PASSION ALL THE WAY!

After giving it some thought, I just realised that the only reason I still do music is simply because of how passionate I am about it. On the other hand, I would not say that I do not make a living out of it. But then, how much of a living can an ordinary musician who has not been opportune enough to perform on any big stage make out of music? The few close to being big stages that I have encountered only allowed me to perform as an instrumentalist, and we are rarely noticed 😔. I might be wrong on this, but I think the musicians who do the most work are always in the background. Sometimes, they never even get the opportunity to be recognised.

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To choose whether to follow 'passion' or 'making a living' is something I have never considered as far as music is concerned. I guess I might have chosen passion after all; it is the only thing that keeps me going as far as I can remember.

If I may opine, the question should be based on whether one is really passionate about what they do. As a matter of fact, it should always be the case that passion comes first. If it be otherwise, then the authenticity of such passion must be questioned. No matter how much life gets on someone who is passionate about a particular thing, they must find at least the slightest amount of time for that which they love. It is all about whether one is really passionate. In his pursuit of being a musician, a true musician will never put what he stands to gain over his career. He will certainly be more interested in remaining a musician than becoming rich; that is what true passion does. Many might claim to be passionate, but not all understand what it means to be truly passionate.

I have never been in a position where my passion for music was tested with a huge amount of money. I wonder what I will eventually choose, even after speaking of how a true musician will not choose money over their career 😅. I hope my passion doesn't fail me then. But still, I think it has been passion all these while. At the early stage of my musical journey, I remember paying for transport to choral group practices [even as a student who is completely dependent on his parents], going to all-night practices and renting keyboards just to be able to practice as a novice. I gained absolutely nothing from these financially at the time, but I still desired to do them the most. I would not discount the fact that those days served as a solid foundation for my musical life, but they never paid off then.

At this level of my life, I have decided to spend less money and time on acquiring musical knowledge, but that does not stop me from being a musician. I guess I have become less passionate, or not. It could be said that I decided to reap the fruit of my labour a little bit. At the beginning of the year, I quit my former job that was highly time-consuming to take on a few part-time musical jobs. First, I got a job as a music teacher in a primary school after approaching a few schools to tell them about me and what I can offer their students. I was also able to take a job as a musical instructor and a keyboardist in a church that I had constantly turned down due to my former tight schedule. The two jobs combined not only amount to almost what I was being paid in my former place of work, they also offer me the opportunity to do what I love as well as give me so much time for myself. I would not call it a dream come true since I desire to do better than this for myself, but it is certainly a progressive move, and passion brought me this far.