If you like meeting new people, making new friends, you’ll love being a performing musician. You literally meet people every night you perform—and under the very best circumstances. They’re out enjoying life, escaping the daily grind, and you’re delivering the music that frees them from their daily burdens whatever those might be and enables their enjoyment of that evening.
I can’t remember a night that I’ve played in a club or a concert venue where people did not approach me after we played a set or at the conclusion of our evening to meet us and thank us for our music. Often those people are a little tipsy, so the conversations can roll on for many minutes—or longer. But almost always they are pleasant because you’ve contributed to their evening, fueled the night with your music.
If you make regular stops at different venues and in different cities, you’ll likely see many of the same people time and time again, and get to know a few well. Many of the people I’ve met through the years I travelled, I still call my friends, still stay in touch, still even visit from time to time.
And of course there are the musicians you work with. Over just one night of playing together you share so much with your fellow players that you can hardly help but become friends by the end of the evening. And if things went well enough, you’ll be seeing each other again on another stage.
People. They are at the heart of what you do, those who you play for, who you share your music with. And they will return the favor, often with admiration, but if you’re fortunate, with genuine friendship.