Sometimes people ask me what I do, and I have a strange relationship to that question as well as the answer that I typically give: “oh, I teach music lessons for a living!” It’s true, and it’s one of my favorite things that I get to do, and it’s how I make much of my income…but it’s not really the whole story, and it’s not even the whole story of what I’m working toward/what I want to be doing. Any musician who is reading this and has also played music for the past 15 years or so is probably thinking about the 3-5 other things that they do to keep a steady income!
I’m writing this for three reasons:
I want to share a bit about what CHW Studios does in a really tangible way. I absolutely hate the recent trend of self-help, “give us $1000 and we’ll help you live a better life/make more money” and the multi-level marketing companies that lay out how you could make a bunch of money peddling their products. Those things may be true, but they cast a wide net, and (in my experience) they don’t care much if people get hurt or if the promises don’t come true.
By sharing those things in a tangible way, my hope is that other musicians can find their own path to doing what they love for a living, or at least doing music as a main source of income.
I want to hear your story of how you’re doing with all of this…is being a musician a struggle? Are you thriving in a touring band? Are you teaching lessons because you feel like you have to, but it feels like a slog?
I would really love to hear from you, share ideas, etc. so email me at chwstudios865@gmail.com (this won’t subscribe you for anything) or you can type in a message at the bottom of the page (also will not subscribe you for an email chain!).
So, ok, I guess I’m also trying to be one of those “self-help” gurus, but I’m not selling anything (really), nor am I making any promises. Sure, I would love to sell a helpful course one day or maybe hold a big online workshop, but I’m hesitant to start things like that (anyone else out there procrastinating on a big idea?) because I want to make absolutely 100% sure that it IS TRULY HELPFUL!
In the meantime, here’s a quick list of what I do on a weekly, monthly, even yearly basis, as a working musician:
Teach Music Lessons
Performing at Live Shows (sometimes festivals, sometimes cover gigs, private parties, you name it. My gigging life is all over the map, literally!)
Studio Recording Gigs (from my home studio! Also for various artists, I’ll go into it a bit more later.)
Podcasting (specifically producing, editing, mixing, mastering, occasionally I’m an actual voice on a couple!)
YouTube (I don’t make a dime yet, but it’s been a fun way to create things and connect with people!)
Here’s a brief synopsis of what this looks like for me:
Teaching Lessons - I’ve been teaching for 15 years, basically all of my adult life. I started by teaching drums to a few people I met at church who wanted lessons, and that has grown into my main source of income for almost 3 years now! I teach a few other instruments, it’s a fairly steady monthly income, and it’s one of those things that I encourage ALL musicians to do, even if it’s just 5 or so students per week. It’ll help you stay on top of your instrument and grow as a musician.
Performing at Live Shows - This has not really been a thing for the past year as I’m writing this (July of 2021), BUT THEY’RE COMIN’ BACK! I just played a private party a couple weekends ago, will be playing with a band at a festival up in Ohio next week, and I have a handful of shows booked for the Fall, from original material to a fun cover gig doing some Foo Fighters, Green Day, and some other pop-punk covers from the 90s/early 00s. So excited. ***Also, they’re all paying gigs! I very much encourage musicians to not take hardly any gigs that don’t pay something. Your time is valuable.
Studio Recording Gigs - I just finished recording drums on a single for an artist (I’ll tag her in an upcoming post and on social), and I was able to get some amazing sounds in my home studio with reasonably affordable gear. I’ll do a studio rundown sometime, but again, feel free to ask about what equipment I’m using!
Podcasting - Ok, now we’re getting into something that fell into my lap because, yep, everyone has a podcast (or maybe you had one with two of your best friends for 3 years that went absolutely nowhere but it was a blast!). I currently produce/edit/mix/master 4 podcasts, and then I do a couple others for fun. If you’re a musician who is using any recording software, even Audacity or GarageBand, you have the potential to do this as well. Sometimes it’s a little tedious, but it keeps me current on technology, plugins, exercising my creative mind with questions like “how do I get this to sound the best it possibly can with what equipment I have?” I love it.
YouTube - And now we’re officially to the one thing on this list that I make zero money doing but have an absolute blast doing it! Sometimes it will just be a goofy video, sometimes a downloadable drum loop, and sometimes I’ll teach through a pattern that I find myself using frequently. As I’m writing this I have 326 subscribers, and yes I would love to get to that 1000 mark and monetize - but for now, I’m honestly content to have fun creating and hope that it’s helpful for others.
That’s a wrap - I hope listing these things out gives you a visual of what you can be doing as a musician. I know that for me, even going to college to study music, I wasn’t sure that I would ever make a living using my music skills. But with a little creative thinking and leaning into things that were sometimes fun, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes a slog, I’ve been able to do a bunch of things that I love and make money doing them!
Leave a message below if you’d like - it can be completely anonymous, or add your name and email and I’ll hit you back! Again, it won’t sign you up for anything.