Author: jmcgann
Date: 2006-11-10 10:53
Sky- "making it" is a relative term. My income stream has been solely from music since I was 20. It meant not owning a car until I was 26, never owning a new car until I was 44, buying my first starter home at 35, etc. Under rent control I paid a very low rent in my 20's. I had 4 roommates, which of course is a challenge. There's no rent control in this area anymore.
Indeed, most of my non-artist peers were ahead of me in these material gains, but I was having fun playing music, seeing the world, and figuring things out.
I have taught private lessons, played guitar, bass, mandolin, steel guitar, sang harmony (I am a beginner at clarinet which is why I'm even posting here!)written for feature articles and columns for music magazines, taken private transcription work, worked for a hack publisher who solicited "song poems" and wrote music to the submitted illiterate scrawl which was then sold back to the "author" by the hack, taught at music camps, music stores, given workshops and clinics, performed everything from classical music to bluegrass to rock and roll to jazz to singer-songwriter music to Irish, Klezmer, and other ethnic music; worked as an arranger, composer, orchestrator, written instructional books, etc. I've played everything from weddings, corporate functions, private parties, bars, concerts, folk and rock clubs, to concert halls with the Boston Pops and Utah Pops. I'm not saying this to brag, but to give a real life scenario.
I believe it is harder nowadays as the scale of $ required to survive is higher, while the wages for music have actually gone DOWN in the past 25 years in some areas- for example, I recall bars in Boston paying $200 a night for a 5 piece band in 1982. The same bars now pay $150! I am worried about where the hell the bohemians are going to go-will the world really turn into Zappa's vision of "the reasonably well groomed consumer-ameoba"?
Teaching at Berklee, I see both folks who are there on financial privilege as well as some truly brave spirits flying in the face of this situation.
I wasn't totally kidding when I said marry up-if your partner can handle the health insurance and steady income stream, and they have a good sense of humor and can tolerate a musician's lifestyle, it makes things easier.
I choose to not tour, and take local performances with a few choice travel gigs a year. Teaching and transcribing allow me to stay close to the fort and be involved with my family. I've chosen not to be a performer for my main income stream and really do prefer this lifestyle.
So, it doesn't have to be totally depressing and bleak. I guess it depends on what you are used to- I wasn't raised in luxury so I don't crave it. I'm happy with the proverbial roof over my head, enough money to enjoy life, and living music as the focus of my life with a beautiful family. Whether I'm "making it" as a performer doesn't matter to me.
If someone has the burning desire to be the greatest player ever at all costs, they will probably "make it" on some level- if they have the talent and maniacal focus and ego and refusal to compromise. Most working musicians fall somewhere below that level of madness. For me, there's more to life than 100% commitment to obsessive practicing and technique.
www.johnmcgann.com
Post Edited (2006-11-10 15:17)
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