Pursuing music “on the side”: the reality of maintaining a hobby alongside a busy life

I had ambitions to “music” more in December than actually happened. I wanted to write another post on this blog, and I wanted to record a Christmas greeting for my friends and family on flute to send electronically. None of that happened, as I was sidelined in the week leading up to Christmas by a nasty stomach bug, that hit my kids first, spreading to me and my husband, and then (unfortunately) also to my mother-in-law, whom we visited for Christmas, well after the advised “48 hour symptom free” recommendation.

Now Covid has spiked again thanks to Omicron, and my wind ensemble practices and performances scheduled for January have been cancelled. It’s quite disappointing, but of course, a small inconvenience in the grand scheme of this ongoing pandemic.

It is my intention with this blog and website to be honest about what it is like to pursue music seriously when you do something else for money and/or have a family to care for. When I studied music seriously growing up, my beloved teacher told me that I could pursue it as a career if I wanted, but if I ultimately chose to do something else, music would always “be there” for me. This advice is absolutely true, but it’s not easy. Playing flute is a better experience when you are doing it every day, but achieving that when music is only a hobby and not a job is exceptionally difficult. During 2021, my method for accomplishing this involved a ruthless management of my schedule, and ultimately a lapse in self care. Even with that, I couldn’t always practice every day and could hardly ever practice in the kind of conditions or for the length of time that I wanted. My schedule and regimented life with limited downtime also led to a pervasive feeling of burnout in non-music aspects of my life. I’m aware that I need to pay more attention to rest in 2022.

So flute for me in 2021 was a joy. It was a reawakened passion and purpose. But it was also incredibly difficult to fit into my life and impossible to pursue in the way I really wanted. This site (and some other ventures I have in mind) are my attempt to pursue music in a more authentic way for myself in 2022. Thanks for coming with me on the journey.