Musician's...what job?

[dangomles]

You know, all the people out there that really wants to study music (i mean in a professional sense), people that devotes 100% to music...have wondered at some point of their lives: "But what am i going to do with a music major? I'll be able to afford at least my own food?". Right now, im really realy really thinking about that, i need some "moral support" , let's share stories from yourselves, people you know, people you have seen or heard about; Being musicians, what a hell are they doing to live? Which jobs are available for the musicians nowaday,etc, etc, etc...
I just want to be really confident and say, yeah, i can live being a musician. And i know, im not the only one in here with this type of doubts; sad sad thing we have to think so much about money...

[kennydoe]

I'm proud to say 100% of my income is from playing music.

I do a lot of weddings and parties and do pretty well with it, but i'm a bandleader so i make a bit more than the regualr sidemen. THe people making all the money in that end are the people who book the band.

It's difficult to make a decent 'adult' wage doing music on a small scale (i.e. bars/restaurants). I put together a sequenced 3-piece band and invested a ton of time, money and effort into it. i hired 2 singers and generally, when we go out to restaurants/bars, etc. the $$ is usually split 50% for me and 25% for each of them. It's a much higher percentage when that band gets booked at a party.

The people in the business who are "rich" are the ones who are getting their music published. It's hard, but not impossible. A friend of mine works for a publisher who sub-contracts him to do stuff for ESPN and other cable networks. somebody's gotta write all that intro music and the music you hear before/after commercials.

If you're good and you work your butt off, you can do it - don't let anybody tell you it's easy...but what, in life, is (that you can make money doing )

~K

[Bluestreak]

I went the other way. I got an engineering degree and joined the so-called "real world" of offices and 8~5 jobs.

Now I'm slowly putting together a degree in music a class or two at a time. I do studio work for some local radio celebs when they need guitar tracks done, and I occasionally work doing live sound with them as well. I could probably parlay the whole thing into much more than it is, but I'd rather have the formal education before I make any drastic lifestyle changes that might affect career and family. Right now it's a meager paycheck, just a few bucks here and there, when I work with them, but my guitar playing makes it to the radio waves every now and again when I work with them. It's a little exposure.

I could probably continue like this and make more out of my music sans the education if I wished to, but I'd rather have a degree and know what I'm doing rather than to learn it all hands-on and not know the theory behind why I do what I do. This seems to be a reasonably prevalent thing with musicians; lots of practical knowledge yet many seem to lack the true education to know why they do what they do.

In a perfect world I'd have gotten a degree in music first. I'm not uber-talented, but I truly enjoy playing music and guitar and that shows. Because of my enthusiasm, I get asked to do some cool things by some cool people every now and again and that has slowly built up a small network of folks I know in the local music scene who could make things happen if I got ambitious.

But today, as it stands, with things like my mortgage, vacations, retirement, etc. to think about, I prefer to know that no matter what, I can make a buck if I need it. Engineering pays the bills, music keeps me happy. And I do love my job, it's very satisfying to stand on a project site when they cut the ribbon to a new store, or people start moving into homes where there was once nothing and you're the one responsible for it.

So ask yourself: are you willing to perservere, knowing that with a music degree, you'll have to carve a place for yourself with more verve than most other professions require? When you walk out the door for the last time of your chosen institution of higher learning, you'll have things like student loans to repay, rent/mortgage, and all the other basic things that makes life comfortable to provide for yourself. Can you realistically do that for yourself? For a family?

You want moral support - I can't help but feel like you want the forum to toss some rays of sunshine out there to simply make you feel better. You're having doubts. That's natural. Any future is uncertain; some are simply more dynamic and subject to change than others. I can't provide those rays of sunshine for you - what I do is ask you to be realistic and think about what you're considering doing for the rest of your life as a profession. And professions can change, you know... but you might want to be sure you're getting it right the first time around.

I have a friend who's a very well-educated musician and a stellar guitarist. When we went away to college years ago, he went for music and I went for engineering. Today, he is back at school, studying for a nursing degree because he couldn't make things work for his music education alone. Today, I'm the one with the career who's going back to school for music. A little irony there for you.

Just some things to think about. Good luck.

-R

[btangel]

bluestreak.

I'm a junior in EE at Purdue Univ. at the moment. I've been thinking long and hard about going to music school after I get my degree. Why? Because I may have lost interest in EE. I'm not doing bad at all, just lost the interest I had before I stepped into college. I wonder a lot about how it would turn out. Were you in this kind of situation before?

Thx for giving me your point of view on this since I think my situation could become similar.

[sepsis311]

I also have surrendered to the business lifestyle. I am in College for Computer Science, i go to NYIT in manhattan. I loved computers at first, but during college, started to dislike it. But i do also work for New Jersey Transit, in the Information Services department, and i LOVE it. It's so much fun. So yea the classes are borring, but still, it will pay off when you get a nice job. Music is also the thing i live for, so i figure i'll work at a computer job for a while, save all my money, and retire early and travel the world with nothing but 1 guitar, and travel amp, and see the world!

[Bluestreak]

Originally Posted by btangel

I wonder a lot about how it would turn out. Were you in this kind of situation before?

Sure. I doubted my career path. I don't know a good college student who doesn't. After all, you're attending school to learn a trade you'll perform - and perform possibly for the rest of your life, or until retirement, at least.

My personal advice is to finish your EE degree. I'm not a raw musical talent. Everything that spews forth from my fingers is not gold. But I could make a living at it if I really wanted to.

At this point, my goal is to get educated in music and see where it goes from there. Whether I be just teaching guitar lessons, or music education somewhere, I don't care. I just want to be an educated musician. If that takes me somewhere, so be it. If it doesn't, no skin off my back. I'm not approaching this from the same angle as you; you're wondering if you should pursue it as a career, I'm lolly-gagging along and if I bump into something that interests me musically, and I can make a buck doing it, I will. I have a career I enjoy in engineering, but if someday I could make a switch, I might. One never knows. Plus, there's always the option to go back.

No, the more I think about it, the more I think you should get your EE. Later down the road, there'll be plenty of time to further educate yourself while you can pay your mortgage and save for your retirement. I'm sure there are many kennydoe's out there making it and doing it well, but for every one of him... I wonder how many fail. The statistics probably aren't very promising.

I don't want to be a naysayer; I wish to be a realist. In reality, music is a tough biz. Period. Whatever you decide, good luck with it.

-R

[btangel]

Yes I planned to finish my EE degree to begin with. I wouldn't feel safe nor responsible to make that switch right now. My idea was, as you suggested, to finish my EE degree and become educated in music (preferably attending music school) and see what happens from there.

Thx for the input. It really helped.

[dangomles]

Thanks for all the opinnions...
Let's keep going!

[lemmy555]

A lot of this depends on the market you are in......

if you put yourself in a huge market like LA, NY, Las Vegas, ect ect....
Its going to be much easier to find opportunities in the music business.

Here in Las Vegas, the potential is HUGE and I know a ton of people who make a GREAT living doing nothing besides playing music.
A lot of major recording artists are recording here now, because the studio time is cheap, and not over-booked. So that lends the opportunity for session work, which pays awesome. The key there is to do some serious networking and make the right connections.

The Casino business is the largest industry in Las Vegas, and lends itself the the musical community very well. Almost every Casino on and off the strip has live entertainment 24/7. There are lounges, bars, clubs, you name it. And they all have bands (most of them 7 nights a week, and some even ALL day long.) There is HUGE $$ potential in the casino & lounge business.

Anyhow, just one more prospective from my point of view

lemmy

[shredmaster]

i don't know how to go about it. it's basically the right place at the right time and building a network. i am in computers and love it. i still play guitar and record on the side and love it. i get bummed at times when i think about WHAT IF. what if i would have still played 8 hours a day....what if i spent a lot of time looking for great musicians for a killer band? what if what if what if. at least i have a nice place to live with decent money coming in.

you know, it's a shame that music is seen in this light. it's weird how if you you had a successful guitarist who asked .... "i want to try as a doctor....what do you all think?" and this would be posted on a doctor's forum somewhere. for some reason music is seen as the bottom of the barrel career by many. maybe that is because it can be so unstable....but so can corp. jobs with layoffs and buyouts.

anyway, do what you love cuz life is too short. don't hurt yourself financially or put yourself in a position that is bad. good luck.

[rgr]

I'm an engineer, and hate it. But I went to school and got a real "education" to make everyone around me at the time happy, I almost went to recording/music school my junior year, but to be honest, I didn't have the confidence in myself (nor did I get alot of support to make me feel better about doing it). Now that I'm 40, married, with a mortgage, etc... it's not even feasible. I have a friend, a drummer that I played with years ago (he's about 5 years younger than me), that quit his job as a Toyota Tech to follow his heart and play drums. He now lives in Nashville and just bought a house and is supporting his family playing music almost 100%, he has had to do some mechanic work on the side, but now he's touring regularly as Josh Gracin's drummer, and working locally when he's not on the road.

The moral, yeah, I guess it's good to get a "real" degree, and the music biz is tough, it took my friend years and lots of work (and time), not just on his instrument, but networking, doing free work for the shot at pay, etc... He believed in himself and persevered. The danger is wanting to be a musician (or whatever) but spending your best years getting your backup plan together and end up living the backup plan. If you want to be a musician, you have to do it because it is in your heart, and have the realistic expectation that you will probably never be rich, may even struggle to be "middle-class" and set your aspirations in order.

Okay, so there is no real moral, more of a reality check. You probably need to do some serious soul searching, because as someone said, you are making life plans. You can always go back to school later, one direction may be easier than the other, but you need to decide these things for yourself. If you choose to be a musician, artist, whatever, do it with your whole heart and soul, because that's what it will take to "make it".

<$0.02,
Roger

[wilch]

porn star here

[elcid]

Im a low voltage electrician by day and a guitar teacher by night
If my balls were a little bigger I would have pursued music full time and gotten a degree, but I was affraid of having to make my family live off Ramen noodles and share a part of my parents basement so I took the "real" job way out. But its not all that bad

[VanWyck]

As far as I know the wedding and bar type gigs pay well enough - but unless working very regularly possibly not well enough to maintain a family or a comfortable lifestyle. Also gigs are precarious for being unstable - it's not guaranteed work.

Next step up would be regular studio, casino, cruiseship type gigs. Again somewhat hard to come by. Networking - and intermediate CHOPS needed. (Need to play many styles)

I worked a few local gigs after high school small clubs and union wages for sidework (local theater) anyone who knows a G7 from a Gminor can find these gigs... In the end I went to junior college - still taking a few gigs, then got my four year degree, then I attended medical school. Now I'm working so much I really don't get much time to play guitar. I'm a good doctor - but my passion is music. It's tough to think of "what may have been..." There are ALOT of MD's whose "first choice" was music.

My advice is to give it all you got while youre young. If you can get an education to back you up if music doesnt work out. Follow your dream but be pragmatic / realistic. The ones making real money in music are the producers / record companies.

[lyconxero]

GOOD LORD!!! Look at all the engineers and science majors who are guitarists/musicians. It's crazy. I used to be one of those too, so I can't really talk. But you can totally be a professional musician and still make ends meet. My music teacher went back to school after dropping out and got his master's degree in music. He plays all sorts of venues with different people around town to make money and since he's really good at what he does and has put in the time to make a name for himself, he doesn't even have problem finding work anymore. Being versatile, as he always told us, is the key to success as a musician. Knowing how to play powerchords and come up with catchy riffs may cut it for the 1/10,000 band that gets signed to a record label looking for that. But for the rest of us, he have to be able to play various styles and really be able to play with anyone at the drop of a hat if you want to succeed as a working musician.