From September, 2002
It can be anywhere from a couple of years to a lifetime, but it's a good question to ask yourself every so often. If you ever decide that you don't wanna be a musician anymore, what else can you do to make a living? Yeah, you can be a salesman at a music store, but how many older guys do you see doing sales at music stores?
The trick is to find some other things that you're good at and learn them very well, just in case. Designing web pages, graphics, advertising, electronic repair, mechanic, just as long as you learn some other skills that are marketable now, and in the future. Or stay in music and reinvent yourself by learning some industry-related skills, such as arranging, songwriting, management, promotion, recording (no wait, forget that one; I've got that covered), you get the idea. The trick is to make yourself valuable and keep yourself current with what's happening.
And that's not easy to do. As we get older, we turn into our parents; we don't have time to keep up with the latest trends in anything, and life begins to pass us by, as we struggle to just make a living and keep what we already have. The current musical message becomes alien to us, and we find ourselves reaching over to push the oldies button on the dial in an effort to at least relive the good times in our life.
All my life, I was very fortunate to listen to so many great types of music and maybe that opened me up to more possibilities than most people had. I can easily switch from a string quartet to rock to country to jazz to rap, and still appreciate the talent and musicianship in every category of music.
I've found that some really great musicians often appreciate many other types of music far more than their fans would realize. Most of the top Nashville musicians are also great jazz players and much of their music can be traced to their jazz influences, which in turn, comes from the blues, which also gave us rock, soul, R&B, and rap.
Author
Topic: How Long Will You Stay In Music? (Read 2205 times)