Ep 8: The Backassward Path to Becoming a Musician
This is a reflection and write-up for Playticity Podcast Episode 8: The Backasswards Path to Becoming a Musician with Tanner Cyr. Find the episode wherever you get your podcasts. It is also available on www.playticity.com/podcast
The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this episode is Tanner’s unconventional path forward. The only reason Tanner started to play music is because all of his friends started to play video games, leaving him on his own, in his basement, with a bass guitar.
Without any music teachers or real instruction, he figured out how to play in his own way based on what notes sounded good together. After doing this day after day, he became pretty decent at it, and he’s been doing it ever since.
Finding your own way forward
I came across a quote recently from Atomic Habits author James Clear that goes:
“Someone else living a good life does not prevent you from living a good life.
There are many ways to win and plenty of space.”
We commonly think that there is only one way of pursuing our goals, but the truth is that there are an infinite number of ways to succeed. Many successful influencers aim to make us believe that their way is the only way (mainly because they want to sell their services), and many of us buy it (I know I have). We believe that we always need to look to others to tell us the path forward, and that we can’t figure out how to do any of this stuff our own. But as Tanner exemplified, he didn’t need any classical music training in order to learn music. He found a different path forward, his own path forward.
Giving up Either/Or Thinking
Tanner mentions in the podcast that its not like he is just toiling away on an instrument and putting all of his eggs in one basket. He still works full-time and supports himself through his musical journey.
Many of us assume that the path forward is black and white. Either you work a 9–5, are all about certainty, and have no personal freedom, or you give all of it up and go after your dream. However, life rarely seems to work this way. Right now, I am working full-time, and trying to build up Playticity on the side. This allows me to support myself financially while doing something that I truly enjoy with the hope that maybe one day I can do this for a living.
Quitting your job and going all in on your dream is one way that you can go about it, and if its what you want to do, then I have no right to tell you otherwise. But it seems to me that the reality of this path is that you either work your butt off to achieve your dream, or you’ll be out on the street without a job (unless you have a nice friend who let’s you sleep on their couch).
I can’t speak for Tanner, but for me, I find that by doing Playticity on the side, it allows me to still enjoy the process and the intrinsic joy that it brings. Whereas, if I would have put all of my eggs in one basket, sure I might get more done, and become more successful sooner, but I know that in all likelihood I would slowly come to resent it. I would become obsessive about something built around helping people rediscover play and to carve their own path. I would see myself as a hypocrite, and I would be miserable as a result.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading and listening, and we’ll catch all of you players in a couple weeks for Episode 9.
