5 Stages of Musicianship

Musicians all seem to follow a semi-predictable pattern: 

 

1. I can make music. Cool! 

 

2. This is tricky, but I’m totally into learn the mechanics. Cool. 

 

3. This is really hard, and I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. 

 

4. I’m no longer worried about the mechanics and theory. I just want to play cool stuff. 

 

5. I love music, and I’m having a conversation with music like it's a friend (otherwise known as the "you've gone crazy" stage).

 

(I’m sure there are levels ahead of this, I’m just not there yet). 

 

After playing music for 20 years, I’m finally starting to enter into stage 5 and loving every minute of it. The only problem with this stage is I’m struggling with how to articulate what I’m experiencing music using bullet points, which makes it tricky to sum up in a blog. While I figure this out, they’ll probably be some kind of weird blogs about music. Bear with me. 

 

In the meantime, what stage are you in? Each one has it’s charms, and I’d love to hear about what you like about the stage you’re in at the moment. Leave a comment below!