By Michael J Mhlanga aka Dani Dube
It can be said that music plays a pivotal role in society. It provides, among other things, pleasure, relaxation, cultural fertility, inspiration – the list is endless. To the listener or uninitiated, music seems to pour out of the airwaves, gadgets used during live concerts and other sources that prevailing modern technology may provide.
On one hand, producing a piece of music or something that is worth listening to, will take hours, days, weeks and at times months of hard work.
On the other hand, listening to a polished work of art such as a single song, or composition, it will tale between 2 and 5 minutes on the average. These are two different sides clarifying the listenership and production aspects of music – where the artist toils yet the listener enjoys.
THE PROBLEM
It is with a heavy heart that, for many years, there is strong evidence that many musicians and those closely or remotely connected with it have lived and exhaled their last breaths of life in a sorry state of existence. How does that work out? What seems to have been the norm, ‘yesterday and today’, are requests in the mass media for ‘someone’ to address the plight of musicians. Shall this mode of operation continue ‘tomorrow’?
THE SOLUTION
There is a lot that musicians, that include the writer of this article, can do for themselves if they are to be excluded from what can be described as ‘a group at risk’ (a group of people, having something in common who are at a greater risk of being exposed to a particular destructive consequence, such as destitution, than the general population).
My entrepreneurial attribute tells me that through group or inclusive brainstorming and cooperation a number of projects can be initiated to erase the ‘group at risk’ label. Listed below are potential projects that have trickled out.
Musicians can initiate projects or assistance that include: Affordable quality recording (see the works of Quincy johns: record producer, musician, songwriter (https://people.com/tag/quincy-jones/ – 28/12/23);
Collaborations;
Short and affordable coaching in aspects such as composing, song writing, execution, band and stage management, survival skills in accounts for ‘bands at risk’ (done through musicians’ programmes or existing colleges and institutions); Loans for venue bookings, equipment, housing and school fees through financial institutions as well as musicians’ programmes;
Insurance for equipment, housing, vehicles, inability to continues with work of a musician e.g. loss of voice, hands or fingers;
Michael J Mhlanga aka Dani Dube is the singer, guitarist and composer of the hit Ndau song Atumwa Haana Ndaa. He started his musical career in 1970s. He is an educationist and a former lecturer at Belvedere Teachers College and Zimbabwe Open University.
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