Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-09-17 18:37
I think we can get too side-tracked by the potential income from private lesson teaching.
There are a number of ways a person with advanced formal training in music can earn income.
You can try to become a full-time orchestra player, but the odds against it these days are very long. Too many good players, too few full time clarinet positions (I think it's a little better for string players).
You can, if you live in a metropolitan area, get a fair amount of free-lance playing. You can teach privately, or you can get into the schedule at a local music school (but, to answer your last question directly, you probably can't make enough that way to support a future family comfortably). You can work in a music store or become an instrument repair person either within a company or on your own. You can find a full-time position in a public or private school, although not necessarily without moving to a new area of the country. I know people in the Philadelphia area who teach at the university level as adjunct faculty with a masters and some free-lance performance experience. You can work in the related music technology areas, music engraving for publishers, and positions that occasionally come up in the "special" military bands.
I know musicians in the Philadelphia area who do make a living with some combination of the above. Most either are married to a second income or live hand-to-mouth. Most do not have pensions. Benefits like health insurance are in many cases the musicians' individual responsibility. And, of course, with any kind of free-lance (no long-term contract) work, today's employment level is no guarantee of tomorrow's.
IMO, the bottom line is fairly simple but not easy but for many young people. If you feel intensely that you want to make a life in music, that nothing else attracts you as a way to earn a living, then go for the music or music ed major and work very hard at becoming the best you can be as both a musician and a teacher. If there's something else you'd be equally happy or even inspired to do, consider doing that, getting the training you need, and making music a recreational part of your non-work life.
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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