Advice for the future

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FarahShazam
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by FarahShazam »

b.williams wrote:Go be a drum corps person.
This. Go to the school where people are gainfully employed at graduation. Because that’s where you learn the technique of Job Getting. No matter your major. Best thing I ever did was go to a college that was putting people into jobs.

But, geeze, please do drum corps. You’ll always remember this. (Didn’t do drum corps but have plenty of friends who did who LOVED IT)

As for funding: there are smaller drum corps that give out scholarships/free. It’s possible to roll a tuba purchase through student loans. I’m not advocating for or against. I know of one person who HAD to do this and it worked out quite well.
--farah chisham
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Leto Cruise
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by Leto Cruise »

If you want to be a performance major, be a performance major. Lots of jaded guys here will tell you pursuing a music degree isn’t worth it. Might ruffle some feathers but in all honesty these are the guys who gave up too soon. The guys winning jobs aren’t on here. They’re working their *** off pursuing that dream and not talking about it. Best wishes to you.
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Leland
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by Leland »

Go march.

It's also VERY late in the audition season. Which corps still have open spots? Are you going to march the same corps that you did last year?

I marched for six, aged out, taught for three, did college, then got paid. Nobody says you have to be on the same timeline.

(and the 2002 Si in my avatar was what I bought when I finally got paid to play!)
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Watchman
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by Watchman »

Leto Cruise wrote:these are the guys who gave up too soon.
At what point is it "acceptable" to give up? I mean, there's always another audition, so maybe "never" is the correct answer?

I know a guy who's been taking auditions over twenty years, never even advancing out of the first round, who adamantly believes he's going to have an orchestra job one day. He's made some incredible financial and personal sacrifices in the pursuit of this thing that is probably never going to happen. Is this person a heroic or tragic figure?

Now I'm going to tell you about another guy. This guy made the semi finals and finals of auditions all the time. He was always in the mix for a job, but never got offered one. Finally, one day, he's thirty two years old, divorced, living in his mom's basement, and he up and decides to drop it cold turkey. Everybody in his circle is a little horrified. I mean, this guy was so good we thought. In the end though, the fear of becoming guy number one was too much for him to handle. Did he quit too soon? I still talk to him, and he seems to be doing way better now, but man.... he could really play!

Anyway, modern society kind of conditions us to believe the only kind of success that really matters is career success. What we are in our job becomes a part of our identity. For some, it IS their identity. They wouldn't know what to do without it.

What some of us "jaded" guys come to realize is that there is way more to life than playing on an expensive piece of plumbing in the back of an orchestra. It's a fine dream to have, but one that comes with considerable sacrifice.

Is it worth it? You need to decide. Don't just imagine a best case scenario though. For every Carol Jantsch, there's about a hundred people like the ones in my story. You could very easily pursue it for 15, 20, 30 years and come up with zilch. If you did that, it's not like you can push the reset button and start over again at eighteen years old.

So, by all means, be a performance major. However, know going into it that there's an EXTREMELY HIGH RISK of failure, even if you are really good. Not a decision to be taken lightly.
timothy42b
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by timothy42b »

I've said this before but it bears repeating.

Don't make life decisions without reading this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulc ... 0143117467" target="_blank

Seriously.

There's another pattern not yet mentioned that many of us here follow: enjoy music while we're young - including things like a summer at DCI, band camp, cruise ship, circus -well those gigs are gone, but you see what I mean. Then essentially drop it for a decade or two while we start a nonmusic career, raise a family, etc. Then as we're more settled and start to have more time, take up our instrument again with a new mindset. As an avocational musician our activities are rewarding with much less stress.

Your plan to do DCI this summer fits that approach. It doesn't fit your goal of becoming a professional performer. I've never had that goal so I can't help you with how, but my sense is you can't do both.
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by timayer »

Kudos to you for seeking all of the input you can get. Decisions like these are impossible and inevitable. The worst thing you can do is think that there is a "right" and a "wrong." There are only choices.

I could have gone to several different colleges to pursue a tuba degree. I chose one. I then could have gone to get an advanced music degree. But I chose to go to law school. I could have gone to several different law schools. I chose one.

Along the way, I made a lot of smaller decisions.

Out of any of those decisions, there were no right or wrong. There were financial, social, career, geographic, and lifestyle factors to weigh.

I can tell you one thing: If you had told 18 year old me that I would be living in New Hampshire as a lawyer playing tuba for fun, studying the lute, and watching Peg +Cat with my 3yo daughter I would have laughed you out of the room.

The only thing you can do, when faced with a choice of two options, is do what you are doing now: Get anecdotal advice, get expert advice, spend a lot of time thinking, and make the best decision for you now. You don't know what is going to happen a year from now, nor can you control it. But you can make yourself who you want to be a year from now.

A few guidelines I use in these situations:

1. There are no substitutes for sound financial decisions. But you drive a Honda, so you already know that :)
2. Sound financial decision sometimes mean investing in yourself and your passion (i.e., the sole point of money is not to hoard it)
3. To be a successful tuba player, you need to be a good tuba player. That takes practice. While pursuing a performance degree builds hours a day in that you can devote to the tuba, there are other ways to find those hours. BM, MM, and DMA are just letters. They aren't magic. (Unless you want to be a professor. Then the letters ARE magic).
4. There are ways to have a satisfying musical life outside of it being your sole source of income.
5. Every path has stressors. That doesn't mean you made a bad choice.
6. Every single person on this board sometimes wishes they had nothing to do all day but play tuba. Personally, I also alternately wish I had nothing to do all day but play lute, travel, play with my leaf blower, cook, spend time with my family, and go to baseball games. That's what passion looks like. But life takes balance.
7. Don't let people live their life through you. People who wish they had done something differently will tell you to make that choice. It may not be right for you.
TheGoyWonder
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by TheGoyWonder »

Drum corps is cheaper than Musiq Skool.
And you'll have MUCH BIGGER crowds than any Musiq Skool recital.
(although drum corps is getting kinda "meh".)

Or you could just learn the drums. there are 100,000 drummer gigs for every tubist gig. There are 100 drummer vacancies on any night in any city...plus bands with not-so-good drummers looking to change it up.
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MaryAnn
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Re: Advice for the future

Post by MaryAnn »

My favorite drum story was a snare player who *started* his downstroke on the beat, making the strike on the drum ALWAYS behind the beat. I figured out what he was doing (community band) and explained it, he understood it, but could not change his habit. He screwed up the entire band, which kept slowing down to try to get "with" him because it was impossible for them to ignore him despite the desperate waving from the podium, and you can imagine the outcome.
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