If you choose a career as a performing musician, you are likely a person who appreciates being independent. You won’t be counting on a corporation for your employment and income. You’re taking the responsibility yourself. It is a life to a great extent free of the dictates and control imposed by others. But is is also a serious obligation.
Going your own way can be more challenging, and even more burdensome, than having a regular day job where you go to the same location and do pretty much the same thing every day. As a freelance musician, you have to find your own work, and do so for virtually every job you get. As a sideman that means relying on a leader or leaders for calls to play. If you are a leader, or a solo act, it means getting the jobs, then managing other musicians you will use on that job. And you have to do that for every job.
If you can find work on a regular basis, maybe as a house band or a single working a certain club on a regular basis, that makes things a bit easier. But even house gigs don’t typically last very long.
If you can build your skill and career to the point that your music is in sufficient demand to where you can afford to have a manager who books jobs and takes care of most of the details for you, that is ideal. Offloading that responsibility gives you even more independence, more time to work on your craft. However, achieving that status is rare.
If you can manage it financially, an independent life as a musician is a wonderful, gratifying way to live. It allows for a great deal of variety as well as freedom. Best of all, it allows you the time you need to continue to advance your knowledge and skills, to continue to refine your craft, to continually improve and grow as a musician. And what could be a better way to spend your life than that?