Hi folks. I did not know if I could contribute to this thread as it seemed like this thread was for long time professional musicians and when I started reading everyone's bios that just kind of emphasised the point. But I will contribute as a long time frustrated musician!

I was brought up and still am in the church. I used to sing with my family (5 sisters and 1 brother) all over the UK.

My eldest sister became a naval Nurse at 18 and went off to sea. When she got back she brought a guitar with her. I fell in love with creating music from there and the first instrument I took up was the guitar. I also played the flute for about 4 years but the guitar was my main instrument. As I got better I began to write songs from the age of about 12 and performed original material at church and conferences. But I never enjoyed performing, I loved to write and arrange but I am not a natural extrovert. The guitar was great but it was limiting in that it could not create the sound I heard in my head when I composed. . Unfortunately I also had a love of basketball that became my obsession and I played in the Birmingham Bullets junior team (under 17 squad) and in the UK's west midlands and national league. I was a good academic too and so had to make some hard choices about which direction to take my career. I was a talented hungry basketball player but the game wasn't sufficiently mature in the UK in terms of its professional status to make a living playing hoops. And my parents would never have let me give up a university place to pursue my musical ambitions so I ended up a regular person making a living in the day time and following my musical passion in the spare time that I had. Which wasn¡¦t much as I till played basketball on a semi pro basis.

Anyway, whizzing forward , I blew out both knees playing basketball (who doesn¡¦t ha ha ) I got married to my child hood sweetheart at 24, started a business providing financial consultancy and coaching, had a gorgeous daughter at 30 and unfortunately got divorced at 32, sold my business. I became the Chairman of a charity for separated/divorced parents http://www.sharedparenting.org.uk/ which involves assisting warring families to mediate and where necessary prepare court papers draft statements and attend court which I still run and work in the evenings. For my day job, I investigate complaints made against solicitors. Both roles keep me extremely busy!

I started playing keyboard again when I divorced and rediscovered my love for music!! At 35 I decided to take my music more seriously and started having jazz piano lessons with an old client. Never had any lessons before and could not sight read. 2 years later I passed my Jazz grade 5 music exams! I am 41 now and have been the children's choir keyboard player at my church for the last 4 years. The choir has over 40 young uns including my daughter and all my nieces and nephews. I have to tell you God is really good and the kids are doing really well. The church has membership of over 500 and I keep myself busy musically with other projects.

Music is my passion and I live with the deep regret that I did not follow my calling all those years ago when I first fell in love with music. Diki is right, that the love of music is a calling as many of you can and have testified. You are truly blessed to do this and get paid!!

Still, I am progressing as a musician and working with other like minded people and loving the time I have with the incredible PA1X.

Thanks for reading. I know that there are lots of frustrated musicians like me who turned left in their life when they should have turned right :-)


[This message has been edited by Spalding 4 (edited 05-13-2010).]