Author: ww.player
Date: 2008-07-22 08:14
Allen, not to be a wet blanket, but there are already plenty of starving sax players who can play jazz clarinet well that are looking for college teaching and pit jobs. I don't think making classical clarinet players into pseudo-jazzers is going to help them much.
What I would like to see done is for all schools to work together to limit the number of music majors, particularly in the applied areas. We don't need more versatile players, we just need less professionally trained players, period. IMHO, turning out thousands of classically trained clarinetists for the 100 or so decent full-time playing positions that open up each year seems almost negligent. Colleges have maintained or increased their numbers while the demand for live music has continued to shrink drastically.
I will agree that, since most music majors end up teaching anyway, courses in guitar and modern music styles would be very useful. Also, arranging and orchestration would come in handy for many.
Still, I firmly believe in the advice I give all my students; if you can possibly be happy doing anything else besides music for a living, do it and keep music as a hobby. The most frustrated people in the world I know by far are full-time musicians. However, the happiest people I know are people that just do music for fun. Music is a great hobby but a difficult, demanding, overcrowded, and often under-appreciated profession.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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