These are the show notes from our very first podcast episode. You can listen to it here:

Why do people quit music?

1) Musicians don’t make a lot of money

At least not on a regular basis.

2) It’s not appreciated

• At least not compared to the pop world. Do you need proof of this?

• Misunderstood…it’s not just a hobby for many of us.

• When you’re trying to pay the bills as a musician, you sometimes have to take gigs that don’t pay great, and/or gigs where you are unappreciated.

• There are also varying levels of respect between people with a full time orchestra position, music teachers, gig musicians (but not necessarily in that order)

3) Musicians are often unhappy

• Unfulfilled expectations, or decline in their prestigiousness.”Where the stakes are low, the egos are highest.”

• But also, egos can also be high when the stakes are high too.

4) There’s a lot of Competition

• Which means a lot of rejection.

• There is always going to be someone who is…
  -Better than you
  -Better looking than you
  -More connected than you

• Competition and Rejection wears you down, and the older you get, and more times you get rejected, the harder it becomes to bounce back.

5) Working with difficult people.

• Sometimes when you’re the sub, the personnel manage will sit you with the difficult person, because no one else wants to sit with them.

• There’s got to be some reason why you keep deciding to play music, because there are plenty of good reasons to quit.

• But you have to wrestle with that, because if you quit because you are suffering with those issues, they will most likely follow you to your next vocation as well, because you never dealt with the real issues.

Why are you playing music?

1) I enjoy it….despite all the negatives.

• Maybe we didn’t all start that way (I was dragged to lessons for years)

• I enjoy even just some parts of it enough to compensate for the bad parts.

2) Level of Achievement

• This is what I’m good at – This is what I went to school for and decided that this is what I was doing with my life.

• You’re never done learning, You’re never done growing. You’re never done Exploring

• “As a musician, you can never be bored” -Christian Marshall

• There is so much to discover

3) The Ability to control your own life and schedule.

• You can mix and match aspects that you like. Which is why many people like teaching, but still can be choosy about which gigs they want to play. (Like not having to get up early in the morning….excerpt for those 6:30 call time church gigs).

• Which is why some people think musicians are lazy. But, downbeat at 6:30 is not the same as being “in the office” at 6:30 for most jobs.

• Also you were probably playing a gig the night before that got out at 10pm.

4) I Don’t have another option

• If I stop, I’m just going to end up at some entry level job.

• Or I’ll have to go back to school for years.

5) But gigs actually pay pretty well

in the Dollar/hour category (if you don’t count practicing)

• But be weary, if you are trying to run two parallel careers…you don’t have two sets of energy for both careers.

• If you are trying to choose between being a full time musician or just part time, it can be beneficial to try letting music go for a little while and see how you feel. If you can’t stand living without music at that level, you can always come back to it, and sometimes with a renewed sense of purpose.

6) Music is still really powerful

even if you’ve lost some of the magic from the grind of practicing, or traveling.

• It can even be a spiritual experience for audience members, even though you may never know it.

7) Traveling

• And meeting new people is also a nice perk.