Find out what bands and live acts are playing at venues near you to get a sense of all the musical styles you can explore in your own town.

Advice

Explore the music scene near you.

Take advantage of music resources at school by joining band or taking a music class, or start learning on your own with online tutorials.

Education

Take a music class.

Watch violinist Robert Gupta talk about the transformative and healing power of music. 

Career

Watch a TED Talk about the power of music. 

Music Directors and Composers

Conduct, direct, plan, and lead instrumental or vocal performances by musical artists or groups, such as orchestras, bands, choirs, and glee clubs; or create original works of music.

Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Artistic

Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Enterprising

Second Interest High-Point

Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Social

Third Interest High-Point

First Interest High-Point

Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Realistic

Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Investigative

Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Conventional

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Use gestures to shape the music being played, communicating desired tempo, phrasing, tone, color, pitch, volume, and other performance aspects.

Direct groups at rehearsals and live or recorded performances to achieve desired effects such as tonal and harmonic balance dynamics, rhythm, and tempo.

Study scores to learn the music in detail, and to develop interpretations.

Apply elements of music theory to create musical and tonal structures, including harmonies and melodies.

Consider such factors as ensemble size and abilities, availability of scores, and the need for musical variety, to select music to be performed.

Determine voices, instruments, harmonic structures, rhythms, tempos, and tone balances required to achieve the effects desired in a musical composition.

Experiment with different sounds, and types and pieces of music, using synthesizers and computers as necessary to test and evaluate ideas.

Transcribe ideas for musical compositions into musical notation, using instruments, pen and paper, or computers.

Audition and select performers for musical presentations.

Plan and schedule rehearsals and performances, and arrange details such as locations, accompanists, and instrumentalists.

Write musical scores for orchestras, bands, choral groups, or individual instrumentalists or vocalists, using knowledge of music theory and of instrumental and vocal capabilities.

Position members within groups to obtain balance among instrumental or vocal sections.

Perform administrative tasks such as applying for grants, developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and designing and printing programs and other promotional materials.

Confer with producers and directors to define the nature and placement of film or television music.

Meet with soloists and concertmasters to discuss and prepare for performances.

Fill in details of orchestral sketches, such as adding vocal parts to scores.

Explore and develop musical ideas based on sources such as imagination or sounds in the environment.

Write music for commercial mediums, including advertising jingles or film soundtracks.

Transpose music from one voice or instrument to another to accommodate particular musicians.

Rewrite original musical scores in different musical styles by changing rhythms, harmonies, or tempos.

Arrange music composed by others, changing the music to achieve desired effects.

Assign and review staff work in such areas as scoring, arranging, and copying music, and vocal coaching.

Study films or scripts to determine how musical scores can be used to create desired effects or moods.

Transcribe musical compositions and melodic lines to adapt them to a particular group, or to create a particular musical style.

Create original musical forms, or write within circumscribed musical forms such as sonatas, symphonies, or operas.

Collaborate with other colleagues, such as copyists, to complete final scores.

Copy parts from scores for individual performers.

Coordinate and organize tours, or hire touring companies to arrange concert dates, venues, accommodations, and transportation for longer tours.

Cliff Antone

Owner

Videos

Cliff Antone

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Entrepreneurship

Music

Accomplishing Goals

Hurdles

Challenges I Overcame

Formerly Incarcerated

Cliff Antone

Owner

Videos

Cliff Antone

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Entrepreneurship

Music

Accomplishing Goals

Hurdles

Challenges I Overcame

Related Leaders