Learn and Play for Love not Money, if money comes, good, but more importantly do it because you Love it, says musician Ernest Flanagan better known to everyone as Ernie.

Is the music industry thriving? Are people buying CD’s? Are concert halls regularly packed with no empty seats? Are people taking up music as a profession?

In India, it is a sort of tradition that the children take up their father’s business or occupation. A doctor’s son will probably be a doctor, a movie star’s son will take up acting, a shop keeper’s son will inherit the shop and carry on the business and I could list many more examples but you get my drift.

In the case of musicians, the children certainly inherit the talent; will probably even learn the instrument but the parent musician will not encourage their children to be professional musicians simply because there is no future or money in it. The parents (musicians) have struggled to make ends meet and the last thing they want to do is see their own children face that same struggle. Their advice would be to take up any other job and do music only for fun.

It is not easy to learn an instrument and get so good at it that someone pays you to play it. It takes years and years and the learning never stops. Ask any musician who has been playing for 50 years, if he knows enough and he will tell you that he has only scratched the surface, there is so much more to learn.

Then again, why should someone pay an astronomical sum to hire a whole band to entertain his guests when it can be done much cheaper with a DJ and a lap top?

Our very own 5 star hotels used to have at least 3 different bands in 3 different restaurants till the idiotic taxes from the revenue department kicked in and ‘live’ music died an agonizing death. Now what is commonly known as ‘live’ music is a duo (man and woman) performing with a back up track while pretending to play the keyboard? Also some of our famous 5 star hotels employ foreigners (read ‘white skins’) who do the same thing our Indian duo’s do except they are paid international rates. Yes, we practice racism too.

The famous “Jazz by the Bay” changed its name to “Not just Jazz by the Bay’ and finally hosted karaoke shows simply because there are not enough good musicians. Its one thing to be a musician and play ‘pop’ but learning to play Jazz is a whole new ball game. Let me warn you, it is not easy.

Our very own Gymkhanas, one of the last lifelines for sustaining us musicians, offer such pathetic rates that the only musicians that perform there are ‘back up track’ musicians who hope to be invited to play at a wedding reception or a dance in the future. We have reached a record low.

I commend and compliment the parents who encouraged their children to take up the mantle of music, knowing fully well the struggle their children would have to go thru, and despite that, encouraged them to follow their dreams. It is these parents that keep the music and hope alive and I admire them. They are people of faith and music will survive only because of them. But their numbers are dwindling. God, we need more of them.

So a few years from now when guys like us are ‘over the hill’ and the alternative is to hire a young kid with a lap top or fly down your musician from Singapore or Sri Lanka then you will know what you have lost by not supporting your musicians now.

By Ernest Flanagan

Ernest Flanagan aka Ernie is a professional musician who has been around since 1976, Singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist and budding poet; he has performed almost all over the world. His vast repertoire of songs in all genres and many original pieces can be found on YouTube