (as long as you enjoy the process).

Remember that if you have not yet achieved some specific manifestation of success, then the thought of this should not prevent you from achieving your goals in the future.

Not every writer who reads these tips will see their songs rise to the top of the charts. Some may see. But every writer who works hard, polishes his craft while remaining receptive to constructive criticism, will continue to grow and improve his skills. Finding pleasure in the songwriting process, the sense of contentment that comes with knowing that you have communicated your thoughts in a way that resonates with other hearts, that is success. Happy journey!

Many novice musicians who are serious and plan to achieve success in their musical group ask themselves the question: How to become a famous musician? Let's talk today about how to start, assemble a group and pave your way to fame .. Well, if you are lucky to succeed or not, it will already depend on many factors.

The foundation in the question "How to become a famous musician" is to create the right band with the right people. Usually, novice musicians want to create a rock band, and we will build on this. Indeed, in pop music, the very principle of promotion and promotion can be very different.

But let's define what types of rock bands are:

  1. Command. This type of group implies that all participants have the same priority, there is no main one, all decisions are made collectively.
  2. Leader + other members. There are many examples of this kind of group. In this case, there is a clear leader whose word is decisive, and there are other members of the group. If the leader leaves the group for any reason, then it (the group) in most cases ceases to exist, because the whole point was in the leader, and without him the group is already "not the same".
  3. Independent artist. There are also many such examples. In this case, the person does everything alone.

For beginner musicians, it would be better to create a team (the first kind of rock band). In this case, you will decide everything together with your team. As they say, "one head is good, but two (three, four...) is better".

But, of course, it's up to you which type of team to choose.

Material recording

Suppose there is already a rock band, all technical issues have been resolved, there is rap. a base (usually a garage), bought instruments, etc. It's time to get the material (music). I want to say right away that even a year after the creation of the group, you may still not record your first album. Again, while all sorts of little things and nuances are being decided, after all, you are a beginner in this matter. So be patient and start creating.

In general, as an option, while there are no songs of your own, you can make covers of famous compositions and perform with them. This is what many aspiring rock bands do.

Group initial promotion

Of course, in order for someone to know about you, you need to actively declare yourself, otherwise there is no way, because you do not have a producer who would promote you.

You need to start with social networks. Create in all known social networks. networks pages, groups, profiles, etc. with your rock band, and post various information there so that your fans have something to read and watch. Post photos, videos from rehearsals, songs, performances, etc. Your readers should like you.

Perhaps this is the most basic thing you can do at the start. In the future, if you're lucky, your fans will tell their friends about you, and those - to theirs, you'll get word of mouth. In this way, word about you can quickly spread throughout the country, provided, of course, that you are really good at your job.

It's time to perform. But where can we perform while no one knows us? After all, no one will call us to a large concert venue, because the group is not known to anyone.

To get started, you can study the list of various rock festivals that take place in your city. Find whoever is running the festival and ask to perform there. Many festivals are aimed at little-known bands and give them the opportunity to show themselves.

But in order to put you on stage, the manager must understand that you are worth it and perform well. Therefore, do not let him down: get good equipment, find good musicians, prepare a worthy repertoire so as not to fall into the mud, otherwise your fans (the small part that you managed to acquire) may turn away from you, and you will not see glory.

Further you can study the list of clubs in your city. Come to each of them and ask the chief about the opportunity to perform in their club. Some may willingly agree. And if everything goes as it should, then you will have new fans, and the founders of the club will invite you more than once.

And yes, the most important thing: at the beginning of your career as a musician in a rock band, do not think about earnings, think only about how to collect a large list of listeners who would like your work, in general, fans. Accept any offers to speak, even those that will not bring you profit. At least a few new people will know about you.

Yes, it turns out that at the beginning of your career, you will not only not earn money, but at first you will be generally in the red (we will learn about this below). That's why many aspiring bands give up music when their band doesn't make a profit. They probably expected huge fees immediately, but received only expenses. Therefore, you need to do everything competently and with your head.

If you have turned from a small team into a more or less well-known group, then you are lucky, your work has not been in vain. Now that everyone knows about you more people, you can move from small clubs to larger sites. To do this, write proposals with a request to perform in various concert halls, venues. And not only in your city, but also in neighboring cities. Moreover, now it is convenient to do this - you do not need to go to a neighboring city. Concert venues can be found on the Internet, where you can find contacts and contact the founders.

And at this stage, you can already think about some earnings. The most important thing you have to learn is that your earnings (the group's earnings) depend on the number of people who came to your concert. NOT on the ticket price, but on the number of people. Moreover, at first you will not break the huge prices for the ticket.

To further increase the popularity of your group, just do your job well - write good and high-quality music, release new albums, do not stand still. Moreover, you already have your circle of listeners!

There is no need to do anything further, only luck will help you here. Many remain at this level (they travel to various small concert halls with concerts), and someone gets worldwide fame and popularity. By the way, no one still knows what determines popularity ..

Expenses

Well, in the end, I would like to say a little about the costs that await you at the beginning of the journey. You should immediately be prepared for the fact that you will have to spend a lot of money. Of course, the numbers are different for everyone.

  1. Group creation costs. This includes - the purchase of tools, equipment, rap. base, etc. You can read more about this here -
  2. Recording songs. Recording a song costs about 50K rubles. Of course, it all depends on the studio. The price of work in the studio - 1-2K rubles. In total, the recording of an album can take up to 500K rubles! Of course, if an acquaintance or a friend works for you at the studio, then you are lucky: recording a song can cost you less. You can save even more: for example, registering some parts yourself on a computer is also an option.
  3. Rock band advertisement. The most important advertising for us at the beginning of the journey is advertising in social networks. networks. If you select about 10K rubles per month for advertising pages and groups in the social. networks, you can achieve good results.

You can calculate how much your investment will cost you. Think seriously before starting your own rock band. After all, many groups never achieve success and give up their work when they realize that they are only spending money, and there is no income.

Conclusion

So, we have learned with you, how to become a famous musician. And real success is achieved only by those for whom music is life. Therefore, if you don’t really like making music, but just want popularity, fame and money, then you shouldn’t create a musical group. If you can’t imagine any other life for yourself, except to perform in a rock band, then first carefully think over and analyze everything.

You should also understand that being a musician is also a job. You must be ready for a lot of work, for constant moving, traveling.

Good luck in all your endeavors! 🙂