I recently had someone say to me, "I think I'd like to be a professional musician." I of course bit my tongue and, after wiping the sweat from my forehead, proceeded to ask them a few questions.
"Do you love music?"
"Yes."
"How much do you love it?"
"...well"
"Enough to commit your life to it?"
I assured this person that I was not trying to talk them out of anything at all. What I was trying to do is remind them of the responsibility that lies in not only working for yourself, but working for yourself in the music biz. For someone who's fairly young and who has a passion to create, the dream of growing up to be a full time musician might seem very exciting. And it should! There's no greater reward than to be able to create something and share it with the world. This must not, however, overshadow some very real truths that come into play when someone makes a decision to follow their path to the stars...
1) It won't happen overnight
Instant gratification will lead to disappointment. This is an absolute. Those who "make it big on a whim" are few and far between, and have themselves paid their dues.
2) Nobody's going to do the work for you
Being a full time musician is hard work, and requires a lot of time and patience. In addition to maintaining your craft through practice, you'll have hours upon hours of lead fishing, office work, and bookkeeping to do. Be prepared, until you can afford to hire someone, to put in the time and hours necessary just to keep your lights on, which brings me to my next point:
3) Be realistic about how much money you'll make
Artists don't have to starve. In fact with the right amount of effort and determination, we can do pretty well for ourselves. This does not mean that we should expect to make millions of dollars per year. There is only one Hollywood, and it's small one.
4) You won't always be "doing what you love."
In a perfect world, one could just decide "Hey, I want to quit my job, write some songs, and make enough money to live on." But the truth of the matter is that being a musician is just like any other job in that you won't always be able to "do what you love." Do you love teaching? Office work? How about playing in a cover band or at the local community theatre to help with the bills? How about accompanying other local vocalists? These are all questions to consider. Maybe you love playing in cover bands, but you're not going to love every song that you play! Maybe you love theatre, but hate "South Pacific." And then your phone rings.
A professional musician doesn't have to do all that I stated above, but most will have to do a combination of sorts. That being said, if you're still on board with the idea then I'd say absolutely go for it. And give it everything you've got. The world needs to have the hard working musician, music teacher, accompanist, etc. in order to thrive, and frankly there aren't enough of us. It's a tough job that's equally as rewarding. If you decide to take that brave leap into the world of music, then I look forward to meeting you someday-and shaking your hand.
-Donovan Johnson is a New Age pianist and composer.
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