Full time Musician but might need to switch Life Purpose?

[Value]

I am a man in my twenties currently working full time as a music composer. I make music in a style that I love to create and get paid to do it on a month by month basis. For the last half of my life I have been focused on music but in the back of my mind for years I have been thinking of switching life purpose, at the core I'm more interested in Truth (than Beauty/Music). The problem is that I know I have a big genetic advantage when it comes to music (in terms of pitch recognition, sensitivity and creativity) and don't assume I would be able to reach the same skill level within any other field. 

Some part of me wants to spend my life like Einstein or David Bohm discovering Deep Truth about the structure of reality... but my brain seems to be wired for music, I can instantly identify notes and musical progressions and have creativity for the art form... so how could I find the strength to leave something that I have high genetic disposition for and spent thousands of hours to master, only to try and become a truth seeker? 

I feel like music is too self centered and just doesn't have the highest meaning in life compared to finding deep truth... I am currently taking the Life Purpose Course.

Any advice much welcome, 

With Love. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Value
Spelling errors

[OctagonOctopus]

Do both? Seach for the truth and make beautiful songs to guide people to the truth. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by OctagonOctopus

[aurum]

2 hours ago, Value said:

Some part of me wants to spend my life like Einstein or David Bohm discovering Deep Truth about the structure of reality... but my brain seems to be wired for music, I can instantly identify notes and musical progressions and have creativity for the art form... 

I don't see the conflict? Why do you feel you can't do both?

2 hours ago, Value said:

I feel like music is too self centered and just doesn't have the highest meaning in life compared to finding deep truth...

I'd disagree, music can be extremely healing. There are sound healers who make entire careers out of it.

[Loving Radiance]

@Value  I was musically active since childhood. Looking back I see that music connected me to truth. The most powerful music teleports to another dimension of pure truth expressed through love, beauty and beingness. You create something powerful to access truth. It doesn't at all have contradict itself - the contradiction is imagined by yourself. You "see" truth through music.

 

 

@Nahm

Edited November 28, 2020 by Loving Radiance

[Nahm]

@Value

Both. They’re already one in the same. Subtract self referential thinking from the mix. Go on some excursions. Self discover. Write a song about it. Love to hear it. 

[Guest SirVladimir]

@Value Truth = Beauty = Music. Can't you feel how deeply notes penetrate the structure of reality? They make a puddle of water sing. Music has the greatest meaning in life, for life is music. We're all musicians despite the path we choose to tread.

[Striving for more]

Music is one of the best ways to find and express truth, they say a picture paints a thousand words but a song can add more emotion, can be dynamic and multi layered. 

Don't quit unless you actually hate music, which I doubt. Good music is very needed in this era. 

[Soulbass]

Music is a medium, I don't see incompatibility.

[SonataAllegro]

I'm also a composer in my twenties, also currently taking the LP course, and also facing the same dilemma. Music is an inherently masturbatory field, as my friend once put it, but what I've realized is that doing it can really change you on the inside if you treat it as a tool for self reflection, contemplation, and meditation.

And music IS the structure of reality -- if you've ever tried a psychedelic and listened to your favorite pieces you'll realize that consciousness itself is deeply musical, poetic, story-like. My username is SonataAllegro because for me, sonata form is a universal archetype in music. It reflects the hero's journey archetype, which is the structure of the way consciousness discovers itself on a fundamental level. Music is amazing at producing feelings of departure, return, discovery, and reflection, which I think "teach" us about ourselves on a subconscious level. This IS the deep structure of reality, and as composers we have to tap into that and bring it forward.

With a career like music, it's so wide open a field that it's automatically one of self-actualization. The arts are most profound when they're the most authentic, so I think the most important aspect of an artist's work is to turn inward and find deep truth.

I wish you luck on your journey. I'd love to hear some of your work!

[The_Alchemist]

Start reading about physics:
30 Second Physics
Instant Science

DK How Science Works Book

And keep doing the music

[vibv]

Music is extremely important in this era.

On 1.12.2020 at 3:42 AM, SonataAllegro said:

Music is an inherently masturbatory field, as my friend once put it, but what I've realized is that doing it can really change you on the inside if you treat it as a tool for self reflection, contemplation, and meditation.

Is music still masturbatory when performed together with a group of people?
Wouldn't it be better then to call it a sexual activity? But on a higher level than the level of the body. Like an emotional communion.

We don't even really know what music is right now.

It's like science: We think we have it all figured out, only the minor details remain to be discovered.
But maybe some extremely unexpected discoveries lay ahead. So that the notion of music in 100 years will be something completely different than today.

[SonataAllegro]

@vibv by masturbatory I mean that It's difficult to see the purpose in doing it, or more accurately, its harder to delude yourself into thinking that there is an inherent purpose. The purpose is to have fun with it, to connect with others, to express emotions. Which I agree, makes it a sexual activity.

It's amazing when you study music history (especially "classical" music, though I don't really like that term) just how much the definition of music changes over time as we encounter new ways of doing things. I was watching a documentary the other day and someone said that the technology always comes first for a practical reason, and the musician comes along and shows people what it can really be used for. Like how the electric guitar was invented merely to amplify it over the rest of the band, but Jimi Hendrix took it to a whole new level. Art evolves in the same way organisms do, through quantum leaps in consciousness.

[vibv]

@SonataAllegro Music is the purpose. That's what makes it very alike to Life itself.

And it's also what makes it go beyond science and logic.
Today science is being seen as "hard" and "real" and "practical" while music is allusive and "soft" and not so important in comparison.

Maybe there's a future where this notion will be switched.

I'm working on it  

[DefinitelyNotARobot]

On 11/28/2020 at 3:14 PM, Value said:

I feel like music is too self centered and just doesn't have the highest meaning in life compared to finding deep truth... I am currently taking the Life Purpose Course.

You wouldn't say such a thing if you truly loved music. Why did you start making music to begin with? It doesn't feel like you are genuine with your pursuit. Did you parents put you on that path? Or did you choose it out of your own love for music?

Have you ever tried psychedelics? They can help you with that struggle. They might make you realize that you don't want be making music anymore, but they could also make you realize that music is different from what you thought it was. Maybe your perspective on music would change so much that you could turn it into your personal way of pursuing the truth.

Try to contemplate what music is (Very effective if you combine it with psychedelics). Try to be creative, not just with the music itself, but also with the way you approach your pursuit of truth. Come up with a creative solution to how you can fit music and truth together! 

[Value]

@Leo Gura Do you have any advice? I see some parallells to when you switched from Game Design.

[Value]

On 2020-12-01 at 3:42 AM, SonataAllegro said:

Music is an inherently masturbatory field, as my friend once put it, but what I've realized is that doing it can really change you on the inside if you treat it as a tool for self reflection, contemplation, and meditation.

This is exactly how I feel, good way to put it.