Working as a Musician

Have you ever worked as a musician?

I was listening to the radio and the announcer was talking about musicians.
He was talking about musicians.
He was talking about how they are paid.
The announcer was talking about musicians and how musicians are paid.

Passive Phrases

the way musicians are viewed
the way musicians are treated
the way musicians are paid

Are musicians highly paid or not so well paid?

fairly highly paid
quite highly paid
not so highly paid
not so well paid
quite poorly paid
fairly poorly paid
poorly paid
underpaid

A musician is a person. Being a musician is a job. It is a job just like any other job. It has pay or a salary or some monetary reward in return for labour or service.

That is what a job is. A job is labour.

The Value of Labour

When we talk about the value of labour, we mean:

How much do we get paid?

How much should we get paid?

If we analyse each job in a neutral way, then we can assume that each job is equal and that the higher the salary the better, but you cannot compare all jobs like that. Not all jobs are the same. Some jobs are different from other jobs.

If we assume the higher the salary, the more important the job, or the better the job, then we are wrong, because we all know that it does not work like that.

A high salary means a good job.
A low salary means a bad job.

We all know that is a stupid generalization. Yet we allow people who think and speak and write in terms of these ridiculous generalizations to make decisions about our environment and our world.

Everybody knows that a job is not just connected to your salary.

We have to work to make money to live but do we work to live or live to work?

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Finding the Balance

How do you find the balance?

It is difficult to find the balance and it is even more difficult to describe it and hold it as a complicated thing in your mind. It is easier to worry about it than to see it clearly or describe it. How do we find the balance? How can we be happy?

We must all find our own answer, but that answer is there.

It is nor an unanswerable question.
It is not a question which cannot be answered.

There is an answer.

There is a solution.
There is a balance.

You can find the balance.

You can find the solution.

Work is not just about money. It is also about identity. It is about who you are.

1. Work and Identity

Your job is who you are.

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What do you think?

Being a musician is not just a job. It is also a role. It is also an identity. A musician is still a musician if he is not being paid. In a sense we are all musicians.

Every person who has ever tapped his foot or plucked a string or hummed a note is a musician.

What does it mean to be a musician?

It is an aspect of the identity of each human being to be a musician.

It is similar with an artist and a teacher. Everybody is an artist. Everybody is a musician. Everybody is a teacher. These are faculties which we can all develop.

We are all musicians.
We are all potentially musicians.

We are all artists.
We are all potentially artists.

We are all servants of the divine thoughts of the great mind.

We are all sunbeams!

Life is more complex than the work that we do for money. It is more complex than that. It is much more complex than that.

It is more complex than that and it is important to remember that.

It is more complex than that and it is important to remember that because if we think of only work and money, we will forget who we are and where we came from and where we are going.

Who are you?

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Where do you come from?

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Where are you going?

Music and The Muse

“Sometimes people ask me if I am a musician. I say I am a servant of the Muse.”

- Rube Hayworth

link to the Rube Hayworth page

The muses are spiritual beings or ideational beings who do not exist as physical persons at our level of vibration but exist on our level through things as the thoughts and ideas that bind things together. They are actually living conscious beings who inspire and instruct those who serve them.

Artists and writers and poets and actors and dancers and philosophers and politicians and fishermen and shepherds and taxi drivers and bus drivers and cleaners are inspired by muses.

Muses from Greek Mythology

A servant of the muse is a musician.

There are nine muses. They are the daughters of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Zeus is the father of the gods.

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Calliope governs epic poetry.

An epic is a long story of heroic proportion. Who is your favourite hero? Do you know anything about super heroes in American comic books or manga? Read about them at this link here.

The Odyssey is a famous epic poem from Greece. Listen to it here at this link.

Do you think they were inspired by the Muse, Calliope.?

Calliope is beautiful name, don’t you think?

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Clio governs history.

You can find links to historical resources on this page. They were inspired by the muse Clio.

Euterpe governs flutes and lyric poetry.

Can you play the flute?

Have you ever written a poem?

Thalia governs comedy and pastoral poetry.

Pastoral means bucolic or idyllic. Pastoral poetry is poems and songs about the beauty of life in nature living as shepherd in harmony with the seasons.

Do you dream of being a shepherd and having your own flock or would you prefer to take care of somebody else’s sheep?

Melpomene governs tragedy

Hamlet is a famous tragedy. Do you eat ham?

Terpsichore governs dance

Shiva is the cosmic dancer.

Erato governs love poetry.

The story of Rama and Sita is a love story.

Do you have problems in your love life?

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Polyhymnia governs sacred poetry

Sacred poetry is religious poetry.

Urania governs astronomy.

Are you an astronomer? There is an astronomer in the story of the Banjo Player’s Brother.

Vocabulary – govern, government – Word Family

Did you notice the way the word “govern” is used in the text about muses above. It is the same word that we use when we talk about “government“.

What type of government is there in your country?

Norman Dodd link

Another Way of Looking at the idea of Work

high paid jobs – low paid jobs

productive jobs – unproductive jobs

destructive jobs which are nonetheless highly paid

Roles and Identities

I think that it depends on the view or definition that we have of work or labour.

If we define work in terms of monetary achievement or earning power and say that a thing is worthwhile doing simply because it earns a dollar, then it defines what we can do. If we define work in some other way for example by making a distinction between productive and unproductive activity or environmentally destructive activity such as over-fishing, we change the range of activities which are available to us.

A Worthwhile Job

The question is what work is worthwhile or valuable and what work is not?

Being a musician is more than a job.

Yet some musicians say:

It is just a trick. I do it for money

The Problem with Money

The problem with economics and the money system is that it is a lie based on the inability to answer the most basic of questions.

Have you seen the problem with economics?

Click the link and read more.

World English Course

There are lots of things you can learn in the World English Course. There is a place where you can talk about work and there is also a place where you can find a job and a place where you can find staff. There is a place where you can have fun and there is a place where you can talk about food or family. There is also a place where you can talk about money or love or philosophy. You can study anything you want anytime you want. You can do it once a week or every day or any time you like. Have fun! Work hard! Tell your friends and family members! Enjoy!