If I Became a Professional Musician
Step 1: playing an instrument
Every time I listen to Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah’s trumpet, I feel like I want to become a professional musician. There’s something magical and mysterious about the sound of his instrument that makes me dream and want to make a living with my music. The problem is that I don’t play an instrument right now. That’s a big problem, isn’t it? Here’s what I’m thinking about on the eve of my 38th birthday.
The little house was at the end of a garden with a few trees and some grass. I can still see myself walking down the driveway with my guitar, followed by my father or mother, depending on the day. My guitar teacher, William Chabbey, a talented jazz guitarist who is still playing as I write this, was waiting for me for my one-hour private lesson. It was the late ’90s, a time when cassette tapes had not yet gone out of style.
William would record the chord grids in front of me so I could work on my melodies and improvisations when I got home. One of the pieces I liked to improvise on was Beautiful Love, a 1931 jazz standard composed by Wayne King, Victor Young, and Egbert Van Alstyne and played here by Jim Hall and Michel Petrucciani. Jim Hall was one of my favorite jazz guitarists, along with Pat Metheny. A warm, round sound, everything I liked. My father loved Petrucciani.
One day, at the end of a lesson, when the three of us — my mother, William and I — were discussing my future after secondary school, my teacher suggested the idea of a music school, since I was quite talented and had a good ear for music. I don’t remember exactly what we said, but I know that I had left secondary school to study science at the lycée. From then on, in the early 2000s, I was a failure at school, and the years that followed consisted of doing the minimum amount of uninteresting work, trying to figure out why I didn’t have a girlfriend, and trying to figure out what to do with my life after high school. I’m still looking, twenty-four years later!
It’s unlikely that I’ll ever become a professional musician. As for love, I’m a little more hopeful of finding it. Maybe I should try to take up the piano, sit in the middle of a meadow on the coast of Brittany, like Yann Tiersen, and hope to touch a woman’s heart with my melody carried by the sea winds. I don’t know if that’s a good idea. There’s no magic formula anyway. In the meantime, my thumb piano is waiting for me on my bookshelf. No career in sight with this instrument, but it allows me to relax. I have my eye on a Taylor Folk guitar and an American Fender Jazz Bass, but I’m not ready for that yet. Let’s see what the future holds.
It’s hot in France right now and all I dream about is being a West Indian star like Admiral T and making the girls dance. But unfortunately I don’t have the right genetic baggage or catamaran.
Tell me, how is your musical career going? What about love?
Loved your story Thomas . Your connection to music sounds very fulfilling even tho it never manifested into a career. Sometimes that happens . I think when it doesn't happen it preserves the spirit of the connection in a different way, a more childlike and magical connection.
My connection to music was and is through dance .
I often feel the same way, Thomas. For me it’s piano. I was self-taught and actually pretty good throughout my young adulthood. I can still play a few chords here and there and probably could pick it up again quickly if I tried. But the zeal I had before I don’t have now. I was also a pretty decent beat maker/producer several years ago. My “stage name” was Chosen2BLuvd (Chosen to be loved) 😄.