One of the most important pieces of advice young singers and beginning musicians get is very simple: Don’t give up. You may hear this from close friends, family members and a few loyal fans but even then you wonder of the challenge of music success is worth all the trouble.
If you are learning songs or writing songs and hoping for chances to sing them to an audience, chances are you have experienced times of being “up” as well as “down.” Sometimes you can’t wait to talk and laugh with others. At other times you are just wishing you could avoid all contact with people. These changes can be a challenge but they may provide you with all the material you need to make music.
No matter what you use as “ingredients” for your new song you may discover that one of the major challenges in music is creating songs and performing for people who tend to “seek the lowest common denominator,” in the words of one university music professor. It may be hard to keep reminding yourself that when you bare your soul and sing about your deepest emotions the listening public might not seem to be all that interested.
That’s just the reality of the world we live in, a world of mass entertainment in which music and video are available all the time. We have television and the Internet sending us video and audio constantly. The choices are often decided by large companies who seem to dictate what will be popular. If our music doesn’t seem to be the public’s “choice” at the moment, it may be difficult to keep going.
It’s important not to give up when faced with these challenges because music has always been the universal language. It still is! If your melody is good and you are sincere when you sing or play, people from the other side of the planet can enjoy and benefit from hearing you, even if they don’t understand the lyrics. Remember that even the great folk, jazz and classical music of the past seems to be buried in a hurricane of “average” music at times. But it was still created and performed by passionate musicians and singers.
The true challenge of music is continuing to believe and create when high standards are constantly under attack. If you believe in what you are writing and singing, you must continue to stand for what you know is right. How can this be done? Part of the answer lies in technology. Songwriters, singers and musicians can record and distribute their creations without waiting for an international entertainment corporation to open doors for them.
Young artists, musicians, singers and writers have to continue creating intensely personal work so that future generations will have real choices. Remember that university professor we mentioned earlier? He has challenged young performers by stating that these new artists must find the correct path in a jungle of sound. That’s why we should never give up!
