The Musician's Professional Toolbox is more than just a collection of career-building skills: professional musicians need strategies in place that maximize the impact of those skills. Designed for musicians at any point in their career, this course will provide learners with foundational skills necessary for managing your professional music career, including skill assessment, time management, goal setting and networking. The course can be taken by itself or as the first course in the Musician's Professional Toolbox.
This course is part of the Musician’s Professional Toolbox: Your Portfolio Career Specialization
Offered By
About this Course
At minimum, a bachelors degree in music and/or experience as a practicing musician.
What you will learn
Understand your unique mix of musical and non-musical skills and how those skills can inform your career development.
Develop better habits: Link task management to near-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.
Identify ways to measure outcomes and gauge success.
Begin building/expanding a professional network.
Skills you will gain
- goal setting
- Networking
- Mission Statement
- Time management
- Measuring Success
At minimum, a bachelors degree in music and/or experience as a practicing musician.
Offered by

University of Colorado Boulder
CU-Boulder is a dynamic community of scholars and learners on one of the most spectacular college campuses in the country. As one of 34 U.S. public institutions in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), we have a proud tradition of academic excellence, with five Nobel laureates and more than 50 members of prestigious academic academies.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Assessing Your Skills
In this module you will assess your current gifts, skills, passions, and areas for improvement, identify transferable skills, and craft a personal mission statement to guide you for the remainder of this specialization.
Setting and Evaluating Your Goals
In the module, you will learn how to determine your goals, design objectives to achieve them, and measure your success.
Managing Your Time
In this module you will learn various methods for prioritizing tasks and managing your time, resulting in a more efficient and productive use of this precious resource.
Building and Managing Your Network
In this module, you will learn effective networking techniques, how to build and nurture a professional network, and how to organize and measure a professional database.
About the Musician’s Professional Toolbox: Your Portfolio Career Specialization
Learners completing this specialization will acquire the skills to launch and sustain a Portfolio Career consisting of a range of musical endeavors. Topics include building a professional network, identifying tools for developing a brand, promoting yourself through a variety of channels, developing strategies to find and book performances, and defining and tracking your goals. This course is the first of two specializations making up the Musician’s Professional Toolbox.

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