Quit Your Job For Music?
Should you quit your job so you can focus on your music? Well, the answer is probably not, but I have. I kidded myself into starting my own business, but that didn’t work. Really I quit just to work on music. I’ve not seen any tangible results yet (as in million dollar royalties), and nobody’s invited me to any awards shows, but it’s early days.
Quitting Your Job To Work on Music
This, actually, in retrospect, is double ended sword. My reasoning is this:
You get a lot more time to do music stuff. Practice is very time consuming, and it helps greatly to have the time to do it. Few people start an instrument in their 20’s and progress to professional level- society has made it too late for them- they had their chance when they were young.
On the flipside, however, I found because I play guitar and write every single day now, I have far fewer ideas than I did when I had to go to work every day and forget about music. Some days I find myself even needing to take a break from music and do other things (like this blog). I think you can also get stuck in the nitty gritty of song writing when you’re thinking about it continuosly, and not see the bigger picture.
It’s worth pointing out that inspiration does not come out continously during the hours of 9-5, and it’s often that inspiration strikes when you least expect it, or when it’s least convenient (e.g. on the motorway). Consequently, if you intend to spend all day writing songs, this is very unlikely to happen.
Depression
I heard a statistic on the television yesterday that said 50% of long term unemployed people suffer from clinical depression or anxiety. Having been unemployed myself, I can relate to this, and I think others can too, and would say it is a danger of being sat inside after a while. If you do decide to concentrate on music, but end up sat inside watching television/internet/smoking all day, you ought to get some kind of other activity, even volunteering. In my bitter experience, being depressed does not help you write music, it rather hinders it (and anything else you might want to do), and is consequently worth avoiding.
Being Responsible About Money
Everybody needs money. Music doesn’t pay. It might pay, but as a general rule it doesn’t. The smart thing to do is to keep earning, even on a part time basis, and push your music hard until you can start earn something from it. That is, after all, the struggle of this entire blog.
Don’t Listen to Me
I should point out that I hated my previous job anyway, and worked long, stressful hours, so probably would have quit anyway.
This article is unfortunately a little bit ‘preachy’. That’s not my intent. It’s only my intent to share my opinion on the matter. Do let me know though what you get up to!