Klarinet Archive - Posting 000176.txt from 2003/03

From: CBA <clarinet10001@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Studio Music Question
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 16:49:39 -0500

You *DO* have to give us all a few days to get back to you. I
try to read Klarinet every day, but can't respond every day to
all the things I want to because *I HAVE A DAY JOB* (not that I
am bitter to still be doing computers 15 years later.)

Some pointers (although I am not in your area, these will
transcend cities, at least in the US.)

1. Get a day job that is flexible with schedules. I work 3rd
shift. Very few groups arrange for pickup bands at 3 AM. VERY
few people make a good living off studio work alone, and you
would probably have to play for 10 years before you can say
that, if you are very good. If you are an above average player,
you will starve using studio work as the only income.

2. Play as many instruments as you can. Take lessons on each,
and be able to nail a piece of music on ALL of them... For
instance, get a piece of music, and be able to play it on
clarinet, sax, oboe, flute, bassoon, bass clarinet, etc. If the
range doesn't fit the instrument, TRANSPOSE it. Not on paper,
but by sight only. You will probably have to do something like
this in a studio or pickup band if another player gets sick
during a performance. You WILL NOT have time to write it out,
you must produce music at any time.

3. The more instruments you play, the more marketable you are,
although, you MUST be good on all of them, and sight read like
there is no tomorrow. Studio and pickup work is the hardest in
the business, in my opinion. You have to read well, with little
or no rehearsal, and be able to put a flawless recording out for
a movie or track, or play before a live audience ON A DIME.

4. The less instruments you play, the better you have to be at
each one (although you still have to be REALLY good on all of
the instruments, you have an advantage is you can play all of
the woodwinds.) If you just play clarinet and sax, you would
have to be such a phenomenal player that you should have a
better paying/playing job elsewhere, so why do the stressful
studio work? If you just play one instrument, don't bother with
studio work, as you are NOT marketable.

5. You MUST own all instruments you plan on using as a double
and play each one EVERY DAY to make sure they are in working
order, and that your chops are in order too. Before embarking on
doubling, I made sure I had clarinets in Eb, C, A and Bb, along
with an oboe, english horn, soprano and alto sax, flute and
piccolo. I don't play tenor or baritone sax, or bass clarinet
(AND don't own them) so I was not as marketable for lower reed
books, which seem to have less people playing them for the
obvious reason of not owning the expensive instruments. RENTING
IS A BAD OPTION. Before I owned my soprano sax, I rented one for
a gig, and was given a cheap chinese model. The G# key bent,
cleaved and broke off the day before the gig. The rental place
didn't have another one, and would not (could not) fix the
instrument before the concert. I had to give up the job with one
day's notice, and was never called back by that company.

Any particular reason for the interest in studio music? I have
doubled for over a decade, and was very interested in it at one
time, but after playing a show with 5 doubles in it, I was over
the whole scenario, and decided it was time to play clarinet and
sax, and become better on those. I still use oboe and flute for
church jobs. I sold my english horn. I teach clarinet and sax
now, and get playing jobs on all 4 of my doubles, without as
much stress.

In closing, the studio industry is as corrupt as anything else
in getting a job. Most people hire subs by who they know. Meet
some studio people in your area by going to live Broadway type
shows and asking to take lessons on the instruments you play. If
they see how well you play, they might ask you to sub sometime
for them, and then you are in. NO ONE just looks in the music
union book for a studio musician, as there are TONS of
unemployed GREAT players already on waiting lists for the jobs.
It's all who you know.

Contact me offlist if you want to know more of doubling in
general.

Kelly Abraham
Woodwinds - New York City
--- Karona Poindexter <poindka@-----.net> wrote:
> So much for getting my question about studio music answered. .
> .

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