I want to talk about the process that gets a person to accept music into their life.
They are many traps awaiting the potential hobbyist. The first one being that everybody knows what it is to be a musician. At any level. Anyone can tell you what being a musician is. Even if you just want to be a hobbyist. Almost no other subject has captured so much of the general public attention.
What does it entail to be a musician? Here comes the catalog of “work hard”, “really tough job”, “not for everybody”, “so many messed-up people in that profession”, “if you’re not gifted, don’t continue”, “you have to sweat tears and blood for two years before getting to play something fun”. The list goes on and on. Being a musician, apparently, requires super human determination and qualities.
Does the profession of electrician, insurer, fridge builder excites such dire predictions and tough sayings? And what to say about the common “office job”? Does every one has an opinion on how to get there?
In music, though, it seems everybody knows.
So, usually, my first time students come with that baggage. Almost no exception. They all let me do my job, they all trust me. But they all have this big opinion they carry around. The opinion that goes: “I’d better be prepared for the worse”.
They are forgetting the first element that is in music, the reason why so many people embraced this art form. That element also happens to be the last, the one they should take to their grave when they will think about music. That element is fun.