Buying your first singer-songwriter guitar: Recommendation , tips and guide

One of the most important requirement of becoming a singer-songwriter is the ability to play and sing with the guitar. If you are still young, and you have not a guitar for your own self. This is a short guide that will help you select the best guitar for your singer-songwriter career.

First: It is recommended that you will buy a full size guitar. Although if you are still very young (below 15 years old for example), your parents, teachers and friends might recommend you buying a junior size guitar which is smaller than a full size guitar.

Although this might seem practical in terms of cost and convenience (they are cheaper than full size guitar and smaller to fit your small hands) it is not good if you will be using gutiar for a long term.

It is because, it you are practicing junior sized guitars what will happen is that you hands will get used to smaller frets and sizes. Once you get older and will be using a full sized guitar, you hands needs to re-adjust with the full size guitar which makes it very inconvenient for you to play while you sing.

It again takes time for your hands to get acquainted with full size guitar. So the best recommendation for beginners like you is to buy a full size guitar. This will make your small hands adjust right away to the full size fret boards which makes it very easy for you to adapt once you get older.

Second: Buy steel strings not nylon strings. Nylon strings often called classical guitar is not appropriate for a modern singer-songwriter it is because the sound is designed for classical and folk work.

If you noticed modern singer-songwriters, they are using steel based string guitars such as John Mayer, David Cook, etc. Steel strings sounds more trendy so make sure you are going to buy a a steel string based guitar.

For those nylon-classical based guitar fans , you might asked this question: “When will I buy a nylon based guitar?”. The best answer is that if you are planning to pursue a career as a classical guitarist instead of becoming a singer-songwriter. If not, then it is best to buy a steel string based acoustic guitars.

Third: Buy only acoustic guitars. You might be tempted to buy an electric guitar, but this is appropriate again for singer-songwriter work. Electric guitar works best if you are a guitarist of a certain band (e.g a lead guitarist or a rock guitar soloist). Make sure the one you buy are acoustic guitars which does not need any amplifers or sophisticated electronics in order to make it sound.

Fourth: Budget, since you are not yet reached the status of a legendary singer-songwriter like Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, etc. You need to limit your budget in buying acoustic guitar. Of course, you buy a more expensive one, once your career flourished.

You can buy a great acoustic full sized and steel string based acoustic gutiar at Amazon. The most recommended and the best acoustic guitar would be Jasmine Takamine S35 Acoustic Guitar, Natural

Photo of this guitar:

How to find Session Singing Jobs Easily: A Step by Step guide

Vocalist or singers can sometimes be categorized into two types:

a. Amateur or hobby stage
b. Professional stage

“Amateur or hobby stage” is those types of singers that sing for fun or plain hobby. They typically sing when just invited in friends parties, weddings or in some karaoke event. They are not paid, and just there for some respect.

Professional singers on the other hand are different. They sing for a living (e.g. sing for food :) ) This step by step guide illustrates the critical steps in the transition from an amateur or hobby stage into a professional stage of singing career. This will be very challenging to do because if you want to become a professional singer; then each of your clients are expecting you to be fully ready for everything that comes to your way.

You might hear a lot of stories of singers getting famous, but most of their successes are short lived. Even when there are million of dollars promotion behind it (such as major label stars , the one you will see in television and listen to the radio); I bet if the singer is not fully ready, he/she have a short lived career (5 years the most).

There is something that you need to prepare in order to find session singing jobs really easily. So here are the steps:

Step1.) Audit your abilities.

You should find where your expertise lie in a broad niche of singing career. Are you a lead singer? A background singer? Or what specific skills can you offer to your client that you REALLY think you should be one for it? Selection of specific genre is also a requirement, are you are rock, pop or a jazz singer?

It all started with getting an OVERWHELMING public acceptance of your talent. You cannot be a professional singer by just practicing in your bedroom and one day you go out of your house to look for singing jobs right away. It won’t happen.

So what you should do is to go out to the public and expose your singing talent as much as possible (not yet looking for a job). People will know if you are really a good singer. One way is to join public choir, participate in as many singing contests, choose to sing national hymn in events, play in music bars as much as possible, etc, countless ideas of where to perform..

Gig as much as you can, expose your talent. Get public acceptance. If you receive a lot of positive comments, about your singing talent, start answer this question truthfully: “Am I comfortable of making a living as a singer, is this really the life I need? If you answer yes, move on to step 2.)

Step2.) Document your performance

You might need to write all of your magnificent accomplishments in a piece of paper back up with solid photos, audio recordings, people reviews, etc. This documentation can be considered as your resume and is a very powerful marketing tool for success. You can promote all of these in social networking sites like Facebook, YoutTube, get as many “real” fans as possible.

Step3.) Start meeting industry people

At this period of time, your singing career is still in amateur stage. You are not yet paid for a job. So the key is to submit some singing demos to industry professionals looking for a singer. There are countless opportunities in the internet alone. You might need to network as much as many industry professionals, these includes music industry persons like working in the radio, TV, recording industry, etc. Network as much as you can, then someday, you will receive a phone call asking if you are available for a certain project. Update your resume to include your professional career. Once again, you are now a professional singer. Celebrate your first gig with champagne. Congratulations!