Fall Forward: A Family of Career Musicians on Building a Career (Episode 117)

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

Episode 117 of The Career Musician was booked as an interview with singer Melanie Taylor. It turned into a family roundtable. Melanie was one of Bette Midler's Harlettes for nearly a decade, has worked with artists from Barry Manilow to Stevie Wonder, and was the first female vocalist to sing with Aerosmith on their Music From Another Dimension album and tour. Her mother, Althea Waites, is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. And her husband, Terry Wollman, is a Billboard-charting guitarist, producer, composer and music director who has worked with Billy Preston, Wilson Phillips and many more.

Three career musicians, three generations of experience, one question from Nomad: how do you build a sustainable music career? Here is what the table had to say.

There is no substitute for education

Melanie grew up in New Orleans in a creative family and started as a dancer at six. She earned a musical theater degree, then did her boot camp on stage at Disney, singing, dancing and acting. The turning point was a friend asking her to sing a demo. She had never been in a studio and belted for the back row until he taught her how to sing on a microphone. Then he paid her, and she never looked back. After that, her career snowballed on referrals.

Althea started piano lessons at six, also in New Orleans, and played a concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic at 17. Teaching was her primary survival for decades. Melanie shared that her mom went to Yale's School of Music on a full scholarship, and Althea spoke frankly about having her credentials questioned in some rooms over the years. Her answer was to keep showing up and keep working.

Terry grew up in Miami, then went to Berklee to become more than a guitar player and earned a degree in arranging. He bought a four-track early and learned from it, because tape doesn't lie.

"If you're flat, you're flat. If you're dragging or rushing, it just lets you know."

Terry Wollman, 17:43

Cultivate your strengths, release what doesn't serve your gift

Melanie shared the formula she has used since an acting teacher told her, after a rough scene, to just be the most you that you can be. Cultivate your strengths and what you love. Release what doesn't serve your gift. Then add challenges to give yourself an edge. She loves opera but knows she is not an opera singer, so she released it as a career goal. Sight singing was her challenge, and she took the class even though it was hard.

Nomad related. He wanted to play every style, and had to let some go. Flamenco is still his passion, but a serious flamenco player puts in years of daily practice he could not give it. That is Objectivity from the ETHOS code: an honest look at where your gift really lives.

Melanie also had a line for the parents who tell their kids to have something to fall back on.

"Don't fall back, fall forward. Forward into your next dream."

Melanie Taylor, 26:34

Discipline looks different for everyone

Nomad asked how each of them structures a day. Melanie calls herself undisciplined, then described a gratitude meditation, yoga, no phone first thing, a power walk and vocalizing while she walks. Nomad pointed out that is discipline. Althea stretches, walks, reads the news, then goes to the piano, two or three hours with breaks when she has music to learn. Terry credits 20 years of martial arts and hunger. He paid his own way through school, and that made him focused.

The thread through all three: show up for the work every day, even if it looks different on the road and at home.

Create work, and stay open to the side door

When the pandemic hit, Melanie had just finished a week of sessions and was about to head back to Las Vegas with Barry Manilow. Instead, she started reading, built a mindfulness practice she could share, and accepted an offer from a mentor to train in corporate communication coaching. In her words, preparation met opportunity. At TCM we say Luck = preparation + opportunity.

Terry's lesson was about being open. In 1988, around the time his debut album came out, he was offered a meeting for a music librarian job on a late-night show at Fox. He did not see what it had to do with playing guitar. The person who recommended him told him straight: quit thinking like a musician. Playing guitar is not your only talent, and this door is opening.

"Not being afraid to say no is really important... but being open is really underrated."

Terry Wollman, 50:26

That meeting led to music directing late-night television, including three years on The Byron Allen Show. Many of his biggest gigs came through a side door. That is Work begets work, and it is why we say Diversify or Die.

Find a mentor, and stop grinding

Melanie's closing advice was for every artist listening, at any age. Have a mentor. Don't grind yourself down to the bone trying to be all things to all people. Be a well-rounded human: read, go to the theater, travel, even if it is a drive to a free museum. And delegate what is not your lane. She stays out of the engineering in their home studio, and trades or saves up to pay people for what she doesn't do.

The takeaway

Build a real foundation. Know your gift and release what doesn't serve it. Fall forward. Stay open when a door you never expected starts to open. If you want a plan for your next move, grab the free plan of attack (POA) worksheet and the Get the Gig guide. Find Melanie at melanietaylorartist.com and Terry at terrywollman.com.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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