I spent the last 16 years (out of 29 total) working as a software engineer. I stopped enjoying it more probably around 2002. 6 weeks ago, I gave my notice at my job. Friday was my last full day, I just have two meetings to attend this week and then I am done. In early June, my wife and I are hitting the road for a 6+ month trip around the US. I’ll probably see some of you at the catskills and probably at sessions along the way.
The intended destination is Bellingham, WA, as long as we don’t fall in love with some other place along the way. I plan to make a living, meagre as it may be, as a classical guitarist/teacher. Maybe I can teach tunes or get people started on the flute, too. Or I’ll work in a coffee shop if nothing else works. I just can’t be a corporate geek anymore. I’ve come to realize that I can’t be who I want to be without focusing on music, and I can’t do that while wasting so much of my life in an office.
The road trip is contingent on finding a new home for my cats, which should be complete this week (I know it should have been done ages ago; there was a plan, which fell through…), but it’s always possible that it might fall still through. In that case, we’ll board them briefly while we find a place in Bham and then come get them. That would be a disappointment, as my recently developed allergic to cats is not much fun, as much as I love them, and we have been really looking forward to the road trip. But if that’s how it has to be, we’ll just use some of our savings for another trip to Ireland.
talk about understatements.
I cant think of anywhere that is, can you ?
Nigeria, maybe could use some real software help…
Ok! so youre burnt.
I’ll try hard not to get on my soapbox, monkey587…I completely understand having to do what you have to do…so go do it…but a lot of us fulltime musicians are having to deal right now with those who’ve lost their dayjobs, and are undercutting us drastically. Dont expect a break from anyone in the biz. This may be the secret passion and lifelong aspiration of many (their actual abilities aside); but it’s our everyday bread & butter. Seems to me with your background it’d be a lot easier (and MUCH more profitable) to hang up a software shingle of your own, free of corporate BS, and service the computers of the multitudes; than to develop the skillsets and connections it takes to actually make it in music. Plenty of extremely talented and capable musicians would kill to have that steady dependable income youre giving up. Consider, for your own sake as much as ours, that the grass on your side may indeed be greener than ours.
Good luck: you’ll need it.
You know that Marilyn and I are hoping for happiness for Angeline and you. Go for it, man.
I don’t know what will happen when my boys are finally at the point of trying to make a life (post-college and such), but this is not the place that it once was, in terms of opportunity and sociability. I am certainly not going to drag at their ankles to stay here if it’s even an issue.
As to the software stuff, I dunno, I feel that the job field is changing before our eyes. I wouldn’t rule out white-collar employment in the future. I walked away from teaching guitar so many years ago, and some days I regret it. Other days, I talk to working music teachers, and know that I might have been more insecure even if I was keeping my fingers warm.
Wishing you the best. Many years ago, on the day I told my wife I’m just going to quit my job, my racquetball partner who had moved away, called me up and said, “How would you like a new job?” I hope it all turns out as fun for you. (He then moved away again in a few months.)
Good luck on the big adventure. Sounds like you had some good luck–most software folks don’t last nearly as long. I read somewhere the average for software types is 7 years and then they are as obsolete as the old computers that they know how to code for and are as washed up as a pro athlete that is past his prime.
I would hope that working in Cupertino, and knowing since 2002 that you wanted out, that you socked away huge scoops of that Silicon Valley salary. Even a few years of that salary can be enough money to retire or be semi-retired, in some low cost areas of the country. As a person gets older, medical benefits loom larger and larger. Perhaps you and your partner are in exceptional health, or started working really young, so with 29 years work experience you aren’t that old. If that is 21 + 29 = 50 or 50+, it is a bit scary to be living at low wage with no benefits. At 29, it isn’t so scary. At 59, it can be very scary.
Anyway, whatever the details, report in from the road and keep the Chiffers informed. Big adventures are to be commended. Happy trails.
I’m not wealthy. I worked hard to save up a year’s salary, which, anywhere else in the country, would last me much, much more than a year. I know it’s going to be a rocky road getting started but I also know that I will be OK if I do what I love. The fact is, the money I have is a poor substitute for the time that I don’t have and the money I haven’t isn’t all that much when you factor in the cost of living and the fact that this area, for many reasons, sucks.
My wife has been a professional musician for her whole career, and so are many of my close friends, so I have some idea of what the life is like. None of them would trade it in for the kind of job I just gave up. I have never experienced the bitterness you express towards me, ChasR, from anyone who has chosen to make their career doing what they love.
For what it’s worth,I detected some ‘bitterness’ in CHasR’s post too …
Almost as if he was saying " Don’t become a Muso mate,there’s enough of us here already, and there’s not enough jobs " …or, " I’m a full-time musician,but you can’t be "
Perhaps,as often happens,the real meaning has gotten lost in the transfer from the mind to the printed page…
Anyways Monkey…have a great trip …I’m envious …
perhaps this is the 1st exposure for many of some real Philly ‘attytood’
Monkey587, Im not pickin on ya. (said good luck, didnt I?) but in my experience this is just the way it is. Makin it gigging, yer gonna have some pretty stiff competition for the few
available $ there are. Good luck 2.
This isn’t some random whim I’ve decided to chase. I’ve been a regular gigging musician for my entire adult life and I’ve been offered guitar teaching jobs on the strength of my reputation. My wife has built up a full piano studio primarily on word of mouth. The problem is that although teachers can charge a bit more here than elsewhere, it’s not even close to proportional to the cost of living. We’re not going into this blindly and we’ll be living somewhere where our savings could sustain us for a few years while we build up our businesses, AND which has a decent music scene. In the meantime, I won’t have to get up at 5am to squeeze in not enough practice before I have to go waste the rest of the day in front of a computer.
Yes, it looks as though you’re heading into this adventure with a wealth of experience, the both of you, and after giving the matter considerable thought.
Wow Willy I just saw that. I think what you’re doing is just amazing. The fact that you decided to take a chance and start doing what you LOVE doing, even if it means less money. I know a few people who did similar. A friend of mine who was making big bucks in IT, but had to spend his life there, decided to quit IT and study fiddle making… and a few years later, this is exactly what he’s doing, making fiddles. It’s tough on money, but he looks much happier. Same thing with another friend of mine who had a boring job at some bank and similar jobs, she quit and started a BSc in classical music (piano), and is now working on her Masters I think. She has less money, but she loves it!
The only reason why I’m still at a full time job is that there is no overtime involved, so I got enough time for my daily practice, and I still love programming. But I miss the freedom of working from home, and travel much less than I used to. Also, mortgage payments force you to be a bit more stable, until the day you paid it all! Then it’s gonna be payback time!!
Anyway, see you in Montreal (??) and Catskills, I decided to go for the whole week and it seems we’ll be sharing a cottage
…
…I’m envious …
