Making it Happen

 

You can’t just wait for something to happen.  Without some level of dedication and effort, it probably won’t.

 

For as far back as I can remember I have had a love for music.  Played in a few bands as a young man, but could never find like-minded musicians with sufficient talent and the dedication to practice, or schedules that meshed with mine.  So I adapted to a solo style of playing.

 

Having no real music guidance or the knowledge / luck / whatever to make something happen, I just carried on with life.  Worked my fulltime job, got married, and raised 2 sons (each of whom inherited my love for music). There is the old cliche about following your dream, or if you believe then you can make anything happen.  Not that the cliches aren’t true, just that it seemed to work for the very few who become successful.

 

I found great fulfilment playing for many years in my church orchestra under the direction of a masterful music director, and even greater enjoyment as a worship leader arranging pieces for our contemporary service.  The latter allowed me to involve my wife (a gifted vocalist), my older son on percussion and my younger son on bass (their phenomenal talents in a future blog topic), along with several other very talented keyboardists, guitarists, percussionists, woodwinds, and more.  People who have never played church music tend to have the same reaction at first - “Wow, those are some hard pieces!”  (key signatures with 5 flats and/or multiple key changes, chords that are usually toward the back of the Mel Bay book that most people don’t use, codas, varied endings, crescendos and decrescendos, watching the director for queues…)  All of this helped further my understanding of music theory to write special parts for the musicians.

 

In 2009 my sister asked me to play at her wedding and gave me a list of possible songs she might want played.  She also directed me to a classical guitarist’s website.  Prior to this I don’t recall ever even looking at a musician’s website, much less considered what it would take to build a repertoire big enough for folks to book me for an event.  Everything has to start somewhere, and this was a spark.

 

On this guitarist’s website I see a handsome young fellow with a great resume from a conservatory.  I was late forties, bald, mostly self-taught but sharpened through church experience.  Looking at his song list, listening to some of his samples, I noticed that these classical pieces were within my playing ability.  I would just have to start learning some of them.  Thank goodness for tabs.

 

Perhaps all musicians reach a plateau and struggle to move beyond it.  Mine hadn’t budged for a few years but for my sister’s wedding I started learning the pieces on her list.  I was pushing myself again, and it was rewarding, raising the stubborn plateau much higher.

 

My sister’s wedding was outdoors, a beautiful but chilly autumn day in VA.  Taking my wife’s suggestion, I wore warm gloves up until the minute I was to play, not willing to allow all my practice to be spoiled by numb fingers.  Boy, was I nervous, despite being with family and friends.  This was the most important day for my sister and her fiance, a day they would always remember.  Screwing up was not an option.

I played fine.  Not perfect, but fine.  And I realized, “I can do this.  I can play for weddings.”

 

Tallying my songs, I had about 50 that might be considered appropriate for weddings.  That didn’t seem near enough, so I began to scour the internet for songs to learn.  Youtube is a great resource.  Had some business cards made and discovered Gigmasters.com, an online booking agent.  Paid the fee and signed up.  Have never regretted that.

 

With a repertoire of about 75 (yeah, some fluff, but many others that I had to really work for) I got my first gig. Then another, and another.  At first had no idea what to charge and, frankly, was pretty low.  Didn’t matter, I was learning, making a few bucks, and getting word-of-mouth referrals.

 

Advance to today.  I make time to practice several hours per week, and even more prior to an upcoming event.  Still working fulltime but getting regular and better paying gigs around my work travel schedule.  I’m continuing to learn and raise the plateau.  With my repertoire now around 200 there is still some fluff, but many other challenging pieces.

 

Who knows where this leads.  But something I figured out regarding the cliche about dreaming and believing… those must be accompanied by passion.  If you don’t really know what that feels like, you probably don’t have it, and I’d say it’s a safe bet nothing’s going to happen for you until you have it.  Not sure I had it before, but I do now.  

 

So I’m 50, an average-looking bald dude, and getting paid gigs.  Younger folks take note.

 

You can view my booking site at

http://www.gigmasters.com/guitar/timwest

 

In an effort to link musicians to other artists, I’ve also just created a social media site for musicians to create a profile and upload media.  There’s no cost or obligation.  The site is

http://jamlink.tk