When I was 18, I auditioned for music programs; I wasn’t accepted.
When I was 32, I was hired to guest lecture at the same colleges that hadn’t picked me.
How did this happen? Instead, I created my own path of education, experience building, and jobs. Seth Godin says we should ‘pick ourselves.’ I love that motto.
When it comes to music, picking yourself is the best selection you can make.
Teaching: it’s a calling, not a plan to fall back on…
I was reading an interview the Southeast Review did with poet/writer Jamaal May. He commented on the cliche idea that writers should become teachers to help pay the bills:
“It’s more important than ever for people to figure out if teaching is something they want to do, or something they’ve assumed they have to do to be a writer. Being a teacher is not for everyone and if we had less writers out there doing it because it seems to be the correct path, there would be more jobs for the people who live for being in front of a class.”
I think every writer and prospective teacher should read those sentences again.
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May focuses further on adjunct teaching, but I think his statement is true for all forms of teaching. Many writers are great teachers. The skill sets compliment each other, but they are not one and the same.
Teaching is it’s own craft. It is it’s own art form.
Teaching requires a passion and dedication.
Not all writers need to become teachers. Save those jobs for people who have a calling, to be a teachers.
Wearing Many Hats, Doing What You Love
Meet TJ Jarrett.
She’s an award winning poet. She is also a computer engineer.
The Atlantic published an intriguing article about how Jarrett choose a path less travelled as a poet; she choose not to be a teacher.
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Jarrett’s example of wearing one hat to pay the bills and another hat to sustain her art is a common story, that’s often misunderstood. Can you call yourself a professional, if you don’t fully pay all of your bills with your art?
I would argue, “absolutely.”
And, you might be making more “artistically creative” stuff if you are free to worry about having investors (labels, etc) interfering.
As artists, writers, or musicians, it’s easy to get caught up with how the bills are paid on a weekly and monthly basis, but there isn’t a formula to what a real creative career looks like.
A real creative career is simply a person who is making art they are proud of producing. What’s more important is how much time we have to dedicate to our art; and how we use that time.
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This is the misconception about why I left the public school sector. Many assume I didn’t like teaching.
I loved the teaching part, but after 10 years of teaching experiences within public schools, I knew I would never have a life outside of my job. The essay grading, lesson planning, and extra parts of teaching we a second job outside of the classroom.
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Now, my life as a musician is much different. I used to live by school bells; now I live by guitar notes.
I still teach to make a portion living of my living. The difference is my part time teaching job (music instruction) allows for me to have time to practice and write. My gigging schedule allows for this, too.
In my thirties, I have finally found a balance I wish I had in my twenties.
As artists, it’s important to stay dedicated to our craft. That dedication might mean making money in other ways. The key is to find the ways that don’t eat up every minute of our lives.
What’s the difference between a songwriter and a music student? The student focuses on playing it correctly, the songwriter tries to play it wrong.
Playing things incorrectly is a great songwriting technique.
Sometimes, when I’m learning a song, I accidentally play a wrong note or chord, and become intrigued by the mistake. “Oh, what’s this?” my ear asks.
Hours later, I find myself composing a song, inspired from the mistake. Sure, I can be a distractible student, but I’m a focused songwriter.
It’s easy to view studying songs as simply that, learning to play it note for note, chord for chord, word for word. But what about the wonderful mess of creating something new, going in a different direction?
That song is supposed to be a Dsus4 to Cadd9 and you used Dsus2 to Cm9? Boom, you have a new idea.
As teachers, we need to encourage these discoveries.
That’s one difference between the student and the writer; the writer embraces the mistakes.
When Britney Spears’s warm-up vocal track of “Alien” was leaked this week, I am shameful to admit that I clicked the click-bait.
After listening to it, and reading the producer’s thoughts on the matter, I wondered, “What would people think of my test vocals from my sessions at Catherine North Studios?” (They weren’t pretty!)
Creators of any kind must be courageous when releasing a project. And there are a million moments where our fear might tell us, “Don’t finish this. Don’t release this. Don’t even start this project.”
Now, in the digital-age, we face the additional fear of our warts being released publicly. But the game of creating really hasn’t changed. There is nothing alien to facing our fears when we are creating art or finishing a project.
If we listen to Britney’s vocal track, the only thing worth considering is it’s a reminder to quiet the voices in our heads that are scared of the warts that might show up during the creation process.
Not every take, sketch, idea, draft or trial will be beautiful; warts are a natural part of the journey of completing art we will be proud of releasing when it’s done.
