Considerations for Singers Entering the Professional World
The definition of happiness and success
We all have a choice. We can either strive to fill our time completely with things and occupations that make us happy, or we can sacrifice a part of our happiness for the comfort of other achievements such as stability, wealth, and fame. It is only rare that these things come together, or should we say if they do, we have achieved a dream come true that send another on a lifelong journey.
For that reason and before we make the choice, we should maybe ask what success means in our own personal opinion. What do we want to achieve when we think of becoming a professional singer? Well, we want to sing and we want to experience the feeling that triggers our happiness doing this. From a professional point of view we want to get paid, because it's probably the only way how we find enough time. In a more defining way we could have ambitions to gain respect in a certain field, or we could strive to become a well known artist.
Choose a mix of occupations to define your profession.
What does it take?
Once we know our definition of happiness and success, we can begin to take the right actions to walk this path. Be aware that this very definition you just gained for yourself does not necessarily match with the job definition defined by the industry, or even of that of your closest acquaintance.
You might have heard it before, becoming a professional vocalist — meaning someone who makes his living by performing in front of audiences, writing and recording music in studios, and maybe passing along his or her knowledge to somebody else — takes perseverance, resilience, and physical endurance in a highly competitive field.
So how is the occupation as a professional vocalist defined?
Thankfully the very definition of the professional occupation is rather vague in the way that there are many different fields of interest that one can cover through self employment or contractual work. You could almost imagine this as a kind of puzzle where you can choose the pieces that define that very puzzle.
So that pieces could include performing at weddings, parties, corporate events, fairs and festivals, concerts, cruise ships, and anywhere else you could imagine somebody singing. You can place yourself as the main act, a supporting act, a substitute, or a tribute. You could add other elements of entertainment to your mix, as well as lend your voice on recordings and other productions. You also can use your talent to educate others.
And finally, how do I prepare myself?
All these different pieces of the work as a professional vocalist need preparation so that you will be able to meet the requirements the industry demands. For your inspiration we have reviewed a few different occupations a singer could fill, and acquired a list of skills that we think is required to succeed in the business. We further have collected tips to prepare yourself for entering assignments in the professional field, and compiled a few places where you can receive support to advance your career.
Read more about the topic and the roles and duties for vocalists in our article at
