My son has been drumming all his life. He picked up a pair of sticks, he was three years old. Has never let go since. He’s now fifteen years old. I give him some drum lessons (severely discounted, of course, I can’t afford my own services at full price. Hahaha!).
He loves to play. So much so that he’s seriously considering a career in music. He wants to play and teach. Yes, just like his dad. What a coincidence!
So, I show him what I know about the instrument. It is not difficult. He’s an excellent student, really eager to learn. No, you see, the problem is somewhere else.
The problem is the business of music. Because there is no business of music. It can be anything. It can be a really difficult person that shines bright and lovable every time they go on stage and are very abusive the rest of the time. It could be the competitors who undercut you at every turn, they don’t care, they’ve got that little sentence to protect them: “Nothing personal, it’s just business.” It could be a girlfriend that takes all your energy, all your money, all your time, all of you and is never satisfied and your dreams disappear in her thirst for unhappiness. It could be a manager that drinks your profit, or make you sign on a very bad dotted line. It could be, it could be, it could be a million things.
It could also be my dad’s mind racing to imagine situation where my son gets destroyed. Yes, yes. That’s the point of this blog. Read on.
Because, truth be told, all these doomsday scenarios have little chance of happening.
There is an inner fact I’ve learnt in Chicago: in general, in the vast majority of the general, if I may say, people are good. People are actually great. I am sure my son will encounter many more generous and caring people than dangerous ones. I know I couldn’t have stayed in this business without a plethora of good souls who have helped me every step of the way. A lot of them, today, are still my friends. We met through the lessons I teach and our relationship has developed to become very precious and meaningful to me. I could name names but a lot of the very ones that are reading this blog are in that category of special friends I’ve got in this world.
I have been in Chicago since 1991 and the good people of this city have never let me down. That’s why I love this country. My son was born and raised here. And he will have some dynamite adventures for sure, but I think he got an internal compass on what’s good or bad for him that’ll guide him through the treacherous waters of the music business. The good people, the formidable strength of the good people. I am counting on that for him the same as I am counting on that for myself.