A Few Words on Becoming a Musician

Alexander deVaron
December, 2013

Every semester dozens, maybe hundreds, of music students here at the Boyer College

have moments when they wonder what they’re doing here, training so intensively in

music. Some may question it as a career choice, some may question their talent– many

questions and doubts come up. Because students occasionally come to me for advice on

these matters, I decided to share with you four statements from my teachers that have

been most helpful to me. Many of you will not need to contemplate or soul search in this

way, your course in music may have been charted for a long time. To those who may

seek guidance, just remembering these four wise statements may be of great benefit to

you.

Think of your life as practicing stewardship for your talent

---Maurice Wright

It ‘s not always easy to know if you have talent. Here are some clues: You’re really good

at music; you feel more present and completely engaged than when you’re doing

anything else; it’s the only thing you can do for hours and hours without noticing you’re

tired or hungry; when you’re making music your engagement has a quality of directness

that you rarely experience in any other aspect of your life. There are many other clues,

these are just a few.

If you have a hunch that you do have some kind of gift, that’s where the practice

of stewardship comes in. Stewardship in this context means caring for your talent,
 A Few Words on Becoming a Musician

Alexander deVaron
December, 2013
making sure it has what it needs to flourish. You can think of the way stewards of parks

make sure all the animals and plants of the park radiate beauty and vitality, the full

expression of what they are. We could care for our own talent in the same way.

Where’s the juice?

---Diane Reibel

The first thing to clarify is what kind of music has “the juice” for you. “Juice” is the way

we are thoroughly captivated by something, thoroughly and unselfconsciously

participating in it. Maybe it’s a particular style of music, or a way of making music.

Maybe it comes and goes moment by moment.

For some of you, discovering this could be a long and sometimes process of trying

different things. For others, there may have never been a question. For me the process

has been a bit of both. In high school and college I had three teachers in a row who said,

“ you’re very talented, extremely musical, you’re just not going to be an x. And in each

case, x was what I happened to be studying with them at the time! So it might take a few

years to sort this out, and it might mean making incredible sacrifices in other areas of

your life. If you’re convinced music, and the stewardship of your talent is worth it, the

whole journey bubbles with unimaginable rewards, both for you, and for those with

whom you share your music.

Once you’ve developed some confidence about your connection with music, or at least

realized it’s choiceless, then it’s time to lean into your craft as a musician. If you have an
 A Few Words on Becoming a Musician

Alexander deVaron
December, 2013
obvious wealth of talent, it’s possible to many things well in music. If you’re like the rest

of us mortals, it helps to focus, to devote yourself to one aspect of your craft. Here it

helps to find a mentor, a teacher you trust completely. Finding a lineage of musicians,

and placing yourself within that lineage, focuses and accelerates your training.

Devotion is made up of two qualities: absence of arrogance, and wholehearted

participation

---Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Now that you’re truly ready to devote yourself to music, you’ll need a working

understanding of what devotion is. The quotation above mentions two essential qualities.

Absence of arrogance means that you’re open to the instruction of your teachers. If you

have a teacher who holds a specific music lineage, it means your willing to take part in

that particular lineage. If you are studying more broadly, it means being willing to

acknowledge the wisdom and accuracy of the feedback your getting from many different

teachers and situations in your life.

If that level of openness is in place, then the only remaining ingredient is just plain

exertion, complete participation in your training. This usually means simplifying your

life, and making sure you schedule significant time for daily practice or composition or

study. This is where just do it comes in. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like doing it

or not. Usually if you don’t feel like it, after a few minutes of settling in, you do feel like

it.
 A Few Words on Becoming a Musician

Alexander deVaron
December, 2013
Knowing how to practice or compose or study in the next key point, and that is too long a

subject to include in this discussion. Plus, many great musicians have already done so.

(See also my instructions for effective practicing, Six Guidelines for composing Music.

And selected texts listed at the end of this article). The main point here is that there is no

way to avoid diligent, consistent effort to develop your craft. It may sound like the

Protestant work ethic, but it’s music, so it’s one of the healthiest and rewarding things a

person can do. At a certain point, perhaps daily is no longer necessary. Yet for most of

us, including composers, a daily revisiting of our art is essential.

If you bring energetic and wholehearted discipline to your music, but your arrogant, you

won’t be open to the instruction of your teachers, so your progress will be limited, or

lopsided. If you’re humble and open, but lack the energy of wholehearted participation

and exertion, you may be ready to make great strides in the right direction, but you’ll

progress at a snails pace. So both qualities together, combined with finding an

appropriate mentor, or series of mentors, are essential.

You have to create a body of work

---Paul Morevec (1995) & Jan Krzywicki (2010)

Two different mentors said this to me at very different points in my life, so I’m beginning

to think it’s true! You can define “body of work” very broadly. It could be dozens of

compositions, or it could mean hundreds (or thousands) of students who have been

touched by you teaching, or hundreds of concerts, or gigs at a bar, or healing sessions as a

music therapist, and many other possibilities. It is some way that, day after day, you go

to work as a musician, and your efforts enrich the world.

 A Few Words on Becoming a Musician

Alexander deVaron
December, 2013
As a society we need music now more than ever. As the pace of our culture accelerates,

and we spend more time in front of machines, we run the risk of losing touch with some

of the most important aspects of being human. It becomes increasingly difficult simply

to know what emotions might be moving through our being at any given moment. With

music we remind ourselves that one of our primary jobs as humans is to allow ourselves

to feel, to be touched by our world. As musicians, we can offer this reminder not only to

ourselves, but to everyone we encounter as we make and teach music.