In the last twenty years, Music Schools have graduated hundreds of students. Most of them get degrees in performance arts and graduate to be released into the world or they go on to earn their masters and on to their doctorates.
In the fifties, up to the mid-seventies, early eighties, the only music degrees available were in classical music. With a resurgence of jazz, colleges and universities began hiring jazz musicians to develop jazz courses. Now you can't teach in higher education schools unless you have a Doctorate in music. Many of the professors who teach don't have the experience needed to be great jazz teachers. They have the knowledge to teach advanced harmony and theory but in reality, they never put this knowledge to practical use. Sometimes it's better to study privately with a great teacher than go to a college or university unless you want a degree to teach.
This is a narrative between a Student (guitarist) and his/.her teacher
Student: "I want to be a jazz musician."
Teacher: "Do you have any idea what it means to, first of all, be a full-time musician but a jazz musician"?
Student: "No, but I love music and I want to major in music in college. I've applied to the Berklee School of music. Manhattan School of Music, Julliard and the New School in New York City. I am hoping to get in one of them and study Jazz,"
Teacher: " Besides having good marks in high school you will have to audition. You will have to perform a solo guitar piece, some sight. reading, playing with a rhythm section, improvisation, and an oral question and answer test"?
Student: "Yes. That's why I'm telling you. I want you to prepare me for it. I have six months to get ready."
Teacher: "Are you willing to work hard and even though you are still in high school? You will have to practice at least three hours a day and still keep up with your schoolwork. It will mean giving up video games, going out with your friends, a very little TV, and using your weekends to practice eight to ten hours a day. Don't you have a girlfriend"?
Student: "Yes."
Teacher: "Do you think she is ready for this? Is she willing to cut down on the amount of time you spend together"?
Student: "I don't know."
Teacher: "Well, you better ask her."
The following week at his guitar lesson .
Student: "I spoke to my girlfriend and she said she is willing to try."
Teacher: "Ok. Let's get started."
The student sits poised and ready.
Teacher:" First of all, you have to name, recite and play all the major keys including all three related minor scales using the whole guitar neck for next week. You will be tested."
The teacher puts on the music stand a simple melody ( Smile-key of F-one flat ) and tells the student to sight-read it.
The teacher counts off a medium tempo.
The student begins to play and when it comes to the B-flat he plays a B natural. The teacher stops him and asks: "Did you read the key signature? "No," says the student.
Teacher: "Ok take this song home and when you come back, be able to play it in time and in the second, fifth, and seventh positions and then play the melody an octave higher in any position you like. Make sure you learn the jazz chords that go with it."
This goes on for five months. Every week the teacher gives him a lesson that will improve his musicianship. Going into the sixth month the student is playing chord melodies and reading tunes like Donna Lee and many of the Bebop standards. His improvising has immensely improved.
His audition dates are set and off he goes.
A few months later he hears from all the schools he applied to. He is accepted by all of them. He calls his teacher with the good news and asks: Which should I choose"? The teacher tells him to look at the teaching staff and who he will be studying guitar with. The student says ": I don't know." The teacher tells him to send me the list of teachers in all the schools. When the teacher gets the list he realizes that all the schools have good teachers, and some have heavy-hitters. He calls the student and tells him so. He also adds: "you have to decide what city you want to live in." The student thinks about it and decides he wants to live in New York City and go to Julliard.
Four years later the student graduates and has a degree in Performing Arts. Two years prior the girlfriend breaks up with him, knowing he will probably stay in NY and she does not want to move from her hometown. Throughout his education, he has stayed in touch with his former teacher. On graduation day he calls his teacher and says: " I have graduated and I am officially a Jazz Musician." The teacher congratulates him tells him, he isn't a jazz musician till he lives a jazz life
Student: "What do you mean? I have a degree that says I'm a jazz musician."
Teacher: "How many jazz gigs have you played? "Do you have your own sound?" Do you think your education is over because it has only just begun? Do you intend to stay in New York City? If so, how will you support yourself? Do you have a place to live? You know you have to be heard in order to maybe get some gigs and if you're lucky, maybe someone will hire you. You need to hang out at different venues and be seen. Maybe form your own group and play standards and original music, but most importantly you have to have your own style and sound and use good musicians. While all that is happening, you will have to get a day job to support yourself. This may go on for years. You never know. Meanwhile, you still have to practice and develop. All the young guitarists started like you. I remember seeing and hearing that many of the well-known guitarists that you know now played door gigs in order to play and that's still going on."
"Read their bios and see what they did. Read other bios not just guitarists. Research! Jazz life is not easy. It takes a lot of effort and determination to live like that and in the long run, you may not get the recognition you deserve" .
A few years later the student calls his ex-teacher and tells him he's making a living as a musician but he is playing club dates. The teacher says : "that's great, what clubs are you working in? The student responds and says: "you don't understand. Club dates in NYC are like Casuals in other cities. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Dances, Birthdays, Engagement parties. Most of the music we play is pop or rock. The only time we play anything jazz-like is at cocktail hours. Some of these musicians are not very good., I hate playing this music. After a gig, I go home and practice to get rid of that Aura that surrounds me. This is not the life I was hoping for. Maybe I'll go back to school and get my Master's in Education and teach in school." The teacher responds. I'm sorry but you have to do what you have to do."
The student does go back to school and gets a Master in Education.
He finds a job teaching music in an NYC public school system. He sends his teacher an email and tells him of his progress, but he is still playing club dates on the weekends. He does have his own jazz trio and every once in a while he books a gig with his trio at some local club or venue. They are door-gigs but he pays the musicians out of his own pocket. He keeps the door money. Slowly he begins to hate his teaching job. The kids really don't want music classes and are hard to handle and he spends most of his time disciplining them.
He has made some demos of his trio to send out to club owners and record companies. Most do not respond. He decides to put out a recording under his newly created record company. He doesn't realize the cost of such a production, especially if it is done right. A good recording studio will cost him $150 an hour or more. He will need, at minimum, three hours to record and probably another four to five hours to mix and master. Approximate cost $1500. Payment to his musicians, $1000.
Production costs which would include a master CD and about 100 CDS to send out to Agents and Radio Stations, that's another $800. He could also put it up on Bandcamp, but some radio stations will not play downloads and the same for jazz journalists. He made need a publicist to handle the promotion. He starts calling some publicists to get prices They tell him he may need a radio person too because they have a list and contact information for radio stations throughout the world. Before he knows it cost has grown tremendously. He will need about $10, 000, to do it right. The question is can he afford it? Is the investment worth it? Am I worth it? Where will I get the money? He says to himself, "I have 4000 friends on Facebook. I'll have a fundraiser. I will just ask for $5.00 apiece and I will guarantee them a copy of the recording.
He begins rehearsals. He puts a fundraiser on Facebook. He sends out hundreds of emails asking for donations to his fundraiser. A month goes by and he has raised $3000. He is disappointed. He puts another fundraiser on Facebook and sends out more emails. In three months' time, he raises around $8000. He doesn't think he will be able to get more. He thinks to himself: " I'll have to cut corners." He asks his musicians if they will do it for a little less. He talks to both radio and publicists people if they can give him a break? Everyone agrees. He now has the money and cooperation of everyone involved. A month later the project is completed. The publicists and radio persons get their CD and payment. He finds a distributor and he sets a release date for a month later.
He finds a venue to have a CD release party. He sends out tons of emails inviting friends, agents, and New York City-based journalists and radio people. He charges $10 at the door except for agents and such. The night of the party, the band was on fire and the audience's reaction to the music was great He was very happy. He also was able to recoup some of the money spent. Now the real work begins. Booking the group, getting radio and press interviews, and talking to agents. Realizing that reviews of his recording may take up to three months to be seen, he uses that time to practice and rehearse his group. He is finally living the jazz life, so he thinks.
He did get radio play around the country. His radio person sent him a report on what stations in what cities he was getting played. He sent the list to the agents he knew, but he thought he should do some research on his own. In each city, he found a venue or a club he might be able to book. He contacted each and every one of them, hoping to book a tour. He was getting very little response for his effort. Finally, some of the venue owners contacted him, but they were all door gigs, with the owners getting half of the money and the venues were so far apart in cities and dates that it was impossible for him to accept. So he waited for the reviews to come out. A few months later they come out but magazines like Downbeat didn't give him a review and by the time the other reviews came out, the radio play came down to a trickle.
Angry and depressed, he knew he had to make some decisions. Should I keep doing what he's doing? Continue teaching in a public school and play on club dates on weekends and every once in a while play a jazz gig or should he pack up and go home and teach there and try and play some jazz gigs in his home down? It was a depressing and hard decision to make.
What will he do? What should he do? Coming Soon: A Jazz Life? Part II
Wish I could have met his teacher or any teacher at such an age.
ReplyDeleteFiction? My struggle was real; it was even worse, I believe, because I'm a woman instrumentalist (and I don't sing) and was raising my two kids alone from a young age. Along the way I did play some very nice restaurants, which paid better but still not enough. I had a home-based word processing business that kept us going (child support was insufficient but that's another story). Then I was lucky, one day, to have tapped a lady's bumper who turned out to be Activities Director at a nursing home... a year or two later I was averaging 30 one-hour music wellness gigs a month, each one paying about three times what jazz gigs were paying. I could play real jazz! And I could pay my accompanists $75/hour. (I was also lucky to study with Lennie Tristano and get college credit for it.) I was also lucky to meet you, Dom Minasi, along the way. I think you studied with Lennie too, no?
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't study with Lennie but I wish I had, but through the years I have played with musicians coming out of that genre
DeleteWhen I was about 15 years old, I began studying with a great teacher who taught me the fundamentals of jazz guitar. It was to represent the launch of a somewhat sporadic career in music. At some point, in my early forties, it became clear to me that providing for a family was not possible leading the life of a professional musician, the limits of my own abilities and talent notwithstanding. Recording and club dates, Broadway shows and teaching in the New York scene in the late 70's and early 80's were not enough to maintain the support my family needed. So, reluctantly, I gave it up. Luckily, I had a background in engineering, the result of my early work years after high school, that gave me the alternative opportunity to make a decent, steady income.
ReplyDeleteWhen I look back, I realize I was not alone. So many of the studio guys I knew back then did the same thing, some not as fortunate to have something to fall back on as I did, and some forced to leave their family to go on the road for months at a time. Many marriages suffered because of that. There were suicides, too.
So now, approaching my 80th year, I am convinced that my decision was the right one, that the education I was able to give my children and the home I was able to provide for them to grow up in was worth it.
At this point my playing is relegated to occasional jams with other retired players, and working on maintaining as much technique I may still have (while fighting the dregs of arthritic pain on rainy days). I will never stop playing this monstrously difficult instrument. It has always been the challenge of my life.
Which brings me to the reason for this post. In the late sixties and early seventies, there were very few colleges that offered four year degrees with jazz music as a major. The ones I knew about that did required that students major in double bass or keyboard.
I can only surmise that the colleges and universities had eventually realized how popular the guitar was and they began to offer jazz guitar degrees, with tuitions set for whatever the market would bare. It became a money maker across the country for these schools, and a boon to the relatively few professional jazz guitarists who had the background and knowledge to fill the position of “professor of jazz guitar”.
In 1970, there were 350 musicians in Local 802 of the AF of M in New York who had weekly paychecks. There were 15,000 dues paying members. At about the same time, studio work began to disappear. Producers were finding cheaper venues for recording jingles and albums and singing groups were more and more self contained. To make things even worse for musicians, club dates were thinning out as DJ’s took over the wedding date scene. Now, after four or five decades of four year graduates from these degree programs, the country is saturated with an untenable number of jazz guitar players, many of them great, and all of them searching for a career where they can use their education to their advantage in earning a living.
The pandemic we are now dealing with has now added to the problem, with many restaurants and clubs that offered live music before are now struggling to stay open.
I feel for the thousands of talented players dedicated to the art of jazz guitar who now find them themselves faced with the insecurity of not being able to earn a living doing what they love, many still burdened with paying off tuition loans.