Klarinet Archive - Posting 000227.txt from 2007/09

From: "Alexander Brash" <brash@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Military Bands
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:38:50 -0400

I have several issues with this response:

>Why do you want to get a performance degree? If you want to play clarinet
> for a living, you should - that's a good way to get a whole lot better in
> a
> hurry.

Definitely agreed - given the number of absolutely horrible players coming
out of so called top conservatories.

>since there are about as many people in the
> United States who play clarinet for a living as play professional
> basketball.

We should be careful here. There are I believe 30 professional basketball
teams today. Starters+bench for these teams would be about 20 people? So
that's about 600 people. So now if we're talking about people who make
their complete full time living just from playing clarinet, this number
seems rather high, but if we are talking about people who combine this
with people who do something else/teach/etc part time then it's probably
quite low balled. I wonder if anyone has a real statistic on this.

> The dedication needed to perform at the level you need to be to make a
> decent living playing clarinet is about 50% more than you'll need to
> graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School.

I can assure you this is really not the case. I graduated Harvard College
with a degree in Computer Science a year ago, my roommate went on to Yale
Law, having graduated summa cum laude. I was well acquainted with the top
performers (in music) at our school, as well as a large number of woodwind
students at NEC (even dated a few). The majority of the latter did not
display a fraction of the dedication required to succeed in a serious
academic environment - likewise those who were most successful tended to
be hugely talented, requiring minimal amounts of practice to excel, and in
some ways were the opposite of what I'd call dedicated (this is not a
blanket statement by any means, merely a trend). One of the things you
have to accept, that many conservatory students don't, is that the amount
of work you put in and the dedication you display means nothing. Basically
no one will care about it, if you don't play as well as the next guy. I
noticed that once many students sort of realize this, they stop caring,
and the work ethic goes through the floor.

> Sorry to be so negative, but I know a number of wannabe performers who
> turned to teaching as a "backstop" and failed miserably, making everyone
> miserable. The skill set for performance and teaching is entirely
> different, but the consequences more severe. If you're a performer who
> doesn't make it, you ruin your life - if you're a lousy teacher, you get
> to
> pollute the lives of oh so many young people.

I would completely agree with this!

My advice - by all means, if you CAN do something else and be happy, get a
degree in that skill set. Pursue music after you have this, if you can.
There are a number of superb performers with no performance degree.

On Tue, September 25, 2007 9:25 pm, Kevin Fay wrote:
> Vincent Horrillo asked:
>
> <<<Would it be more beneficial to start of [sic] my Performance degree
> instead of my current choice of Music Education?>>>
>
> Sigh. Vincent, I'm going to pick on you a bit; apologies in advance. I'm
> going to pontificate a bit, based on experience and envy (you're young,
> I'm
> not).
>
> Why do you want to get a performance degree? If you want to play clarinet
> for a living, you should - that's a good way to get a whole lot better in
> a
> hurry.
>
> . . . which you'll need to do, since there are about as many people in the
> United States who play clarinet for a living as play professional
> basketball. It's very, very, very, very hard to make a living doing what
> most people consider recreational activity. Amongst other things, you
> have
> to be really, really, really, really good. Are you?
>
> Are you good enough to play the Nielsen concerto by the end of your
> *freshman* year? (That's what Sean Osborne appears to require. Sean is
> out
> of his mind, but OTOH *his* first gig out of college was at the Met, so I
> can't quibble - apparently that's the level of playing you need these
> days!)
>
>
> The dedication needed to perform at the level you need to be to make a
> decent living playing clarinet is about 50% more than you'll need to
> graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School. It's a long story, but I know
> this from personal experience. Are you ready to make that commitment?
>
> There are lots and lots and lots of very talented young people who want to
> play clarinet for a living - you have to beat out all of them to make a
> dime. I suspect that if you have to ask what you "should" do, you're not
> into it enough to warrant dedicating five years of your life and a lot of
> your parents' money to the endeavor.
>
> Why do you want to be a music educator? If you have a burning desire to
> teach high school band and *really* like kids, well go for it. If you
> want
> to be a professional clarinet player but don' think you're good enough,
> why
> not study something useful like accounting or car repair instead? You'll
> make a fair bit more money, and both you and your future students will be
> much better off.
>
> Sorry to be so negative, but I know a number of wannabe performers who
> turned to teaching as a "backstop" and failed miserably, making everyone
> miserable. The skill set for performance and teaching is entirely
> different, but the consequences more severe. If you're a performer who
> doesn't make it, you ruin your life - if you're a lousy teacher, you get
> to
> pollute the lives of oh so many young people.
>
> Bottom line - if you're really jazzed to be a teacher, by all means go
> learn
> how to teach. We need more and better teachers, at least until we run out
> of kids. But don't go into it because you cant' get a playing gig.
>
> Sorry for the rant, but I've seen too many unhappy folks on both sides of
> this dilemma.
>
> Keep your reeds wet and your pants dry,
>
> kjf
>
>
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