 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Smallfry
Date: 2015-03-28 23:06
Hi all, I recently let go of the dream of becoming a professional clarinetist. I have tons of old method books, and some clarinet solos with piano accompaniment. I'm not sure what to do with this stuff... Donate to a library? Sell somewhere? I hate to think of it not getting used (even though I haven't opened them in years!) Any suggestions??
Thanks
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-03-29 00:51
Offer the music to a music school. If you're near a big city (Atlanta, from your ISP's location?) there may be a music school with a large number of disadvantaged kids who may be getting financial aid of some kind and could make use of the material. Or offer it to a band director in your local or a nearby school district. The chances are that if it's clarinet-centric enough they may have little use for it in their program, but they may have clarinet students who are taking private lessons who could use it.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-03-29 00:51
Ok, I'll bite.....
Why did you decide to give up your dream?
............Paul Aviles
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Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2015-03-29 01:11
Some of it might be suitable for the collection maintained by the International Clarinet Association; donated there it will be put to good use. Write to the curator for more info. http://www.lib.umd.edu/scpa/contact
I've also purchased a good deal of music, including method books, on Ebay. If someone buys it, it most likely will be used.
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Author: Smallfry
Date: 2015-03-29 02:10
Thanks all for your input. I will definitely look into some of these options
Paul, It's not a good story, just life. I graduated with a music degree almost 15 years ago. Since then I've gotten a doctorate in a completely different field (medicine), and have been enjoying a successful career. I had a baby last year, and we started clearing out a room for baby number 2.... Hence the "rediscovery" of my clarinet life. I still play in community bands, and hope I always will... But I don't think I will be playing through Klose or Polatchek or any of my scale studies books I guess throughout my 20s, part of me was still clinging to that dream. Now in my mid-30s, I'm ready to accept my duty as a "patron of the arts," rather than an artist!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-03-29 04:25
Hmmmm..........
We choose our battles and life has a way of happening despite our best plans. I think though that you still in the game. You don't have to be Martin Frost to hold on to exercise books and ensemble music. As you continue to play you may even find yourself helping out a fellow community band member with some coaching. It would be awful advantageous to have that material around as a reference. Maybe you'll want to play one of those accompanied solos at your daughter's (son's?) wedding reception.
I am a "thrower awayer" but I'd hold on to reference material that can always be useful someday unless you get to point where you gleefully sell your horn for a new lawn mower.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-03-29 20:28
Wendy:
I respect your right to your feelings. Making it as a professional musician is extremely difficult, and the hours/sacrifices that musicians make to get to that point, even knowing all along that failure is not simply a possibility, but a statistical likelihood, doesn't make it much less painful when the day comes that the reality of a steadier paycheck in non-music related disciplines might best be pursued.
And just so we're clear, I'm definining failure above as the inability to financially support yourself as, predominately at least, a performing musician. By no means does that speak to one's failure as a person.
Instead, look at the bright side. You've been successful at graduating from medical school and can likely rely on that offering a steady paycheck that music might not have allowed. With an aging population, one can only expect the need for medical services to rise in the foreseeable future. Music might have also not allowed the time, or more likely, the expense (and joy) of raising [multiple] kids, all while regional orchestras are "dropping like flies" within the US.
I call yours a good story. Even the finest soloists in the world spend enormous amounts of time away from home, practicing and sleeping in hotel rooms, often away from family: assuming they even had the time to make family of their own.
I think we can all agree that Jessica Phillips Rieske has "made it" in the incredibly competitive performing space. Playing with the Met gives her the ability to come home every night to a place she can afford. And yet even she has represented her union in contract talks for better worker rights for musicians.
Sometimes the "grass isn't as green" when you see it up close, as it appears to be when "viewed on the other side." ![[rotate]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley25.gif)
Post Edited (2015-03-29 20:30)
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2015-03-29 20:29
Wendy, don't forget the possibility that one of your children may want to learn to play the clarinet.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2015-03-29 20:53
Nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and children of friends and co-workers may also want to take up the clarinet. I've had five instruments and plenty of print material find new homes within the past few years...
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-04-01 13:25
Although I received a music degree with certification to teach, I choose to play music instead on multiple woodwinds. It was impossible to make enough money just playing, so I also became an orchestra contractor, worked for several music publishers, led bands, and ran my own corporation to make a living in the music business. I did have my dreams come true of playing with a certain orchestra, went way beyond what I ever thought I would do, and spent 40 years in the music business. Given that success, today I would never advise anyone to go into the music business, especially trying to earn a living playing music. Things have gotten much worse, music students end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and then find there are no jobs. Even Broadway gets cuts each year to the size of their orchestras. I wish it were different, but trying to earn a decent living playing music now is almost impossible. The few jobs that are left are evaporating. We live in a world where talent is no longer needed and singers and musicians do not even have to be able to sing or play in tune, we have auto-tune for that. I have had too many music teachers at the college level tell me they have talented students, but they can not tell them that there not be any jobs when they graduate. The teachers just keep teaching until they can retire and get their pensions. The world has changed, and what was possible when I entered the music business is simply gone now. That is the reality.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-04-01 13:41
We've gone a bit beyond the parameters of the original post but........
I have to say NO ONE begins an instrument because it is practical, or to make money. Even though the way musicians go about plying their trade changes from era to era, there will ALWAYS be music, and therefore people will always need someone to make it for them.
We play music because we enjoy it. And no matter what the circumstances are in which we find ourselves, that doesn't change.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Smallfry
Date: 2015-04-01 14:14
We have gotten off topic, but I truly appreciate everyone's openness!
When I had "the talk" with my mentor in college (pursuing a career other than music), he said something's that has stuck with me the last 15 years. He said that just as important as the musicians and the artists are the patrons of the arts. He said I would play just as important a role in the music world by supporting my local orchestra.
Maybe that's a discussion that needs to happen with high school and college musicians that don't intend to pursue music as a career?
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2015-04-01 18:40
Smallfry wrote:
> We have gotten off topic, but I truly appreciate everyone's
> openness!
>
> When I had "the talk" with my mentor in college (pursuing a
> career other than music), he said something's that has stuck
> with me the last 15 years. He said that just as important as
> the musicians and the artists are the patrons of the arts. He
> said I would play just as important a role in the music world
> by supporting my local orchestra.
>
> Maybe that's a discussion that needs to happen with high school
> and college musicians that don't intend to pursue music as a
> career?
Hear, hear! As a classically trained musician, nobody is in a better position to recognize and reward talent as a paying customer than you are.
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