How to Start a Career as a Singer/Songwriter

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Tom Kenaston. I'm a singer songwriter, living in West Palm Beach, Florida and also New York City. In this clip we're going to talk about how to start a career as a singer songwriter. The first thing that you need to do is be very specific with yourself about what kind of music you want to sing. What kind of music you want to write and what kind of music you want to sing and perform. Because if you want to learn to write and sing theater music, like for Broadway musicals, you're going to go a whole different route trying to find your way into the business than you would if say you wanted to be Rufus Wainwright and go into the pop Indy rock venue. So, once you've determined that, of course to become better at your singing and songwriting, study other people who've done it before you. Because you're going to learn a lot more by doing that than you ever could making it up on your own. Then you want to find out where the venues are where this type of music is being performed. You want to get the word out. Network as much as you possibly can. Find other, like if you want to sing like Billy Joel in a nightclub. Go to the nightclub, see who's singing there. Meet them after the, after the show. Ask them if you can get their phone number. Tell them that you do this singing songwriting thing and you're looking to get into the same type of work. Now, let's say you're going to do that. Don't go empty handed. Make sure you have a demo tape or a CD of these in this day and age. You want to have a recording of yourself singing, playing and singing the stuff that you've written. You want to be able to hand that to whoever might be able to help you find other connections. That dude might have an agent. If he is impressed with your CD, he might introduce you to his agent. Agents can book gigs, gigs can get you exposure, exposure can get you bigger gigs and it just escalates and escalates. So I encourage you to be very proactive. Make sure you have good representation of your work and get it seen by all the, all the right people in the direction that you want to go. This is Tom Kenaston and this has been how to start a career as a singer songwriter."