One of the most important things I've learned as a musician is that you need to learn to trust yourself above anybody else in the world. Your instincts will be better than any advice you can get although it pays to listen and take some in but not to the point where it interferes with your own inner voice.

With every rule about music, there is someone out there to break it. That's because they followed their own instinct about what to do first. If Django had listened to other guitarists instead of developing his own talent regardless and because of his handicap, it would have been a great loss to jazz guitar.

I don't believe that there are any real musical "whores" out there. Everyone in music has a different reason for doing it and if they follow their own "inner voice" they find a way regardless of what they play. One person's "whore" might be another's inspiration.

Dizzy Gillespie played the trumpet all wrong. He puffed out his cheeks (a no no in trumpet pedagogy). Louis Armstrong sang technically all wrong. (Didn't know music theory either) He rasped his way to glory. Woody Guthrie sang simply, the way he wanted to and wrote songs that would never have found their way into the conventional songwriting mode. Dylan couldn't sing, play very well, wrote the way he felt and is magnetic as a performer onstage and wound up with an honorary music degree from Harvard. Does this tell you something? Irving Berlin wrote many of his great songs without knowing how to read or write music. He could only bang on the black keys of the piano and had to call in trained musicians to help him find the right chords to his songs. (He heard them though). Some say Kenny G can't really play very well. Oh yeah? Who cares? Charlie Parker wasn't a great reader either. He didn't know how to talk about music theory, he just invented it by listening to his "inner voice". Bach broke every rule he ever created. Pete Seeger played the banjo pretty much by ear although he had some musical training but didn't study with anyone. He also sang wrong by holding his head up so you could see his adam's apple. Some singers have terrible diction (not Pete) but they are successful anyway. You might say, "well they're all geniuses. They can do it their way". Well so can you.

There are some who never played a musical instrument, sang or did much formally with music but they had musical talent and listened to themselves and made more money in the music field than many trained musicians. They became publishers, songwriters, producers and therapists.

Get a teacher if you think you need one but the best teacher is you. Listen to what you need and go for it. The rest follows. I bet my life on it.

Frank