If you’re like me, music is your life; it takes more time out of the day than anything else. Whether it’s practicing your instrument, training our ears, working out theoretical puzzles, making up marketing strategies or just plain old listening. And even as I believe that this is the way it should be; since as musicians we must work our entrepreneur minds to conjure a wide variety of ways to get our music out there and make ends meet to survive, at times it can be overwhelming.
Every single time I start feeling suffocated because there’s way too much I have to get done I think about something a teacher of mine told me when I came to him for help on the subject; “it’s only music”. And even though at the time I thought to myself, what are you saying?!?!?! MUSIC IS MY LIFE, I eventually understood. Music is only but a part of who we are, yes of course it’s a huge part, but it’s exactly just that, a part.
As musicians and more importantly, human beings, we have to understand that life encompasses a wide array of variants. If we stick to just one facet of life eventually our emotional and psychological circuitry will indeed combust and we will end up depressed and feeling unhappy. Human beings are not machines; we are natural creatures with biological, physical and social needs. And even though the way the system is built to make us think that we are indeed machines and that we should be working 24/7 around the clock in the long run this will destroy our central nervous system leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Point being, music is not the most important thing in life, YOU ARE. Music is an incredibly important part of life and I couldn’t imagine myself living without it, but at the end of the day there is but one life and it should not feel like we are sinners for taking a day off. This is where hobbies come in. It's so important to get a hobby, whether it’s cooking, painting, exercising, playing video games, whatever makes you happy. It’s good to change up the routine every once in a while.
Let’s not forget human contact, a lot of musicians cave themselves in to practice and don’t get out at all. Music is a language, and language is a means of communication which means that essentially music is to be shared with others. In other words go out and play with people, talk to people, enjoy the human experience since it does eventually end and let’s not fool ourselves, it ends way faster than we think. So, go out there, practice and work your but off for your dreams, but always remember to have fun and please…..GET A LIFE!!!!