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Should I become a musician, or should I play as a hobby?
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Written by Csaba Tőri
5 November 2018[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]As I’ve been talking a lot to professional musicians as well as to amateur ones, I came across this problem many times. How can I decide whether I should become a musician or just play the instrument as a hobby while having another job?
The answer is always difficult for people who ask themselves this question. Of course, there are musicians that don’t even care about this, but those usually come from a musician family and the examples help them a lot to prevail in this field.
Musical career is beautiful.
This is how it always starts and although we often experience its „dark side”, it really seems to be true as a basic thesis. If someone commit himself/herself to this job, 95% will become an instrumental artist or will work as a teacher. Without question, the „dark side” includes low salary, inner conflicts in the art wold, and the competition that exists in the musical world nowadays.
Usually when this question appears, people are about 16-20 years old, some of them study musical training, others study at music schools, orchestra or sing in a choir. Those who learn at a music conservatory usually get a wide range of education. For them it’s also a question whether to stay in the music industry or to do something else. For those who took it as a hobby often feel like they’re late, won’t get into conservatory or into university.
I think in both ways we deal with good dilemmas. I consider something as a „good dilemma” when whatever we choose as an answer, it’ll bring us closer to our goal. Meanwhile we may not have time to realise that what we’ve learnt at music school will not disappear. Sometimes we get job offers that requires musical background, which is useful for those who’s already qualified. For amateurs, this dilemma will tempt them until they make the great decision. It can take years, and as you make your decision, new perspectives will open as a musician or as something else.
One of my close friends asked me this question directly: Can you not do it?
If you can live your life without music, it’s better for you not to choose this field where only the best 5% will achieve something. I believe it’s very important.
Same time I think this dilemma is not always about your end goal – and from the realisation of this making a decision is going to be much easier. In life we must make thousands of decisions which will take us somewhere, but it doesn’t help if we take responsibility of our whole life beside every decision we make.
Many scientific resources show that 80% of the population don’t work in the field where he/she has the highest qualification. Then why people who’ve learnt as a musician must work as one for the rest of their lives?
If that is true, then the decision made at the age of 16-20 is not actually for a lifetime: it’s enough to decide what to study for the next couple of years. It’s a fact that having a professional background is essential to get well-paid jobs, but we probably won’t even know about the 60% scope of the position of the next 100 years.
Those who can easily adapt to the changing requirements, will be successful, and those who can’t will probably become less useful in this world of robots.
So, we don’t make our decisions for life (like 100 years ago). Quoting another close friend: „ it’s worth deciding what we want to learn, and let’s try to get to know it on the best level.”
And he continued with this: „But be careful not to become a diverse educated dilettante.” It’s not worth learning everything perfectly at the same time, because you can’t be successful. You need one thing that you’re excellent at and what you can build up your life on. But it’s becoming harder and harder to decide this at the age of 20.
So for those people who want to learn music, most of the time I encourage them to learn! As you get deeper into it, you’ll find the meaning of it, and its place in your life. Maybe you’ll need it in your profession, and maybe you’ll be proud that you’ve learnt it![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]