Want to learn the realities of being a freelance musician?  Check out my book Road Warrior Without an Expense Account!  Inspired by a series of posts regarding various facets of making a living as a freelance musician, it covers the following topics:

Part I – Adjunct University Teaching
Part II – Realities of Professional Freelancing
Part III – The Rise and Fall of the Full-Time Orchestra
Part IV – Rising Tide, Shrinking Pool
Part V – Regional Orchestras
Part VI – The Vicious Cycle
Part VII – Private Teaching
Part VIII – Burnout
Part IX – Rethinking Music Performance Degrees
Part X – Refocusing (Musical Entrepreneurship)
Addendum I: The Real Cost of Driving to Gigs for the Freelance Musician
Addendum II: Tainting the Academic Waters with Pay-Per-Student Teaching

About Road Warrior:

Every Classical Musician Should Read This Book!
By Mark Fry on October 27, 2008
Jason Heath has written an excellent and very candid account of the life of a free-lance musician. Jason is a highly respected bassist in the Chicago area and a colleague of mine. This book should be on the recommendation list of any private instructor who has students interested in pursuing performance degrees in college. Road Warrior Without an Expense Account is not just an account of the difficulties of making a living as a professional musician. It is a treatise on ways to reform the current system of music schools in the United States. In my title to this review, I used the term classical musician. Although many of the topics covered can apply to other types of professional musicians.

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