We all experience needs for food, security, true friends, big projects, and self-realization. It’s all according to Abraham Maslow’s pyramid. We “fulfill” our basic needs, then all the others. Some are content with a purchased house, car, or summer cottage, while others have slightly different needs and goals. And this is true everywhere, not just in the well-known pyramid—at work, during leisure, in hobbies.
Speaking of hobbies, musicians also go through levels in their careers. You’ll learn about them now.
What does a musician want?
- To learn to play an instrument or sing.
- Then, a person realizes that playing or singing other people’s songs gets boring and they turn to creating their own songs. The most ambitious learn to compose songs, music, and lyrics.
- After you’ve written enough songs to last a century, the strumming and strumming have become jumbled in your head, and the melody of your song has been memorized like a vocalise, you get the urge to find some of those same “crazy” people and jam with them. Some want not just to come up with an accompaniment, but to distribute it among parts. Many lose interest in music at this stage. Then they discover that it turns out there’s money to be made!
- After searching for like-minded people and performing together, an ambitious person comes up with a grand idea: to create their own band and organize performances and concerts.
- At this level, a person, having realized their musical needs, reaches a sense of mission.
Is it the same here? Just like in Maslow’s pyramid.
Someone already knows what they want from the very beginning and moves from the first level, their eyes shining, to their mission. Some people are content with just one or a few levels and don’t go any further. Others skip levels (there was a case during a consultation where someone asked how to join a musical group without playing or singing), but over time, the Universe brings such a “upstart” back and forces them to complete the previous level, at least at a minimum.
In difficult times (crises, maybe viruses, etc.), many musicians (and others) experience a decline in demand, their needs diminish, and they “descend” a level or two lower. They gain strength in these levels, theoretically and practically, and then “take off” (german: Das ist my Lieblingswort – Ок, I’m a bit of a polyglot). And since they have already been to higher levels, they move through them very quickly, and quite easily become even stronger, more productive, and even more musical.
Now you have a path you can follow, if you so choose.
Which stages have you already completed? Tell us in the comments!
If you ever get stuck on any level, subscribe and I’ll tell you how to move forward.
