In 2008, I wrote a book titled Road Warrior Without an Expense Account detailing my experiences as a freelance musician. This book was derived from a series of ten blog posts written in 2006 and 2007 and is in many ways a cautionary tale about the pitfalls that many classical musicians fall prey to after music school.
I also put together a Keynote presentation on the topics I covered in this book, and one of my long-neglected tasks (we’re talking over a year of procrastination here) has been to compile this information into a PDF booklet. I finally did this, and the result is available here:
Feel free to download this, pass it around, give it to students, and the like. It’s got some basic information and advice on “making it” as a musician post-college, and I hope that folks find it helpful.
You can also check out a video slideshow with narration of these topics here.
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Jason, excellent presentation. It matches my experiences here in the UK as well. My passing question before students leave to study at music college is ‘What else can you do?’. I’m also at pains to point out that they probably won’t make it – many ignore this beleiving it will be different for them . . . .
During my time at the RCM in the 90s the sole focus was on instrumental learning. Thankfully this has changed and music schools here seem to have realised that they need to produce more rounded people and not just technically good players. I fear though they still have a long way to go to instil the life and business skills needed to make a proper living.
Thanks for the post.
as the song goes, “Is that all there is?” and the first thing that comes to mind is how, if one is in the business to make money, then clearly one is in the wrong business. Prostitution or Corporate Law are far more profitable, probably require less training.
But that’s not the issue. A friend of mine once said, after leaving the advertising field to start up her own daycare, “the amount of pay for a job is inversely proportional to the personal fulfillment of the job.” If it’s money you want, you have to do something distasteful, that’s just the way it is. Hence the expression, “I wouldn’t do that unless they PAID me.”
I don’t know what that says about Doctors, but I do know one has to factor what you GET from playing into the equation, to augment the paystub with the equivalent value in medical treatments, social networking, psychological and physiological therapies, social security, personal growth and wellness expenses that sap the seemingly larger income of non-musicians.
Outstanding. Nice to see someone offering hard data to justify my career disillusionment.