Artists and Singers Are A Profession Like All Others

Art is life. Music is like air. It's air, water, and food for your soul.

Here's my personal take on singing as a profession.

I find it weird how some people treat singing and singers, and artists in general, as a "non-profession". Like, if someone wants to be a singer, they tell him "stop dreaming, keep your feet on the ground".

You see, if you have the talent and desire to be a singer, and you are good at it - thats what you should do. The same goes for people who have a talent and are good at being lawyers, or doctors, or accountants. If you have talent in singing, but not in accounting, then it makes no sense for you to be an accountant over a singer - does it? In that case, someone who dreams of an office job should get his feet back on the ground - and work on being a singer!

What do you do if you are good at being both a lawyer AND a singer? If you want to rise to the top of either, you must choose one and go all the way. Which to choose is up to you. Choose the one you are best at. Choose the one you like most. Ideally, you are best at what you like most.

Granted, singers dont go to university and then look at wanted ads in the paper. However, to rise to the top, you need to be good no matter what you do. You need to find something you are best at, and go with it all the way. Singers have to work hard to break out, but the rewards are well worth it. You have to start from scracth - sing in bars, in clubs (all the while keeping some other job, such as a waiter or secretary or a barman or whatever flexible job you can get a hold of to pay the bills), gain a following, release singles until they catch, then work hard to rise in the music industry... but isn't being a lawyer just the same? You clerk, work hard as a junior lawyer, rise, win cases, learn, gain experience, make a name for yourself... not to mention if you open your own office, in which case you will have to work hard to gain clients and make a name for yourself.

Just like a lawyer must stay up to date on rules and verdicts, so does a singer have to stay in top form, train his voice, and if he or she are songwriters, write songs that captivate the crowd. People NEED music like they need anything else - and there have to be people who can supply the demand.

So if you are starting to get paid good money to do bar shows, it means you are doing SOMETHING right. So keep it up, see where it leads. And if someone tells you to "keep you feet on the ground" but you are sure singing is what you do best - then just tell them that a person needs to do what he does best - and you know what you do best, don't you ;-) ?