{"id":132,"date":"2013-09-16T21:12:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T21:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orchestrationonline.wordpress.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2013-09-16T21:12:22","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T21:12:22","slug":"25-little-signs-that-you-may-have-become-a-professional-musician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orchestrationonline.com\/25-little-signs-that-you-may-have-become-a-professional-musician\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Little Signs That You May Have Become a Professional Musician"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most musicians, the road to a viable career is gradual, not instantaneous. You get there by baby steps, by continued presence in your scene, and by the accumulation of experience and perspective. Eventually you realize that you\u2019re earning most or all of your money because of your music. That essentially makes you a professional musician. But understanding this sometimes takes a while to get through your thick skull. So here is a list of traits that are common to most working musos. Everything on this list does not necessarily apply to every musician, but most players are bound to find some items that resonate, including orchestral musicians.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Never-Ending Story.<\/strong> Your music is the first thing you think about when you wake up, and the last thing you think about when you go to sleep. In fact, you dream about playing gigs, and you practice licks in your head while driving.<\/li>\n
  2. You Cut to the Cash. <\/strong>The first thing you want to know when offered a gig is what it\u2019s paying, and the first thing you mention when asked to play for an event is your fee – and you know how to do this without sounding weird.<\/li>\n
  3. Most of Your Friends Are Musicians:<\/strong> in fact, the friends you\u2019ve got who aren\u2019t musicians are usually from way back in your past when you used to dream about playing in a band.<\/li>\n
  4. Emergencies Don\u2019t Faze You.<\/strong> If something goes wrong, you know how to fix it, because you\u2019ve got backups and know-how. And if it can\u2019t be fixed, you know how to cancel or change plans without freaking out.<\/li>\n
  5. You\u2019re Tired of Being Admired –<\/strong> because at this point, you\u2019re starting to see that those who worship you have got no idea what it takes. Those who see you as an equal have more valuable things to tell you.<\/li>\n
  6. You Eat Like a Scavenger.<\/strong> Scheduled meals are becoming a thing of the past, and you tend to eat while driving, reading, working on something, catching up with e-mails, or any other time you\u2019re not playing music with both hands.<\/li>\n
  7. You Improve While Doing, Not Trying.<\/strong> Command of your instrument and ease of performance means that a lot of progress is made right on the stage, and rehearsing is becoming more about setting the framework and getting tight.<\/li>\n
  8. You Understand What Teamwork Means –<\/strong> it goes far beyond just knowing your part and trying to stay on the beat. Rather, your playing has evolved into musical relationships and conversations with your ensemble.<\/li>\n
  9. Your Instrument is Worth More Than Your Transport: <\/strong>often far far more. You\u2019ve owned your share of used, falling apart vehicles, purchased out of pocket for a few hundred bucks. But you may likely be thousands in debt for your gear.<\/li>\n
  10. Your Partner Wants to Know When You\u2019re Getting Paid.<\/strong> So do you, but you know that to play the game, you have to put up with delays, stalling, and occasional dishonesty before getting what you earned.<\/li>\n
  11. You Listen to Music Analytically.<\/strong> Now that a long playlist of hundreds of songs is stuck in your head and many many gigs are behind you, it\u2019s gotten hard to just relax and let the music wash over you.<\/li>\n
  12. You Earn Trust from Others… \u00a0…<\/strong>taking responsibility for the things you say and do, putting your best out there as far as it can go, and not backstabbing your mates or making empty promises.<\/li>\n
  13. …and You Don\u2019t Hand Your Trust Out for Free:<\/strong> because, oh, how you\u2019ve been burned – and you\u2019ve seen people turn from saints into ratbags when the going got tough. Counting on trustworthy people has the highest results of getting paid.<\/li>\n
  14. You Feel More At Home On Stage Than Off.<\/strong> In fact, your life is starting to feel like one long performance, interrupted by a few breaks to eat, sleep, and change locations.<\/li>\n
  15. You Never Get Quite Enough Sleep.<\/strong> You get home many nights a month looking and smelling like a crushed cigarette butt, but if you sleep in then there won\u2019t be any time to practice or go to the dentist\u2019s office or whatever.<\/li>\n
  16. You\u2019re Always Thinking Weeks and Months Ahead.<\/strong> In fact, you may be much more focused on planning ahead for future gigs than aware about what\u2019s about to happen in a couple days, or even a couple hours sometimes.<\/li>\n
  17. You Have a Lot of Weird Clothes,<\/strong> mostly things that you like to wear on stage. This is different depending which style you play, but your distinction between street clothes and stage clothes is now invisible compared to most other people.<\/li>\n
  18. You\u2019ve Stopped Partying So Much.<\/strong> For a working musician, a party is a job, where the focus of many is upon a few. You\u2019re starting to prefer smaller gatherings where you know and trust everyone, and you\u2019re appreciated on your personal merits.<\/li>\n
  19. You Know Most of the People in Your Scene:<\/strong> the want-to-be\u2019s and might-have-been\u2019s, the ones who seem to grind their gears and the ones who\u2019ve moved on. Most important, you know the people worth working with and working for.<\/li>\n
  20. You Often Avoid Mentioning You\u2019re a Musician<\/strong> when you\u2019re meeting new people, or casually chatting with strangers. This helps keep the conversation from always shifting to you and what you\u2019re doing, which is becoming a bit of a bore to repeat all the time.<\/li>\n
  21. You\u2019ve Got a Built-In Time-Waster Detector,<\/strong> which kicks in when you meet people who want use a piece of you to help themselves get further, or make themselves feel important, or bury you in the quicksand of their incompetence.<\/li>\n
  22. You\u2019ve Learned to Say \u201cNo\u201d<\/strong> to some offers for gigs, even good ones at times, realizing all too well what happens to you personally, professionally, and artistically when you overcommit.<\/li>\n
  23. You Know What \u201cGood Will\u201d Means:<\/strong> the personal value of what you do and how you connect as a human being to other people around you. For those who really care and want to make music to continue, it\u2019s a chain of good deeds that connects us all.<\/li>\n
  24. You Pay It Forward,<\/strong> because you clearly remember how people took the time and patience to explain how things worked when you were starting out. They could see how just a few words of advice could make the difference between your success and failure. Now, as you\u2019ve gained experience, you can see with their eyes and take the time to help someone else out when the situation arises.<\/li>\n
  25. You Don\u2019t Have (Much of) a Day Job.<\/strong> Slowly, piece by piece, your career in music has been taking apart your steady job. You went from full-time to part-time as the gigs got more dependable. Then more freelance work started coming in: teaching lessons, commercial recording, arranging charts, playing solo gigs, and so on. Eventually, you had to give up the part-time job as well, or maybe you\u2019re just down to a few hours a week. But no matter how dicey the music business can be, and how much of a juggling act your finances have become, you wouldn\u2019t trade it for a hefty raise punching the clock. You\u2019ve never been more personally involved in something in your life. You have a job with built-in rewards of satisfaction and appreciation, a thrilling risk factor, and a direct role in shaping and communicating the culture of our time. That\u2019s what makes it all worth while – being able to earn not only a living, but also the kind of fulfillment that you can\u2019t slap a dollar value on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For most musicians, the road to a viable career is gradual, not instantaneous. You get there by baby steps, by continued presence in your scene, and by the accumulation of experience and perspective. Eventually you realize that you\u2019re earning most or all of your money because of your music. That essentially makes you a professional…
    Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[106,107,108,109,110,111],"yoast_head":"\n25 Little Signs That You May Have Become a Professional Musician - Orchestration Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orchestrationonline.com\/25-little-signs-that-you-may-have-become-a-professional-musician\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"25 Little Signs That You May Have Become a Professional Musician - Orchestration Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For most musicians, the road to a viable career is gradual, not instantaneous. 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