The Musician's Journey: a guest article by pianist, author, and educator Dr. Jill Timmons
When one graduates from university with an accounting or engineering degree, career paths are easy to find. Not so for graduates of music programs. Even the majority of those who earn diplomas from elite conservatories struggle to find ways to be paid to make music. Over the past decade, many music schools and conservatories have begun to acknowledge the importance of teaching musicians business and entrepreneurial skills—recognizing that all but a handful of us will end up either working for ourselves or leaving the profession—but practical business advice alone isn’t enough when we’re not clear on what we want and don’t yet trust ourselves to get there. Creating a self-employed career in music requires a clear plan of what we want to do, a realistic understanding of ourselves and the marketplace, and a vision of the life we wish to craft for ourselves.
Enter The Musician’s Journey. Now in its second edition, which was released October 31, 2023, this book is a roadmap for musicians who are eager to accept responsibility for their own careers and are looking for guidance on how to do so. Author and concert pianist Dr. Jill Timmons draws from her own real world experience—as well as the journeys of the many clients she has coached to successful careers over the years—to offer advice that encompasses both big dreams and practical guidance. She tackles everything from business plans to time management; grant writing to the blocks we put in our own paths. And all the way through, she reminds us that we are our own best assets and that it’s up to each one of us to stop waiting for someone to hand us our careers and to forge our own paths to success.
Jill Timmons has appeared on No Dead Guys twice before. In her interview, Crafting a Career in the Arts: an interview with Dr. Jill Timmons of ArtsMentor, LLC she tackles the lies musicians tell themselves and offers real-life solutions to finding funding for our dreams. In a guest post, Demystifying Grant writing: Find Funding for Your Music Projects she guides readers into the potentially lucrative world of arts grants and offers advice on how to best land one. In this post she shares an excerpt from the second edition The Musician’s Journey. It is an honor to feature her again on No Dead Guys.
A guest post by Dr. Jill Timmons
A number of years ago I began a search for the ideal resource for postgraduate musicians looking to put their careers on the fast track. I was looking for an all-encompassing book for my clients, those professionals who were typically mid-career musicians seeking artistic renewal and career development. Many of these clients found themselves at a crossroads professionally, often a moment that required a paradigm shift and a call to revision what it means to work as a musician. Although there are countless books that explore the spiritual side of making music, as well as an equally large number of “how to” manuals that offer guidance for all the practical considerations of career management and success, I found nothing that actually joined these two worlds in a way that was both inspiring and practical. In short, I was looking for a book that could guide musicians in the process of creating their career vision and that would also provide concrete strategies for making that career a reality. The Musician’s Journey: Crafting Your Career Vision and Plan was the result of that search for a comprehensive career guide, one that could be an essential tool for musicians looking to thrive in the most beautiful of professions.
Now, ten years since the first publication of The Musician’s Journey, a second edition has come forth. Over the course of these past ten years, there have been numerous political and economic tectonic shifts throughout the United States. Moreover, on a global scale, humanity has been faced with an unprecedented pernicious pandemic. As we enter the third year of this human health crisis, we are keenly aware that musicians, visionaries, and artists of all kinds are sorely needed for inspiration and the promise of hope. And that the path of creativity can build bridges between artists and communities; that K-12 students can find new sources for personal expression; and that musicians in particular can offer in a temporal moment, solace, beauty, wisdom, inspiration, and yes, even entertainment.
The second edition expands on the thesis of the first edition, including a greatly enhanced narrative on grant writing and development, building a consortium of support, up-to-date additional diverse personal stories from thriving musicians, new data regarding brain neuroplasticity, and well-crafted strategies for teaching the art of music entrepreneurship to the emerging artist. In updating the narrative, I have taken head-on the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic to musicians and their markets, the resultant changes and adaptations that have ensued, and where new opportunities are emerging. Reflecting this new context, the second edition of The Musician’s Journey continues to address the critical overarching process of developing an artistic vision, designing a plan for that vision, becoming an entrepreneur within the global market place, and understanding how we change and adapt through the innate resources of the human brain.
Along with examples from the work of clients, colleagues, and myself, I have also included in this book much of what other authors have to say about the music profession and in the larger context, the life of an artist. I have drawn on the wisdom of poets and pundits, scholars and scientists, visionaries, philosophers, and especially those authors who give credence to living with vitality and creativity. My hope is that from these abundant sources, any musician can find support and guidance in creating that thriving career in music.
A thriving musical career can often be fueled in effective ways from a number of sources, including the guidance of experienced mentors, what is effective for others in the field, and insights from seemingly disparate disciplines. Finding that outside information can often shorten the timeline for launching a dynamic career. For that reason, I have included many divergent sources from my research and have chosen those authors that present a provocative and stimulating discourse that may serve to inspire you with new ways of envisioning and creating a dynamic career path.
Whether we are responding to the vagaries of our external world or that richly textured inner artistic life, we are referenced from our personal intentions, those tightly held passionate hopes and inspirations that we have in mind. Career development truly begins with how we envision ourselves amidst the world around us. To be consciously aware of what drives us as artists is critical to finding a rewarding career path.
Ideally, the reader is one who has been in the music business for a while, and thus is able to draw upon a body of rich professional experiences. This type of musician is often seeking to thrive in imaginative and diverse ways, independent of such mega artist managers as Columbia Artists, ICM (International Creative Management), and the like. This book is not for the handful of “superstars” in the music industry, but instead offers those musicians who don’t fit this mold a way of living their career dreams. In Chapter 12, “True-Life Stories,” you will find examples of widely diverse careers: from jazz to classical artists, composers, and interdisciplinary professionals, all with their own unique career journey.
In this book you will find suggestions for how to address the process of envisioning your career as well as strategies for creating a concrete plan of action. From exploring the science behind the adaptability of the brain to the nuts and bolts of a successful business strategy, I offer many resources that may also inspire you to continue your research and inquiry far beyond the narrative in this book. I hope The Musician’s Journey will ignite a transformation in your thinking about what it means to be a musician and how to thrive in that career, ultimately sharing your knowledge and acumen with others.
In beginning our conversation about a music career, we can draw upon much wisdom available outside our industry. In his inspiring book Journey of the Heart: The Path of Conscious Love, John Welwood imagines life in a twofold structure. He also speaks to how we live as artists.
In larger cosmic terms, human life unfolds on the edge where heaven and earth meet. Our very posture—feet firmly planted on the ground and head raised toward the open sky—perfectly depicts our twofold nature. At the same time our upright head and shoulders enable us to see far-off things—horizons, stars, suns, planets and the infinite reaches of space all around. Half of our life is about taking our seat on this earth and creating structures (such as home, family, work) that further our unfolding. No matter how grand our hopes, dreams, or visions, putting them into practice always involves grappling with the limitations of our culture, our body and personal history, and our emotional temperament. The other half of life involves surrendering to what is beyond us, letting go of the structures we have created, and continually moving forward into new, unknown areas. The heaven principle working in us calls on us to expand, develop larger vision, and explore greater possibilities, beyond what we already know or see right in front of us. It indicates the way in which the human spirit is vast and open like the sky, never entirely encompassed by personality, the limitations of conditioning, or the constraints of form and matter.
Welwood’s vision can direct us to think in new ways regarding what it means to have a career in music. Our artistic vision and plan will be both spiritual and concrete, truly joining heaven and earth.
Whether you find yourself at the beginning of an envisioning process, whether you are unearthing long-held dreams, or discovering that your vision is in place and that now you need guidance in crafting an effective plan, you will find an abundance of resources in this book. From vision to plan is a vast continuum requiring different strategies at various junctures. Most of all, this process requires imagination and desire. As artists we eventually come to discover that this vision–plan continuum is repeated many times throughout one’s lifetime. Through this continuing spiral of renewing our artistic vision and plan, we have the opportunity to delve deeper into our work as artists, finding a richly textured life of service and beauty. I hope this book will inspire you to create an artistic vision and craft a plan to realize your own thriving career in music. This is the musician’s journey.
From The Musician’s Journey, Second Edition, by Jill Timmons. Copyright © 2023 by Jill Timmons and published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
As an award-winning author, Jill Timmons has written on topics that include entrepreneurship, grant writing, career development, music education, and volunteerism within the arts and humanities. She is a recipient of the Wilk International Literary Prize from University of Southern California. Her best-selling career guidebook, The Musician’s Journey: Crafting Your Career Vision and Plan, is now available in a newly revised and expanded second edition (Oxford University Press, 2023). As a pianist and arts educator, Timmons has performed internationally, offering concerts and educational residencies on three continents. She has performed under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Arts and has recorded on the Laurel, Centaur, and Capstone labels. Ken Burns chose music from her Amy Beach recording with Laura Klugherz for the soundtrack to his PBS documentary, The War. As an NEA Fellow, she recorded the complete works for solo piano by American composer, William Bergsma. Timmons serves as the Artist/Teacher Affiliate for Classic Pianos in their seven locations throughout the US. As founder/director of Artsmentor, LLC (www.artsmentor.com), she serves as an international performing arts consultant to the Yamaha Corporation of America, and O’Malley International Associates in Pasadena, assisting individuals and nonprofits in creating sustainable and vibrant arts initiatives. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington and the Master of Music degree from Boston University. In 2021-2022, she was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at Yale University.
Oxford University Press: The Musician’s Journey—Crafting Your Career Vision and Plan
“The title is apt – this book describes a journey in thought, preparation, and destination, and is appropriate for all, not only musicians, who are building a career and a satisfying life. The reader is led from idealistic aspiration through awareness of self and the market to practical outcomes that are entirely possible. Beyond the message and excellent writing, the quotes and bibliography are a diverse and priceless bonus.”
—Stephen Clapp, Doctor of Music, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Violin, The Juilliard School
“Timmons guides us through the aspirational, the theoretical, and the practical in a way that speaks not only to the concert musicians she intended, but, indeed, to any inspired artist who is called to develop and share their gifts. If we have the skills and passion, this book shows us the method… So, buckle up, roll down your windows, and drive this car with its top off. You will love every vista you encounter.”
—Martin D. Jean, Professor of Organ, Director, Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University
“This is a bold book that aims to offer an inspirational and practical resource for musicians embarking on their careers, or perhaps re-evaluating and making changes in their professional portfolio. Its tone is emphatically optimistic, and it is suffused with useful information, practical tips, uplifting quotations, and stories. It draws on an intriguingly broad set of reference points from ancient philosophies to spiritual texts, contemporary neuroscience to personal experience.”
—British Journal of Music Education