We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jack Barrett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jack, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I am lucky enough to make a full time living as a musician, something I consider to be a huge success in itself. Earning a living in the arts is such a broad and undefined path that it comes as no surprise that I wasn’t given much of a blueprint or instruction upon graduating college. My initial path was geared towards classroom education in the K-12 school system, something I eventually learned I was not cut out for. As i began my career as a schoolteacher I also started playing gigs, composing my own music and teaching private lessons. As the years passed I found myself teaching more lessons and less and less in the classroom until I decided to fully step away in 2019. Now I make all my income teaching lessons and playing gigs. Looking back on the whole process I don’t think there was any other way I could have arrived at where I am now. I believe that being an artist involves every facet of a person’s life, therefore all the good and bad decisions I’ve made along the way are contributing to my artistry and were therefore necessary.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I work as a pianist and piano teacher in the twin cities. I’m a classically trained pianist who also plays jazz, and I have a wide variety of styles and genres I play. As a freelance pianist I have played in all sorts of capacities, from bar gigs and clubs to theaters and corporate parties. As a teacher I strive to be adaptable and to make music accessible for everyone. My biggest hope for all my students is that I can help them foster a lifelong connection to music, whatever that looks like.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
That work and working hard has innate value. I used to be under the impression that as long as I was keeping busy I was doing the right thing. This lead to me saying yes to far too many things and making unhealthy choices. Like many people when COVID 19 hit and everyone was quarantining I realized that I had been stretching myself too thin. I now value my free time and autonomy much more than I used to. If I were to go back to some of my jobs now I would never agree to some of the working conditions and expectations I used to consider normal and acceptable.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me the most magical moment is the first time I hear one of my compositions played by others. Sometimes that means hearing a band play my new chart, sometimes it means hearing a student play an etude I constructed just for them. That moment where my idea takes physical form (relatively speaking) is an incredible rush. I hope that everyone gets to feel their own version of this at least once, whatever their medium or output.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jackbarrettmusic.com
- Instagram: @jackbarrettmusic
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2HzIObAf2uQumQrrfh1g0h?si=KJ8AUcZ8RaSs3zMa8qcO7g
Image Credits
Photos by: Adam Iverson Taylor Donesky