I make absolutely nothing from music at the moment. The only "big" money I ever made was in a band in the 60s. We played for $125/gig, $25 to each of the 4 of us and $25 into the band (PA, mics, cables, etc). Like it said, big money.
I started on piano at 8. From 10, I studied 3 years with the soloist for the St. Louis Philharmonic, Joanna Lange. Here she is, 5 years ago, at age 82, after having suffered a stroke 20 years earlier that left her right arm paralyzed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yYdv8GNdwwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY-Yf-l97Fk I don't remember much about the playing part of the weekly 2-hour lessons, but I sure do remember sitting at her kitchen table, transposing a Chopin piano piece down a minor third...just because.
EXACTLY what every 11 year old wants to be doing on Saturday morning. That's the part my parents knew about.
What they didn't know about was me sneaking out after everyone else was asleep, busing down to Gaslight Square (in St. Louis), buying a slice and a coke for $0.25 and walking up and down the main drag, listening to the delta blues coming out of the clubs. Hot and humid. All windows open. Just like being inside! I'd find the one I liked the best, park my butt on a bench outside and love me some blues.
Moved to Wisconsin in 1964 at 12. Picked up the clarinet in band. Our town had one of the first cable systems. We got Madison, Milwaukee, Rockford and Chicago. Summer of '65, I saw a 1 hour documentary on the Blues on the Chicago PBS station. The first half hour was Mississippi John Hurt, sitting on a chair with a resonator on a stage by himself, playing that delta blues that I'd fallen in love with in St. Louis. The second half hour was a freaking revelation. I mean, I almost lost my mind. Electric blues! A 17 year old guitar wizard name of Buddy Guy. That was a life-changing event.
That Christmas (1965), we went down to Chicago to visit family. I'm 14, but was 5'10" and pretty much knew my way around. So, I did what I always did, waited for everybody to go to sleep, and then snuck out. I took the train into the city and walked up to Old Town (Wells St), looking for some blues. But, crapola, it was cold and snowy and NONE of the clubs had any open windows. I couldn't hear a thing. So, what to do? I see one club with a bunch of peeps in line, so I figured that had to be the best blues. So, I got in line.
Got in, no problem. Got a beer (kept the waitress off my back) and picked out a dark corner to hang in. The band comes on. I don't know anybody from anything, so the band announcement meant nothing to me. Then they started playing. WTF?!?!? That wasn't the blues. I didn't know what it was, but it was AMAZING. Another life-changing event.
Oh, who was it?
Like I said...a life-changing event.
My mother never understood why, but never agreed to let me learn to play the trumpet.
I sure like what the keyboard player did (Herbie), but the bass player (Ron) blew me away. No trumpet? No problem. I bought a used '63 Fender J bass, a little tube amp and a used Farfisa. Used those in the band I mentioned above.
Then came 'Nam and the draft. I enlisted. Went the other way. Didn't help. Spent more time in Army and VA hospitals than I did on active. Got home. Bass, amp, keyboard and ALL of my LPs...freaking GONE. My mother gave them away, hated my music. [I mean, come ON, what the heck is wrong with playing 96 Tears by Question Mark and the Mysterians? OK, there was some OTHER stuff!
]
Then, college and a career or 3. The final 10 years I got to run consulting businesses in Asia and Europe. And then I got an X drawn through my position (must have been the $2.5MM client I FIRED (for absolutely appropriate ethical issues, but who cares; rainmakers don't do that; period; and I did; nobody in the industry would even talk to me after that; I'd do it again)).
Anyway, losing a 6-figure income at 53 can be tough. Shouldn't have been (my (now ex-) wife made more than I did), but I guess my income was more important that I was. So, fast forward through some really crappy times to...
Now. Single. 64 in August. Retired. On pension and Social Security. New house paid for. Subaru paid for. Time to get back to making music, instead of just listening to one of the thousands of CDs I own. [I had a loft put in for my studio. My dogs spend as much time in it as I do. Lots of sunlight up here at 7,000 feet!]
I wasted some time on PreSonus (Studio One 2 Pro and an AudioBox 44 VSL). I didn't like the S1 upgrade to v3 and I could NEVER get the AudioBox driver to play nicely in my system. Both gone. I'm really liking SPlat and expect the issues that I have with the v1.00 driver for the Tascam US-16-08 I picked up to be fixed (unlike PreSonus' dead silence and over a year of nada).
Will I ever make a dime from music? Would be cool, but it's not a requirement. Right now, getting my playing chops back is more important. And learning recording and mixing at the same time. Very cool.
I'm finding it really interesting to go back and listen to music I've not heard in a while. I'm amazed at what ELSE I'm hearing (or not hearing, as the case may be). Not just what it is, but HOW it was made.
Lots of fun!