Transitioning from a college student to a professional musician can be a daunting journey, but with the right skills and mindset, it is entirely achievable. In this blog post, we will explore essential strategies and insights that will help you navigate this transition successfully. From developing your organizational skills and secondary abilities to understanding the importance of networking and consistent practice, you'll gain a comprehensive guide to ensuring your smooth and successful entry into the professional music world. Whether you are aiming for a symphony orchestra, a teaching career, or diverse gig opportunities, the information shared here will equip you with the tools you need to thrive as a professional percussionist.
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Meet Your Instructor
James Doyle (Black Swamp Educator) is an accomplished percussionist and educator based in the Pacific Northwest. He serves as an adjunct professor of musicology at the University of Puget Sound, teaches graduate music education at Adams State University, and instructs percussion at Saint Martin’s University, Pierce College, and the University of Puget Sound’s Community Music program. James earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from Louisiana State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Central Missouri. He has performed and presented at numerous international conventions and has published articles in the Percussive Arts Society’s journal, Percussive Notes. James also performs with several orchestras and ensembles in the Pacific Northwest and maintains an active performance and artist-in-residency schedule throughout the United States and abroad.
Building an Instrument Inventory
College is a time full of opportunity, personal growth, and access to percussion instruments. Making the transition from college to the professional world requires more than the acquisition of the diploma. There’s no magic wand waved at commencement anointing divine professional status. This rite of passage from full-time student to full-time professional may be different for everyone, but includes one common denominator: a personal inventory of percussion instruments.
Consider what it is you plan to do. Will your career require a full inventory of instruments to practice on and cart about the city for performances? Will you have a school, church, or well-stocked ensemble affiliation willing to loan gear? If you plan to teach lessons, do you own the materials your teacher so kindly loaned to you throughout school?
A Professional Musician Owns Their Own Instruments
One of the worst feelings imaginable is to turn down a well-paying gig of great repertoire with a quality ensemble because you cannot access the necessary instruments. Sometimes the call comes on short notice and you may not have the time to purchase or borrow the required instruments. While it’s unusual to be expected to have the perfect spring coil on hand for a last-minute performance of Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, there are certain instruments typically used and beneficial to have in your collection. Chances are, your future will include some form of “orchestral” and/or pit orchestra gigs.
Owning at least one triangle, tambourine, woodblock, a pair of castanets with machine, a concert snare, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, and a large collection of sticks, mallets, and beaters is essential to getting started.
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Many contracts involve cartage, and by owning the xylophone, not only might you be the one assigned to play Porgy and Bess, but you might be paid extra because you also provided the tam-tam, congas, and vibraphone for the rest of the program.
Most percussionists will benefit from owning a drum set. Regardless of your future game plan, owning a drum set guarantees a collection of drums, hardware, and cymbals that can be used in a variety of settings. Drum set toms can be repurposed as concert toms, an 18” crash cymbal can double as a concert suspended cymbal, and while you’re saving for a high-end orchestral snare drum, the stock drum set snare can be tuned appropriately for a large ensemble setting.
I’m grateful to have started my collection in the early days as a high school student and an undergraduate, purchasing numerous drums, tambourines, triangles, cymbals, a glockenspiel, and as many random instruments as I could afford. There are instruments, sticks, and mallets I use on a regular basis with a history including hundreds of performances in numerous states, and several countries. These personal heirlooms are especially important as they were bought in a time requiring a financial sacrifice.
It can be a struggle to perform multi-percussion works in the college environment. Keeping your setup intact from day to day without other students pilfering instruments for their own needs adds to wasted time resetting for each practice session. However, if the instruments in your setup are your own, the setup can remain untouched. When preparing Psappha by lannis Xenakis for a solo recital, it made sense to buy my own collection of woodblocks that would always be in my little corner of the practice room.
Consider the vehicle you will drive post-college. Can you transport a drum set, a four-octave xylophone, a chromatic set of almglocken, and a wind machine in your Honda Civic? I once moved to the top of an orchestral contractor’s list because I always had room in my truck for the celeste along with a concert bass drum, glockenspiel, music stands, trap tables, and a hefty case of accessory instruments.
Choosing a living arrangement with the physical space to store your instruments, provides practice space, easy access for loading, and tolerant neighbors can be a challenge. A four-story walk-up with street parking can be difficult to overcome. Keep an eye on eBay, Craigslist, and close-out specials. Even if there’s nothing specific you need, a deal is a deal. Some of the most interesting instruments find their way onto resale sites and often the seller is in need of cash. When traveling, take a look at Craigslist, drop in on shops selling used instruments, and watch for estate sales to see if there is something of particular interest.
Investing in Quality
I live by the philosophy of making each purchase count. Buying high-quality instruments the first time around is well worth the initial expense. The instruments you choose to play are an extension of yourself and reflect who you are as an artist. Additionally, high-quality instruments last longer, require less maintenance, and will earn you more money in the long run.
As a graduate student spending considerable effort and finances flying about the country taking auditions, I was determined to make a lifetime investment in a high-quality concert snare drum. Not only could I prepare and perform solo repertoire and excerpts on the drum in college, but it fit comfortably beneath the seat in front of me on flights and added comfort and familiarity in audition settings.
My Black Swamp snare drum helped me win auditions, is the centerpiece of each lesson I teach, is my first choice in every chamber and orchestral performance, will be with me on the next audition, and certainly on stage for my next solo recital. This drum has more than paid for itself.
We as percussionists are lucky in the sense we can buy the instruments that make us sound great one investment at a time. These instruments distinguish us as performers and set us apart from others. So make a list. Develop a budget for long-term purchases and keep funds available for immediate opportunities. Make the building of your instrument collection a top priority. The sooner you begin the journey, the more pride you can take in your art, and the transition from student to professional can commence.
More Than Music: The “Other” Skills
Making the transition from college to the professional world requires more than a successful senior recital, diploma, and the necessary collection of percussion instruments. Every year, another crop of talented percussionists enter the music field. Do only the strongest players find work? In this article, I will outline three skillsets that are just as important as one’s ability to perform.
The first step is to agree on what a professional musician is. For the sake of this article, a professional musician is someone who makes a majority of his or her living in the music business. By definition, this would apply to performing, but may also include teaching, composing, arranging, manufacturing, merchandising, producing, or a host of other career paths. In most cases, a music career includes a variety of revenue streams and requires more than the ability to win an audition.
Interpersonal Skills
A former colleague of mine uses the following formula when accepting gigs. In order to say yes, a gig must have at least two of the following three characteristics:
1. Good Music
2. Good Pay
3. A Good “Hang”
Number one and two speak for themselves, but number three is the intangible. We’ve all worked in environments with less than cordial colleagues and at the end of the gig, it wasn’t the music or the paycheck we recall, but the mental baggage left from working in a negative environment. Sometimes it’s the conductor, maybe it’s the principal percussionist, and oftentimes it’s the lead singer of your band. The hang is incredibly important to personal satisfaction. But remember, it’s a two-way street!
There’s a saying, “wherever you go, there you are.” If it seems every work environment you enter has unmanageable problems, the solution may likely be to look within. Fortunately, there are hundreds of books on managing relationships in the workplace. Consider this as important as practicing the snare part to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade or your interpretation of a Guaguanco on drum set.
The bottom line is, as a freelance musician/educator/entrepreneur, a large percentage of your work will come from referrals as opposed to a standard audition or interview.
Your audition happens on the gig and whether you are hired back is a combination of your musical skills and social skills. Did you know your role, were you flexible, and did you present yourself as someone who fit into the ensemble’s many layers of personalities?
Being able to accept criticism and provide clear and effective feedback is a skill of immeasurable importance. It’s never too early to ask your friends, teachers, and colleagues if they would recommend you for a gig. Request an honest assessment of your interpersonal skills and what areas you should focus on for improvement.
Organizational Skills
Whenever I meet someone working in a sector of the music industry different than I, the question I’ll ask is “what does one need to do to be successful in your field?” A common thread that seems to run through a surprisingly high number of responses is simple; “the ability to show up on time.” While this seems simple enough, mistakes can happen when juggling a variety of large ensembles, private lessons, miscellaneous rehearsals, as well as your family life, social life, and other personal responsibilities. Having skillsets in time management can make or break your career. Just like practicing percussion, there’s no sooner time to develop your organizational skills than in the comfortable confines of college.
Do you have a phone and email account you’ve set aside for business and check frequently? I can think of many wonderful gigs I’ve landed simply by being the first to respond to a contractor’s phone call or email. Do you stay in touch with associates on a regular basis, thus keeping your name fresh in a potential employer’s mind? Are you reliable with lessons starting and ending on time without last minute cancellations? In a matter of seconds, can you look at your schedule and determine your availability for a gig three weeks to six months from now? Learn to cherish the busiest times of your life, as they are often indicators of success. The irony is, musicians with the most work are likely to receive even more gigs, as they have the proven capacity to organize themselves and get the job done.
Regardless of what facet of the music industry you enter, maintaining a calendar and keeping clear and efficient channels of communication is your lifeline to professional success.
Secondary Skills
So you can play. Your tambourine chops sound perfect on Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and your soft four-stroke ruffs are beautiful on Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije. While you are waiting to win the next major audition, you will likely take on a plethora of other types of gigs. Having strengths in multiple areas can increase the revenue streams available to you. My personal philosophy asks, when the phone rings, can you say yes to the gig? Sure, for most of us, a last minute call to play tabla in a touring Hindustani group is unlikely to be a gig you can say yes to, but is also unlikely to happen. However, can you read the drum set book in a local big band? Teach a summer marching percussion camp? Cover the percussion book in a regional musical production? How about your non-percussion skills?
With the growth of successful chamber percussion groups such as So Percussion and the Meehan/Perkins Duo, there are great opportunities for percussionists available beyond the standard institutions of major symphonies and higher education. The ability to manage, market, fund raise, and account for all of the logistics of such an ensemble takes a host of skills not included in the standard percussion curriculum. Do you have marketing skillsets that can be developed? Web design? Recording and production skills? Tour management experience? Grant writing success? For every skill you don’t have and aren’t willing to learn, you will likely pay someone else. In addition to your musical skills, having the business know-how can serve as a potential revenue stream and make you an invaluable member of an ensemble.
Take a personal inventory of what your non-percussion skills are and develop those that are of particular interest. Again, there’s no better place to do so than in college.
Another realm of the percussion industry is in the education sector. Consider even the top players in major orchestras teach and many of the drummers in your favorite bands are sought-after clinicians. Developing a private lesson curriculum and teaching style is ideal while under the guidance of an experienced college teacher. Regardless of whether you have one or one-hundred students, always treat your private studio as a business. Find a niche. Students are clients and you have something unique to offer. Whether you are preparing high school students to enter college as music majors or are teaching adults for enrichment, teaching is a powerful endeavor- developing lifelong music lovers and patrons.
In addition to your percussion goals, take stock of your “other” skills and consider them a work in progress. Enjoy the process and get started while you are in the nurturing and relatively forgiving environment of college. Take pride in all aspects of your career and make every reflection of yourself one of professionalism.
This post has been reformatted for the Black Swamp blog from it's initial publishing in 2012. Download and share part 1 and 2.
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