Hobbyist or Career?

[richardmac]

Of those folks who read this forum, what type of musician are you?

[trimph1]

I used to be involved in it as a career but life took a turn on me---now i'm happy to be doing this as a hobby:wave:

[daddymack]

I opted for Hobby...it has been thirtyfive + years since I was able to support myself playing music, and over 15 since I saw it as even 'supplemental income'... I still like to get paid well when I play, but to survive in the current economy where I am is nigh on impossible....then again, I am of advanced age, and looking to retire soon..maybe...and then I could see going back and trying to make $ playing again...

[Inazone]

I consider myself fortunate (life being how it is) that I'm the type of person who can find enjoyment in writing songs and playing guitar, because I sure wouldn't be able to support the already modest lifestyle I'm accustomed to if I counted on my music to pay the bills.

[ZombieCat]

Another hobbyist here. Like Inazone, I just enjoy writing and playing music. That is good enough for me. Plus my day job pays really well.

[Temple of Light]

Neither and both. I could not stop being a musician if I wanted to. I was an active musician by the time I was four years old. I know I could be rich and famous if I wanted that too. I know how to make money from my studio, I know how to provide a service to make records.

I know how to sing as well as Morrison, Bono,

Hutchence, Jagger, Scott, Asterbury, Plant, Thomas, etc...

But I have no interest in living off the public eye. Getting and staying famous is a dangerous business, it can get you killed faster than living life itself. I'm gonna be here awhile longer yet. God ain't through with me and I'm just starting to get it...

But I also know how to write music and compose and produce an entire CD from start to finish, of my own material. I am accomplished on 7 { Drums, Percussion, Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, and Sequencers} instruments. I do this for sheer expression and personal growth, If I had to look at it as a job, I would probably end up being wasted on drugs and booze all over again. I Can't deal with the road anymore. So, I'm a profesional in the sense that I'm able to make money from it sometimes, but I'm also a hobbyist in the sense that I can still love doing it...and I'm not getting paid to be famous or creative or prolific. I'ts a matter of personal stability and sanity to me.

I would be just another insane, mental ward reject, strung out dopefiend without a dream;

If I had to live without sound, and especially music.

So neither and both: sometimes rich, sometimes broke...

But always alive and down for the jive...

Live for the day, die for the night...

[ac30guy]

my answer is yes.

[Beach Hound]

The real world gets in the way..hobbyist for certain. Been self employed and it's hard enough. Doing music for my only source of money would just not be fun. Fun is what it's all about.

[piersonm]

When I was younger I took music way too seriously. I considered it a job (yeah, I know sounds stupid) but, that was how I looked at it.

 

I can honestly say I have more responsibility now, less time to devote to music and I'm having so much more fun having it be a hobby instead of, "if I don't get this part right I'm gonna play it until my hand bleed!"

[gtrbass]

Both...

 

I was a full time session player and sideman for a while in the late '80's. Not an A-list guy, but I did OK. Now, I'm perfectly happy playing occasional gigs here & there and some studio work for indie artists.

 

There are easier & more reliable ways to make a living, then and now. I see music as something you may do (or try to do) for a living for for a while and then move on to focus on other ways to pay your bills ... but you are always a musician, whether you make money at it or not.

 

$$$ is never an indicator of artistic merit.

[richardmac]

 

I know I could be rich and famous if I wanted that too. (snip) I know how to sing as well as Morrison, Bono, Hutchence, Jagger, Scott, Asterbury, Plant, Thomas, etc...

 

 

Wow.

[Temple of Light]

Wow what? Care to qualify your enthusiasm?

And/Or answer to your own poll?

[crowguitar]

still managing to keep myself afloat in this economy as a musician...

[sventvkg]

Total Career for me. Moving to Nashville for more at end of Summer. I eat, sleep and breathe music.

[Matximus]

 

Wow what? Care to qualify your enthusiasm? And/Or answer to your own poll?

 

 

Dude... please. You're begging for derision with your initial post - he was being kind to you there. I mean, it sounds like you've lived some hard times as a working musician... That's great. But claiming to be some kinda music-legend that just didn't feel the need to answer his call to greatness... I mean, come on...Have some perspective about the people that post in these types of forums.

 

And RMC's an English teacher, I belive. Dude wites good songs and good prose - so egg him on at your own peril.

[Matximus]

Oh yeah. And I'm a hobbyist. I never made a go at being a working musician - I've got too much good sense and not nearly enough talent to make real money as a writer or performer. But I love writing and performing music.

[~GOD~]

i made some money playing for a while. i'd have made more working at mcdonalds.

[Stratmaster458]

I thought of making it my career, like recording degree, mastering engineer, or performance. I decided that I wasn't good enough and I wouldn't be able to make a life for yourself where I could live comfortably, so I decide to go with engineering specifically Robotics, a 5 year program that gets me masters, I'll be able to have a job that I don't hate and enough disposable income after I pay back loans to fund my hobby as a guitarist and recording enthusiast as well has have a family and a really sweet stereo. I think there are only a few people that great enough to actually make good money from music and good for them I am not one of them.

[Kramerguy]

I think it's a bit vein to believe it's as black and white as hobby vs. career... there's alot of grey area between the two -

 

What about the struggling musician who is trying to make a career of it, but still has to work full time to support himself? What about part time? Does a person have to live in a van and eat baked beans from cans to appreciate a "professional musician" lifestyle?

 

You can be a career chef and computer programmer at the same time, why not a career musician and computer programmer at the same time?

 

I know this much, as far as a "hobby" goes, I absolutely RELY on the 'hobby money' rolling in to make my budget work..

 

Maybe I'm just bitching, but it's NEVER been a "hobby" to me..

[richardmac]

I kinda thought someone would complain about lack of choices. LOL! I was trying to draw a line in the sand - is this what you do for a living, or not?

 

The definition of hobby is, "an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation." If you do music because it brings you pleasure, but it's not your main source of income, does that not make it a hobby?

 

There's nothing wrong with a hobby. Believe me, there are people who collect model trains who feel just as strongly about their trains as we do about our music. No, really. But you would call them hobbyists, unless they do it for a living.

 

But. But maybe there's a word that I don't know about that means "beyond hobby." Where's paulz? He probably has the best vocabulary in the entire forum....

[Temple of Light]

I did vote - you can see the results by clicking on the numbers. My vote was hobby. I was saying "wow" because I was rather taken aback at the level of your bragging. You could be rich and famous if you wanted to. You're as good a singer as some of the best rock singers ever. That's extremely boastful. Maybe you would be willing to post a link to some of your music online. If you're as good as you say you are, I would honestly like to hear it.

 

I have an album finished, I just dont have the resources to upload it for distribution just yet. I think I'll have it up in the next six months or so, Depending when I secure some work. It's looking more and more likely that it will be a double CD set, I'm zeroing in on another body of work that will accompany it nicely...As arrogant and conceited as this may sound, I wasn't bragging/boasting.

I didn't "miss my calling" either...

I can still do pretty much anything any of those singers can do, I taught myself to sing by the time I was 4 years old, I can sing pretty much anything I can hear. Including alot of the female voicings. I had a four and a half octave range when I was in my teens and twenties, I am closer to a four octave range now. My problem is I haven't found a band that can write for me anything that really turns me on or makes me want to sing. Also that it is very difficult for me to write music that I consider as "designed for singing". My head is just so busy, and I am incredibly undisciplined in that regard. There just isn't even close to anything like a major touring act that is anywhere near real or cool anymore...It's all just jaded faded and regurgitated for the purpose of getting paid. When {censored} like "The Offspring" are the new standard for airplay, and a few hundred or so that are just as bad, I just think what's the point in even trying to form a band? Musical expression of excellence has gone down several orders of magnitude anymore and most of the truly gifted musicians of the world are all mostly near the age of retirement. Or dead. Or living in relative obscurity and poverty. There is so little that's fresh any more in terms of ideas, musical theory or performance. Everybody is just following {censored}ing formula or copying someone else, refusing to take chances. Bands that have made it, through record sales, take their {censored} on the road every few years with there "greatest hits" tours, all the while ceasing to burn any of the fires that got them to write any of the {censored} that made them famous in the first place, by refusing to write and release new material. Most really new music is coming at us primarily through online collaboration and solo artist output. I'ts not a generational thing at all . There aren't a whole lotta love musicians these days that are into hard danceble sing-along rock, which is what I excell at. The rage of rebellion and political protest is no longer viable or fashionable.

For instance telling senators or governors or the POTUS to {censored} off and die is no longer a viable means of initiating political awareness/change. Just because they are already famous and provided for. Team Gov't is the only thing that matters to these blowjobs and now everybody knows it. Hence why you see the the inumerable instances of actions of insanity of our current and previous administrations. For a musician, there is no stopping it or influencing it or controlling the Gov't anymore, and that is the nature of the beast and it's no longer a reason to fight.

Revolutionary bands like The Who, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and The Stones have said it all and there's no more point of being angry. Green Day is a {censored}ing joke on punk: a sellout bunch of little boys with {censored}ing wives in tow while touring the world, raging for the machine they were trying to eliminate...I wish them continued success and noteriety...

All the writing I do doesn't even come close to letting me realize my potential as a singer, my real gifts are composition and instrumentals, but I am trying to get some more material together that is going to let that side of me out. Believe what you will, I dont need or want to be a part of a band, let alone tour the country/world and live on the road. I would end up dead in no short order. My politics alone would likely get me killed if I spouted off to the wrong people. I am that extreme in my expresssions and passions. You are obviously not as aware of how many thugs and drugs and outright {censored}ing slugs are in the music business, I have some pretty first hand insight into all that and let's just say I have ceased to be impressed by how these idiots dress... I have nothing to prove to you or myself, I just do this for fun, But I know if I wanted to play the part of self indulgent/destructive, narcissistic, womanizing, grandiose, arrogant and abusive son of a bitch asshole mother {censored}er of a rock star which the current media scene requires just to get noticed, and such as most of the above Iv'e have mentioned, I would be famous and rich enough in no short order, closely followed by multiple plastic surgeries, spending sprees, drug induced luxuries and my own demise. The last thing I need is to be discovered. I have a really hard time dealing with success, especially when other people are involved in it's creation. I am a murderous son a bitch when it comes to getting what I want and have pretty much given up on that side of myself for no other reason than my own self preservation. I am not willing to damage many people or suck ass and dick constantly just to get and stay famous and paid...but there are still many more coming up every day that are willing to throw themselves into the meat grinder, just for that one in a million chance to "dance with the stars"...

[richardmac]

Well, OK then. Um, when you do get some music available, post a link to it back here.

[daddymack]

well, you could have used amateur (does it for the love, has no intention of going after $) and semi-pro (which would be people who make money at it, but not enough to quit their day jobs).

I would fall into 'semi-pro', as I play at a level which I believe is 'professional', but choose not to pursue it as my vocation due to the level of competition where I am.

[Temple of Light]

 

Dude... please. You're begging for derision with your initial post - he was being kind to you there. I mean, it sounds like you've lived some hard times as a working musician... That's great. But claiming to be some kinda music-legend that just didn't feel the need to answer his call to greatness... I mean, come on...Have some perspective about the people that post in these types of forums. And RMC's an English teacher, I belive. Dude wites good songs and good prose - so egg him on at your own peril.

 

 

Derision is the luxury of the inexperienced. I Dont care if it comes my way or not, I just send it back to where it came from. Believe it or not, I've never even been in "a band" and I have never even tried to make money as a performing musician, it would have been selling out that which I value most: The integrity of my own understanding of and using the musical language for my own evolvement and enlightenment. The hard times I've lived through {which I see nothing great about whatsoever, btw} had alot more to do with drug abuse and trying to be a {censored}ing media whore than it did for being a musician. My greatness {or lack thereof}, has nothing to do with the fact that I'm famous or not, or even if I am or remain a musician or not...my working defintion of the term, I'm sure; is quite unlike your own...

I dont begrudge or envy anyone their success,

if they've earned it or not.

I'ts your life:

live it how you see fit.

I have no reservations or illusions as to who post here regularly, annonymously, or otherwise, I'm quite certain that there are quite a few rich and famous folk who come on here to chat. And an even greater number who come here for advice and encouragement and attention.

I care about very few and am influenced by fewer still.

It wasn't a need that I ignored answering, all of my needs are still being met. It is a dangerous skill I possess, capable of influencing millions of dollars and millions of people in ways I still dont understand. I am still, not to this day, a good enough example of how one should be or live to want to or need to justify influencing that many people. In any way. There are already enough really really bad examples of life not lived to want to follow mine.

[Temple of Light]

Well, OK then. Um, when you do get some music available, post a link to it back here.

 

Count on it...