When Doing It For The Money Just Doesn’t Cut It Any More

This is a very small announcement (well, HUGE to me but really shouldn’t impact on most readers!).

I’ve taken a step back from the string trio.

Not a decision taken lightly, it was part of an inevitable trend of moving in the direction of doing what I love rather than doing it for the money.

Alongside the constant of music composition and  sound design, in the last ten years I’ve had quite a few jobs.

I’ve:

• taught violin in schools and privately in two separate counties;
• worked as a production assistant for a local film production company;
• recorded sound on set and boom op-ed;
• designed websites;
• played violin in various orchestras in the region;
• and traveled the length and breadth of the North of the UK, playing in a string trio.

There’s a pattern – each one was relevant to some form of media or music production. I learned so much from every single one and have to say I’m a better businessperson and musician for having done them. I enjoyed them all at one point.

However, as the composition took over, they stopped being fun, one by one. And I made the tough decision to let them each go, gradually.

The major niggle is still, and probably will be for a while yet, the cut in money – I do always recommend that when starting out, composers accept their day jobs as necessary to funding their prediliction for writing music. My rational side would rather build up other forms of income significantly before cutting a sizeable form of revenue, such as playing for the trio.

But my gut is rarely wrong about these things. At the start of this year, 2010, I officially stopped teaching violin privately. Just the gain in free time alone to write more and rest more has been worth it. At the end of this year, I officially take a step back from the trio. And it feels wonderful. And a tiny bit, well, petrifying: all the safety nets are gone – the weight’s been lifted from my shoulders but the ground is falling away too…

I liken the feeling to standing on a cliff. You’re wary of the edge, but the view’s wonderful, some sort of beautiful sunrise. You know all you have to do take the leap… and your funky sci-fi jetpack will take care of the rest.