Home » Music » Writing Music » Grow Up To Be A Musician

Grow Up To Be A Musician

© Cindy Lee Haddock

As long as you live at home with your parents, sure, you need to abide by their rules, but you aren't alone if others are telling you to "grow up" and quit being a musician. True, you do need to have a "day job" or some way to make money if you need to while you work towards making music writing your career, but very few famous musicians had parental support in their choice of profession. Actually, though, if you think about it, becoming a musician requires you to "grow up." Here are some comebacks you might try the next time someone gives you grief about being a songwriter, and a few tips for making songwriting a worthwhile choice for a line of work.

IT TAKES GUTS TO GROW UP IN MUSIC

If your poetry keeps getting you As in English classes, or you keep being chosen to be in the All-Star orchestra, chances are you are cut out to be a songwriter. Use those good grades to help the rest of your GPA, though, or at least try to use them to get you into other resume building activities, like playing for school performances, your church, or club activities, and start building your bio while you are still at home and have a support system, even if it is just room and board. You may find playing for school dances in a small group of friends that plays covers makes you more money than your job at the local sandwich shop, but just save that money up, don't quit one for the other just yet. Showing parents that you can save your money, spend it on things like song contest entries, classes at the local community college in studio production, or even studio time, will prove your maturity more than blowing it on the senior ski trip ever could. Graduating high school or even college with a long resume made up of numerous awards and paid gigs will impress a prospective employer far more than good grades alone-it proves to them you are a team player, and can excel even at a very competitive field like music. If you have already had an album cut, even if just as a performer, that is even more impressive to any group that you might try out for-it shows that you already know what it takes to make it as a musician or even in songwriting, and may help you quickly waltz past beginning groups that haven't even done that much and may never make a dime with their tunes or even with cover pieces. You probably already have long gotten over your stage fright major jitters, even if most of us never totally get over them-many never have the guts to even get onstage. You've already shown you have a lot of maturity once you've reached even this point as a musician or songwriter or both-both with your perseverance and the discipline to get this far-don't let others try to sell you short.

The copyright of the article Grow Up To Be A Musician in Writing Music is owned by . Permission to republish Grow Up To Be A Musician in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.