Why Do So Many Guitarist Not Read Music

Practice yous want to know how to brand money playing guitar? Are you passionate about it?

Well, let me tell yous something…

You lot can make money from playing guitar, it sounds well-nigh impossible sometimes only you can always greenbacks your passions into real money if you really want to and do the right things.

At present…

If y'all came here looking for some "how to get rich quick" vibes, you are in the wrong place. I will be talking almost legit means in which you can build a sustainable concern and earn an income as a guitar player, non how to make a million dollars in one week.

At that place are many ways to use your artistic abilities to earn money.

I will go over some of the ones that I've seen people use over the years and also some others that have worked for me as well.

Let'southward now get-go…

Table of Contents

• 1. Become yourself into freelancing
• two. Teach others how to play the guitar
• 3. First doing more live performances
  • Other things to do while live performing
• 4. Simply record your ain music and upload information technology to streaming platforms
• 5. Use YouTube to upload videos and monetize them
  • What are some ways that you can make coin with YouTube?
    • ane- Through Ads
    • 2- Through affiliates
    • 3- Sponsor videos
• half dozen. Utilise Instagram to build an audience and accuse for sponsored posts
• vii. Try street performing or busking
• 8. Create a guitar blog/website
• 9. Sell tabs or sheet music online
• 10. Make relaxing music with either your guitar or other digital instruments
• Often asked questions
  • Can y'all sell guitar riffs?

1. Get yourself into freelancing

You can freelance your way into guitar playing to earn money.

There are many session guitarists who are asked to play alive or for recordings when other bands or musicians require a guitar player.

Local event managers could tell you well-nigh such gigs, so 1 thing you would need to do is go out there and talk to whoever leads most of the events around your town.

Now…

I know this is not a motion picture, near of these event managers are not going to spend their fourth dimension talking to every guitar player that approaches them.

A good thing you can practise is…

Go to your local music store, and see if they have a lath in which musicians put ads on it.

You will often detect other bands that are already making money past playing gigs that demand a guitar histrion.

Besides that, now y'all have the opportunity to get online and advertise your skills. Some online platforms allow yous to gear up up profiles as session guitarists so people can detect you lot when they require your skills.

Many people have found success on Fiverr selling their own guitar songs or riffs, or even recording for others.

How could Fiverr even provide some income for a guitarist?

Good question.

Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelance services.

There is a section that is exactly defended to that, session musicians that tin can provide services related to their craft; of course for a fee.

Fiverr gigs start at $5, only y'all can price your piece of work even more than that if y'all want.

Yous just need to create an business relationship and offset selling your "gigs".

Equally more people hopefully buy your services, you lot volition commencement gaining more than popularity and you could even offset networking with other musicians.

A lot of money could exist made from using Fiverr, but as e'er there will be a lot of competition.

Y'all would have to deal with it; just exist smart, and be better than them past offering more value every time somebody orders from yous and yous will do better than the average seller.

Let's take a closer await!

I went ahead and searched for "Session Musicians" and selected to simply bear witness "guitar" gigs.

These were some of the results I got:

Every bit y'all can see, the platform will push upward whoever has 5.0 stars reviews.

If you coil downwards, everybody else with 4.9 and below, starts to appear.

Let's go to an bodily Fiverr guitarist seller's folio…

I chose someone that at the fourth dimension was not even a Level 1 Seller.

Quick Annotation: Fiverr ranks its sellers in dissimilar groups:

• Seller
• Level One Seller
• Level Two Seller
• Elevation-Rated Seller

To read more about it, y'all tin can become here.

And then, this person has v stars, with 46 reviews.

And accept in heed that not everybody writes reviews, so the full number of gigs that he has sold, might be more.

His Bones packet is $5, but then he as well has a Standard packet that is priced at $fifteen, and a Premium package that costs $25. (All this is at the time I'm writing this. )

If we do some calculations, and nosotros are extremely pessimistic near his earnings, using his basic packet ($5), and even forgetting about the fact that you tin upsell your gigs:

That will give u.s. 46x$5, which would exist equal to $230. But, there is too a catch, though.

How does Fiverr make coin?

Well, they accept a fee from every purchase that yous get.

And so that same adding that we just did would end up giving yous approximately $185.

You might say that's not enough to pay for rent, and that is the real truth. Simply it is money you didn't take before, and that'south really the mindset I think you should have while doing this.

I really encourage you to watch this video for a more than realistic indicate of view about making money on Fiverr as a guitarist:

I Sold My Guitar Services on Fiverr

By no means, we are being sponsored by Fiverr and want to sell you this image that this is all very easy to exercise.

Information technology's very hard, and I cannot stress that plenty.

In that video, you will get his very honest stance on making money on Fiverr, and the very entertaining story of how he got $0 with a newly created business relationship.

A few Fiverr alternatives or just other platforms to sell your work are:

• Upwork.com
• Freelancer.com
• Peopleperhour.com

2. Teach others how to play the guitar

Now, this one is one of the most stable means to make money playing guitar. If you are a pro and know how to play guitar, yous tin can set up tutoring lessons.

Yous can advertise or market your skills through posters effectually your boondocks or even just with your own contacts.

Fifty-fifty if you get a few students at the start, information technology will all be for proficient in the long run as more people commencement to learn about your skills and give-and-take-of-rima oris starts to get bigger,

If you are a patient person, it volition not be difficult for you to explain the basics of playing the guitar and teach students to follow sheet music at all.

In fact, it volition be an interesting mode to use your skills every bit you will find yourself also learning forth the manner.

On the other mitt, if yous experience like your abilities are non enough, this might help you.

You just demand to know more than than the average person.

Some people will literally pay yous to learn how to play chord progressions and modest riffs.

Now…

Please don't advertise something that you won't be able to provide. Always be honest about your skills and what you lot can teach.

There are many sites that will let you lot join every bit a instructor. For instance, lessons.com

You lot can join as a teacher, and create a professional person profile, and if y'all go lucky enough, you could find a few potential students effectually your area that are already on in that location, that will maybe even travel to yous.

The amount of coin that you lot will brand, volition highly depend on how much you accuse your students.

Let's think about another scenario now…

You lot don't like going to other people's houses or you don't have infinite to teach students in a studio or business firm.

What can you do?

There are many approaches to this, but some other selection would be to create a guitar class and maybe sell it on Udemy.com or fifty-fifty your ain website (which gives you more liberty to do whatever you want).

You can toll information technology as high or depression as y'all want. Some of these guitar courses on Udemy.com go for as high as $199.99.

If you lot take a close await, that first result of my search currently has 21,054 reviews.

Even with the website's fees, you would still be earning a lot of coin if you go to the level that these instructors are in.

Simply…

It is not all that great and I must be honest and requite y'all a reality check.

Most Udemy instructors have been doing this for years, and even accept very pop YouTube channels that they apply to drive traffic to their courses, as well every bit landing pages to collect emails, etc.

Then, this is not a "get rich fast" strategy, simply it'due south surely a very stable one.

In the beginning, it might be really hard to build this blazon of success without an audience, just that'southward the challenge I encourage y'all to take.

You lot might fail, or y'all might succeed, but at least you tried.

Some Udemy alternatives are:

• Skillshare.com
• Udacity.com
• Lynda.com

To get started, but go to their respective homepages, and expect for a "Go an instructor" link.

3. Start doing more than live performances

This 1 might be a little difficult for people without the right connections, just with fourth dimension, information technology tin can get a very convenient mode of earning money since this is what generally every musician wants to do equally a career.

How do you lot get about information technology?

Yous will have to commencement by playing at a local restaurant, social club, or bar, if possible.

If you want to enquire for a bear witness, yous have to seem apparent.

That is why, if I was you I would record myself playing, then show the videos or audios to the director, or whoever is in accuse of the place.

Your recordings will be proof that you lot are worth a endeavour.

At beginning, stick with small payments since you want to build your image slowly. Don't hope to get paid a couple of thousands of dollars on your showtime gigs.

That's not how it usually goes.

Telling yous to await to get paid at first is me being extremely positive about it. Y'all might find yourself playing for gratuitous for a while.

As a style of fact, I recollect you should get up to the manager of your favorite restaurant or venue, and offer to play for free for a few shows, and then say that if they similar it, you would want them to beginning paying y'all for your work, and to make you a contract.

Now…

As you abound your skills and experience with live performing, you can also aim to play at bigger restaurants or venues.

Experienced and popular artists are always paid better.

Just be patient in the first and work your way upwards.

Pro Tip:Having a strong social media presence is actually important.

Let's exist rational for a 2d…

You are the manager of a eatery and some guitar thespian tells you lot that they want to play at your venue. What's the first matter you do?

Your respond to that question, among many others, should take been to just look them up on Instagram, YouTube, etc.

So, showing your gear on Instagram, and posting some covers on YouTube would get-go to brand sense at this indicate.

Other things to do while live performing

If allowed by the venue or restaurant:

Try selling your own merch; pregnant accessories similar hats, or picks that are related to you or your band (normally with your logo or name on it).

But…

Again, reality check!

If you are a small artist and y'all desire to sell some merchandise, it would make the near sense to sell generic guitar-related or music designs, rather than putting your own proper noun on it at kickoff.

Note: Take that equally a marketing opinion, and not a fact, since every case is different with each creative person and their fanbase.

Aside from this, and possibly fifty-fifty more importantly, yous can sell CDs with your own music once you start to play at bigger venues.

Inevitably, in my stance, people volition stop using these, and they will get more than of a throwback affair, but you might still find this to be a practiced practice if you are lucky enough and your audition likes it.

By handling CDs with your songs, you are really making money and promoting yourself at the same time, which is something not everybody can do.

4. Simply tape your ain music and upload it to streaming platforms

This one goes well-nigh side past side with the ane before.

Let's face it, you honey music and you want to be that artist that gets paid for doing what it loves. If this is the instance, then you lot should start recording your own music.

We talked about how y'all should record yourself to bear witness people around so y'all can hopefully go some shows.

Well…

Make that opportunity the perfect i to come up with music so adept, that it is worth releasing it.

It is of import to have faith in your skills to produce and record yourself, but you can always book a studio and start to tape your own tracks professionally.

Pro tip: You can earn money through shops that stock your works and online platforms that characteristic your music. Upload your music to streaming platforms and brand coin through those as well.

The old days of record labels being the ones owning every opportunity for every artist out at that place are over.

Nowadays, y'all can upload your songs to Spotify, Apple Music, and pretty much everywhere, from your own computer.

There are many platforms to do so, for example, DistroKid is my personal favorite since you lot become to own 100% of your royalties, simply you also take TuneCore or CDBaby.

Note: If you register your music with a Content Identification System (DistroKid has this option),  you can too get paid every fourth dimension somebody uses your music on YouTube, for example.

You tin can likewise sell your music straight to fans who genuinely love your music.

If past releasing songs and playing live shows, y'all are able to build a fan base of operations, so you are pretty much on the correct path to even more success.

5. Use YouTube to upload videos and monetize them

YouTube has many opportunities for anyone.

Annihilation from teaching the world how to play guitar, showing off your instruments and knowledge, uploading covers, to fifty-fifty talking about how to brand money playing guitar.

We have seen how many guitar players from all over the globe take made information technology to the top by simply doing this, uploading YouTube videos.

What are some means that y'all tin can make money with YouTube?

Y'all will become paid depending on how many views yous get.

In that location are many means in which you can monetize your channel, the almost common ones are:

1- Through Ads

Every bit I mentioned, yous will become paid depending on how many views you lot go. You will usually become paid per 1000 views, and the number may vary from aqueduct to aqueduct.

This one is one of the most effective ones. The correlation between the people that scout your content, and how much you get paid, volition tell y'all what you are doing well and what you are not.

Significant, that if you run across that a sure type of video is getting more than views, yous would obviously upload more than content on that aforementioned topic or style.

Also…

Just so you know, you cannot but create an account and upload a video or song to YouTube and start getting paid right away. There are requirements that yous need to take intendance of earlier yous even go accustomed to their monetization arrangement.

Source: YouTube Studio Monetization Tab

In order to use other monetization strategies like Aqueduct Memberships, Trade Shelf, Super Conversation & Super Stickers, and besides YouTube Premium revenue, you lot should comply with other requirements besides:

Source: YouTube's Help Center

As you tin see from the first picture higher up, this is what YouTube has to say near this topic:

To go into the YouTube Partner Program, your aqueduct needs iv,000 public sentry hours in the last 12 months, and 1,000 subscribers. Your channel volition also go reviewed to make sure it follows YouTube monetization policies.

Another example of the fact that some of the ways to make the most money come with harder efforts.

2- Through affiliates

Getting paid through affiliates is by and large very handy for small channels since you don't demand besides many views to start seeing some coin period in.

You can join any affiliate program, and then promote products on your videos. After on, later you accept put that product's link on your video description, if people click information technology and make a purchase, you volition go a committee for it.

Note:With Amazon Associates, you lot become a commission for everything a certain person who clicked on your link bought, being not necessarily a guitar-related gear.

For instance, y'all tin promote guitars, pedals, or pretty much anything that has an affiliate plan.

Tip:Make a video reviewing the gear you lot currently have (guitar, pedals, amps), and then identify an affiliate link on your description.

If any of these videos that promote a production get rank loftier on YouTube or even Google, the amount of money could exist very high. Depending on the demand and the search volume of whatsoever keyword you are going for, you will kickoff receiving more and more visits every 24-hour interval.

Again, this is not easy to do, but highly rewarding in the futurity.

Making money through sponsor videos is the near difficult ane. This is because brands commonly go for whoever has the most amount of subscribers.

This is not something that is mostly the case, though.

Sometimes y'all encounter pretty small channels also getting paid by sponsors every bit well, only at that point, in my stance, information technology is more of being lucky than anything else.

Now…

Yous can try talking to brands and offer them value, instead of just waiting for them to find you.

You lot tin can contact them and say something like:

Hey, love your stuff. I run across that you are promoting (insert their product). My YouTube channel is currently receiving (insert your true statistics). I was thinking we can manage to make a deal in which I characteristic your product on my channel, let me know what you think.

This won't always get y'all a deal, only it puts you out at that place.

That example text, it's non even close to what yous should be sending to these companies since information technology sounds very generic.

E'er make sure to make it as personal and humanly as possible and to add your ain taste to information technology.

If y'all have a growing audience:

• You will make more money from ads
• You lot will get more clicks to your chapter links
• More companies volition contact you to promote their gear

On this YouTube video

Making Money Equally A Musician On YouTube

In the long run, YouTube tin be a useful platform for you if you lot know how to employ it well.

Not merely to brand money only to get exposure as an artist also.

half dozen. Use Instagram to build an audience and accuse for sponsored posts

Not a lot of guitar players are using this resource to grow every bit artists and to brand some income.

But if y'all pay close attending to it, it has all been happening for years now.

Have you ever seen these big guitar pages with hundreds of thousands of followers giving shout-outs to pocket-sized creators?

Equally some of them unremarkably practise it for gratuitous, others, evidently ask for a fee.

A great case of a page nosotros love is @guitardaily on Instagram:

As you can see from their bio, it says "DM for inquiry on paid features".

Most of the time when yous encounter an creative person existence posted, that means the creative person paid to be on there,

So, equally a guitar histrion, a great side hustle could be to either create your own repost page or simply abound your ain personal account to and then charge others for exposure.

There are many ways you can price this, but it all depends on you.

And again, this is past no means easy!

That folio alone has already posted 6,976 posts at the time I'm writing this.

And have in mind that, at first, you will have no followers and you would need to abound information technology by reposting other people'due south contents: meaning you volition always want to ask for their consent earlier doing so.

It tin can exist actually time-consuming, and non really that worth it in comparison to other methods in this article.

7. Attempt street performing or busking

This i is maybe i of the oldest methods to make money while playing the guitar.

Street performance or busking is co-ordinate to Wikipedia:

The act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as nutrient, potable, or gifts may exist given.

So, essentially what you would desire to practice is go to a actually populated place, and prepare upward a pocket-size environs in which y'all would have your guitar equipment (amps, guitar, pedalboard, etc) and then some sort of box (sometimes your own guitar example) and so that people can give you money.

In my opinion, this manner is one of the fastest ways to make money playing guitar.

Although one disadvantage is that your income will most probable be inconsistent.

But if y'all feel like you will be comfy playing in front of people in the streets, so you lot should definitely try it out.

I really encourage yous to watch this video to take a look at a real-life guitarist who is making coin while busking:

Busking: Basic TIPS for a NEW busker!

He talks almost how much he made on that day that he was recording and shares some tips for people who are thinking about starting to do it as well.

8. Create a guitar blog/website

Having a guitar blog or website could essentially work virtually the aforementioned way as a YouTube channel.

Meaning that you would upload content, and with time and endeavour, yous would exist able to put ads on information technology and monetize it.

In that same way, you can as well put affiliate links on written product reviews, for example. When people click on those corresponding links and buy that said product, you would get a commission.

And once more, this one is by no means easy, and it requires a lot of work to put it together, equally well equally some initial investment similar buying hosting for your website, buying a domain, etc.

There are plenty of ways to earn money through your passion.

The central is to invest time into your skills and to know how to properly use them.

9. Sell tabs or canvas music online

There are multiple online platforms that you tin utilise to sell your original canvass music or tabs.

MusicNotes.com is one of those platforms. You tin can go and upload your sheet music and and then people that are interested in buying your work would just go there and practise the checkout procedure.

But who are these people that will magically buy your piece of work?

Well, people won't announced all all of a sudden to give y'all money, that's for sure.

You need some sort of traffic on a website or a YouTube channel!

But what you can do, is utilise the other ways of making coin that we talked almost before and combine them with this one.

If you upload guitar videos to YouTube, have a website, or simply a big audience, then yous're 50% ahead of many other guitar players reading this right at present.

Checkout page on MusicNotes.com

If you accept original piece of work that yous created yourself and a good corporeality of people are interested, then you will most likely go some sales.

And earlier you lot get discouraged…

If yous are like me, and probably 90% of all guitarists and don't actually use or understand canvas music, and so I have some good news for y'all.

This same platform has a session that is specifically for guitar tabs.

It would look something like this:

Now…

The trouble with this site is that due to the need of having proper licensing and data on each piece that they offer, you tin can not only sign up and kickoff selling your piece of work right away.

But they are open to working with yous if you are an artist with "an established base of musicians looking to perform your music."

Meaning, that if you are somebody that already has a lot of people willing to purchase or play your music, then yous can only reach out to them. They encourage those who qualify to contact them via e-mail at publish@musicnotes.com.

You can read more than almost it in this article posted on their support page.

On the other side, this is not the end of the world for those that might not qualify, there are many other alternatives that many would fifty-fifty argue that are better.

For example, you tin create your own website to sell your music with your own payment system.

This way you will accept total command over the pricing and there won't exist whatsoever processing fee other than the one from the payment system itself.

10. Make relaxing music with either your guitar or other digital instruments

This method is a flake similar to the one where we told you to upload videos on YouTube, simply I experience similar this deserves to be a betoken of itself.

I'yard pretty sure you lot've seen i of those relaxing videos on YouTube, those channels get A LOT of views.

This video for case was posted on October 1th, 2022 past Yellow Brick Cinema:

3 Hour Relaxing Guitar Music: Meditation Music, Instrumental Music, Calming Music, Soft Music, ☯2432

At the time that I'g writing this verbal sentence, that video has 109,723,308 views.

Now, if nosotros practice a little flake of research on this channel, according to Social Blade, a YouTube analytics website, it is estimated that this channel is making around $8.6k – $137.7k a month.

At the same fourth dimension, their estimated yearly earnings are about $103.3k to $1.7M.

Even if those numbers are highly overestimated, it still gives us a decent thought of what's possible with a channel like that.

You lot don't have to play guitar for 3 or ten hours direct, y'all could just create a track that's about iii-x minutes long, and so you loop information technology for 3-10 hours with whatever royalty-gratis prototype or video.

If you take experience with whatever music-making software like FL Studio, Logic, Ableton Live, etc. then doing something like this is extremely easy and fast to do.

Frequently asked questions

Tin yous sell guitar riffs?

You tin can sell your original guitar riffs, merely this is not as simple as that.

There are many things that need to be washed before you even consider doing something like this.

If you want to do it the correct mode…

Outset of all, yous will need to get into multiple legal steps to but prove that said riff is even yours.

Is not like yous tin can just go ahead and sell the Sweet Child O' Mine riff for example, considering you don't own the correct to that vocal.

You lot would need to copyright your songs and then sell the right to utilize them to other people, with your ain terms and conditions.

But if you research this topic a little bit further, you will detect out that there are many loopholes in U.S. copyright laws.

Those loopholes make it a lot harder to copyright just about any tune and riff.

That's why things such equally music samplingexist.

These laws are however being inverse nowadays and don't really have a solid base of operations merely even so.

Imagine copyrighting a 12-bar blues riff?

That would hypothetically cause a big number of lawsuits among almost any musician since those riffs have been used by many guitarists for as long as nosotros tin even remember.

I encourage you to research this topic more according to where you live, just so you get a amend agreement of your personal state of affairs and how you can go ahead and do something like this.

Before you go

Our website is all almost guitars and how to get improve at them.

Nosotros share many tips and tricks in our blog for anyone that's a beginner and an experienced guitar player as well.

You volition also be able to see what we call back is the best gear out at that place through our reviews and lists.

Make certain to bank check out other articles too, and experience free to run across more of our content.

Thank you so much for being hither! 🤘

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