How to Start Your Career in Music School

Do you want to learn how to start your career as a music student? You don’t need to wait until that degree is in your hands.

In fact, you shouldn’t wait. No matter what music job you want, read on to learn how to get a jump on it.

But first, this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy to learn more.

Decide Between Entrepreneurship or Employment

The first step in how to start your career is to consider whether you want to work for yourself or someone else. Entrepreneurship involves working for yourself, and you can start one music business or multiple.

Meanwhile, traditional employment involves getting a full-time job or a few part-time jobs to make your money. Neither option is right for everyone, so consider which option might suit you.

Who Entrepreneurship Is For

Entrepreneurship or self-employment is for people who want more control and flexibility. Working for yourself can be very tumultuous, so you need to be comfortable with not having a super stable income, at least at first.

However, I think self-employment is great while you’re in school. You can work your new business around your existing school schedule. That way, you don’t have to worry about always calling out of work or missing school events.

Even after you graduate, entrepreneurship can still be very flexible. I love being able to take a day off if I feel ill or something else comes up.

Who Employment Is For

Some people find it very stressful to work for themselves. If you want a bit more stability regarding your income, you may want to find a job.

Working for someone else is also nice if you like to have a separation between your work and your life. With a job, you clock in, do your thing, and you clock out.

If you work for yourself, you may feel like you have to always be working. That can be a real bummer, and it can keep you from enjoying your free time.

Look for Local Gigs

When you’re ready to start your career in school, start with your local area. Think about the type of work you want to do, such as performing or teaching lessons.

If you want to teach lessons, you can research nearby music stores and studios that offer lessons. Maybe you want to perform, so you look into churches and other venues that might hire musicians.

Either way, make a list of the places you could contact for work. You can send an email with your info and ask if they need help. Of course, you could also use job boards to find local gigs.

Be Willing to Travel

I went to graduate school in a mid-sized city, so there were quite a few opportunities available. However, I went to undergrad in a small town that was at least an hour away from nearby cities.

If the latter applies to you, you may need to be willing to travel a bit. That doesn’t mean you have to fly everywhere. But if you have access to a car and can drive, you should consider doing so.

Then, you’ll have access to more gigs and venues. Even if you live in a city, traveling to other cities in the area can open you up to more work.

Don’t Ignore Non-Traditional Options

When you think of how to start your career as a musician, you probably think about teaching and performing. But you can make money in the music industry in many other ways, including in your college town.

If there’s a local music store, for example, you could work as a sales rep or cashier for them. Or maybe you work the front desk at a local music lesson studio.

These places may be willing to work around your school schedule. Plus, you could get your foot in the door and eventually switch to the teaching side if you choose.

Consider Remote Work

In spring of 2020, tons of musicians lost all of their work due to pandemic lockdowns. Hopefully, that won’t ever happen again, but you never know when something else may shut down venues or schools.

As you start your music career or business, find ways to do so remotely when you can. This could involve anything from remote recording to teaching online lessons to doing something else related to music.

You can set up a website with a host like SiteGround. Then, you can use that website to market your services to people all over the world.

Start Creating Content

To help get some remote work, you should create content for social media and/or your website. You can start a blog, which is what I’ve done, so you can share tips and tricks regarding your instrument.

If you want to perform, post videos online of you playing your instrument. In your videos or the description, mention you’re open to performance gigs. You can also offer to perform over the internet.

Creating content can take a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to be super polished. You could set up your phone on your music stand and record yourself as you practice what you already need to, and you can post a clip online.

Apply to Remote Teaching Platforms

If teaching private lessons interests you, look into a few platforms. You can join Outschool, TakeLessons, and other websites. Those sites can help you market yourself to prospective students.

The platforms will even help with things like scheduling and collecting payments. You do have to pay a small fee, usually per lesson. But that can be well worth it for access to a larger pool of students.

Talk to Your Professors

Another great way to help start your career in music school is to tell your professors about what you want to do. The best place to start is with your private lesson teacher since you meet with them one-on-one each week.

But you can also talk to your ensemble directors, theory or history professor, and others that you’re close to. Mention the type of gigs you’re interested in to get on their radar.

If the professor ever has a gig come up that they can’t do, they might refer you. But to make this work, you need to show that professor that you’re professional and worth referring gigs to.

Engage With Your Fellow Students

You should also try and talk to other music school students. I don’t know about other schools, but my undergrad and grad schools had common areas. You could hang out there before or after class or rehearsals.

It was a great place to meet other people. As you meet people, you can learn about them, their instrument, and their goals. If you share the same interests, you could even form a chamber group or mini-lesson studio.

Then, you could work together to start your music career. You could also refer other students to gigs you can’t do and vice versa.

Schedule Your Classes Efficiently

As a music major, you may not have much choice in when you take certain classes. I know things like theory and history were only offered at one time where I went to school.

However, try to schedule other, non-music classes, strategically. For example, you could schedule all of your classes in the morning. Or maybe it’s easier to schedule classes for two or three days out of the week.

That way, you won’t have to go back and forth to campus as much. You’ll have more time to work on your career without sacrificing practice time or study time.

Consider Online Classes

In college, I was able to take almost all of my general education credits online or over the summer. Doing that was great because I could work on the class whenever I had time rather than on a set schedule.

As you work on building your career, you’ll need that flexibility. That way, you can make it to gigs or rehearsals. You also won’t have to risk taking a ton of evening classes that could make it hard to build a teaching studio.

You still need to dedicate time to your online classes. However, I found that I could be more efficient with my time compared to if I took those classes in person.

Make Use of the Weekend

The good news about a lot of performances and teaching gigs is that they happen on the weekends. You can fill your Saturday and Sunday with private students, performances, or both.

That way, your work won’t interfere too much with your schooling. You can focus on classes and ensembles during the week. When the weekend arrives, you can spend more time working and building your career.

Now, I’d still recommend scheduling some free time in there. But you won’t have to worry about rushing around town and getting back to campus for a class or concert in the same day as a professional gig.

Go Hard During School Breaks

You should also try to make the most of summer, winter, and spring breaks. For the summer, maybe you offer a group summer camp to students. You could teach them your instrument over a week or two.

During the winter break or spring break, work on audition materials. Then, you’ll be better prepared to take an orchestral audition if you choose to.

The smaller breaks are also a good time to work on marketing yourself. You may not get work right away, but you can plan out content for the next few weeks, and you may get more work for the next school break.

Repurpose Your Repertoire

If you want to go into performance, try to choose solos and other repertoire that you can play in school and professionally. For example, you can learn the big concerto for your instrument if you want to join an orchestra.

Most orchestral auditions will ask for part of the concerto. But you can also use that piece on your next jury or degree recital. That way, you can make your practice time more efficient.

Meanwhile, if you want to perform in churches, try to focus on church-appropriate music. Baroque works are usually a good choice for a religious setting.

Look for Semi-Passive Income

True passive income is very rare. However, you can find ways to make semi-passive or scalable income. This is where you do the work once, and you can continue to make money from your efforts.

You could sell digital sheet music of your compositions or arrangements. Or if you have products you love, you could promote them with affiliate marketing.

Generally, as your audience grows, you can make more money. However, unlike lessons or gigs, you don’t have to do the work over and over again. That means you can still have plenty of time to focus on your school stuff.

Experiment With Different Things

One of the best things about starting your music career in school is that you can test out a lot of things. For example, I thought I would enjoy teaching private lessons, and it was fine but not something I liked that much.

I was glad to get the opportunity to teach during grad school. But I later learned it wasn’t for me, so I moved on. You can do the same with teaching, performing, or any other music-related business or career.

Of course, you can experiment after you graduate. However, you’ll have to support yourself more at that time. In general, there’s less pressure to earn a ton of money when you’re still a student.

Be Consistent

If you want to start your career in music school, you need to be consistent. My biggest regret from college was not getting my career going. But when I was in grad school, I made sure not to make the same mistake.

Dedicate time each day or week to work on your career. Tasks to do include applying to jobs, marketing yourself online, and pitching yourself to potential clients or schools.

You don’t need to spend hours a day working on your career. But the more consistent you are, the bigger the chances are of your career at least getting started before graduation day.

Final Thoughts

After college, I had to find a non-music day job. It was fine, but looking back, I wish someone taught me how to start your career in college.

If you’re in undergrad or graduate school, don’t do what I did. Start your career now so that you have work lined up for graduation day.

To help market yourself and your career, you should use social media. And if you want to use Instagram, you should take the Instagram Marketing and Sales Academy!