Professional

[tubatooter1940]

I play for money most times but the music I play is so far from legitimate that I cannot group myself with real pro tuba players. I seldom read music or carry music onstage.
I am so old my skills are eroding and even when I was younger I could not cut the discipline and precision required of a tuba player in a fine orchestra.
Having said that, I am fortunate to be free to write all my basslines featuring what my tuba and I sound best doing.
Playing beach bars, my old beater tuba generates more interest than a shiny new one. I also enjoy switching to guitar and singing obscene silly songs. I would miss that.
toots

[iiipopes]

When I play, I usually have a beer at the ready, and especially when playing my 3-valve Besson, I use 3&4 on the 3rd valve. Even when I was getting paid for the PBS Welk gig, I didn't really consider that my "profession," although it was a great time, great gig, great experience. I'm just a glorified weekend bar bander that has happened to make a little beer money now and then.

I used to engage in one of the historically-branded professions. Now I just shovel ....

From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Main Entry: 1 pro·fes·sion·al
Pronunciation: \prə-ˈfesh-nəl, -ˈfe-shə-nəl\
Function: adjective
Date: 1606

1 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession b : engaged in one of the learned professions c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace
2 a : participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer> b : having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier> c : engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>
3 : following a line of conduct as though it were a profession <a professional patriot>

— pro·fes·sion·al·ly adverb

So, with that definition, a "profession" could be as limited as it used to be used only describing good physicans and lawyers, or as broad as any job that the person doing it takes seriously as a career.

[MaryAnn]

Well, I mash the 3rd valve (if it is piston) with 3 and 4. Does that make me a pro?

I think I can claim legitimate status as a pro engineer, and I used to be able to claim status as a full-time musical pro, but not on a brass.

Maybe I should be Resident Blathering Blonde (who manages to suspend an F tuba in mid-air, upside down, in Klaus's pictorial mind.)

MA

[Rick Denney]

As we have seen from the dictionary citation, the word has lost a lot of its specificity over time. But looking at the roots of the word, it is clear to me that it derives from what one writes on the shingle hanging over the door. If I "profess" to the world that I'm a engineer available for hire, then I'm a professional engineer. Because fakery in that line of work leads to death and destruction, states require those so professing to demonstrate competence and obtain a license. Only licensed engineers are therefore legally permitted to describe themselves as professional engineers. That would align with the first definition from Webster.

Most folks think of professional musicians as those who get paid to do it. Some further restrict the definition by believing some percentage of one's income, or some other income threshold, must be attained. That way lies madness. When I was playing in the TubaMeisters, and when we had the paid gig at Fiesta Texas, I was a professional when standing out in that theme park acting silly. When I was sitting in band rehearsal on Tuesday nights during that time, however, I was an amateur, doing it for the love of doing it. In both cases, I was a hobbyist, because I was at the time (and still am) a practicing professional engineer and that's how I paid the bills. I did not present myself as a professional musician except in the context of that one gig.

Is a person seeking paid gigs a professional even during a dry spell? Would I still be a professional engineer if I was laid off and out of work? Seems to me yes in both cases. That's why I think the "professing" part of "professional" is still a critical element. There is nothing about that word that requires commercial success, it seems to me.

With engineers, it's pretty easy to draw the line. States have licensing laws defining that boundary, for one thing. Those "graduate engineers" who work in situations not requiring a license are the gray area, and the main distinction for them is that they cannot hang out a shingle and offer their engineering services to the public at large. This is generally true with all the so-called learned professions. With music and other arts, though, distinguishing between those who do it commercially from those who don't always becomes a problem--some pure hobbyists do it as well as any paid performer and most musicians play music as true amateurs. You should see the arguments on some photography forums about what constitutes a "professional" photographer. Skill is certainly not the determinant; neither is commercial success. That doesn't leave much except what the performer is offering to the marketplace.

Rick "a former professional photographer" Denney

[tubadoctor]

I think that when I requested that designation I was teaching tuba at the Armed Forces School of Music(or the Navy School, or Army School of Music, or whatever they are calling themselves this week). Since that time I've moved to West Point to fix instruments full time for Uncle Sam... I am now in the same boat as Lee, except I don't freelance on string bass or bass trombone at all, and I doubt I even freelance on tuba as much as him... I hadn't really thought about asking Sean to remove the tag... Honestly, I only wanted it thinking the discussions in the pro forum might be a little more interesting, but it is more or less the same stuff as the general Tubenet, except everyone has a professional tag under their name...

I would ask Sean to pull the tag, but I do have the disctinction of being the only person on the board to share a sousaphone section with him at an Army Navy football game... It's almost like being in combat together... We had to combat the cold, the boredom, and the urge to punch idiotic cadets in the throat, but that counts in my book... Since we were both paid professional sousaphone players in deep in the trenches of Lincoln Financial Field together I can't stomach the thought of giving up my corny title just because I fix more horns than I play at this point... I don't see an adequate option for a vote that covers my situation, so I'll abstain from the vote... Time to get back to the graphite banding job on this Buffet R-13...

[pierso20]

[quote="tubadoctor"] Honestly, I only wanted it thinking the discussions in the pro forum might be a little more interesting, but it is more or less the same stuff as the general Tubenet, except everyone has a professional tag under their name...quote]


Didn't realize there was a "pro" forum/section. Interesting.

[Tuba Guy]

I make the majority of my income from freelancing and teaching tuba...is that what makes me professional, or is it my lack of a permanent job that would guarantee the title?

[pierso20]

I make the majority of my income from freelancing and teaching tuba...is that what makes me professional, or is it my lack of a permanent job that would guarantee the title?

Personally I think it doesn't REALLY matter. After all, it's ONLY tubenet.

[JHardisk]

The "real" definition of "professional" is:

- stopping what you were doing around 1:45 in the afternoon to bathe, put on clean clothes, pack your suit/tubas/mute/music
- drive 45 minutes to your friend's house
- ride down to central Mississippi (where it is still friggin' COLD) in your friends "gig car" (30-year-old radio-stolen Tercel...watching your left knee so as to not push the cigarette lighter), and eat something funky when you get there
- play a quintet recital
- ride back to your friend's house
- drive home (stopping at a dirty gas station because of diarrhea from the funky food)
- get home at 12:30 A.M
- miss seeing your overnight guests (for whom you made barbecue before you left home early in the afternoon)

...all for $120.

Joe,

I thought that's how one gets the "sponsor" designation!

[J.c. Sherman]

If bloke's right sign me up - that's my life in a nutshell!

In all seriousness, those road gigs kill, so it's nice to have a couple "home fields" too!

J.c.S.

[tbn.al]

*I got a masters in music ed and taught for a few years, professional music teacher?
*During that time a giged a lot and got paid, maybe 10% of what I made teaching, professional?
*I quit for a long time and learned to make a living as a profesional insurance agent, professional?
*I started a brass quartet in my church, it grew into an orchestra and the church wanted to pay me a pittance, less than 10% of my income, to keep it going, I said ok, professional?
*I gig with my brass quintet some and when I get paid I usually donate it back to the group that paid me, professional?
*I feel like I'm a of professional of something, but I'm not sure what exactly. I've never made more than 10 % of my income from playing, but all my horns and music are paid for with gig money. That's not the reason I play though. I absolutely love playing music, anytime, anywhere with anybody.