May 21, 2022·edited May 22, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
I started out in college as a performance major, wanting a seat in one of the majors. My applied trombone teacher held one of those seats. My instrument didn't come out of the case for the most valuable lesson he gave me. This was late in my freshman year. I met him at his house (he preferred his home studio to the school's) and instead of going to the studio he took me to his game room in the basement. He asked me what I wanted to do with my performance degree. I said I wanted a seat in one of the major orchestras. He asked me how many jobs I thought there were. I said I thought there were a dozen major orchestras in the US, so maybe 40 or so.
"That would include tenor and bass chairs, right?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"You're a little low. There are 20 or so orchestras that pay a living salary. Call it 80 or so jobs, and 25 to 30 year careers. Two or three jobs open up a year. How many people go on the audition circuit a year?"
"I don't know," I said. "But do the numbers and it has to be 1- 200 coming out of conservatories. Not all will go on the circuit. So, call it 100 a year?"
"More or less. Do you know how I got my job?"
"No."
He told me his predecessor took a sabbatical leave, and he was signed to a one year temporary contract. During the sabbatical, his predecessor announced his retirement. The orchestra signed him to a second one-year contract while they organized the audition. He applied, of course, and as a courtesy (because he was the incumbent) he was advanced to the final round. When the curtain came down, he was one of a few candidates they wanted to play with the section. The other members of the section told the MD and the audition committee, "We've been playing with him for two years. We all know he works in the orchestra. Just hire him." So he was hired.
"I was in the right place, at the right time, and I was prepared. But I got lucky, too. I didn't have to go through the preliminary round. You have the talent. Only you know if you have the drive to fulfill that goal. But you need to understand that the audition circuit is a crapshoot. Orchestras don't cover travel expenses for auditions: you pay for the opportunity to play.
"Think about it."
I did. I had already hedged my bet by continuing to take STEM classes. I changed my major to Biology a week later. I continued to take music classes, and continued lessons. We are coming on 50 years since that lesson. I had a great career as a university professor, and now I have a second career in pharmaceutical research. Oh, and I play in a community wind ensemble, a British style Brass Band, and I had my first rehearsal in the pit for a production of Meredith Wilson's The Music Man today. It isn't the career I envisaged in high school, but if I don't like a conductor, I don't have to play. If I don't like the music, I don't have to play.
There are a few things on my bucket list I haven't gotten to play: Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses is at the top of the list. I have gotten to play some things I didn't expect to play when I changed majors: Sibelius' Seventh Symphony, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, all the Tchaikovsky Symphonies, etc. I wouldn't change a thing.
In my pursuit of rock stardom I managed to learn roofing, transmission rebuilding, supply chain management, truck driving, satellite dish installing, recording engineering, and short order cooking. It's tough to think of yourself as a musician when your hot- mopping a rooftop in 90 degree weather, or sweating like crazy over a grill during a dinner rush. It took me a long time to be okay with calling my self a musician, even though I played clubs and wrote songs and scored a couple indie films, wrote a few radio jingles and put out my own CDs, because I thought real musicians only did music. Then I looked around and realized nearly all of the wonderful musicians I knew and played with were basically doing the same- just working to survive to be able to play another day, buy a new set of strings, keep a roof over their heads. For me, being a musician made all those other jobs tolerable, and for that I am ever grateful.
Connected with this one so much. I graduated with two sax performance degrees, but during my masters I realized, “I might be good, but not THAT good.” I took the opportunity to learn doubles, picked up conducting, any experience that would be helpful. Then I spent the next 19 years working for various fortune 50 tech companies in sales and then sales management. Along the way, music was my respite. I gigged a lot and picked up adjunct teaching gigs. Eventually I went back to get my DMA (while still working full time) and got a full time college gig. I make less than I did, but quality of life is so much better. However, I gained so many transferable skills from my years in tech companies, that make me better at some of the aspects of my job, and frankly, at life too. It forced me to mature in a way that I desperately needed (looking in hind-sight). And for my students, I’m able to give them some (maybe) more realistic sense of what life is like for most of us.
I personally worked as a truck driver for 12 years before being able to make a living from music. It was a frustrating and wonderful moment in time. I learned so much during that time and was able to reinvest any music money back into musicians, equipment, and education. Over the years I've told college students studying music that getting a part-time manual labor job could be great for their art and I've received a lot of blank stares in return.
I remember maybe five years ago when the actor Geoffrey Owens, alum of The Cosby Show, was mocked online with photos and stories because he was working at a Trader Joe’s. As a sometime writing professor, I’ve told my students, “Writing is a job. If you ain’t submitting your work then you ain’t working. Publishing is the goal. But, of course, pretty much none of you will be published and pretty much none of you will be making a living if you do publish. So you better get a day job.”
The issue you write so elequently about has and will continue to have ramifications to our society, because healthy societies need artists. Recently, I have been puzzling over the future of students enrolled in Commercial Music, Recording Arts, and Music Business programs. It seems like institutions are innovating to expand music department offerings, however, as near as I can tell, few teach their students the realities of funding a career! On one hand I like the programs and on the other I hate to see young people spending lots of money to learn very specialized knowledge when their opportunities to pay for their education are slim. A conundrum to be sure.
Sebastian Mallaby has a great new book “The Power Law” which explains the current VC investing model and why it is spreading. Note the title is about statistics, not politics. My takeaway, having been on both sides of the table, is that VCs (and other adopters of their model) believe they can breed Talib’s “Black Swans”. The most troubling part is that the model does exactly what you experienced - it crushes midmarket investment in what to normal people would be a fine return to anyone but VCs. Unfortunately, the arts are hardly alone in the turnip squeezer seeking fresh blood.
Sound advice. The last thing young people need to hear is fantasy froth from the rare exception. Dr. Dre, who sold his headphones company, Beats, to Apple for a reported $5 billion, was asked about the point of his performance in the halftime show for this year's Super Bowl: "I want young people to see me as just like them, as someone with a dream who wanted it bad enough to get it. They can do." First, they might focus on getting a job with a company that sells or manufactures and repairs audio equipment.
You mentioned something like Substack for musicians in your recent interview w Rick Beato. I love the idea. Hopefully Epic Games who just purchased Bandcamp is listening. I'd give them money in exchange for music.
Great article Ted.. I once argued with TS Monk Jr. That his school is turning out musicians unprepared for the reality of the life ofa musician. He told if they have real talent they will make..ridiculous answer
Great piece! While I think there is definitely more honesty about how the bills get paid than there were 20 years ago, there still isn't nearly enough. Most interviews gloss over it completely, as you mentioned.
At least, if you get looking, it's out there. For example, young hip hop producer Bad Snacks shared a great video along these lines a while back featuring pie charts with real numbers just like David Byrne had. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0KKKBcAVLI
Thanks for the article Ted. I finished high-school almost 12 years ago thinking that I could get a part-time low qualified job... or just a not qualified job and reinvest my wage in my music education, I had no other choice, my parents were on a tight situation and they could invest on me but the one of them that could make that choice didn't believe in education unfortunately. They just wanted me to get a job and didn't understand that I could study something instead of burning myself 6h a day in job searching errands or searching in job platforms 6h everyday. Unemployment for people my age back then was around 60%, and without a network that could lead me somewhere It was a stupid decision. On another note schools here didn't provide enough information about career possibilities that don't require university grades, there's another option but they didn't explore that or even explain what kind of things you could learn and give the students trials in few of them to give them information of what they're capable of.
So 12 years later I just found that I could do well as a programmer or software developer.
(The challenge is now finding that first job without formal education...)
In that time I tried my best finding part-time jobs and reinvesting that back in my music education, people just 5 or 10 years before I attempted that stabilized and had enough income to be independent but 2008 crisis hit Spain really hard, and once I finally reached enough stability to try to think on mid-term plans, 2020 happened and I lost all the momentum I was building, the stress caused by my financial situation is not letting me study or play music... Well, I try as much as I can, and I've been learning about music production, synths and all of that, but I'm not doing anything compared with what I could be doing.
It's really sad to see how society is failing to a lot of people just because they didn't/don't have enough support or guidance.
At least music has taught me a lot of perseverance, and finding articles like this are like a breath of fresh air that help me keep trying. I'm sure I'll be able to pursue music with all my passion once I my financial issues are a bit less worrisome and I regain my economic independence back again.
My first working band was self-organized during my junior year of college. My major was Journalism and after graduation my first job was Technical Writer. That led me to a 43-year IT career during which I taught and played drumset in bands, and learned marimba and vibraphone and led a jazz band. Nearly all the gigs paid money but not much so I'm grateful for both having a skill that paid well, and the hours I've spent as a musician along the way. Being a musician has given much more to me than the substantial energy I've given to it.
Such a relevant topic today for musicians. Unless you're doing lots of gigs from a young age musicians need to be entrepreneurs and think outside the box. How can we create greater value from our craft so we make better money with the skills many of us spend tens of thousands in college developing? It's not easy and can take years to figure out a balance. Not everyone is able to- a lot of us end up leaving the field shortly after college because of it from what I've noticed
I started out in college as a performance major, wanting a seat in one of the majors. My applied trombone teacher held one of those seats. My instrument didn't come out of the case for the most valuable lesson he gave me. This was late in my freshman year. I met him at his house (he preferred his home studio to the school's) and instead of going to the studio he took me to his game room in the basement. He asked me what I wanted to do with my performance degree. I said I wanted a seat in one of the major orchestras. He asked me how many jobs I thought there were. I said I thought there were a dozen major orchestras in the US, so maybe 40 or so.
"That would include tenor and bass chairs, right?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"You're a little low. There are 20 or so orchestras that pay a living salary. Call it 80 or so jobs, and 25 to 30 year careers. Two or three jobs open up a year. How many people go on the audition circuit a year?"
"I don't know," I said. "But do the numbers and it has to be 1- 200 coming out of conservatories. Not all will go on the circuit. So, call it 100 a year?"
"More or less. Do you know how I got my job?"
"No."
He told me his predecessor took a sabbatical leave, and he was signed to a one year temporary contract. During the sabbatical, his predecessor announced his retirement. The orchestra signed him to a second one-year contract while they organized the audition. He applied, of course, and as a courtesy (because he was the incumbent) he was advanced to the final round. When the curtain came down, he was one of a few candidates they wanted to play with the section. The other members of the section told the MD and the audition committee, "We've been playing with him for two years. We all know he works in the orchestra. Just hire him." So he was hired.
"I was in the right place, at the right time, and I was prepared. But I got lucky, too. I didn't have to go through the preliminary round. You have the talent. Only you know if you have the drive to fulfill that goal. But you need to understand that the audition circuit is a crapshoot. Orchestras don't cover travel expenses for auditions: you pay for the opportunity to play.
"Think about it."
I did. I had already hedged my bet by continuing to take STEM classes. I changed my major to Biology a week later. I continued to take music classes, and continued lessons. We are coming on 50 years since that lesson. I had a great career as a university professor, and now I have a second career in pharmaceutical research. Oh, and I play in a community wind ensemble, a British style Brass Band, and I had my first rehearsal in the pit for a production of Meredith Wilson's The Music Man today. It isn't the career I envisaged in high school, but if I don't like a conductor, I don't have to play. If I don't like the music, I don't have to play.
There are a few things on my bucket list I haven't gotten to play: Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses is at the top of the list. I have gotten to play some things I didn't expect to play when I changed majors: Sibelius' Seventh Symphony, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, all the Tchaikovsky Symphonies, etc. I wouldn't change a thing.
The old joke is: What's the hardest thing to do on the guitar? Make money. It's sadly true. Discouraging.
In my pursuit of rock stardom I managed to learn roofing, transmission rebuilding, supply chain management, truck driving, satellite dish installing, recording engineering, and short order cooking. It's tough to think of yourself as a musician when your hot- mopping a rooftop in 90 degree weather, or sweating like crazy over a grill during a dinner rush. It took me a long time to be okay with calling my self a musician, even though I played clubs and wrote songs and scored a couple indie films, wrote a few radio jingles and put out my own CDs, because I thought real musicians only did music. Then I looked around and realized nearly all of the wonderful musicians I knew and played with were basically doing the same- just working to survive to be able to play another day, buy a new set of strings, keep a roof over their heads. For me, being a musician made all those other jobs tolerable, and for that I am ever grateful.
Connected with this one so much. I graduated with two sax performance degrees, but during my masters I realized, “I might be good, but not THAT good.” I took the opportunity to learn doubles, picked up conducting, any experience that would be helpful. Then I spent the next 19 years working for various fortune 50 tech companies in sales and then sales management. Along the way, music was my respite. I gigged a lot and picked up adjunct teaching gigs. Eventually I went back to get my DMA (while still working full time) and got a full time college gig. I make less than I did, but quality of life is so much better. However, I gained so many transferable skills from my years in tech companies, that make me better at some of the aspects of my job, and frankly, at life too. It forced me to mature in a way that I desperately needed (looking in hind-sight). And for my students, I’m able to give them some (maybe) more realistic sense of what life is like for most of us.
I personally worked as a truck driver for 12 years before being able to make a living from music. It was a frustrating and wonderful moment in time. I learned so much during that time and was able to reinvest any music money back into musicians, equipment, and education. Over the years I've told college students studying music that getting a part-time manual labor job could be great for their art and I've received a lot of blank stares in return.
I remember maybe five years ago when the actor Geoffrey Owens, alum of The Cosby Show, was mocked online with photos and stories because he was working at a Trader Joe’s. As a sometime writing professor, I’ve told my students, “Writing is a job. If you ain’t submitting your work then you ain’t working. Publishing is the goal. But, of course, pretty much none of you will be published and pretty much none of you will be making a living if you do publish. So you better get a day job.”
The issue you write so elequently about has and will continue to have ramifications to our society, because healthy societies need artists. Recently, I have been puzzling over the future of students enrolled in Commercial Music, Recording Arts, and Music Business programs. It seems like institutions are innovating to expand music department offerings, however, as near as I can tell, few teach their students the realities of funding a career! On one hand I like the programs and on the other I hate to see young people spending lots of money to learn very specialized knowledge when their opportunities to pay for their education are slim. A conundrum to be sure.
Re: Moderne investing
Sebastian Mallaby has a great new book “The Power Law” which explains the current VC investing model and why it is spreading. Note the title is about statistics, not politics. My takeaway, having been on both sides of the table, is that VCs (and other adopters of their model) believe they can breed Talib’s “Black Swans”. The most troubling part is that the model does exactly what you experienced - it crushes midmarket investment in what to normal people would be a fine return to anyone but VCs. Unfortunately, the arts are hardly alone in the turnip squeezer seeking fresh blood.
Sound advice. The last thing young people need to hear is fantasy froth from the rare exception. Dr. Dre, who sold his headphones company, Beats, to Apple for a reported $5 billion, was asked about the point of his performance in the halftime show for this year's Super Bowl: "I want young people to see me as just like them, as someone with a dream who wanted it bad enough to get it. They can do." First, they might focus on getting a job with a company that sells or manufactures and repairs audio equipment.
I simply wish I heard some of this 30 years ago...🎶
Prof. Scott Galloway wrote about Tik Tok just a couple of days ago, it sounds like their creator payments are as bad as, or worse than, Spotify:
https://www.profgalloway.com/tiktok-boom/
Adam Neely Vlogged about how hard it is to cover expenses, let alone not go into debt during his recent West coast tour:
https://youtu.be/3qXLYtvbIOg
You mentioned something like Substack for musicians in your recent interview w Rick Beato. I love the idea. Hopefully Epic Games who just purchased Bandcamp is listening. I'd give them money in exchange for music.
Edited to fix "Tim Tok", :-)
Great article Ted.. I once argued with TS Monk Jr. That his school is turning out musicians unprepared for the reality of the life ofa musician. He told if they have real talent they will make..ridiculous answer
Great piece! While I think there is definitely more honesty about how the bills get paid than there were 20 years ago, there still isn't nearly enough. Most interviews gloss over it completely, as you mentioned.
At least, if you get looking, it's out there. For example, young hip hop producer Bad Snacks shared a great video along these lines a while back featuring pie charts with real numbers just like David Byrne had. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0KKKBcAVLI
Thanks for the article Ted. I finished high-school almost 12 years ago thinking that I could get a part-time low qualified job... or just a not qualified job and reinvest my wage in my music education, I had no other choice, my parents were on a tight situation and they could invest on me but the one of them that could make that choice didn't believe in education unfortunately. They just wanted me to get a job and didn't understand that I could study something instead of burning myself 6h a day in job searching errands or searching in job platforms 6h everyday. Unemployment for people my age back then was around 60%, and without a network that could lead me somewhere It was a stupid decision. On another note schools here didn't provide enough information about career possibilities that don't require university grades, there's another option but they didn't explore that or even explain what kind of things you could learn and give the students trials in few of them to give them information of what they're capable of.
So 12 years later I just found that I could do well as a programmer or software developer.
(The challenge is now finding that first job without formal education...)
In that time I tried my best finding part-time jobs and reinvesting that back in my music education, people just 5 or 10 years before I attempted that stabilized and had enough income to be independent but 2008 crisis hit Spain really hard, and once I finally reached enough stability to try to think on mid-term plans, 2020 happened and I lost all the momentum I was building, the stress caused by my financial situation is not letting me study or play music... Well, I try as much as I can, and I've been learning about music production, synths and all of that, but I'm not doing anything compared with what I could be doing.
It's really sad to see how society is failing to a lot of people just because they didn't/don't have enough support or guidance.
At least music has taught me a lot of perseverance, and finding articles like this are like a breath of fresh air that help me keep trying. I'm sure I'll be able to pursue music with all my passion once I my financial issues are a bit less worrisome and I regain my economic independence back again.
My first working band was self-organized during my junior year of college. My major was Journalism and after graduation my first job was Technical Writer. That led me to a 43-year IT career during which I taught and played drumset in bands, and learned marimba and vibraphone and led a jazz band. Nearly all the gigs paid money but not much so I'm grateful for both having a skill that paid well, and the hours I've spent as a musician along the way. Being a musician has given much more to me than the substantial energy I've given to it.
Such a relevant topic today for musicians. Unless you're doing lots of gigs from a young age musicians need to be entrepreneurs and think outside the box. How can we create greater value from our craft so we make better money with the skills many of us spend tens of thousands in college developing? It's not easy and can take years to figure out a balance. Not everyone is able to- a lot of us end up leaving the field shortly after college because of it from what I've noticed