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I started playing the Piano when I was only 5 years old, My Mother and I would take two buses to an elderly lady who taught piano lessons from her over-crowded with lots of furniture and stuff living room. I played the piano until I was 9 years old then I lost interest because I lost my Father to a massive heart attack. I regained interest in playing the piano by the time I was 15 years old, it was at that time I wanted to be a famous Pianist, but my Mother said I was only learning how to play the piano to play on Sundays at Church. I did not want to just play the piano in Church, I wanted to go to Detroit so I could be discovered by Motown. My Mother was not happy with the idea of me wanting to go to Detroit and insisted that I play in the Church, so I lost interest in the Piano again.
By the time I became an Adult, my love for Music and playing the piano never left my mind but, in my mind, it was too late for from to start over in the Music Business past the age of 35 years old, so I decided to work with younger people who had an interest in becoming a Recording Artist. I started by paying people $20 in the Bronx to perform for me as I recorded it to see where I wanted to go with this idea, then I would pay people $20 to give feedback on the Recording. I enjoyed watching people perform and also listening to people give feedback on the music so much until I decided to start Hosting Open Mics.
When I started Hosting Open Mics, I enjoyed all the people who would come to watch but also those people who performed. I was in New York and people there did not like that I did not charge Artists to perform on stage instead I actually paid some of them $50 to perform and later on I would Host Talent Showcases where the 1st Place Winner received $500 and 2nd Place Winner received $250 while the 3rd Place Winner received $125 and they all received help with getting their Music Distributed for Sale.
I got so deep into the Music Business until I decided to create an Independent Record Label to help those who did not have money for Instrumentals (Beats) and/or Money for Studio Time. This was the start of my biggest mistake in the Music Business, when people found out that I was willing to put my own money and time into their career without a contract that would allow me to make money, they flocked to me like birds to bird food in a park.
To make a long story short, People started taking my kindness as a weakness as I paid for people to audition for me, perform at my Open Mics and I paid for Instrumentals (Beats), Studio Time and picked them up in Limousines to take them to the Recording Studio and also to the Club to perform at the Open Mic. I had a friend tell me that I was doing too much but I didn't listen as I thought I was doing what an Artist's Manager and Independent Record Label should do.
I had one Artist tell me he found a Beat Maker who charges $500 for exclusive beats but I found out that he and his friend was making the beats from a closet.
(To Be Continued) in the "Hot Chocolate, Why Are You So Cold?" Books by Yvonne Wilcox
#TooGrownForThat
