Balancing My Hobbies And My Music Career

My music career has allowed me to have such a flexible schedule with my hobbies. My main hobby is martial arts. In fact, it is more than just a hobby. It has been a part of my life since I was five-years-old, even before I was interested in playing music! Since then, I have become one of the head instructors at my karate school in my hometown of Maywood, NJ. I train three times a week, and I help with teaching on Mondays, Wednesdays, and some Thursdays. I have my own class on Wednesday afternoons. Studying martial arts has been a big part of my life, and I have learned so many things that have helped me with my music career. For example, being able to absorb information and imitate what our sensei’s want us to improve upon has helped me transcribe music and learn music at a faster rate. Secondly, my two sensei’s have taught me so many things in teaching an art! My style of karate and music have so many similarities, so many concepts of learning and teaching overlap, even though they are two totally different arts.

I make the choice of denying work because I have committed myself to the karate school. I take karate as seriously as my music career because it is so important to me. I have earned a 4th Degree Black Belt in my style, and I still learn something new in every class twenty years later.

Some of my other hobbies are basketball, fitness, bowling, and completing escape rooms with a group of my friends. I love puzzles, and this new craze of “human puzzles” has intrigued me so much! In fact, we are pretty good at it. We have a winning record of 17-6! I bowl in a league with my girlfriend, Ashley, and my friend, Nick, on Monday nights. I have an 206 average! I am still looking to bowl a 300. I came close, 279, but still have not gotten there!

I am able to do all of these things because of my great time management. I make sure I get up early to complete my workout. Then I practice for whatever work that I have, and then I continue to complete recording projects and other errands I need to do for the week. After, I go to karate on my specific days. It is fun to be able to do so many different things a week, and these hobbies keep me grounded. I re-calibrate my mind, and this assures me to be in the right mindset in a gig, recording session, or music lesson!