Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-11-17 18:13
"Purblind", huh? Next thing you know we'll be using words like "yclept"...
The central premise of all of the cautions above is simply that, no matter what you end up doing in life, you have to support yourself plus whatever "lifestyle" decisions you end up making. And, while supporting yourself through the likes of instrumental music may seem realistic to those who are looking ahead, the experiences of those who are already "ahead" show that realism just doesn't enter into most of these "projections of the future".
First, a few stipulations:
GIVEN: There are a limited number of positions in any field that are available at one time
GIVEN: People who latch onto a gig (in any field, not just music) tend to keep holding on since they need some amount of money to survive (food, shelter, medical needs, basic transportation)
GIVEN: As people grow older, they need to start planning ahead for life after work. Some fields, particularly music, allow you continue longer, but ultimately this is going to be a decision all much face.
GIVEN: Push comes to shove, some fields are just not all that much in demand any more. Read about the symphonic organizations that have gone belly up over the years (San Diego "died" at least two times that I know of), and you'll get a feel for just how much demand there is for the skilled professional musician. Live music bookings for pop and the like are there, but you have to work for them, and live music doesn't have the same tangible manifestations as do other components that also have to be considered.
(True story from the trenches: I was approached by a bride some time back who wanted live music but (as many also prefer) did not want to pay for live music. I worked a group setting for her that was in her ballpark figure, then waited for a comeback as to whether or not she was going to book us. THe final word that I got was that it came down to using us (in reduced form), or using a DJ (and not getting the type of music that she and the groom really wanted) and having a chocolate fountain at the reception. Over the years, I've had to contend with a wide variety of competition (NVA troops, government infighting, hockey players and so on), but that was the first time I've lost out to seven pounds of milk chocolate.)
GIVEN: Human beings, being human beings, like to do "fun" stuff over stuff that is "not fun". Give anyone a choice between being a desk jockey and someone who digs ditches for a living and they are likely to opt for the clean, non-physical work every time. (Exceptions exist, but this is almost a universal truism).
GIVEN: Musical stuff is fun. So is art, so is theater, so is creative writing, so is skiing, so is being a comedian, and on and on.
With all of these givens, "fun" occupations are going to attract far more aspirants than they will possess openings. Symphony auditions are living proof of this: small time, out in the sticks orchestras ("fee for service" operations) can attract a hundred or more applicants for every opening. (Those looking to work in music might well spend the minimal union dues to join the union, just to have easy access to the various audition notices that populate the back of the monthly newsletter.) So too do skiing instructor spots, artist spots, openings in the theater, and so forth.
(And, no matter how bad classical work is, pop music is much, much worse. When I have run ads for musicians, the preponderance of who I hear from are guitar players (I carry one, but hear from dozens) and drummers (I carry one, but hear from ten to twenty each time). Of these, many of them call, even though I plainly state in the ad "MUST READ MUSIC", only to have to answer the question "Do you read music" with "Well, I can read tabs, man" or "No, but I can pick it up quick". Some even lie to me and waste my time and coffee and donuts by coming to a rehearsal only to get embarrassed in front of all and sundry when it's clear that they are completely at sea. So, it could be worse in the classical field.)
Once again, let's do the math:
Let's assume one hundred areas in the US that have orchestras that will support a total of four hundred clarinet playing positions. This is a high end figure, since it includes places like the aforementioned San Diego, which has gone bust on a repeated basis. (It also includes places like Newark NJ, which don't have much of a chance of keeping an orchestra going in the first place.) It also includes a lot of "part time" orchestras, where you most certainly cannot make minimum wage for the position offered. Finally, it assumes that all have four players, when in actuality the "full time" players are more like two and a half in many cases. But, let's use it anyway.
Now, take that four hundred figure and double it (to bring in some pop, Eddie Daniels, some session and some other odds and ends in the clarinet world). When all is said and done, eight hundred clarinet players seems like a lot of openings.
However, consider all of the fully trained clarinet players that get turned out each and every year. Programs like that at North Texas State, at Rice, at Michigan, and at all of the other schools spread our country are chugging them out, each and every year
. Even if the numbers generated are in the single digits, there are a lot of university level music programs out there, each contributing to the steam.
And, the mighty eight hundred job slots is largely a static figure. Figure maybe 10% turnover each year - that then becomes a potential eighty job openings. Remember, music is a low physical strain activity (compared to digging ditches); an older body can last a lot longer there. No significant turn-over equals fewer opportunities.
Once again, it is time to state that a classical music education does not well prepare one for anything much more than performing music. A performance degree makes you suitable for the hothouse world of musical performance, and not for very much else. As few are looking for music performance skills, and as those in such programs do not get a "rounded" degree, they often are not capable of doing much else (from a "ready to go, pre-trained" standpoint).
An education minor will help a lot, as there is call for a lot of music education folks out there. But, many do not like the classroom environment, and the schools are not hiring folks to teach one-on-one music.
Mind you, the same can be said of many other courses of study in university. I hire a lot of industrial hygienists, a sort of specialized engineer if you will. I find that all of them know their field pretty well, but that they are often deficient in basic English grammar and composition abilities, this in turn because they didn't have to deal with such things in a scientific curriculum. Engineers are also commonly a bit short on the communications skills - too much math and science (which lends itself to expression in easy to format numbers and formula), and not enough in how to express that to another human being who may only have a broad understanding of the science or math involved.
However, these folks are in a "in demand" field, and they will be able to find a position at some point. Ditto my sports hero Stephen, who played college basketball well enough, but found that the prospects dried up when it was time to look for a pro gig. Since Steve had the common sense to pay attention in school, he had (in addition to his roundball skills) a degree in marketing or business or whatever once he was done.
Specialized training and no job openings equals a lot of very cultured Starbucks baristas and not much else. At least it's a growth field...
Talking about "my art" and "a dream" is all well and good until you have to have an abscessed tooth pulled or replace a car wrecked (or, God forbid, have a child with serious birth defects). At that point, "my art" becomes a serious impediment and the only solutions are out and out charity or going on the dole.
If you choose to be married and choose to have children, you may find that suffering for your "art" is suddenly affecting a much wider circle of people than the artist alone. I don't know about you, but I want my kith and kin not to have to worry about me and my personal problems - that's why I support myself and my family, that's why I have medical insurance, and that's why I put music enjoyment second to paying the bills. Still plenty of time for it on the side - it's just not my primary income stream.
I have two family members (by marriage) who both studied bassoon performance in college. Both were excellent players (I worked with one in music for a number of years before we became related, and he was very good indeed.) Now, however, neither has a job performing music.
The smarter one of the two is the manager of the Dallas Opera, while the other was (until just recently) a poorly trained, non-union plumber trying to make a living in an union environment. The first has a comfortable life style, the second anything but. The first has a music-related occupation (but no longer plays bassoon, as I understand it), the second plays a little guitar in his spare time and nothing else (he no longer has the Heckel bassoon that came so dear to his widowed mother during his university days, by the way - sold it in part to pay for the accumulated debts run up through the birth of five children).
And, finally, this:
One of the great shames that I have to endure is that I have a fifty-odd year old brother (who goes by the name of Bryn Stybl - don't ask me why) whose great desire in life was to be "on the radio". (This is another "fun occupation", albeit one with a considerable amount of hidden work if you actually have to do it.)
To some extent he has succeeded, having worked at perhaps twenty talk radio stations over the last thirty years (most recently at KIRO in Seattle, doing a late night political commentary show that reached much of the western US).
However, "success" in his case is a relative term, and is measured by the fact that he does occasionally get to talk on the radio, and some times they even will pay him something. But, he never gets very much (the KIRO gig lasted ten or eleven months, and only for the last three was he being paid anything above minimum wage), and he gets the axe quite frequently (as he recently did when KIRO announced that they were going with satellite feeds).
Leaving aside the question as to whether or not he is any good (and he is quite good, within his paranoid far right wing political standpoint limitations), he is now facing the travails of late middle age without any form of medical insurance, without a car, without any savings, and with a rapidly dwindling support network (my mother and her money won't be there much longer to bail his butt out of a jam). The expression that my mother uses is "...without a pot to pee in", and this is about her own flesh and blood, mind you.
You can do this sort of thing if you want to, and still have a gainful career elsewhere. (He worked four hours (actual on air time) a night, leaving perhaps sixteen hours of the day free for everything else). And, exactly the same can be said of music.
If you love music, continue to love music and practice and perform as much as you can. But, get a day job that will support your (and your family's) lifestyle first.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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