![Living and working as a musician can be demanding, but getting the chance to express yourself is worth the effort for a lot of people. Getting Serious About Your Music](images/Music-Guitar-Hand-Firmbee-1000.jpg)
If you have been dabbling with an instrument or trying to pick it up, and you've found that you've discovered a real creative passion within yourself, then you might be thinking about what you can do beyond looking at online tutorials to really give it your effort. Here, we're going to look at how you can level up, taking your music from just a hobby to exploring your creative bounds, and perhaps even looking at recording and putting some stuff out there.
Commit to Learning
If you've been entirely self-taught so far, there's nothing to stop you from continuing to teach yourself, especially if you're leveling up at a decent rate. However, you're almost always going to start improving a lot faster if you have the help of a good music teacher. You can find online lessons quite easily nowadays, too, so you don't have to settle for only your expensive local tutors.
Get Supplied
You likely already have the instrument that you're trying to get serious with, but if you're looking to perform on a more serious level, not to mention travel with your instrument, then you're going to need more than that. Take the time to browse a music gear store to see the kind of accessories and tools that are available. You might want to ask other musicians what's really necessary and which are the nice-to-haves so that you can budget wisely.
Make the Right Space for It
Once you're fully equipped, you're going to want to look at how you can record and practice music more effectively, to capture the best sounds. Creating a music room is the best way to do that. You're going to need to soundproof the area, make space for your accessories, and make sure that the space is generally comfortable and conducive to long sessions of playing and recording.
Be in Community with Musicians
Even if you're driven by a competitive spirit, you want to be surrounded by other musicians. Start following artists you like on Soundcloud and set up your own page, join the music subreddits most related to the kind of music you're trying to make, and find forums for practitioners of your particular instrument. You can always benefit from wisdom, experience, and even some basic advice.
Consider Career Options
If you're really getting serious about your music, then you may well start thinking about how you can make it not just a passion, but a way to make money. Joining a band or releasing your own music is always a potential route, but it's not the only one. You can become a session musician for other bands and recording artists, you can create music designed to be used in other media, be it videos, movies, or video games, and more.
Living and working as a musician is demanding and can certainly be stressful, but getting the chance to express yourself like that is worth the effort for a lot of people, especially if you truly have a love for the music.
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