ABSTRACT
Given the many obstacles young people in Kinshasa are confronted with in developing their activities as musicians, more than anything, the author wrestled with the question of why they would want to master music-making at all. This chapter offers a number of reasons why. It gives an overview of the most important extrinsic reasons for wanting to learn music-making (some financial income, stability and security, new identity and respect, career expectation, amongst others), but it also focuses on some intrinsic benefits from making music (enjoyment of mastering and hard work leading to results, being in another world, the special teacher–student relationship, amongst others). It describes how most started with music-making, the difficulties they encountered and why some dropped out of the music training.
