What makes people basically afraid of being a musician?

It’s because people look at the risks and the rewards and decide that other fields are safer. Or because they have made a serious try at becoming a professional musician, and have failed, and have to work at something else to pay living expenses and debts.

Your “being a musician” seems inordinately focused on being a superstar musician. Most working musicians have to worry far less about the amount of spotlight and far more about paying the rent next month.

I think the most common reason for starting a career in music is the lack of stability. If they’re naturally shy, that makes it worse.

It’s not a practical career choice, so people shy away.

My son went to the Hollywood Musicians Institute and decided that doing music professionally took all the fun out of it for him. It was really really hard work and he needed music to be a stress reliever, not a stress causer.

Wait, didn’t you just ask this question?

Yes. All those reasons are a possibility to be “afraid” to be a musician.

Making a sustainable living only as a musician is incredibly rare. Most musicians have a day job to enable their passion as a musician. Its not a matter of not wanting it bad enough. It’s a matter of pragmatism.

For me it is complete lack of talent. I would assume for a lot of others it is a different set of priorities. If for example it is important to have a home and food for your children, you can find good karma and the ability to inspire through a different career.

BTW why can’t you be a “true” musiciam without getting paid for it? I would think that playing just for the love of music is purer than trying to earn money by catering to other peoples’ tastes. Why can’t you be a musician for love AND a carpenter for money?

wow, your answer really made me thinking there, gallileogirl :)
I think you’re right..not demeaning any names or type of musicians, but I do agree with your point that the “purer” a musician is (ie: playing music just for LOVE, not to instantly seek instant success or making whole big money), the more we can see how REAL and how passionate a musician is. When he/she takes music only as an ‘easy way’ to get famous & big loads of money, versus where one breathes music, exhales music, and thinking of music every day and every night.

However, in reality, as a musician myself, and from many of my musician’s friends’s testimonies, there is just something ‘funny’ about musicians which are of “rebellious” nature, ie: we don’t like the usual rat-race or corporate setting.
Even if these musicians DO have another job, I’ve found out that it’s still usually in related ‘creative’ fields, such as designs, graphic design, web design, marketing, etc. And even furthermore, it’s usually still has things to do or related with Music.

Of course this is not the case for EVERY musician.
I’ve known some musicians in my home-country here who are also a lawyer, a doctor in their “daytime” jobs.

But really, thanks for your answer, it made me thinking :)

I have a lack of talent but that hasn’t prevented me from standing on stage singing in a mic and playing. But what I lack in talent I make for up in volume.

My brother worried about having a career as a musician because he enjoyed music so much that he didn’t want it to become just another job. Thus, he went to college and majored in Latin American Studies. Then he went to law school so he could specialize in immigration law. However, the whole time he was in a band of one sort or another.

During law school he actually was in two bands. One played the country-western top 40, had a hit single, and actually made decent money. But it was work. The guy singer kept having to be bailed out, the girl singer kept having emotional crises, the drummer kept on having to sleep on somebody’s couch, and so on and so on. The other band was made up of college friends who wrote sarcastic lyrics and played them on blue grass instruments and had a huge amount of fun.

One day, about the time he tried and failed to pass the bar exam yet again, my brother realized something. The fun band was earning more money than the “real” band, and was even more rewarding than helping legal clients, although the law work paid better than either band. The band had fans ranging from the Bandidos Motorcycle Club to Washington bureaucrats, and blue grass aficionados to secular humanists. They had more gigs offered than they could accept, and they were having a blast.

As a result, he disbanded the “real” band (which was good timing because both the singers decided to move to Nashville and were never heard of again), gave up on the bar exam (although he kept a day job as a bailiff), and set about making fun music with his friends. 30 years and 11 albums later they are still making music and having fun and my brother’s only day job is as a dad and a grandpa.

So in his case, he first worried it wouldn’t be fun, but then when he just had fun with music he became successful.

I did become a musician, so obviously I was not afraid of trying.
The only fear I did face was the worry that I might not succeed, mainly due to competition (which has become a lot worse since the late 80s when I started singing professionally).

I was worried I might not make enough to live on, and perhaps be forced to compromise and sing stuff I didn’t particularly like. That it would end up being some dead-end job at some point. I managed to quit before any of that happened.

I think it has more to do with how people view success as a musician differently than people view success in other fields. There’s a whole lot of possibilities of making a living short of being a Jagger. Imagine if people talked about real estate success as having to be a Trump or success as a lawyer only being reached when you’re a supreme court justice. You might be surprised at how many Do-It-Yourself musicians make a decent living doing what they love every day. They don’t have to have hit song after hit song after hit song to have a successful career and a future playing music.

I worked as a musician and had friends that did as well. It is NO easy life. If you’re part of a band or orchestra, you’re constantly on the road living out of a suitcase. Then you have to rehearse and practice EVERY DAY. You have to be good. You have to be liked. There’s no guarantee. The money isn’t great and the competition is fierce.

I’ve been in a few bands since I’ve picked up music, nothing really that big, some regional popularity but that’s about it. It’s a blast though, doing a show and then going to the after party/hanging out at the bar afterwards is great just because everyone wants to meet you and you get to know some really interesting people. making it a career though? you have to be either extremely talented or extremely lucky… you don’t need all the talent in the world to be a professional musician, but it’s so hard because you really have to be lucky… and that’s something that most people aren’t.

Stage fright is very common.

1. Fear of the unknown.
2. Fear of not making ends meet.
3. Fear of failure.
4. Fear of not been good enough.
To list a few. For me it’s always been important to have a sence of securtiy. To have a job and play for fun. I have a blast when I play. It’s about being in the zone. It’s transcendental. I have friends that are Mofos at playing their instrument but are always worrying about paying the rent. Then there are some that are doing well because they are teaching. I think that’s something I would like to do.
http://vivajazz.com

Uncooperative fingers.

For me,it’s fear of tomatoes,cabbages and beer bottles.

i love music, but i am scared because i will just be metaphorically urinated on (and literally i guess…) by all the people who are strong and dominant etcetc, because it they will obviously be the people who manage to do anything at all…
On earth it’s not always about feeling or whatever as well it seems, just money, status and competition etc too much of the time…
which is all too threatening =S

@fathippo: it’s true that the Real-world is not as beautiful & rose-colored like what we often have in our fantasy (or dreams), but really often in life, pay heed & listening to yourself & taking the risks, is much much better, than afraid of taking risks, hence, afraid of doing what we [i]know[/i] what we really want.
in fact, I personally have gotten to a point that the “restless voice” inside of me (which tells me to stay TRUE to myself, & TRY doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and take risks, and practice, and make mistakes at first,...it’s much better than doing nothing, and then later on regretting on what we haven’t done in life) is much more bothering me than the fear of “reality” of it, such as: money, status, competition, people taking advantage, etc.
We can only grow in this Real-life if we dare to take risks (venturing into the “unknown”), and keep growing, and pushing forward. Never by only “thinking” about it (especially if it’s the things that we KNOW ourselves that we’ve always wanted/dreamt to do it).

As mentioned in this great quote:
“I would rather do something and find out that it was the wrong thing, than never know if it was the right thing. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. Explore, dream, discover. Our best decisions, the ones that we never regret, come from listening to ourselves”

The biggest factor for me would be having a steady pay check. The rent and other bills are coming in steady; a paycheck should also. This is tough to accomplish when you’re starting out and are all alone. For every successful story we hear about someone moving out to, for example, Hollywood to pursue a dream of stardom – there are many more midnight trains to Georgia.

@aliduman – That’s why musicians have day jobs.

@niki i think what i always end up doing is saying, when you die, whatever happens, it’s most likely nothing from on earth will matter, (i know it’s not the most optimistic outlook =P) so you might as well just let whatever happens happens, because, I don’t know, with so many things I guess it feels like you are very powerless. But really yeah I’d love to try to do things that I know I love, because I guess on Earth also it might be the only opportunity you get to feel things in this dimension with all human senses etc… i don’t know =]

@fathippo hey your answer gives me quite a new perspective, thanks for that!
but then, if i may ask, have you do things that you know you love? or still not?
are you also like to be a musician?
what’s stopping you? any particular thing?

@niki like you put up the top, i’m worried I’m crap at things, and also, I’m very shy and can’t stand up for myself ever and it’s people like that just get walked over all the time i guess…
And yeah it is music that feels like the most amazing n’ beautiful thing ever (=P), and it’s is like going to places you can only exist in in your head, but always I realise that really i’m just on my own, and how many people die all the time just living in there because they are scared. Although, maybe, you think, you do actually have some deeper connection, with some place other than earth, but we just don’t understand, because we’re human, that kind of makes it ok. Sorry for a) rambling on about a load of weird stuff b) sounding so damn miserable =P haha =]

well for me it’s feeling like i’m not talented enough, and being afraid to try my hardest and find out. i started making hip hop beats less than a year ago. im 18 now, and i do try, but i’m constantly telling myself that i’m never going to be as good as i want to be, never going to make the music i really want to, and that my music would be received poorly by people who heard it, and this attitude of mine kind of ruins the fun of the process, and stifles my creativity. i worry that maybe i have no talent, and if thats the case, that im just wasting my time. but i love music more than anything in the world, and i know it’s what i am meant to do, and deep down i know im capable of making good music. i guess its a lack of confidence, and a fear of failure.

@fathippo @drinkingsodarightnow
I know how you guys feel,..I think every struggling artist/musician must have this kind of fear once in a while.
But then, along my life journey, I’ve eventually found out one great, ringing truth that:
“It’s okay to not become the best, or even the most talented, prodigi-est person at what you do.” A famous Hollywood composer Danny Elfmann also said along that line, during his commencement speech.
And similar to that is an encouraging message from Tony Robbins, and here I quote him:
“It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute…that gives meaning to our lives.” – Tony Robbins

So if music is what you feel very strongly you have to do, then just do it!
never compare with other person, because, other person is other person. while you are yourself. You’re on your own path, with your own unique personality, characteristics, strength, weaknesses, life-story, etc.
just simply BE, and CONNECT (share) to the world! :)

and besides, a very common-sense but often-forgotten advice I or anybody who’s chasing/pursuing his/her dreams is this:
“if you do, then you’ll still have a 50–50% chance of succeeding
if you don’t do, you’ll have 0% chance”
and also, don’t forget that when you stumble, you always have a choice to keep learning/growing from your stumbles, or just give up. the decision is ultimately in your own hands, so choose wisely :)
You only live once in this earthly life.

it seems pretty clear to me the commercial record industry is in decline, the idea of “making-it” in the conventional sense is becoming more and more of a pipe dream to musicians, in ten years perhaps no bands will be signed and there will be no decent music at all on radio and television, discovering new talent will be done by word of mouth or through the internet. Music will always have an emotional value, however it seems fewer and fewer people see music as being something they have to pay for. Once the money goes completely there will be no backing from big companies, and musicians will then be doing everything themselves. Its a shame really because we will no longer see any unusual and original artists reach a wide audience, they will exist but we probably wont hear of them. For better or worse, I believe a lot has changed very recently and many musicians are getting a new outlook.