Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-08-16 19:15
I think when you frame the question the way you have here, you invite two kinds of replies: (a) don't give up but try to zero in on your shortcomings, which can be remedied with hard work, or (b) quit because it's a competitive profession and unless you're the second coming of (fill in a "great" name), you'll never make it.
The fact is that to make at least part of your living from performing as a musician, you don't have to be an unmatched phenomenon on the clarinet. Many of us play for income as well as for enjoyment - the two don't need to be mutually exclusive - without ever having had a prayer or competing for a principal position in a first tier international orchestra or even a really excellent regional one. Work for good local performers ebbs and flows with the economy, so you need a steady hedge like teaching or even something completely non-musical to provide a floor income while wait for the proverbial phone (with a contractor at the other end of the line) to ring. I know players who work as bakers, calligraphers, radio announcers, attorneys, doctors. Many of them are also excellent musicians and perform steadily. It doesn't matter all that much if you aren't the best in your college. What matters more is how you play irrespective of the others. If you play musically, with good sound, technical fluency and ensemble skills, you can find somewhere to play after graduation (someone else suggested military bands - not a bad idea if you're willing to deal with military attitudes).
Principal clarinet in the NY Phil, London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, etc., aren't the only positions from which you can make beautiful music that can positively affect the lives of many, many people for whom you perform over a lifetime. Teaching, if you have the personality for it, can increase the number of people whose lives you touch even more.
Quit if music itself or the thought of making it below the level of a top orchestra is intolerable to you. Otherwise, become the best you can and see where it leads you.
Karl
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