2.The Melody of Life

The melody of life

Life Through the Eyes of a Musician

By: Jiayi Zhao

ou’ve been dream-

Ying about this your entire life. Traveling the world with the need to get away or to create something no one has seen before. Melodies however mellow, rich, soft, or loud, fill your head and block out the world outside. You pour your heart and soul, a whole lifetime of stories woven into poetic verses into your melodies. It’s like you’re hearing and understanding yourself for the first time. And in that moment, you get a sudden epiphany – being a musician is your dream, and there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing. can be hard to define. There are a range of responsibilities it takes for a person to become one. Musicians perform, record, and sometimes write music. They may be trained under a specific genre or instrument, or they can also play a variety of instruments. To be successful in music, musicians should always strive to improve and have commitment in their creative pursuits.

Performance is often a musician’s favorite part of their job; They get to share the songs they write and the pieces they learn with an audience. Jace Cadle is the vocalist and guitarist of the American rock band Madam Radar based in Austin. He expressed how much he loves to connect and communicate with his audience through their music. “[I love] the interaction you get by sharing something,” Cadle commented. “because songs, especially, are very emotional, like it doesn’t necessarily have to be a serious emotion, but when someone is feeling whatever it is that you’re putting out, and you get this reciprocation of energy, that’s crazy, when a crowd is really digging a band, and they’re just going nuts, and the band starts playing even harder, because they just want to give more and more and more.”

Since the pandemic, however, many performances have had to be adapted or canceled to fit COVID guidelines. Hailey Wal

Hailey Walterman performing with the Sienna String Quartet at the Far Out Lounge and Stage in south Austin

terman is a professional violist and freelance musician based in Los Angeles, California. She also runs her own private studio where she teaches violin and viola to students. Having played music for seventeen years, she expressed how it’s been difficult to adjust, and it’s definitely a different experience compared to pre-pandemic times. Walterman noted how her solo recitals were very weird because she’s performing to an empty hall, but she has to be performing like she has a big audience.

“It really changes the energy of the room, because usually you can feel other people’s energy while you’re on the stage. And so when you’re playing at a solo recital, it’s not quite that type of audience. I played with Michael Buble way back in September. And when you’re playing for a huge audience like that, the audience has been crazy. And you feel the energy, and it’s so exciting, and that also helps you play better.” Besides performing, collaboration is also a big part of being a musician. Last summer, Walterman did a recording project with an all female group with guitarists, vocalists, drums, and a string trio. She really enjoyed how creative and fun the process was, as she explained here, “It’s a very, I’d say, kind of indie songwriter style of music.” Walterman recalled. “And you got to be so creative in how you’re playing a specific line, or a specific melody, and it was always influenced by the sounds

that were kind of coming around you. I think I probably learned the most when I’m collaborating with other artists.” Jace Cadle noted how collaboration is fun, but it can also be exhaustive working with his bandmates to settle disagreements. “We have a lot of that family

dynamic. [We often] run into conflict by just disagreements, by the way you do stuff. A lot of times we do listen to each other. “When you love what So it’s a little bit easier. We really work at that. It’s sitting down you do, you never and going, Hey, How’s everyone work a day in your feeling? And just kind of having - not like psychology sessions - life.” - Jace Cadle but just like sitting down with each other and just going, Hey, let’s, let’s have a drink and talk. And if there’s any problems, let’s try to come to a common ground on it.” Just like any sort of family, there are always things to love and hate about the people that you’re around. Cadle described how a lot of good things came out of his interactions with his band

Madam Radar, an American Rock band based in Austin, Texas

“If you really do believe in what you’re doing and love it, then it’s really hard to [complain],” Cadle explained. “I’m lucky because I dig my band. So four hours in a van together is just kind of talking a bunch of crap to each other and just laughing and telling jokes, playing games and listening to songs. So I would say if you don’t love this, that’s what sucks about this.”

Cadle said there are also a lot of challenges that musicians have to face, especially in terms of finding motivation to play.

“Because being a musician, when you do this specific thing, it’s hopefully because you love it, because there’s not really a lot of other perks like money, and there’s no guarantee that anybody is gonna like anything that you do ever.”

Cadle said it’s important to remind yourself of your passion in order to keep going.

“Because I dig this,” Cadle said. “And it’s one of those cliches, but it’s if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,” she later added.

Sometimes it helps to revisit your creative process when you’re unmotivated as a musician. Hailey Walterman said it’s especially hard to find motivation for herself when things are not in a flow state “I feel like there’s probably less times when I’m motivated, than there are times that I’m motivated. [It helps to] return back to why you play music in the first place and viewing it as that creative process. Because then it’s almost like you’re approaching your instrument within a meditative state, and it’s a really good outlet and exploration for your brain rather than this thing that you have to do.” she explained.

In addition to having motivation, musicians have to believe in themselves and their abilities when they write or perform music. Although confidence can be hard to come by for a lot of people, it’s a vital trait to have for anyone in the music industry. This includes overcoming stage fright while performing. Hailey Walterman stressed the importance of being prepared with the music that you’re performing and making sure you are confident in what you have to offer. This is a big thing that helps to quell nervousness.

“I feel like there’s a lot of things that you can do to kind of overcome [nervousness]. And nerves are not always bad. It’s kind of how you deal with them and how you frame them. Because there are times when you get on the stage and you’re really excited, so reframe it as an exciting thing, rather than a bad thing.”

All musicians are unique in their own way, whether they play or sing. They may differ in their years or education or training, but all musicians share the same qualities of working hard, perseverance, and most importantly, their passion in music.