im thinking about being a musician

[Viking]

I feel like music is a very powerful tool to deliver a message to people, to ease their pain, to give them insights, but i doubt my abilities.

i dabble in music here and there, i have the so called "musical hearing", but its not extraordinary, i play the piano, but very poorly, not professionally, the same in guitar. im 20 years old and i feel like i lost my timeframe in order to be really great. being just average wont cut it, because average musicians get kicked the fuq out. i have to be freddy mercury/ed sheeran/viktor tsoi/metallica level or nothing.

most people start playing music seriously at a very young age, and if you dont play from a very early age, you have low chances of success. your probability to be successful and to play well is decreased exponentially with age.

also i dont know if my voice is any good. my range is pretty limited, but i havent trained it much, so i dont know. also my voice sounds ugly to me, and i have a weird accent.

it is said that you have to take your strengths and build on them your life purpose, and my strengths are creativity, critical thinking and curiosity, its more leaning towards philosophy, science and (my major) physics i guess. maybe i could also utilize them in music but obviously "the talent" i dont posess.

as a kid i was always fascinated by music and the piano and i felt like it was really special. now i obviously dont feel that way but people say that to find your way you need to look back to your childhood.

what do you think?

Edited April 1, 2019 by Viking

[denydritz]

Hi Viking, I spent three years working in my local music industry. I was in a band that performed once in a while, and my "day job" was a studio operator (sound engineer) for music for television commercials. I also got a few songwriting/music arrangement gigs from clients, but rarely.

IMO, you don't have to learn music from a young age to be successful. It depends on how you define "success" as a musician. If you want to be a rock star (like the artists you mention), musical skill helps but doesn't guarantee it either. I think it's more feasible if you pursue a "modest" path, such as being an engineer or a session player or a music arranger. These skills can be learned at whatever age.

If you want to spread a message through music, then you don't have to do it full time. You can write the music when you have the time. As long as you spare time, you can produce quite an amount of music, probably more than you initially think. What makes producing music lengthy and expensive is if you go back and forth changing things and want the best sounding sounds.

Especially with today's technology, you can get 80-90% of the maximum quality at a very affordable price.

[Rilles]

Do it.