Trade Secrets

[Louise]

What is the one piece of advice you would give to someone entering the music profession today?

I am prompted to ask this by reading Anthony Wakefield's helpful comments on MusBook recently, and by Elaine Fine's blog post http://musicalassumptions.blogspot.com/2009/02/ambition-ramble.html where the role of the internet is thoughtfully explored.

My own offering comes from the Director of my Music College. He advised, 'Go out into the community, and as you give to the community, so the community will give to you.' Having lived and worked in five different locations on two continents, his words have been proven true time and time again.

Over to you....

[Friedrich Kuhlau]

Despite feeling a little silly about posting here in the forum for music professionals (I am very, very far from being one myself ... but Louise did invite me to comment), I'd say that self-belief is of paramount importance. Let me draw on my own - non-musical - experience to illustrate my point.

I come from a background which, suffice it to say, was not one from which I was expected to achieve much in life. So I duly took a dead-end job in retail for a whole decade (having never gone on to further or higher education), until the day arrived when I decided I could do better. So I tried, and within four months had blagged my way into a well-established London advertising agency as a junior copywriter (beating 600 graduates to the job, I might add - albeit immodestly).

Since then I've become self-employed, and I now enjoy a standard of living that my peers from earlier years would never have dreamed I could've achieved - and I put it all down to self-belief. If you tell yourself that you really want something, if you believe you can attain to it and if you're prepared to work towards it, then why should it remain out of reach?

Almost the only lesson I can remember from my school days came in the final assembly, taken by our deputy head master. He said to us all: 'Success only comes before work in the dictionary.' And while that cliche might be worthy of David Brent, it's nonetheless true.

(I'll shut up and sit down now.)

FK

[Martin Le Poidevin]

Like Friedrich, I can't claim to be a proper, full-time, professional musician. However, I do perform with professionals to a professional standard (at least, I think I do :-o ). And here's the best piece of advice I have been given, which answers Louise's question and tells you why I'm part-time:

We were doing a (?Mozart) gig with a good local choir/orchestra, and the soprano - who has since 'made it' in the profession - the mezzo and I were chatting, as you do, sounding each other out.

"Are you a pro?" she asked me. (I always like that question, because it means that it's not unspeakably obvious that I'm not part of the London pro gang.)

"No," I said, "I work in publishing."

The conversation moved on, then all of a sudden she turned back to me.

"You know, you've got the best thing a professional musician could ask for," she said.

What could that be, I wondered? Great intonation? Diction to die for? A family that forgave all the whims and outbursts of a temperamental star?

"...Another job."

Dull, but true. Especially at the moment. My advice: have another string to your bow. You double the complications, but you also double the rewards.

[Anthony Wakefield]

I`m afraid I don`t seem to be able to recover my contribution to our `vanished into thin air` violin student. (Perhaps MusBook may be interested in showing us how we may be able to do this at some time).
I wonder that for our student to unsubscribe so soon after joining, could it be mused that what I did contribute maybe have been just a little too revealingly unattractive, showing the music profession to be not quite the romantic ideal she may have thought it to be?

I have never been the kind of chappie to portray romance in the music profession to younger folk who may be enraptured with too much 'Hollywood' before their eyes, as they enter their final year at college.
I wonder in fact whether the music colleges themselves may just be accepting too many students, or whether indeed there are just too many music colleges per se for what musicians we require in the 21st century.
The computer, as mentioned in Elaine`s blog (above), in addition to the colleges, has enabled - yes, "millions" of enthusiasts to partake to not insignificant levels to enter the music business. We can say that we have not just a mainstay of say 500 composers worldwide who make a living professionally. There are in fact the numbers I mention above who could be considered to be proficient writers, and who have sold their music to some degree.

My field is composing and arranging, so it is in this field, I have deduced, where being professional is very quickly becoming an extinct entity. The computer is indeed a wonderful tool for those composers who now have thrown away their pencils and rubbers, but as far as finding work, a job, a profession (the computer is good for listing these positions), it`s also the purveyor of a complete form of 'industrial revolution'. It creates and it kills. College students have to be careful indeed. Maybe what I `set out in stone` includes some aspects of what is not being taught in colleges, but should be.

The fact that I advised, in addition to normal practises, to go `hang out` in the pubs, wine bars and clubs, in order to actually meet other musicians` - something which is not new, and seems to have some kind of underhand/dishonest ethic attached to it, does not in my opinion make it dishonest. We are all meeting new people constantly, new contacts, colleagues, and making friends. This is how we live our lives - this is normal. So by the same criteria, this is also how we must work as well as live.

It is inevitably becoming even more tough, as more violins and clarinets are being manufactured and taken up - though our present depression(?) will see some decline and lay offs, which don`t quite seem to have affected the music business at present as much as industry has been.

[MusBook.com]

Anthony,

Very much enjoying all these contributions on this topic, not least yours, but on the matter of the deleted contribution, drop a short note to [e-mail] with any further details and we'll try and chase it up.

Yours,

MusBook.

Anthony Wakefield said:

I`m afraid I don`t seem to be able to recover my contribution to our `vanished into thin air` violin student. (Perhaps MusBook may be interested in showing us how we may be able to do this at some time).
I wonder that for our student to unsubscribe so soon after joining, could it be mused that what I did contribute maybe have been just a little too revealingly unattractive, showing the music profession to be not quite the romantic ideal she may have thought it to be?

I have never been the kind of chappie to portray romance in the music profession to younger folk who may be enraptured with too much 'Hollywood' before their eyes, as they enter their final year at college.
I wonder in fact whether the music colleges themselves may just be accepting too many students, or whether indeed there are just too many music colleges per se for what musicians we require in the 21st century.
The computer, as mentioned in Elaine`s blog (above), in addition to the colleges, has enabled - yes, "millions" of enthusiasts to partake to not insignificant levels to enter the music business. We can say that we have not just a mainstay of say 500 composers worldwide who make a living professionally. There are in fact the numbers I mention above who could be considered to be proficient writers, and who have sold their music to some degree.

My field is composing and arranging, so it is in this field, I have deduced, where being professional is very quickly becoming an extinct entity. The computer is indeed a wonderful tool for those composers who now have thrown away their pencils and rubbers, but as far as finding work, a job, a profession (the computer is good for listing these positions), it`s also the purveyor of a complete form of 'industrial revolution'. It creates and it kills. College students have to be careful indeed. Maybe what I `set out in stone` includes some aspects of what is not being taught in colleges, but should be.

The fact that I advised, in addition to normal practises, to go `hang out` in the pubs, wine bars and clubs, in order to actually meet other musicians` - something which is not new, and seems to have some kind of underhand/dishonest ethic attached to it, does not in my opinion make it dishonest. We are all meeting new people constantly, new contacts, colleagues, and making friends. This is how we live our lives - this is normal. So by the same criteria, this is also how we must work as well as live.

It is inevitably becoming even more tough, as more violins and clarinets are being manufactured and taken up - though our present depression(?) will see some decline and lay offs, which don`t quite seem to have affected the music business at present as much as industry has been.

[Anthony Wakefield]

Hi MusBook,
It may be that you won`t be able to recover this post, as I can`t remember the student violinist`s name, other than Louisa.
It consisted of very short advice about the Armed Services and West End theatres. Something else which has also slipped my mind. You can now very easily decypher which decade I`m in the middle of . . . . No - not that one! Nor that one!!

May I ask if you could delete the part of your post to me which includes the whole of my contribution to this blog. It somehow seems to upset the balance of the opening of (Piano Keys) Louise`s important message. I don`t think readers` will want to see my posts duplicated. Many thanks.

[Enid Luff]

In reply to Anthony and others in this discussion - I am a professional composer who carved out that career fairly late in life, for various reasons. I also worked a lot as a pianist. However, I am a rather shy person who has had to learn to contact other people, talk to them, bother them. If you are like me, start talking to them now. The piano can be the most lonely instrument of all - get out there and grab someone to play with!

Anthony Wakefield said:

I`m afraid I don`t seem to be able to recover my contribution to our `vanished into thin air` violin student. (Perhaps MusBook may be interested in showing us how we may be able to do this at some time).
I wonder that for our student to unsubscribe so soon after joining, could it be mused that what I did contribute maybe have been just a little too revealingly unattractive, showing the music profession to be not quite the romantic ideal she may have thought it to be?

I have never been the kind of chappie to portray romance in the music profession to younger folk who may be enraptured with too much 'Hollywood' before their eyes, as they enter their final year at college.
I wonder in fact whether the music colleges themselves may just be accepting too many students, or whether indeed there are just too many music colleges per se for what musicians we require in the 21st century.
The computer, as mentioned in Elaine`s blog (above), in addition to the colleges, has enabled - yes, "millions" of enthusiasts to partake to not insignificant levels to enter the music business. We can say that we have not just a mainstay of say 500 composers worldwide who make a living professionally. There are in fact the numbers I mention above who could be considered to be proficient writers, and who have sold their music to some degree.

My field is composing and arranging, so it is in this field, I have deduced, where being professional is very quickly becoming an extinct entity. The computer is indeed a wonderful tool for those composers who now have thrown away their pencils and rubbers, but as far as finding work, a job, a profession (the computer is good for listing these positions), it`s also the purveyor of a complete form of 'industrial revolution'. It creates and it kills. College students have to be careful indeed. Maybe what I `set out in stone` includes some aspects of what is not being taught in colleges, but should be.

The fact that I advised, in addition to normal practises, to go `hang out` in the pubs, wine bars and clubs, in order to actually meet other musicians` - something which is not new, and seems to have some kind of underhand/dishonest ethic attached to it, does not in my opinion make it dishonest. We are all meeting new people constantly, new contacts, colleagues, and making friends. This is how we live our lives - this is normal. So by the same criteria, this is also how we must work as well as live.

It is inevitably becoming even more tough, as more violins and clarinets are being manufactured and taken up - though our present depression(?) will see some decline and lay offs, which don`t quite seem to have affected the music business at present as much as industry has been.

[Elaine Fine]

It all depends on what and where you community is. I live in a community that I have given to musically for 24 years. I have taught students, I have given concerts, I have done music-related community service, I have played in several chamber music groups, and my community simply hasn't given that much back to me. I have created every opportunity that I have had myself, and have found that projects that I don't give energy to cease to exist.

I have watched my community change from a musically and intellectually lively university community into something quite different. The university is still there, but the people who teach in it have changed. A good number of the older people who kept musical integrity alive here have died. Some have retired. Some have moved. All of my former students have left town, never to return. New people have taken places of "importance" in the musical workings of the community, and I have become marginalized.

I do almost all of my professional playing out of town, and upon my husband's retirement we plan to move to the town where I do most of my work. On the upside, I play two recitals a year with a fantastic pianist who does not "do" music for a living (our concerts are free, but our audience keeps getting older and older--and I'm talking about old being over 80), and I play in a Renaissance and Medieval group with a handful of rare people who I feel fortunate to know.

My one piece of advice for someone entering the music profession would be to move to a very lively city where there are ample opportunities, an intelligent audience for music, and chances to give to a community that is capable of giving back.

[Anthony Wakefield]

What Elaine says about locating to major cities is indeed important. They are perhaps paramount in planning where to secure a professional career in music. [Once this career is secured firmly, it will of course become safe to move out of the city, as is always the case].

I`m back on course again now to bring the old favourite `education` to the forefront: thinking about how we treat the early stages of musicial development.
Why is it that we allow our young people only the option of learning to play a musical instrument? It is almost proved that doing so, enlarges their brain capacity, helping them to encapsulate much more easily all other academic subjects. Why cannot it be an integral part of the school curriculum? (Answer: inevitably and sadly, money, money, money). Every school has a desk for each pupil - why can`t it also have a musical instrument for each pupil? (sic).

Following on, why cannot the profession of music be more seriously incorporated into the career`s advice departments of schools and early education? It`s plain to see that there is careers advice in colleges and universities, and in Job Centres to some degree, but in late teenage years or even at 23/24, is this not too late to offer or explain such important advice?

If this were a standardised part of early education, would it not enable the ambitious, but less talented to see more sensibly that perhaps alternative careers should be sought? This could then balance more reasonably the amount of students entering the colleges, (hard luck on the colleges coffers), but it might prevent and reduce the plethora of out of work musicians, (and give us more builders, for example).

The industry itself - 'The Music Business', many might say needs to be controlled much more tightly. On a lighter note, but still very important, look at the long careers of some long standing pop artists. We don`t see this any longer. The new `flavour of the month` will be gone in another 18 months time. *Pick up and spew out* is a normal philosophy for many of our top music companies. It has been for 10 or more years, ever since television introduced the new form of talent shows. I ask myself are these ideas now infiltrating the classical music promoters, and record companies?

Classical music innovators also have to ask themselves how much more do they ask of the musicians` themselves.
The early music cause, (when did this commence - 40-50 years ago?) asked of it`s players to dig deep into their own bank accounts and purchase yet more expensive instruments. For example, clarinettists` were expected to add to their normal(?) total of Bb & A & Eb and bass, to include the early 19th cenury instruments, Basset, and C instru.

What next, to put bums on seats? I know I`m being controversial here, but I do often wonder if music should be classed as an art form, and not just classed in a similar manner to other highly skilled trades like plumbing and carpentry. There is no `right of way` for a musician to demand far more reward for his/her services than any other important profession. Is an ever increasing bag of instruments a just cause for this? Other professions need and have to acquire sophisticated tools also.

Must get into the day now my friends . . . .

[sam saunders]

Hi Everyone!!

Having just lost my post on here I am reforming it in an attempt to add something to this topic...

Strangely enough I have just been out to a student concert and it has been great cause for thought.

I originally started with a mention of my teaching which I did for 10 years prior to Music College. I really think that energy,enthusiasm and adaptability is the key to success. I never applied for a job...not that I am recommending this as a position!.....and I really didn`t have to. Not that I am over-confident, or that I had a "master-plan" to have a big teaching practice,no, I just accidentally had the right formula. I suppose it shows that no matter where we are ,whether it be out shopping, going to concerts, chatting to folks,or whatever, we are a walking ,living ,smiling advert for ourselves. Be dynamic and the work just comes along! Push out!

I would like to say about performing that confidence is all important. Not just confidence to perform , but a confidence within. It is very tough at college and there are many people, and situations, wittingly or not, who can destroy what we have and what we want to achieve.Tutors can be destroyers....and we need to have strength to know that they are not the only authority as regards our playing. It`s hard when one is young or musically vulnerable. We need friends and good counsel. When the knives of criticism are out we need to draw on our friends and our resolve,and to move on.Move on to
a better place where we can regroup and redirect our talents.It`s not easy to get this support from folks around us. We can all so easily take our tutors words as absolute and we ourselves can play into our own sabotage by pedestalising tutors.Don`t. If I had advise for someone starting out,or someone at music college now ,i would say, "remember that your talent and purpose is bigger than any one person`s opinion." It`s in a way treacherous in college.Too often the musician who appears at the end of a college course is a product of either good or bad nurturing: made by the tutors ,or disabled by them. I don`t know who is there to tell the student to trust themselves, hold on, keep your musical faith, when things come unstuck.Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My night out tonight was fun and food for thought too.Some students were just naturals, and will do fine.A solid personality
abreast their talent.Some were timid and scared and would need a little input in this department.They needed the right tutors to potentiate them and I really hope they get that. It shouln`t be just "survival of the fittest" in the music world.

Best to all,Sam

[Friedrich Kuhlau]

sam saunders said:

I suppose it shows that no matter where we are ,whether it be out shopping, going to concerts, chatting to folks,or whatever, we are a walking ,living ,smiling advert for ourselves. Be dynamic and the work just comes along! Push out!

I have to agree that being a shameless networker whenever opportunities present themselves is a great way to win work. That's certainly been my experience. If you don't ask, you don't get.

FK

[sam saunders]

Reply to Anthony`s comment:
"What next, to put bums on seats? "

Well, my biggest gripe is populism. Doing a Baroque concert and throwing in Porgy and Bess to please the populists!!!!! Don`t know where this started. I absolutely hate it !!!!
Best ,Sam

[Louise]

There is an impressive wealth of advice and experience in this online community; its untapped potential is vast.
Thanks for all comments; keep them coming!