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Re: To those who make a living off of music



I make a living as a producer, mixer, session guitarist and singer... and 
occasional private music teacher.

When there's external work on the table you do it with all the love inside 
you... and, if you're good at what you do, that will lift the project 
beyond where even YOU thought it could go. That always surprises me. 
Having stuck with it for the last 27 years has earned me enough of a 
reputation that now I am lucky enough to get called for what I like doing 
and there is absolutely no pain whatsoever in being a pro... in fact, it's 
a joy in every way. It wasn't always that way... that's called paying your 
dues, I guess.

The times when I have to find discipline is when I'm making my own music. 
If I have some time off from the pro aspect of my music, I do everything 
in my power to NOT look at that as time off, but rather, time to work on 
my stuff. When there's a good balance between the 2 worlds they seem to 
blend into one thing and no extra than normal motivation is needed to go 
about doing work for my own music or pro music. When there's a little too 
much pro stuff going on sometimes I find myself either pining away for 
that personal music time or burning the candle at both ends to keep the 
balance... which throws other things, like sleep, out of balance.

So... to answer your question: I don't have to discipline my mind to 
remember that I do music for love: that's a given. That's where everything 
starts. In fact, only by doing what I love has the money ever come. It's 
when I start taking on projects I don't find attractive that the money 
dwindles.

I studied music in college and survived... I don't really understand that 
part of the question. I know there are a whole bunch of people out there 
who like to poop on music school... I'm not one of them. Knowledge is a 
good thing.

Thanks for the post. Very interesting things to ponder. I love all the 
other reply posts too....

Teddy
http://teddyjam.com

On Feb 15, 2012, at 2:17 PM, k3zz21@gmail.com wrote:

> So we (the class) literally just finished listining to a lecture from my 
> english teacher about motivation. He was talking about how external 
> reward can doom us for failure and how its self directed motive that 
> works the best. The article we read said that Google has one day a week 
> that allows its developers to work on any project they want freely and 
> through that, Gmail  along with many other crucial developed This post 
> is directed especially to you musicians that make a living soley on 
> music. What is it that keeps your motivation and creativity fresh? How 
> do you discipline your minds (if you do) to remember that you do this 
> only for the love of music and not for money? Did any of you study music 
> in college and survive? 
>