People who spend their time engulfed in the music making process may find themselves with a seemingly paradoxical problem. Those who spend the majority of their time practising, arranging, composing, improvising, attending rehearsals, performing and teaching are not doing a bad thing. This is what their career and passion demands. They do however frequently run out of time and audio processing capacity to spend time listening. 

An Average Musician’s Day

Your average musician’s day probably starts at 6:00 with a usually get up, coffee, shower routine. At 7:00 they dive into an hour of practice. By 8:15 they start driving to work where they teach their instrument at school for the morning and then run a rehearsal at lunchtime. Driving home at 2:00pm they might listen to an audio book or pod cast on music marketing, career development or something similar. They might spend from 3-4:30 working on their latest musical projects then teach a couple of private students before dinner. After a quick dinner they race out the door to either a rehearsal or gig. They get home when they can and fall asleep, only to repeat a similar process the next day.

The few moments of time when they are not producing sound are filled with golden and desperately needed silence. Once your caught in this world of musically busyness it can be very hard to stop. But after a while you will start to notice a gradual change. You are no longer familiar with the songs on the radio. And your composition practice is becoming harder and harder. For some reason you just don’t have the inspiration and abandonce of ideas that you used to. You have slowly become a starving artist but not in the traditional sense. You have food because you work hard so you can earn a living. But in doing all this you have become a musically starving artist.

Do You Listen to Enough Music?

When your a musician, listening to music is like eating vegetables that taste as good as chocolate (amazing taste and excellent nutritional value). I still remember the first time I was accused of not listening to enough music. It was in high school and out of ignorance one of the music teachers accused me of not listening to enough music. Admittedly, the accusation came about because I frequently had never heard of whichever song it was we were looking studying. It didn’t matter if it was by Pink, Nirvana, Queen or The Beetles, I had never heard it.

Nonetheless, I was outraged by this accusation. Yes, I had never heard of most of these artist’s music. But, that was because I was too busy practising, composing and listening to other music. I had never listened to Queen because I had fallen in love with the music of Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, Greg Pattillo, Project Trio, Apocalyptica and Evanescence just to name a few. And while I was growing up my parents only listened to classical music, opera or really old jazz. I knew the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Ella Fitzgerald but not Michael Jackson or Marron 5.

At this point in my life I was no where near being a musically starving artist. No one else in my class new any of Beethoven’s music well enough to pick out the various different instruments and the parts they played. But I am pleased to report that my teacher was genuine and human. He acknowledged the error of his ways and apologised. All good teacher know when to apologise.

I may have been musically naïve, a problem that both university and YouTube rapidly rectified, but I was not a musically starving.

The (Musically) Starving Musician

Conversely later on in life, after a great amount of personal upheaval, I did found myself musically starving.  University eventually spat me out as a fully qualified and educated musician/composer. (Whatever that is suppose to be). And I enthusiastically dived into my music career with a thirst and desperation to both prove myself. I wanted to “make it” and be “successful”.

My solution to this yearning was complex but simple. Do everything and when it doesn’t work try harder! Unfortunately, this led to the development of what I guess you could call artistic anorexia.

Anorexia is typically identified with extreme food restriction and purging which can take the form of throwing up and/or over exercising. It is an all consuming illness with extreme weight loss and an incredibly high mortality rate. The problem, in outward appearance, is food, but this is merely a symptom of a deep psychological struggle. 

A Diet and Excessive Exercise

Musically I no longer let myself experience or feed on other peoples work. There simply wasn’t time. If a Trevor Wye book said, “all serious performers will practice tone for 40 minutes a day” then, that’s what I did. But then you also had to practice breathing, scales, dynamics, tone colour, intonation, beatboxing, multiphonics, double tonging, piccolo, alto, bass and so on and so forth. This is what I refer to as over-exercising. In moderation these things are not bad but as a perfectionist moderation is at times impossible.

On top of this I started devouring music career, business and marketing books and online courses. They that all promised success on YouTube, Soundcloud, Blogging and Social Media. I made a business plan, marketing and social media plan, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plans and tried to take on absolutely everything other people suggested I should do in order to be successful. Buy this microphone, make weekly videos, weekly blog posts, daily social media posts and so on and so forth.

Never Enough

Like someone suffering from anorexia who is never thin enough I was never good enough. And the worst part is that no amount of trying is going to change this. In fact the more you try the worst it gets. Being in a constraint state of output and never being on the receiving end eventually results in both your work and life becoming completely empty.

You are musically starving and malnourished. No longer inspired by or even connected to the musical world. Yet originally this was one of the only things that made you feel alive. Maybe this is one of the reasons why so many musicians die young, experience crippling depression, anxiety, eating disorders and drug dependency.

A Solution?

There is no easy solution to this problem but prevention is definitely better than cure. Understanding psychologists and councillors can be extremely helpful. Those who don’t understand tend to make the problem even worse. But perhaps the first step towards a solution is awareness.

Awareness

We cannot change what we are not aware of. And ignoring something does not make it go away or eradicate its existence. Musicians and other artists need to be taught more than just the mechanics of their art form. They need to know how to sustain themselves both musically, artistically and financially.

There are no job positions to apply for after graduation and no one teaches you how to turn your music into your business. Being entrepreneurial is how many creatives sustain themselves. But the dread B word (business) is the dark art that creatives rarely speak of.

Sustenance

To keep yourself alive you need to feed off the creative work of others. Go to concerts, art galleries and plays. Disappear down the rabbit hole of YouTube and stay inspired and alive to the creative practice of others. Get a teacher or mentor. Attend a workshop or masterclass. It is your responsibility as an artist to make sure you don’t starve.

Balance

Finally, musicians need to be able to maintain a healthy balance in life. There has to be a balance of work and rest, producing music and enjoying the music of others. Teaching and learning. Practising technique and developing performance repertoire. A life in music is hard but can be rewarding. Each musician needs to be supported by both musicians and non-musicians. No one can exist in isolation. And no one can do everything they are “suppose” to do without sacrificing who they really are on the alter of success.

A book that I found incredible helpful that you may also enjoy is “The cross road of should and must: Find and follow your passion” by Elle Luna.

Decide

If you only do one thing, then make the decision not to become a musically starving artist. Let yourself regularly disappear down the rabbit hole of YouTube. Constantly listen to music you have never heard before. Attend concerts and feed your musical soul. Remember the old yet relevant principle found in Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked, a human will reap what they sow”.

Related Articles:

• The Courage to be a Musician
• The Instant Musician
• Responsibility
• Living a Musical Life