Question: Should You Be a Full-Time Musician?
Answer:
Ok. Firstly, if you HAVEN’T been thinking of this, you don’t have to read on.
The main thing here is that this entire post relates to stuff in my new eBook, Make Your Art – which is about how to:
a) make more art
b) get over excuses
c) be more creative
The other thing is, because I wrote the eBook last year – it was written in English – since it was prior to my newer Malay instructional videos like RAHSIA JADI HERO MAJOR SCALES and KELAS ASAS GITAR NEO SOUL or even my new video LANGKAH GITAR GIRANG 1.
So, if English is a bit of a challenge, you don’t have to read on.
However, I might make a version of the eBook in Malay IF there is enough demand for it. (Not sure yet).
Well, now that that’s covered.
Lemme answer the question.
Being a musician is hard.
Why?
Because it’s not mainstream.
Because it doesn’t TRADITIONALLY mean a steady pay-check.
Because you will often get judged by society, your family, your friends and almost anyone who has time to judge other people instead of working on their own life.
Now, on one hand – you have the whole issue of money.
On the other hand – you have the issue of being judged.
And then, there’s all the requirements, the skills, the things you might need to know in order to make a living as a musician.
It’s one thing to write some songs every few months and it’s a different thing to commit full time to be a musician where your primary goal is to make money by exclusively only doing music.
Some of my friends actually make their money elsewhere.
Some are baristas.
Some are lawyers.
Some are advertising people.
Some work in the film industry.
Some are in the finance industry.
A lot (especially overseas) work in tech or startups.
Is that wrong?
Nope.
You can do music and make money elsewhere.
It’s perfectly fine!
But yes, there is a kind of skillset that you can develop when you commit every single day to making your art.
It’s just logical if you think about it.
If all you do is music, every single day – from the moment you wake up until you sleep, that amount of time has a compounding effect.
You get better the more time you spend on something.
Day in, day out.
Does that mean you can’t do music part-time?
Nope.
You can do music part-time.
And you will have less hours doing music.
The main benefit of part-time music life is that you probably actually have more money to afford your gear and software for making music.
But on the other hand, you might not be able to use those gears and software as much.
However, you might APPRECIATE every moment you have to make your art.
Should you be a full-time musician?
This is a personal question.
For the ones who do, most of them have never thought of anything else as an option.
For some who transitioned from another career (including some of my past students), they did it as their music work welcomed them more and more.
They started getting more work.
They started getting more calls.
The key is to make more art.
As you make more art, you can slowly see how much of music is a calling to you.
Does music make you happy?
Does music seem like your calling?
If you answered yes and the rest of the world’s discouragement doesn’t mean a thing to you, then music might be for you.
If not, you can still do music when you’re free.
The most important thing is not HOW MUCH time you spend doing music but the fact that you make art.
Make your art.
And, if you’re curious about how I do it & how my students do it, you can find out more in my new eBook, Make Your Art.
Click here for the discounted 50% off link
(limited to the next 15 buyers)
https://gum.co/makeyourart/nevergonnagiveyouup
or
Message me for Maybank Instant Transfer (RM40)
Keep keepin’ on & thanks for reading!
Az
Jan 27 2020, 6:44 PM