Life As A Professional Solo Pianist

Strangely enough, I didn’t actually set out to become a professional pianist.

I used to work in project management, and health insurance before that, and music was a hobby that I enjoyed in my spare time.   Before I knew how fast this music career of mine was actually growing, I was selling music online, growing my fan base, making friends in the music community, doing concerts, and eventually started making enough money to be able to quit my 8-5 day job to work on music full time.  It happened fast, and for the last decade, I have been running my own business as a full time solo pianist.  

When I quit my day job to work on music full time, I had grand dreams that I’d have all this time to create and relax and just live the cushy life.  Boy was I wrong about that!  Being a musician, making money from my music, and running a successful business takes an enormous amount of work, patience, trial and error, more patience, and more work.  I spend more time working in my office than I do creating or practicing at the piano.  Answering customer emails, fixing order problems, balancing my accounting, managing my social networking, working on marketing and promotion projects, advertising campaigns, going through the checklists of daily tasks, planning goals and projects for the future, brainstorming ideas, reading articles and staying up to date on what’s going on in the music industry, planning and booking tours and concerts, writing, composing, improvising, working on videos, albums, singles, etc… that takes up the majority of my every-day life.  I joke that I work more now, as a full time musician, than I ever did at an 8-5 job.  I have a song, A Beautiful Distraction, which is about being a full time pianist, and how my time at the piano is my “Beautiful Distraction” away from the busy work.  

Right now I’m working on a new album, new singles, videos, and getting ready for the holidays which are always a great time for music sales, exposure and welcoming new fans.  I stay very busy and I’m grateful and thankful to have a career doing what I love.