Careers for Guitarist

With the modern diminishing population of working musicians and the lack of imagination and soul in popular music, the possibilities of a meaningful and sustained career as a guitar player are becoming harder to find. In my opinion, the music business will soon face a crisis it could never have imagined at the time the Beatles surfaced on the scene over 50 years ago.

Career Options:

Guitar Teacher

As a succesful guitar teacher I see the trend towards teaching becoming either a part-time job or something to augment other income you make. Student numbers in the last 10 years are dwindling due to technology, lack of community support for the arts, economics, and the guitars absence from popular radio. It would be very hard to impossible to build a full studio of student in present times.

Recording Artist (Solo or Band)

We all (guitarists) dream of being a famous rock star and that our music would be the next big thing in the world of entertainment. The truth is that it is more like winning the lottery than anything else. The music industry is a corporate monster that can chew your dreams up like an over-ripe banana in it's "make money first" and "entertain at any cost" attitude. I really like the idea of a musician striving to be successful and to "make it" in the music industry, I just don't think it promotes a healthy and balanced life and existence for the individual guitarist or for those (wife, husband, children) that depend on them. It's a dream that can be pursued but with limits related of time, finances and integrity.

Studio Guitarist

The studio guitarist is specialist of sorts and needs the health of the music industry to sustain his/her craft and income. It's very difficult in smaller towns and cities and getting harder in the bigger music enters to make a living even remotely equivalent to 20 years ago. My studio musician friends all have other types of work they do to scratch out a living and keep their passion for playing alive.

Live Guitarist

I keep on hearing that all the gigs are disappearing to cheap DJ's, canned music, and disappearing live music venues. The live guitarist has dwindling options and in many cases very low pay to sustain any sort of consistent career.

YouTube star Guitarist

This is a possibility for virtuosos and big personalities to cash in on the growing population of Youtube watchers and subscribers.

Online Guitar Education

One can sell anything if there are interested buyers online. A guitarist can have some success in online lessons and media related streams but you have to have good business sense and cutting edge ideas and enough content (free and purchasable) to make a descent living.

SUMMARY

I am very skeptical of the possibilities for me personally and for students of mine of having steady work in the music industry in the present and future. Everything seems to point towards the corporate model of a few 'haves' and a tonne of 'have-nots'. We are in the societal business of creating "idols, stars, and viral entities at the expense of nurturing arts within our communities and sustaining a vehicle for musical development over time. There are too few to care for the 'soul of music' and too many who would use music as a material thing only to be crumpled and wasted.