25-07-2013, 00:33
As with everything else in life you need to find a balance. No job or career path is perfect there will be parts that are not to your liking as well as the other parts make it worthwhile. A career solely in music is not always a realistic goal not because you don't have the drive or the talent but because of the economics. Will there be enough gigs? Can you teach enough students? Do you have enough ensembles to keep playing regularly? Do you have enough connections to get the next gig? Will you schlep your own equipment to and from the gig? How well do you play under preassure? Can you work well and play well with others?
Where I live the predominant live music opportunities are for Country gigs. If I chose not to play country I would not have had more than a half dozen opportunites a year - obviously not a great way to pay sthe bills if I wanted to make music my living. So I took the gigs - Country, Jazz, Orchestral, Old-Time Dance, Dixieland, Marching Band, Pit Orchestra, Folk, Punk, Metal and more. I also taught students private lessons - which provided regular income when others did not. This did pay the bills but only just. I had a great time working full-time but it was not for me in the long run.
As you eluded to in your first post you WILL end up playing music that is not the most inspiring. You WILL play other people's music that you do not have a personal or artistic connection with. Does that mean you shouldn't learn from that playing opportunity? One of my mentors said to me "whatever you play, play it as well as you can and take something from it that will make you a better player for playing it" - he was talking about a performance situation but he also added that it could be for a learning or teaching situation as well. Follow your heart but not blindly - make sure you can eat and also look at yourself in the mirror and say yes I am doing what I want and need to do.
Where I live the predominant live music opportunities are for Country gigs. If I chose not to play country I would not have had more than a half dozen opportunites a year - obviously not a great way to pay sthe bills if I wanted to make music my living. So I took the gigs - Country, Jazz, Orchestral, Old-Time Dance, Dixieland, Marching Band, Pit Orchestra, Folk, Punk, Metal and more. I also taught students private lessons - which provided regular income when others did not. This did pay the bills but only just. I had a great time working full-time but it was not for me in the long run.
As you eluded to in your first post you WILL end up playing music that is not the most inspiring. You WILL play other people's music that you do not have a personal or artistic connection with. Does that mean you shouldn't learn from that playing opportunity? One of my mentors said to me "whatever you play, play it as well as you can and take something from it that will make you a better player for playing it" - he was talking about a performance situation but he also added that it could be for a learning or teaching situation as well. Follow your heart but not blindly - make sure you can eat and also look at yourself in the mirror and say yes I am doing what I want and need to do.