Knowing When to Proceed With Music and When to Stop

J

JMD_Music

New member
How do you know when it's time to give up attempting music as a career and when to just do it as a hobby?

After months of waiting, I'm finally close to getting started where I'll be taking Ableton and Piano lessons. I was thinking I'd evaluate myself after 3-4 months just to see where I am. If I didn't feel like I was making significant process, I'd look into another type of career, such as something in film production or development.

Would 3-4 months be enough time to evaluate myself or should it be a little longer? I have absolutely no musical or production background and would be starting from the very bottom, but I'd have 1-1 training so I think that would speed up up the learning process. Plus I have around 40 hrs week to practice.
 
When you have a wife and kids to house and feed - and you ain't making enough money to do that from music - it's time to get a job.
Just because it's a hobby it doesn't make your output any less exciting... Just means you have less time to work on all the boring shit like promo/marketing, kissing arse and chasing gigs/money.
 
JMD_Music said:
How do you know when it's time to give up attempting music as a career and when to just do it as a hobby?

After months of waiting, I'm finally close to getting started where I'll be taking Ableton and Piano lessons. I was thinking I'd evaluate myself after 3-4 months just to see where I am. If I didn't feel like I was making significant process, I'd look into another type of career, such as something in film production or development.

Would 3-4 months be enough time to evaluate myself or should it be a little longer? I have absolutely no musical or production background and would be starting from the very bottom, but I'd have 1-1 training so I think that would speed up up the learning process. Plus I have around 40 hrs week to practice.
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3-4 months?
No.
But stick with the music lessons, that is a VERY VALUABLE skill that will take you as far as you want. Stick. With. It. Even when your instructor has you doing boring shit like learning old classical and jazz songs. Even when your instructor has you running scales to a metronome.

As far as career goes....dude, if you have no musical background-get your MBA. A business degree will help you in whatever field you decide to go into-ESPECIALLY music.
 
Pumpthrust said:
3-4 months?
No.
But stick with the music lessons, that is a VERY VALUABLE skill that will take you as far as you want. Stick. With. It. Even when your instructor has you doing boring shit like learning old classical and jazz songs. Even when your instructor has you running scales to a metronome.

As far as career goes....dude, if you have no musical background-get your MBA. A business degree will help you in whatever field you decide to go into-ESPECIALLY music.
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I've looked into getting an MBA. The accounting and financial part is what would kill me.
 
focus on other jobs as your priority for now and once you get as good as the more advanced producers then consider your options. learning to make tracks can take years so dont rush into things.
 
So none of you believe that with 1-1 training and practicing around 40 hours a week, that someone is capable of making decent music within 3-4 months? Not anything extraordinary, but just solid music.

I'm not looking for shortcuts or anything like that.
 
JMD_Music said:
So none of you believe that with 1-1 training and practicing around 40 hours a week, that someone is capable of making decent music within 3-4 months? Not anything extraordinary, but just solid music.

I'm not looking for shortcuts or anything like that.
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Why do you need us to confirm it for you? You can't make "solid" music(whatever the hell that is supposed to mean) right now?
If you think you can be THE ONE to learn the language of music by cram-practicing for 3-4 months, LOL be my guest.
 
Pumpthrust said:
Why do you need us to confirm it for you? You can't make "solid" music(whatever the hell that is supposed to mean) right now?
If you think you can be THE ONE to learn the language of music by cram-practicing for 3-4 months, LOL be my guest.
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I don't think it would be cram-practicing at all, just dedicating a lot of time.

I don't need anyone to confirm anything, only seeking out other opinions. Nice try being sarcastic, but I think most people know what "solid" music is compared to crap.
 
You're expectations are unrealistic in this field. I'm just a casual hobbyist but bruh I think you need to know that shit like this is not as simple as most things and takes years to have a basic grip on the field.

1.Learning a daw to a comfortable level with the aid of a manual and youtube vids is months in itself.
2.Learning even just parts of music theory, again months.
3.Learning an instrument[optional] or even just the basics for riffs is again months of scales.
4.The others as well as pump were already spot on, in their answers towards you in particular.
5.If after say...a year or two if you don't like it then you don't.
6.But if you end up liking that sect, you actually never stop learning.
7.Cramming is not as fast as a turtle my fella.
8.If that's how you'd prefer to learn a daw then do it, although there's so many tuts already.
9.Opinion, learning a daw and it's features is free 24/7.
10.Opinion, only learned basic music theory but that's the one thing I wouldn't just youtube unless just learning sheet reading, scales and chord formulas.
11.Mouse can do everything but learning an instrument on any level is a fun experience.
12.This field has a lot of depth to it.
 
Never ever start doing music and expect that you will instantly be able to make a living out of it. Pretty much all of the artists you listen to who makes a living out of it started doing it as a hobby for several years while having a regular job, and then they eventually had the chance to pursue a career in music since everything started going so well for them.
 
steffeeh said:
Never ever start doing music and expect that you will instantly be able to make a living out of it. Pretty much all of the artists you listen to who makes a living out of it started doing it as a hobby for several years while having a regular job, and then they eventually had the chance to pursue a career in music since everything started going so well for them.
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I never said that I expected to instantly make a living out of it?

I hope that's not what other users here thought I meant this entire time.
 
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KonKossKang said:
You're expectations are unrealistic in this field. I'm just a casual hobbyist but bruh I think you need to know that shit like this is not as simple as most things and takes years to have a basic grip on the field.

1.Learning a daw to a comfortable level with the aid of a manual and youtube vids is months in itself.
2.Learning even just parts of music theory, again months.
3.Learning an instrument[optional] or even just the basics for riffs is again months of scales.
4.The others as well as pump were already spot on, in their answers towards you in particular.
5.If after say...a year or two if you don't like it then you don't.
6.But if you end up liking that sect, you actually never stop learning.
7.Cramming is not as fast as a turtle my fella.
8.If that's how you'd prefer to learn a daw then do it, although there's so many tuts already.
9.Opinion, learning a daw and it's features is free 24/7.
10.Opinion, only learned basic music theory but that's the one thing I wouldn't just youtube unless just learning sheet reading, scales and chord formulas.
11.Mouse can do everything but learning an instrument on any level is a fun experience.
12.This field has a lot of depth to it.
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I don't really have any drastic expectations. I'm not talking about being some household name within a short period of time, just being able to put together a track that doesn't sound like complete garbage.
Just a response to some of your points.

7. Nothing I've stated is cramming. Practicing a lot is not cramming. I didn't say I planned to master a DAW or the piano in a short amount of time.
8 & 9. Everyone's learning methods are different. I learn better having someone in front of me rather than watching a video.
12. I already knew that. Never said I planned to master everything within a couple months.

All I stated was that I wanted to evaulaute myself in a couple months. If I felt like I was picking things up, then I would continue. If I felt like I wasn't, especially with all the time I'd be spending practicing on my own, then I'd move onto something else. I think that if you spend over 200 hours learning something and it still isn't beginning to somewhat stick and there's no progress, it's time to venture into other things. I live in Los Angeles where there's tons of oppoprtunity in other fields, so I don't want to become stagnant focusing on one thing and missing out on others. I think that's a pretty reasonable plan. Just keep trying out different things until you find something you're fairly good at and can see a future in.
 
JMD_Music said:
So none of you believe that with 1-1 training and practicing around 40 hours a week, that someone is capable of making decent music within 3-4 months? Not anything extraordinary, but just solid music.

I'm not looking for shortcuts or anything like that.
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Just totting up the hours i've spent on music (I know, I'm a show off- but it gives you some idea) , I did the classic middle class child piano lessons for ten years, average of half an hour tuition per week plus 3-4 hours practice a week over that period so that's 800 hours of instrumental playing. Add on ~ 100-200 ish hours playing in school/university bands/ ensembles/musicals, 250 hours drumming, and maybe 300 hours of composing/producing/studying music theory.

so that's about 1500 hours music altogether- 38 40 hour weeks solid with no breaks.

In practice it'll take you longer than 38 weeks because it's harder to take in info in a short period of time, so I'd say a year minimum.

Plus, I'm still not very good at this whole music malarky thing. :D A lot of my tracks are still rubbish.
 
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scrapheaper said:
Just totting up the hours i've spent on music (I know, I'm a show off- but it gives you some idea) , I did the classic middle class child piano lessons for ten years, average of half an hour tuition per week plus 3-4 hours practice a week over that period so that's 800 hours of instrumental playing. Add on ~ 100-200 ish hours playing in school/university bands/ ensembles/musicals, 250 hours drumming, and maybe 300 hours of composing/producing/studying music theory.

so that's about 1500 hours music altogether- 38 40 hour weeks solid with no breaks.

In practice it'll take you longer than 38 weeks because it's harder to take in info in a short period of time, so I'd say a year minimum.
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When you learned the piano, how serious did you take it? Or was it something you were kinda forced or encouraged to do?

I've always wanted to learn how to play A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Cartlon on the piano. Love that song.
 
JMD_Music said:
When you learned the piano, how serious did you take it? Or was it something you were kinda forced or encouraged to do?

I've always wanted to learn how to play A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Cartlon on the piano. Love that song.
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Well, my parents just suggested I might like it and i was like 'yeah, whatever' being 8 years old at the time and not really knowing what I was getting into.
Then I just carried on and got more and more keen as I got better.

There's two approaches to playing instruments if you are serious about it. Most players have a bit of both, but one tends to dominate.

One is the classical approach- get the sheet music, learn to read it properly from the beginning and spend weeks learning each piece until it is perfect. The result is you sound fantastic and can get into orchestras or musical theatre bands, but you are essentially an athlete who is a slave to what the composer wrote.

The second approach is the popular/jazz approach: learn to play chords, and just develop your playing from chords more and more until you have a complete arrangement. Then learn to improvise melody and solos :D.
The upside of this you understand the music a lot better and can alter it to however you want, and write music. The downside is you will never, ever, ever come close to the technical ability of a classical player. If you take the classical approach, it doesn't take very long to learn popular music better than any pop musician could. If you're a pop musician, it's really hard to become a classical musician.

There's also a third approach where you go on youtube and watch the notes people are playing and copy them. It's really really slow and you waste all your time trying to remember the notes, but the upside is anyone can do it instantly and it doesn't take as long as trying to read music for the first time.
 
I've easily spent 40 hours installing software and fighting drivers.
Probably another 40 moving my room around and building rockwool gobos so as to help my mixes translate on multiple systems.
I'm regularly pulling midi and audio cables in order to make specific pieces of gear do things they weren't doing 10 minutes ago... And then pulling them back...
Making music is wonderful but there are times when you're an engineer in order to be a musician.
 
scrapheaper said:
The second approach is the popular/jazz approach: learn to play chords, and just develop your playing from chords more and more until you have a complete arrangement. Then learn to improvise melody and solos :D.
The upside of this you understand the music a lot better and can alter it to however you want, and write music. The downside is you will never, ever, ever come close to the technical ability of a classical player. If you take the classical approach, it doesn't take very long to learn popular music better than any pop musician could. If you're a pop musician, it's really hard to become a classical musician.
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I think the second approach is what I want. I just want to be able to know the piano enough to apply it to production.
 
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