What does it take to be a pro? The ten things that separate the best from the rest
What does it take to be a pro? The ten things that separate the best from the rest
Could you be a professional musician? If you want to perform music at a high level, and make a living doing it, you need to know what it takes to grow and sustain a career. Working musicians tend to have a certain set of qualities and abilities that allow them to succeed, and if you want to level up from amateur to pro someday, you’ll need to have them, too.
This list of ten necessities for a successful career professionally performing music is based on my own experience and on input from my colleagues. The very first time I was paid to publicly perform music was over 20 years ago. I have played or sung music professionally at least once a week for most of the intervening years. I currently work as an organist, pianist, choral singer and solo singer, mostly in what’s termed the classical music tradition, and I collaborate regularly with a great many excellent musicians in and around Los Angeles and Orange County.
So I see these traits in action all the time, and I’ve seen what happens when someone doesn’t measure up in one of these areas.
As I said, I’ve drawn on the experience of my network of friends/colleagues for this list, too. Thank you in particular to Elias Berezin for a thought-provoking initial conversation on this topic that inspired me to write this article. Thank you also to Julie Hinton for her input on the topic during a post-gig lunch.
Although I generally work in the classical music world, this list applies to musicians in any genre. It could also apply to non-musical performance careers. I might even say that a professional in any field, not just performance, has to have their own version of each of these ten things.
To be a pro performer, you need:
Chops
Consistency
Efficiency
Adaptability
Self-awareness
Stamina
Experience
Reliability
Initiative
Connections
What exactly do I mean by each of those things? Let me explain.
Chops
You gotta be good! To get paid, you have to have the technical capability of performing at a fairly advanced level of difficulty. You’ll also need a high level of artistry, stagecraft skills, and, often, some other performance-adjacent skills like reading and theory knowledge.Consistency
You should be able to deliver approximately the same quality, all the time, every time. It’s not enough to be able to give a good performance sometimes, under certain circumstances. You’ll have a range of variation, of course, because we all have good days and bad days, and we all goof up now and then, but the higher level professional you are, the narrower that range of variation will be. Regardless of level, there should be a minimum quality level you always meet, both in performance and in rehearsals.Efficiency
You need the ability to work extremely quickly and to achieve goals with minimum (wasted) effort. To me, this is the essential difference between a pro and an amateur. I played really well as a teen, but that didn’t make me a pro. Let’s say I play an organ piece for church this coming Sunday. I could have played it just as accurately and just as beautifully 20 years ago. But 20 years ago, I would have spent hours, spread out over weeks, practicing it, not to mention a hundred spoons stressing about learning and performing it. This week, I could run through it a few times before the service and be ready to perform it, no big deal. Same quality, but now I’m vastly more efficient. This means I have the time and the energy for a much, much greater output of work, and doing a high volume of work is necessary if you’re going to be able to support yourself with your music earnings.Adaptability
Make it work, no matter what. Professionals can pull off performances in extremely compromised circumstances and still maintain their minimum quality standards. Unforeseen disasters of all kinds happen during performances. For an amateur, anything less than ideal conditions might derail their performance. Pros keep their cool and figure out how to work around any challenges that come up.Self-awareness
Know your own abilities, know your own needs, and know your own limits. It’s your responsibility to understand how to set yourself up for success by choosing and creating circumstances that will allow you to shine. Pursue the opportunities that showcase your best skills and attributes. Manage your time and your activities so you’ll be in the best shape, mentally and physically, to do your best work. (You wouldn’t believe how many musicians forget to properly plan food/water/rest and realize part way through a performance that their body is giving out on them!) You also need to know what you can’t do well, in terms of repertoire, situation, schedule, or any other factor. Say no to anything you foresee going poorly; don’t promise anything you can’t deliver.Stamina
Musicians need all sorts of stamina. We need physical endurance for long hours of work. We need mental and emotional stamina to get through tough situations like stressful rehearsals, high-stakes performances and auditions, interpersonal drama, and rejection. And we have to have the sticktoitiveness it takes to get a career going and keep it going. You have to be able to deal with criticism, although you don’t necessarily have to have a thick skin, in my opinion. It’s natural to experience emotional pain from criticism or rejection, and you can still be a pro performer if that stuff really hurts you, but you do have to have the endurance to deal with however it affects you.Experience
Experience will give you two types of useful knowledge: You’ll know specific stuff, like standard repertoire, and you’ll know the ropes. When you’re already familiar with the nuts and bolts of doing a particular job - for example, a choir rehearsal, a recording session, or an opera performance - you can focus on delivering your best quality work, instead of expending a lot of energy figuring out what exactly you’re expected to do and how you should do it. The longer you’ve been working as a musician, the more you learn, but professionals also start building their experience long before their paid careers begin. There are amateur versions of almost everything, and that experience, while not quite the same as it would be at the professional level, is meaningful and useful.Reliability
As a professional, your word is your bond. You have to do what you agreed to do, whatever that may be, every time. When you’re a pro, you communicate promptly, you’re on time (which actually means early), you’re prepared, you’re properly groomed, you behave appropriately, you are focused and putting forth your best effort at all times. You do not cancel abruptly, or at all. You do not make excuses for yourself. You NEVER no-show.Initiative
Hustle! Make stuff happen, and figure out how to get it done on your own. Find things to audition for, or create your own performance opportunities. Get the information you need, choose music, learn your notes… Whatever you're responsible for on a given job, you’re fully and solely responsible for it. Professionals shouldn’t need hand holding. You can’t wait for someone to tell you what to do or how to do it.Connections
No, I don’t mean having your family or friends set you up with opportunities you don’t deserve; I’m talking about real, meaningful connections you’ve built. Participate in the professional community. You need working relationships, if not necessarily social relationships, with those in your field. Be aware of and hopefully participate in the dialogue that’s going on in your scene. This is how you get work in your field, because a lot of the best opportunities are never posted on a job board. This is also how you hone your craft and artistry - others’ work and ideas will influence and inspire you. To build and leverage connections, it helps to have a humble and collaborative attitude.
If you’re not a pro yet, you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed by this list - it’s a lot! And you’re probably wondering, do I have to check off this whole list before I can even start a career?
No, you don’t need to be the consummate professional from day one. At the beginning of your career, it’s okay if you fall a bit short of this whole list.
Most of these qualities you can learn on the job. Some of them, the only way to learn them is on the job. Learning the ropes, for example. No one expects you to have experience before you have had any opportunities to build that experience. There are entry level jobs in every field, including musical performance. People understand when you need help because you’re just getting started.
But there are two qualities on this list that are absolutely essential for every paid performer.
The sine qua non of a professional career, the only two of these qualities that you actually need in order to make the transition from amateur to pro, are chops and reliability.
Chops are essential because, first and foremost, you have to be capable of doing the job. You are not going to get hired for paid work if you don’t have the skills to produce that work. Now, yes, the bar is high, but maybe not as high as you think! Like I said, there are entry-level jobs where the expectations will not be beyond your reach.
Reliability is essential because being a pro musician is a job like any other job. You could potentially get paid work without being a reliable person, but you will very quickly torch any possibility of an ongoing career if you earn a reputation for being unreliable. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you don’t show up when and where you’re supposed to, ready to do exactly what’s required of you. No one cares how good you could be. If people are relying on you and you let them down, they will probably never hire you again, and neither will anyone else who finds out about it.
You can build up many of these qualities during your amateur training, if you seek the right opportunities and people, and then truly take as much advantage of them as you can. When you’re an amateur, it’s really up to you how much you can get out of your training. You can’t really get a bad grade in private voice lessons. But you can slack off on practicing, skip performance opportunities, refuse to follow your teacher’s lead and step out of your comfort zone… You get out what you put in. And whether you build a skill or not really depends on whether you put in the work or not.
If you want to be a professional musician someday, seek out connections with people who are doing what you want to be doing. Relationships with teachers, mentors, and peers will give you access to the information and situations that will teach you the skills you’ll use in your career. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!
