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How to Make Money as a Wedding Singerby Suzann Kale
page 1 of 6 © 2008 Suzann Kale. All rights reserved. Please make no copies without written permission from the author. Please respect international copyright law. Thank you. Contact Suzann through the Contact Us button at the bottom of any page. As a singer, the more you specifically target your intended audience and become known in a particular musical niche, the more work you'll get. The only singers that make money without a personal style are backup singers and commercial jingle singers. 
Being known as a wedding singer with a great voice will get you more gigs than simply being known as a singer with a great voice. Marketing nowadays is all about being an expert in a niche, and branding yourself in that niche. To be a successful, popular, and well-paid wedding singer, you need to not only be good at your art, you need to be good at the business side of your art as well. The Wedding Singer's Art: What You Need to SucceedFor this article, we need to assume that you have already studied voice extensively - either with a well-qualified professional or at a music school. You must have put a few years of work into singing as a performance art, just to get that experience behind you and gain your confidence. A wedding singer not only has an exquisite voice, he or she is also a master of ceremonies, especially at a reception. continued below |
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If you haven't yet studied voice, don't stop here. Take those voice lessons, collect your musical literature and repertoire, and don't give up your dream. As with any career, learning and study are always recommended, and can always provide the framework for a lucrative career. Here's where you need to be musically, to be positioned well in the market:Your voice is not only trained, but it's healthy. You don't smoke, and you don't miss gigs. You keep your voice healthy by protecting it from dryness and drafts, and from using classical breathing techniques. A "supported" breath will help keep the voice healthy. And all that means is that you're breathing from your midsection. But you've already learned this during your voice studies. You vocalize daily to keep your voice in shape, and you never stop learning about your craft. You play a secondary instrument (not essential, but helpful), like piano, harp, or guitar. Playing an instrument in addition to your vocal instrument is important when you have to write your own charts (lead sheets; sheet music), if the bride requests the music be in a certain style, and especially if you write original material. Here's what you need, personnel-wise, to be able to compete in the market:Access to "pick-up musicians." This means that if you get called for a wedding gig, and the bride has asked for a singer, piano, bass, and drums, that you have access to pianists, bassists, and drummers - many of them. You know the musicians around town, you know how they play, you know their style and whether or not they are dependable. If you call your favorite pianist for the gig, and she's busy that night, you know who to call for your next choice, and so on. An alternative to pick-up musicians is a group that you work with exclusively. That can happen only if you get enough gigs to support the musicians. If you gig once a month, you must expect that your musicians will offer themselves out to other venues during the rest of the month. Continue to page 2 of How to Make Money as a |
It's not a problem as long as you have substitutes you can call should you get a wedding gig on a night your bassist has already booked with someone else. 
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