Welcome to our third episode of Music Space, to those that tuned in live – thank you! We were lucky enough to have International musician Jason McNamara on the show, who is currently based in Japan. He talked with us about his life as a professional musician, and gave us some tips on how to make music your career.

Playing Internationally

Music opens up so many doors, you just need to make connections and make things happen. International audiences are generally more responsive than audiences back home. At local pubs when you’re playing covers, people are normally more interested in hearing the songs by other artists that they know and love, rather than you as a band. Internationally its a special thing to have a foreign band. It happens in Australia, Japan, the US etc in the same sense. If a foreign musician comes to play, people think “wow something new and different”; they give more of themselves and are more intrigued.

Playing Covers

Covers can provide a living; rather than being stuck “working for the man” you can make a living doing what you love – playing music. Playing covers allows you to travel, play more often and sharpen your craft. You play so much – you get a huge benefit as a musician. On stage it’s sink or swim, if you make a mistake you have to play on through. You need to support the musicians in your band, something a lot of people don’t think about. If a musician has a train wreck on stage, it’s how your band mates react that makes or breaks your band. Being positive, and working through it together is a big benefit. Mistakes will always happen as a musician, how you deal with it or cover it up is what makes you. Music is all about sharing an experience, it’s not about bringing each other down –  it’s about lifting each other up.

There’s nothing wrong with making a mistake, but playing without conviction is bad. Playing notes correctly does not have the same sound as someone who plays with energy; people in the audience will feel that too.

Check Out Jason McNamara’s Cover of ‘I Will Survive’ at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dubai

The Music Scene in Japan

There’s a lot of live music in Japan; where you can just come out, play a gig and have a great time. The scene in Tokyo is massive! But believe it or not there is only one regular cover band pub. The old pay to play system with original songs is what works here. You hire out the space, pre sell your tickets and play the gig. If you don’t sell the tickets, you lose money. So all the bands in Tokyo work hard to get the news out there, through friends, social media and posters etc.

The Benefits of Working in a Music Shop

You can learn a lot working in a music shop, the owners are so knowledgable and experienced. And the people that can come into the shop are inspirational. The famous people that you might meet are so friendly and have a lot of great stories to tell. If you don’t gush, and treat them like a normal person they’ll normally be happy to have a chat.

Practicing Tips from Jason McNamara

Retaining knowledge is a great thing, build yourself up and consolidate a library of songs and things you’ve learnt in the past. It’s great to learn new tunes and techniques, but don’t forget to go back and practice songs that you’ve learnt before. Keeping up with the old stuff you learnt gives you a good foundation, and learning new things keeps you fresh and inspired.

You need to make sure you know the simple tools that most musicians do, such as 1, 3, 5. The building blocks of all music. Taking the time to learn and get things right before any show is important for every musician. Once you know all the basics, you can start bending the rules and creating your own sounds.

How to Start Your Professional Music Career

Submerge and surround yourself with other musicians, friends are a great place to start with your musical career. Play with as many musicians as you possibly can, because everyone plays things differently. Make sure that you are prepared, practice, learn, and always encourage and support all the other musicians around you.

To reach a professional level, you need to be easy to get along with and leave your ego at the door. The relationship you have with your band mates is the same as any other relationship. Being positive and supportive is far more beneficial to a group professionally than being negative and arrogant. Don’t burn bridges because it will come back to bite you.

Playing together locally can lead to playing interstate or even internationally. All you need is one person to notice you to give you your break. If you get paid to play music, you are a professional musician. It’s that simple, whether it’s at a local cafe or the hard rock cafe in Dubai; you are a professional musician. You just need to make sure you deliver on the goods.

A good place to start is with good demo material; good audio quality, good video quality. It’s worth going to a professional who can give you something with amazing quality that you can provide to other people to show them what you can do. An iPhone isn’t good enough.

And most importantly, Just play. If you’re a high school kid, play high school gigs. If it’s a backyard party, play a backyard show. (Just don’t drink, you may think it’s amazing at the time – but playing it back it won’t sound that great.) You just need to play as much as you can, wherever you can. Don’t worry about the way it used to be, worry about how it is now. Even if you need to hire your own space, and promote a gig yourself – you just need to play.

About Jason McNamara

Jason McNamara is an Adelaide born and bred musician. By taking chances and leaving behind regular convention he’s traveled much of the world as a musician including Dubai, China, Japan, Malaysia, Bahrain, the USA & Kazakhstan. Jason now lives in Japan and works in Tokyo for Ishibashi Music who are one of the world’s most famous & successful musical instrument retailers.

Jason McNamara in Tokyo for Music Space

For those who tuned in live and watched the show, here are the links to some videos we think you may find interesting.

You Can check out more of Jason McNamara’s videos on his YouTube Channel.

About Music Space

At LearnToPlayMusic.com, we know that that there’s more to learning to play music than can be found in any book – music is about people. Each week Music Space features great international music guests, who’ll be performing and discussing the hows and whys of their experiences in music and life. In the ‘Learn It’ segment of each show, your hosts will demonstrate and discuss a music topic of the week – and for those who tune in live, you’ll be able to interact by asking questions and commenting on the discussion as it’s in progress. Each videocast will be available from the LearnToPlayMusic.com YouTube page, and we’ll also be posting a feature article on this Blog expanding on the show’s music topic of the week. To keep up to date with all the latest ‘Music Space’ news and developments, you can follow us at Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, and if you feel like spreading the word, throw up a post or tweet with the hashtag #LTPMusicSpace.

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