Who are you, as a musician?
In the previous chapter we laid out a long list of skills which contribute to a person’s musicality. I expect that some of these skills you could relate to and identify with, while others currently felt irrelevant or out of reach. We also introduced the H4 Model of Complete Musicality (Head, Hands, Hearing and Heart) and I invited you to reflect on how much attention you’ve been giving each of these H’s, and how you could develop them all in a more holistic and integrated way in future. And I shared the idea of “The Complete Musician”, as one who “can step into any musical situation with confidence and play something that sounds—and feels—great.”
Now that you’ve spent a bit of time pondering your Big Picture Vision (and hopefully even writing it out, in some detail), you likely have a new perspective on the musician you want to become.
Perhaps you realised that as exciting as that long list of skills was, and as amazing as it might be to become that “Complete Musician”, actually your own Big Picture Vision had a certain focus to it.
This might have stemmed from limiting beliefs about what’s possible for you—and as we continue in this chapter I’m going to share some beliefs and mindsets which can help you break open a whole new level of aspiration and possibility in your musical life.
But it will also have reflected your own unique musical identity.
At Musical U we hope to nurture every member, and especially our Next Level coaching clients, towards becoming that “Complete Musician”—because it represents someone who can do anything they wish to in music. But that doesn’t mean you have any obligation to!
The flip side of this point is really important: even if you do aspire to one day be the Complete Musician, it does not mean that you need to do “all of the things, all of the time”.
Something we’ve discovered over the years at Musical U is that even though every musician is different, and even if they did all aspire to one day be “The Complete Musician”, in fact there are three clear archetypes we see. Each one has their own direction and focus for their musical passion. We refer to these as the three “Musical Cores”.
I’d like to share these with you now, because our members have been finding it extremely helpful and clarifying. Just like personality profiles such as DISC or Myers-Briggs, they are imperfect and incomplete as representations of “who you are”—but just like personality profiles, they can still provide deeper self-understanding and clearer self-identity. These three archetypes can help you to understand who you are as a musician, and what kind of musician you most want to become.
As you read through the descriptions, I invite you to see which of them resonates most with you—both in terms of your musical journey so far, and the musician you described in your Big Picture Vision.
The “Performer” Core
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The “Performer” loves playing music they’ve prepared in advance. They focus on gradually building up a repertoire of pieces or songs they can perform well, and improving the reliability, accuracy, and musical expression of their performances. |
The “Jammer” Core
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The “Jammer” loves to just dive in and figure it out. They focus on developing their in-the-moment instinctive ability to express music that fits, and would probably rather try something new than refine something they’ve learned already. |
The “Creative” Core
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The “Creative” loves to conjure up their own musical ideas. They focus on expressing their own, personal creativity, whether that’s on-the-fly with improvisation, or through activities like songwriting, composing or arranging. |
Your Unique Core
Which of the three Cores resonated most with you? We’ve found that in most cases there is a single one which stands out for a musician—but if you found yourself thinking “well, I’m a bit of this, a bit of that” or “I love all three of those” you’re certainly not alone either!
Note that all three Cores can involve sharing your music with others, or not. So don’t assume that a musician with a Performer Core is necessarily out there on stages, the Jammer is always joining in live with others, or that the Creative has yet shared their musical creations with anybody just yet! We see that activity of sharing your music as a step on the path of these three Cores. It’s something we’d encourage as early as possible, but by no means a pre-requisite for you to identify as one of them.
You may find that a single one of these brought immediate clarity for you. One of the most common reactions we hear is a great sense of relief. You may suddenly understand why you’ve been drawn to certain aspects of learning music but repelled by others, and the knowledge that these three archetypes exist, and no one of them is any “better” or “worse” than the others, can bring a sudden and welcome sense of self-acceptance.
Here’s the thing. Although these three archetypes provide a helpful perspective, and you might identify strongly with one and not the others, the reality is that your musical core is unique.
In fact, you might find it helpful to sketch a little pie chart of how your own Musical Core feels to you:
You could do this twice: once to reflect “you now”, and one to reflect the version of you which you imagined in your Big Picture Vision.
This can help guide you throughout your musical training. We’ll provide some light pointers in the rest of the book, as to which skills and activities are most suited to each Core—but you can probably already see that for yourself. If you cast your eye down the table of contents for this book, with your own unique Musical Core in mind, I suspect you will immediately know which will be most valuable and impactful for you.