I took a little blog break; I guess you are allowed that being your own boss 🙂
Many freelance musicians with me have a life where we juggle many different roles. I teach at a school, and I teach privately, I run my own bands and chamber groups, I do a lot of work as a studio musician, I play with different orchestras and choirs, and so on. Doing all these things is a test of your organization skills, which has never been my forte, until half a year ago when I got a new planner. It is absolutely great, with so much space that it never gets cluttered, it is easy to plan teaching without making one appointment look like I will be busy the whole day. It also has a strategy included, with exercises, to make me focus on my goals and actively work on them. Because my lesson, trying to be a very busy musician for the past ten years, is that when you are busy making other people’s projects happen, you will miss out on making your own.
So for the past six months, I have made these exercises trying to define my goals, and then planning to make them happen. And that is great. I am really excited that a new jazz group of mine will make an album in June, recording amazing jazz music from the 60’s that haven’t been recorded on the harp yet, so the strategy works. But there is also something else I have learnt.
In the attempt to define my dream, I have had to face the fact that my dreams are not that grandiose. Touring extensively, cut down on teaching hours (to be a “real” musician), play with amazing musicians all over the world. It would be very hard to turn down all those things, but slowly I have realized that I won’t work that actively to make it happen. Because I already live my dream. I play with my kids, I eat dinner with them every day (almost), I get to do my hobbies, I travel, and primarily, I can make any music project I’d like without having to think about if it is marketable or not. I just make the music I want, and play with the people I want. Isn’t that living the dream? Although you won’t see me in Carnegie Hall anytime soon 🙂
