For those of us who aren't full-timers...

[timwat]

...and didn't go to music school.

 

We all make life choices, and the choices we make earlier in life have consequences we get to live with for the rest of our lives - both good and bad.

 

My life is no different. Some choices I deliberately made, others I didn't realize I was actually making a choice (opportunity cost) to not pursue certain paths by going down others.

 

I didn't attend Berklee, Musician's Institute, or any other full-time program. And I'm not saying I would have been accepted if I had applied either. Late in life I got a good jazz education from a solid university program led by a wonderful pianist.

 

But I know I haven't put in the hours in the same way a full-timer has, nor been forced to make some of the life sacrifices that full-timers make.

 

When I got married young, and immediately had a son, I didn't realize consciously that the decisions I made to provide for them meant giving up other possibles that might have been. And I wouldn't have made a different decision then either.

 

But that also doesn't mean that I don't have a little pang that wishes I had found more time to invest in my music back then too.

 

Now, through all this journey God's been really good to me, far better than I ever deserved. With all the mistakes and screw ups I've made, I now have a really great and awesome career that allows me to have an impact in the lives of young people and not-so-young professionals. It's really cool, and it's expanding and growing. And I have to make decisions about how much time to invest in music, all over again, in light of so many really wonderful opportunities where to spend time.

 

I guess like in all of life, we make the call, hope it's the right one, and take our shots.

 

Just sharing a little steam with the forum.

[RABid]

I auditioned at University of Kentucky for both piano and percussion and was accepted on both. Initial thoughts was to major on one and minor on the other. Didn't do either. Eventually got a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics.

 

I was a full time musician for a few years playing keyboards. Drums was my comfortable instrument but everyone kept insisting that I play keys. Not because I was a bad drummer, I was excellent and could really get a groove on. But keyboardist are rare and in demand. I quickly found that as a keyboardist I could get in any band. Every band I played in was better and more popular than the one before. It was a love hate ordeal. I loved the attention and creative outlet. I also loved that as a keyboardist I had enough power to counter singers who thought it was all about them. The hate was stage fright. Never had that problem with drums. Always had that problem with keyboards. That is probably the main reason I did not major in music. The looming senior recital that was required to get your college degree in music. At my high school senior recital I played 36 pages of classical music. I remember starting, stopping, and having to place my left foot on top of my right foot to keep it from shaking off of the sustain pedal. Everything else was blocked out. Playing in bands was not quite as bad because there were other musicians on stage, but it was still there.

 

As a musician I barely made ends meet and was not progressing financially. I was making as much as any other musician around, but it was not enough. I was offered a job in Vegas with a big named Vegas act. Checked it out and saw that the musicians were either rooming with each other or married to someone who was working. Not good enough. I wanted retirement, insurance and paid vacation so I went back to school, got my degree and played music on the side.

 

I have no regrets about my years as a full time musician. It was a great experience despite my battle with stage fright. I also have no regrets about giving it up, going back to school and getting a decent day job. That allowed me to buy a room full of gear and retire at 59.

 

My only regret is that I have not spent more time writing and recording.

[Old No7]

As a musician I barely made ends meet and was not progressing financially....

This was posted here on this forum a few months back.....

 

Q: What's the difference between a professional keyboardist and a large pizza?

 

A: Only the pizza can feed a family of four.

 

I too loved music and wanted to be a full-time musician. Back in the early 80's, my rock band's hook was "great music"; we were all classically trained and we covered some technically difficult progressive rock tunes -- but we were told that "just wasn't enough". Not having the makeup (literally!!!) or the millions as Boy George or KISS did (with mediocre musical skills.....), now I'm glad that my major was business. I still love to play, but it's doubtful I could have done the things I've done with/for my family if I'd taken another path.

 

Old No7

[jejefunkyman]

This was posted here on this forum a few months back.....

 

Q: What's the difference between a professional keyboardist and a large pizza?

 

A: Only the pizza can feed a family of four.

 

Ah ah, great quote, though a bit sad ð I"ll try to remember it next time I think about leaving my day job to become a full time musician ð

 

Yes it happens quite often ð±

[ElmerJFudd]

...and didn't go to music school.

 

We all make life choices, and the choices we make earlier in life have consequences we get to live with for the rest of our lives - both good and bad.

 

My life is no different. Some choices I deliberately made, others I didn't realize I was actually making a choice (opportunity cost) to not pursue certain paths by going down others.

 

I didn't attend Berklee, Musician's Institute, or any other full-time program. And I'm not saying I would have been accepted if I had applied either. Late in life I got a good jazz education from a solid university program led by a wonderful pianist.

 

But I know I haven't put in the hours in the same way a full-timer has, nor been forced to make some of the life sacrifices that full-timers make.

 

When I got married young, and immediately had a son, I didn't realize consciously that the decisions I made to provide for them meant giving up other possibles that might have been. And I wouldn't have made a different decision then either.

 

But that also doesn't mean that I don't have a little pang that wishes I had found more time to invest in my music back then too.

 

Now, through all this journey God's been really good to me, far better than I ever deserved. With all the mistakes and screw ups I've made, I now have a really great and awesome career that allows me to have an impact in the lives of young people and not-so-young professionals. It's really cool, and it's expanding and growing. And I have to make decisions about how much time to invest in music, all over again, in light of so many really wonderful opportunities where to spend time.

 

I guess like in all of life, we make the call, hope it's the right one, and take our shots.

 

Just sharing a little steam with the forum.

 

Tim, the truths in your share today ring true for us all, regardless of the path we chose or were led (or pulled down). We are blessed in modern "middle class" society, at least in wealthy nations, to even have such choices and options. In other generations and eras we'd have just about all been on factory work, working the land, serfs, peasants. And before that each day's challenge would have simply been finding food and shelter. And even then there is a dignity in the simplicity of work with such an important purpose.

 

Sharing knowledge and at times wisdom from your life's experiences... those things are priceless to those lucky enough to have been in your class.

 

Even the best of the pros (of which I am not) have moments where they doubt themselves and their capabilities. It is not a unique feeling. I am forever burdened with what-ifs regarding my playing. If I had more time, if I had fewer obligations, if I had stuck it out with this or that teacher, this or that band, if I had spent more time on solo playing rather than band playing or vice versa. Id, ego, superego. We can beat ourselves up forever. But, we haven't given up, right? Somehow with everything else we have to do, we still make time to play. One is the player he or she is today because of the journey and the journey is everything. There's something new to learn every time we play. Some strive to be masters of a style. Others to be pretty good at many. It doesn't matter. Do what makes you happy.

 

Lastly, there is always a sacrifice and a balance. Your role as a spouse or partner, as an educator, as a professional, as a parent, as a friend, and a son, as a player, as a band mate, etc. etc. All are important, but to be amazing at one for a time, one of those other things is not getting your attention. There is no right and wrong here. I enjoy my life as a husband and dad - both were dramatically life changing and map altering - at times to great elation and on occasion to deep frustration. But things are changing all around us all the time especially when we aren't paying attention. We get gray and our kids go from 5 to 25 in the blink of an eye. And that's life. We made it this far. Let's keep trying every day.

[cp-the-nerd]

I have almost no formal training and simply banged away on our old upright piano until I understood what made "music" like someone dropped in a country with a different language. I guess my one regret growing up into musicianhood (if it's not a real word, it should be) is that I was so ignorant and directionless that didn't know why I was bored playing junky "toy" keyboards. I just assumed playing music wasn't my thing. My dad and brother are musicians, but not keyboard or piano players so utterly zero help there.

 

When I bought my weighted 88-key Yamaha YPG in my late teens, I had no idea what I was doing. I only still have it because it's slightly more useful than the space it takes up, but I would have been much better served by tons of other keyboards for similar money. Looking back, it's pretty much dumb luck I came across the legitimately good SV-1 and had enough sense to buy it.

 

Basically there were 10 years of stunted growth as a keyboard player that I wish I could get back.

 

After I got married 4 years ago, I jumped at a chance to buy my personal dream car and the tradeoff was agreeing not to buy myself anything else while paying it off. It remains worth it to daily drive a sedan with a V8, rear wheel drive, and a 6-speed manual, but I'd be lying if I said I don't occasionally think of the absolutely killer keyboard rack I could buy if I sold it.

[cp-the-nerd]

The hate was stage fright. Never had that problem with drums. Always had that problem with keyboards. That is probably the main reason I did not major in music. The looming senior recital that was required to get your college degree in music. At my high school senior recital I played 36 pages of classical music. I remember starting, stopping, and having to place my left foot on top of my right foot to keep it from shaking off of the sustain pedal. Everything else was blocked out. Playing in bands was not quite as bad because there were other musicians on stage, but it was still there.

 

I relate to this so deeply. I have crippling anxiety in front of people, but somehow still find the live shows personally rewarding. I always play this balancing act at gigs where I try to drink just enough alcohol to hide the anxiety but not negatively affect my difficult parts. It tends to work, but I've gotten the balance wrong in either direction. Haha.

[El Lobo]

I'm 75. I've been playing in bands since I was 17 â that's 58 years â with a couple stretches of a few years off, mainly sax, also rhythm guitar, add keyboards for the last 15 years or so. I didn't go to music school because I thought I'd end up a high school band director ... or worse. Instead I've enjoyed a long life as a weekend warrior, playing the music I want to play for people who enjoy it, dance, and have a good time. Before the pandemic, I was playing in 4 bands + in the house band of a weekly jam that featured some top level musicians. I always said I'm grateful that I got to play so much live music at my advanced age. Then comes the pandemic and there goes live music. My longtime main band (20 years now) is just starting up again with an outdoor gig this coming Sunday afternoon, so things are slowly looking up. My point: I have no regrets over my life choices. Or in the lyrics by Michel Vaucaire and sung by Edith Piaf, Je ne regrette rien.

 

[El Lobo]

Or in the words of Joe Walsh, life's been good to me so far ...

 

[ProfD]

We all make life choices, and the choices we make earlier in life have consequences we get to live with for the rest of our lives - both good and bad.

Brotha Tim, hindsight is always 20/10. But, our lives are exactly as they should be according to the universe. We are just playing out the hand we've been dealt.

 

The best we can do is live life to the fullest with a sense a purpose and no regrets. Enjoy the journey; ups and downs and everything else that comes along with it.

[Docbop]

Being one of those in the 70+ category I've done more than my fair share of looking back and evaluating if I could do it all over again what I would do differently. Basically I'd change almost everything. Best way to some up my life was as a human Roomba bumping into obstacles and changing directions. Been all over the map careerwise and have made the big bucks at once point in the computer world and dealing with stress all the time. Worked jobs that didn't pay well, but enjoyed the jobs and the people I worked with. Had the music dreams and grew up with people who did make it, but my music life included those Roomba changes. When to a shrink for a little bit when depressed with where my life was at. She had me talk about my background so I talked about all the people I had worked with, hung out with, just got to be around and some friends with but I was still frustrated. She kept telling me you've done things other people dream of doing and never get to do, you've experienced a lot enjoy that. Now in my 70's and seeing what others have done, lessons learned from dealing with parents and friends passing I look back would gladly trade the money and all those experiences and would go back change a most those Roomba choice I made to of stayed playing music even if only scrapping by financially my whole life. That playing music is a reward in itself. So let get another beer to cry into.

 

Add to this topic as I said came up playing with great group of players and musicians and a couple made it. We're all together close friends playing and just hanging out. Then over time some started going other paths but were still part of the group of friends. I eventually became one of those who took a path into making a living with computers. What I noticed is as I got on the computer path how the ones still on the music path how they viewed those of us changed. I'm not sure if they even noticed it but it was like this bond of people on the music path no matter what and those that music became number two in their lives. Anyone else every feel like relationship with other musicians changed when you made music number two in your life?

 

Last looking back I did twice try to quit the computer world and go back to music for a year or two, but ended up going back to computers. I look at it now and it was like making good steady money was like heroin and once you being hooked for awhile kicking that habit becomes harder and harder to do. Money is a drug too and takes a long time to realize it. It took until caring for a sick parent the last years of their life to realize it.

 

Okay I'll shut up now. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

...and didn't go to music school.

 

 

It's a moot point now, because I didn't (and still don't) have the talent, but I can only imagine the consternation and hand-wringing I would have gotten from my parents if I told them I wanted to study music. They would have viewed it as akin to running off to join the circus.

 

It is safe to say: they weren't believers in the "find a career that you love" philosophy.

 

I have an older cousin who quit engineering school to follow his dream of becoming a fashion designer. My parents laughed when they found out. Just as if he had joined the circus.

[MathOfInsects]

A topic close to my heart.

 

I was not a music major undergrad. For whatever weird (or obvious) reason, I was essentially forbidden by my family of musicians, from being a music major. They felt it gave no fall-back plan. I actually liked that idea, but I also didn't pay for my own college, so I majored in something else and played music all the way through anyway. I played for the theater productions and did a million talent shows and showcases as a songwriter.

 

One of the talent shows I played at was hosted by a now-passed comedian named Richard Jeni. He searched me out after the show and told me he could get me slots at the clubs in NY, and to look him up when I graduated.

 

In the mean time, I also took the LSATs, with no intention of ever going to Law School. Trying to keep the family happy. I aced them and this made it harder to explain to the family why that wasn't the life for me.

 

After college I moved in with my dad in the City. I told him I was going to take a year and play the clubs and maybe work as a bartender to get through the year. He said, "You can do that, but not if you want to live here." It was a "no son of mine..." sort of thing, which was weirder since he, too, had been a performer. But again...I toed the line. To my family, I was basically "the guy who could be making lawyer money." They were the Depression-era kids.

 

I got a real job and stayed in the corporate world in one form or another for almost 15 years. (Advertising mostly, as a copywriter, among other things.) I played constantly through the first half of those years--so much that I never touched my "real" paychecks, basically ever. Then I started my own company and slowly stopped playing as much, until one day I went over to the piano to play it and basically couldn't make sense of it. I so clearly remember thinking, "OK, I guess I'm one of those guys who 'used to play' music." I'd never considered that as a possibility, but there it was.

 

I've posted this before, but the turning point for me was the Sept 11 attacks. I lived two buildings south of the South Tower, and had time while running down the 17 flights of our building in the pitch black, as/after the South Tower collapsed, to run a whole brain-script of profound disappointment in my path. It was so disappointing to me that I'd spent more than a decade chasing money to please the family/friends/girlfriends, and I had complete clarity, as I waited to be crushed in that stairwell, that it made me feel like a failure.

 

I also (not having died there) came out feeling like if you live through something that others die at, you have a responsibility to keep the general level of "life" the same, in their absence. You can't be "dead in life."

 

So that's when I switched to music full-time, where I've stayed, with some asterisks here and there, ever since. Everything I do is music-related now. That includes the absence of money in a savings account or any ability ever to retire. But it's been important to me not to be "dead in life," and I only ever know who I am when I'm playing music.

 

That's made the pandemic a particular challenge. The last time I went this long without playing music, was before I made that huge life-change in 2001. It's been a ride...

[KuruPrionz]

I had to play music, I am a left-handed "recovered" autistic artist soul. I knew when I finally got a guitar at 14 that I'd found my happy place and that I wanted to sound just like me and not like anybody else.

Fortunately, I had friends who had taken lessons and one of them showed me a 12 fret pattern for the E minor pentatonic scale. Patterns have always made sense to me and the guitar is a very shapely instrument in that the patterns are consistent up and down the fretboard.

 

Another friend played very well, at 15 I saw him (16) cover Jimi Hendrix' version of All Along the Watchtower and pretty much nail it. I started watching other guitarists and practicing. I intentionally avoided copying songs off records and the radio. I experimented with creating scales and "mimicking" other players - doing impressions rather than note for note.

 

I went to a Hippie High School and they had a piano teacher. When I gave up on piano I asked her to teach me how to build chords and other basic harmonic theory.

Meanwhile, my brother was filling my tiny brain with a huge variety of music, jazz, international and indigenous musics from all over the world - stuff I'd never known existed. That probably opened my music mind more than any other influence.

 

By the time I was 20 I started an all original band and wrote close to half the songs. I genre-hopped, from Prog-Rock to Blues and Country (I'm from Fresno y'all!). Then I played in a couple of bands that mixed originals with covers. The high point was joining a friend who knew thousands of songs off the top of his head. He did his own versions of them, recognizable but not duplicated. He was always booked so we had 4 or 5 practices and started gigging. Roger never had a set list once in the 9 years I played with him. He didn't have a list of songs either plus he took requests. As often as not I was learning the song on the fly at the gig up there on stage. I got better at it. It really helped that he was a good guitarist and I could read his hand. We were pretty much booked every Thurs-Fir-Sat at different places and one time I counted 16 gigs in 14 days. When some friends opened a nightclub in Fresno we got to open for Cold Blood, Edgar Winter Group, Prairie Oyster, Suzy Boggus (twice) and I was Bo Diddley's bassist's for one sold out show.

 

I went from that to a Top 40 Country band who hired me because I could play country lead guitar. They wanted to be a Tribute band but that's pretty nearly impossible when you have bass, drums, keys and guitar plus 2 lead singers - especially if the guitarist is me. I told them I wasn't going to buy a pair of fancy 14 EEE cowboy boots unless I made a lot more $$$ so I got to wear tennis shoes. When the records you are trying to cover have 7-8 pieces in the band, a choir, strings, horns etc. there is no way a small combo is going to duplicate that.

 

When I moved up here I joined a Motown copy band for a couple of years, that was fun - we were booked by an agency and got to play gigs like a National Librarians Convention the top of the Space Needle in Seattle and a Canadian Math Teachers Convention in Whistler. The I found the band I am in now, another singer/strummer who doesn't have a set list and knows a ton of material. I'm used to that format now, we have fun. Covid slowed everything down, we played 4 live streams and last Saturday a carefully curated gig in a giant echo chamber. We have a few gigs lined up for summer already, outdoor gigs for sensible booker. That will be fun.

 

In my mind there are original bands that play only their own music, mixed original and cover bands, cover bands (play the song but do it your own way) copy bands (try to sound just like the record0, tribute bands (try to sound and LOOK just like the performing artists) and that's pretty much it. If you have fun and the crowd likes you, that's all that matters. I'm happy with the path I've chosen. I might have chosen a different path in college, photographer was a poor choice. I should have been in sales, I'm good at it and there is money to be made. In the end, I'm happy because I have MY music.

 

We've got to enjoy our time on this planet, I feel lucky to have somehow ended up where I am now.

[Adan]

I was raised to believe one should apply one's talents to best help humanity. As much as I've enjoyed playing music, I always knew my best and highest purpose was in other areas. The critical difference between myself as a "part-timer" versus a dedicated musician is not education or talent, it is that they believe music is their highest purpose.

[jeffincltnc]

I think I am a continuous learner at heart. I did get a music minor from the University of Wisconsin along with a couple social science majors (Political Science and Economics). I also did a lot of continuing music education after college and off on until today where I am 50. The other side of my continuous learning is that I also got an MBA and did a lot of ongoing education in areas like artificial intelligence, automation, internet of things, etc. I have a pretty heavy day job in product management with one of the really big cloud software companies and I really enjoy the work that I do, but like any job it's work. I often admired people like Tom Scholz of Boston who had another life of an MIT engineer and designing products for musicians.

 

I don't regret not doing music full time. I know plenty who have and they are often lamenting the state of the music industry, live music, musician pay, etc. as being really bad and highlighting struggles which I am not hampered by.

[Sam Mullins]

I've been doing music at various levels of seriousness since grade school. When it came time for college I never really considered doing music as a career. As a lower-middle class kid who's father died when he was 7, I was VERY pragmatic and got my degrees in electrical engineering. I don't regret this choice; it's been sporadically interesting, I've provided for my family and I can probably retire a bit early if I want to. BUT I do regret not getting a rigorous jazz theory/improv education in college while my mind was nimble. I've chipped away at it over the years and can do a reasonable impression of a solo jazz pianist at a party. If I had a better base of knowledge/habits from my younger years, things would be so much easier.

[jejefunkyman]

I've always dreamed of being a full time musician since my 20's. Unfortunately I learned to play keyboards very late in life, in my 30's, and self-educated, even though I had 4 years of music education when I was a child. And in the meantime, I had to take care of 3 children and a wife, so I could never have left my day job.

 

I reached a good enough level to join 3 bands with very good musicians (including pro musicians) through very disciplined and regular practicing (which I'm very proud of), and I was expecting a very intense and sucessful year 2020 which could have maybe led to a change of career path towards a more fun and exciting activity. Unfortunately, Covid-19 turned this completely upside down, which was (and is still) very frustrating and depressing.

 

Since 5 years, I've been thinking several times of taking the plunge to a full time musician career, but I know from my heart that I'm not ready for unstable and low income, playing music I don't like just of the sake of making money, and all the downsides of a full time musician's life which I'm fully aware of.

 

I'm will turn 46 in 1 month, and I just want now to get a good balance between work and a semi pro giggin's musician life, which will probably get more and more easy to handle as time goes by, as my children are getting older and require less and less attention from my wife and me.

 

So let's see what the future brings. I know everything in life has a price, and anyone should carefully think about which one he is ready to pay, and which one he is not ready to pay.

[timwat]

I was raised to believe one should apply one's talents to best help humanity. As much as I've enjoyed playing music, I always knew my best and highest purpose was in other areas. The critical difference between myself as a "part-timer" versus a dedicated musician is not education or talent, it is that they believe music is their highest purpose.

 

This means a lot to me; I was taught this a long time ago by people who meant a lot to me.

 

Now, for full-timers, some of them have told me something similar to the sentiment you convey at the end. And also many of them, in unguarded moments, have told me music is the only thing they know how to do well, and the only thing they've ever wanted to do well. That may be part of their truth (not their entire truth), but I respect that single-minded focus kind of perspective too.

[Docbop]

Now, for full-timers, some of them have told me something similar to the sentiment you convey at the end. And also many of them, in unguarded moments, have told me music is the only thing they know how to do well, and the only thing they've ever wanted to do well. That may be part of their truth (not their entire truth), but I respect that single-minded focus kind of perspective too.

 

 

What always intrigued me was Jazz guitar legend Joe Pass tried to quit guitar multiple times, and only went back because it was the only thing he knew how to do. He even quit got strung out on drugs for years, then got into a rehab' program that asked him play guitar in the program's Jazz band. That ended up launching his Jazz guitar legend career.

[El Lobo]

... many of them, in unguarded moments, have told me music is the only thing they know how to do well, and the only thing they've ever wanted to do well.

I've told this story before, but a guitarist friend, Chris Michie, was very successful as a full-time musician. He recorded and toured with name acts including Van Morrison, Pointer Sisters, and others. He made music for commercials and television shows. In his unguarded moment, he said if he knew how to do anything else, he would. Pro musician is a hard life. I know several full-timers who are very talented and skilled musicians. They live at or near the poverty line. If they knew how to do anything else to make big bucks, I'm sure they would.

[cp-the-nerd]

In the golden age of home studio technology, I think music as a hobby is the best option. More eloquent people than me have described the way "doing what you love" full time tends to turn your passion into an empty husk. I am a big fan of Mike Rowe and his advice to do the job that pays your bills and spend all your free time doing what you love, assuming the job doesn't make your whole life miserable.

[MathOfInsects]

I know several full-timers who are very talented and skilled musicians. They live at or near the poverty line. If they knew how to do anything else to make big bucks, I'm sure they would.

Everyone's got their own struggles of course, but I feel like an example of someone where it is specifically the ability to do other things that has hurt me the most. It's a little like how everyone says to tall kids, "Do you play basketball?" Just because you probably *could* succeed at something, doesn't mean it's the right something for you.

 

Grass always greener etc.

[ProfD]

I do not believe many us grew with parents or family encouraging us to be full-time musicians or artists or anything else that could be perrceived as a "hobby".

 

More than likely, even the most talented musicians were encouraged to "get a real job" if it meant teaching music as opposed to playing for livelihood.

 

My dad's singing group were very close to getting a major record deal. It fell apart and their musical dreams were shattered. They all went back to their day jobs.

 

My dad encouraged every aspect of me being a musician whether it was buying an instrument or putting up with noise.

 

However, when I told my dad that I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music his words to me were..."I do not plan to take care of a starving musician". In his mind, being a musician was not a real job.

 

Well, I managed to satisfy the requirment of getting a real job and I was also able to do far more as a musician than my dad could have ever imagined. Luckily, I've had the best of both worlds. My dad is extremely proud of me.

 

Then, there are so many folks who were seemingly born to be musicians. We can see it in their gift/talent and hear it in their music.

[johnchop]

Oof... all the roads not taken...

 

But had I taken some of them, my kids wouldn't be here, and they're non-negotiable.

 

I learned too late that what I really enjoyed was composing, and perhaps should have gone all in on that at some point. It's not like my college degree had any bearing on my current career anyway.

 

As it is, I'm finding more and more time to learn something new (guitar!), get lost in a soft synth, or just work on small ideas. Zero pressure, pure self-indulgence.

 

It would be fun to get a small like-minded group together once a week and just play.

[eric]

I grew up in a house where my dad played the piano all the time. He was classically trained with a music major and pretty talented. He was mostly a hobbyist. His playing inspired me to want to pursue piano and I started lessons in grade school. By the time I was in high school, I was a decent classical player and my dad supported my playing by investing in a nice new Kawai concert grand that we both enjoyed. It's still in his living room and we enjoy it during visits (which are sadly quite rare now, due to the pandemic).

 

I was lured into the world of rock bands and electronic keyboards in high school, around the time that my attention span with classical music was diminishing. Finding my way into being the pit keyboard player for high school musicals was my gateway and next thing you know, I'm saving up for a synthesizer and being recruited by a few garage bands in high school.

 

I went to college with intentions of getting a music degree, though at the same time was in the early days of playing with a band that would evolve to be a regionally successful and almost famous group. We were playing 15-20 nights per month, mini tours, while I was taking a full college workload, working a full time job at a local grocery to pay for tuition and rent, plus still accompanying choirs at church and getting a tuition stipend for this work...essentially 3-4 full time jobs between college, the grocery store, church music, and the band. I was getting so much exposure to music that I decided after a year of music school to shift that to a minor and pursue another field.

 

I plateaued in talent/chops in that early college era and certainly cannot play classical as well these days, some 30 years later. I've been lucky to have steady band gigs all along, with only a brief hiatus about two years when my kids were very young. I've been in a variety of groups over the years, though each has had a fairly decent shelf life.

 

My touring band from the '90s was really close to making it big, playing in the same briar patch as Dave Matthews Band and sharing the stage with many popular acts. This was the era pre internet and there was a lot involved with getting the right record deal and promotion. We went through numerous times at bat without more than regional success. The type that can sort of pay some bills, though the hourly wage after breaking down all the time involved was not really good for a growing family. I made the tough call to phase out of that band and be more of a weekend warrior. I sometimes wonder how things would be different if that band had become more successful, but it never happened.

 

I need to get back to practicing more as there have been so few gigs this past year that my rock and roll chops are rusty. Nice thread. Thanks for starting it.

[o0Ampy0o]

I was raised to believe one should apply one's talents to best help humanity. As much as I've enjoyed playing music, I always knew my best and highest purpose was in other areas. The critical difference between myself as a "part-timer" versus a dedicated musician is not education or talent, it is that they believe music is their highest purpose.

 

I just want to point out something to consider here: Many people live their entire lives and at least their younger years not knowing or even considering the concept of their individual purpose in life. Many in every field, not just music. A significant percentage of people don't think like this. This would be speaking of those who have been around long enough to have established their musician life as a career with longevity. That said, they may just be so drawn to something that they gravitate to it and assist the process the best they can along the way and nothing else has that attraction to them more like water finding its way.

[GovernorSilver]

Pro musician is a hard life. I know several full-timers who are very talented and skilled musicians. They live at or near the poverty line. If they knew how to do anything else to make big bucks, I'm sure they would.

 

I believe it. I know a wonderful couple that has had to work very hard to support themselves as full-time musicians. When they moved up to NYC to try to take their careers to the next level, the wife tried a side business or two to help cover costs of living. The husband later lucked out by joining the band The Messthetics, getting his photo on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, etc.

 

When I was in university, I switched my major to music for a little bit, because I'd taken the music fundamentals (harmony, ear training, counterpoint, etc.) course sequence that was open to all students, but intended for music majors, and also got some credits for taking piano classes that were also required for the music major. But then I realized I'd used up all my grant money and had already borrowed the maximum allowed for student loans. I'd spent the majority of my university time earning credits towards an engineering degree instead of music. To put in more time at the uni to earn the music degree, I'd have to pay. Without being able to add to my student loan debt, I just couldn't figure out a way to pay for those additional years. So I switched back to the computer engineering degree and graduated with a BS in that.

 

I did have a professor at the uni who set me straight on the perceptions of music as a career. He told me if I wanted to become a professor like him, and beat out 400 or whatever other candidates for a professor job, I'd have to become famous first. Of course he meant "famous" from the point of view of certain people. Fame like the level of Drake, Lady Gaga, etc. was not required. More like fame on the level of a music enthusiast scene like, say, jazz. Average person on the street may not know who Cory Henry is, but most of people on this forum do... for example... This prof's advice was to work on gaining fame as a smooth jazz player, since I'm not a singer, just an instrumentalist. Then universities would be more likely to take me more seriously as a candidate, than all the other candidates who worked their butts off earning their advanced degrees, but are unknown because they didn't establish their brand as smooth jazz artists or any kind of recording artist.

 

Anyway, I'm fine with having my play at music in my spare time. I thought of fame as only a way to get a professor job - after giving up on that, I lost interest in fame. Fortune... well, can't deny money is nice but only a tiny percentage of professional musos earn at that Drake/Swift/etc. level.

[jejefunkyman]

Keeping a day job has also its drawbacks. You have to spend 8 hours, 5 days a week, doing tasks that you don"t necessarily enjoy, not talk too bad to people even if you don"t like them, stand a supervisor that you find stupid or not competent in your business field, accept tasks with a minimum level of enthusiasm, getting very few recognition for the good work you make, fight hard not too show too much that you don"t give a damn shit about it, and so on and so forth.

 

After some years working in sales and not enjoying it at all, and feeling a lot of stress, I managed to get a position in product management which allowed me to find the right balance and work my musical craft on the side pretty constantly. However, this nice period just ended because of the big organizational changed which just happened in my company.

 

I have now to make a completely different job which is totally new to me, and taking tasks from people who were pushed out of the company in order to cut costs.

 

So this may threaten the balance I established and allowed to me to dedicate a lot of time to my passion.

 

This happens in the course of a long corporate career, as companies are constantly changing their structures and face a crisis every 10 years and this could have quite some negative effects on one"s motivation and availability for making music on the side.

 

I guess there"s no perfect solution (though some lucky fews are able to find one...) and every choice has its pros and cons.

 

Making music is also a like a medicine, a way to get rid of all the bad things generated by a day job, and keep oneself sane mentally.

[cedar]

My closest friends in high school became professional musicians, primarily playing jazz. I considered myself basically on their level of competence at the time, but I didn't think I had the single-minded, obsessive interest in music which I assumed was necessary to make it a career.

 

So I became a lawyer. This was not some kind of consolation. I genuinely thought I would have more success and be better-suited at law. In retrospect, I have no idea whether this reasoning was correct.

 

For a while, I was able to keep playing music while juggling work. But I often found myself in somewhat of an awkward place, not really fitting in with the musicians available/willing to play with me. And I knew that my old friends would have progressed far beyond my abilities.

 

Then I went into a kind of a musical hibernation. While my kids were small, I just couldn't find the time to do everything.

 

Finally, once the kids reached high school and college, I decided to do whatever I could to find the best musicians I could play with. This was somewhat of a slow process. I began playing with anyone who needed a keyboardist of any style. But after a few years, I finally got into rotation of really fine jazz musicians. I didn't feel nearly as accomplished as them, but at least good enough so that they were willing to include me.

I

And now we get to the somewhat ironic point: many jazz musicians I now play with are at a similar place as I am, insofar as they turned to full-time day jobs to pay the rent, while playing jazz on the side. This includes some of my friends from high school. But my circle also includes many full-time pros, some of whom have had some fairly prominent gigs. We have frequent sessions and occasional gigs.

 

I guess the lesson is that, people can start out at different points, and end up at roughly the same place. It's nice to speculate how far I would have gone musically had I really made it my primary focus, but I'm just happy I've landed at a place where music is fully in my life/