Welcome to Musician's Handbook!

Thank you all for tuning in for this first entry into the Musician's Handbook. There are so many topics, subtopics, and discussions to have. At first, I would like to define what Musician's Handbook is and the vision for this space on the internet. This hub is a place for community, content, and active creation to thrive for music makers within our musical community, but what does that look like?

Community - Regular mental health discussions, creator spotlights, and community spotlights are part of the Musician's Handbook Discord and YouTube Channel. 

Content - Incredibly talented, intelligent musician's have been discussing mental health issues online, and we are here to share and propel their stories. 

Creation - We are actively researching, listening, and striving to better understand topics on mental health and wellness, new topics, and to provide the best support possible for musician's. 

These pillars of Musician's Handbook will serve as a statement, gesture, and re-centering of what this place is. 

We are also determined to help and assist all of us in the musical community through these discussions. These resources will offer support for individuals suffering from mental health issues, friends and colleagues wanting to support, and Teachers/Professors looking to do the same. All three of these people groups and lens are incredibly important towards all of our healing and moving forward as a musical community. 

These issues on mental health are slowly becoming less and less stigmatized, and talked about more openly, which is such an amazing accomplishment and we as a musical community should be proud of. 
But with only anecdotal evidence and no numbers to visualize, these issues will become more confusing, misunderstood, and forgotten. Our friends at The73Percent saw this same issue and launched their eye-opening project. The poster listed below is based on a study made by The73Percent in 2019 asking 1,489 independent music makers questions related to mental health. 


Below the poster, there is  a link to the original report.

https://the73percent.com/Record_Union-The_73_Percent_Report.pdf

Just the name of the organization, and the first statistic alone tells the story. 73% of 1489 independent music makers say they suffer from depression or anxiety. 

Identifying a severe increase in mental health issues for musician's helps frame the problem, and possible paths forward as a community. For Musician's Handbook, this will involve propelling resources and discussions of unique issues found at higher rates for musician's. A list of issues such as this could go on forever, but from my own lens and experience, there are four major categories that will serve as a starting point, with more categories to follow.

- Imposter Syndrome
- Performance Anxiety
- Burnout
- Physical Health

Resource pages for these four topics are up on the website featuring conversations that have been happening. I will also be giving my own perspective and dialogue on these topics in further blog post series, identifying strategies and approaches for the perspectives of those suffering, colleagues, and Teachers. The conversations, blog posts, videos, and research musician's have made for mental health in the past years has been utterly inspiring. I hope whatever perspective you find yourself approaching these topics that it is useful and helpful along your own journey. 

Peace and Joy, 

Musician's Handbook,
Emmet Harris