Becoming a Professional Musician
One of the most difficult lines of work in this world is to be a musician. There are probably more musicians without a job or income than in any other occupation. Why do people then choose to become musicians? Talking for myself, it was a life long dream and had to be pursued.
Many musicians are brought up in families with parents that themselves are musicians, either professionals or amateurs. My father was a guitar player, with his own music recording software and studio, and that greatly influenced me in wanting to become one myself. I remember dreaming about winning a musicians choice award while young, because those were in my mind the most prestigious awards to win. Essentially, other musicians voted you to be the best on your instrument. What a dream! Oh, and it never materialized, because like most other people walking down the path of music, I took a left turn so that I was able to pay my bills. In other words I had to take on a job, and slowly my dream faded away.
Becoming an established and successful musician simply takes a lot more than pure skills. Putting rock and pop stars that barely can play at all aside, breaking through means that you need a good portion of self-marketing skills, and a big pot of luck (the latter holds especially true for most famous musicians without true skills). Me, I lacked both, particularly in the self-marketing department. Unfortunately, I was a perfectionist and a bit of a shy person and that doesn’t spell well for a vocalist.
As far as passing on my passion for music, I will be very, very careful not to influence my kids. To be honest, I don’t want my children pursuing a dream of music because they want to please me. Of course, if they find the path of music on their own, I will support them 100%, but it is important for me that they do not try to live up to MY dreams.
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