Project 2: Rough Draft

Music has always been known as an industry that relies on not just talent, but also on the connections made on the way. Finding a career in this community is bloody, hard, and takes everything a person has in them. Even with these challenges many people find success, and with this success there is much to learn from. The largest employer is with music educators, followed by a growing field of therapists. The smallest field is music performance. These include the artists on the radio, those who compose for movies and concerts, and simply the live performers under the subways in New York City. Performers are likely to fail. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there are currently 173,000 jobs in the United States total, with a median pay of around $25.00 an hour. Even at that rate, it makes it extremely hard to keep a position and sustain off it. As an aspiring musician, I thought it to be valuable to investigate the members of this community, and how they managed to root themselves amongst the weeds of failure that surround them.

What does it take to become a successful performer in the United States today? This is a question asked by Linda Jarvin and Rena F. Subotnik written to the Roeper Review. They discovered a trend that musicians tend to follow as they are in three forms; Ability, Competence, and Expertise. The beginner will find themselves learning technical proficiency and musicality, but a necessity to move on towards competence is teachability. As a musician improves they learn how to teach themselves and begin to find financial independence. Once you find this independence (according to this article), you are considered competent in music. However, to become an expert you must know something extremely difficult, and that is engaging patrons. Playing the game as some call it; a performer must be able to go to competitions and performances that are of opportunity to them. A musician must find a way to become noticed, or to put yourself in touch with others who can be of even more helpful to you.

I like to view this as building the spider web of your career. By building connections and making new friends you are going to be given more opportunity. This may be that a club owner saw a performer at a festival, then spoke to the man/woman and found out they were great workers. In a matter of days that owner could come back to you with a position and a way for you to continue that financial sustainability that is so hard to come by in the field of music. Michael Parsons wrote an article on a new type of music education that has started to spread known as Commercial Music. In this class students are given the opportunity to go and perform across the nation. These may be school concerts or chances to tour with celebrity musicians as a member of the stage band. This positive movement of performers allows the young artists to meet established members of the industry and gain their knowledge and connect with them on a personal level. These connections have led to past students continuing to tour with artists. I see potential in this program, as performances allow an artist to meet new friends, continue the web, and find footing in establishing themselves.

While the web is important for musicians, finding one’s own musical self is perhaps the hardest part. In music, a standard is something that most higher level musicians will know how to play. The technical performance of any musician on a standard can be flawless, but as a musician improves they will find more than technicality in the page. Discovering Expressive Transformation Rules from Saxophone Jazz Performances describes the differences in a successful performer’s musicality and a student. What was found through logic programming and descriptive progress found in musicians was that for a considerable number of cases, the way that a note is played will be how many other performers play this as they are beginners. As it gets more advanced however, I believe that this would change. Musicality is found as a player begins to develop; people find new experiences every day that build upon the wisdom a person stores. As a musician, I try to put my own thoughts and struggles into everything that I play. This is noticed as musicians become more successful is that they become different from the rest. While this may fault in certain cases, such as imitators, artists tend to distinguish themselves as a person who cannot be replaced. In popular music today, the largest musicians try desperately to make themselves different and make things that only they can create. This is seen in the works of Bruno Mars. He began as an Elvis impersonator, then when he grew up he became a pop singer. His music helped move “pop” to be less focused on rock and roll, and more on love songs and ballads. He brought it almost back to the 70’s. However, when everyone began to copy his style and create music similar in nature to his, he changed again. His most recent album is almost exclusively electro-funk. This style is a mix between funk music in the style of Earth, Wind and Fire, but also includes elements of electronic music that has risen amongst the past decade or so. The reason he is so successful today is that with him, every song is not the same. Listeners can go to his newest works to find him, what he feels and his ‘vibe’.

In conclusion, musicians must endure several challenges as they grow into success. These challenges are learning experiences for many and create artists and experts out of the turmoil. There is no success without work, and no work without connections, and no connections without personality. Everything comes together when an artist is able to develop, and they can become successful as music performers. It truly is a challenge joining this community, however it is one of the most deep and elite communities in the world today.

Works Cited

Jarvin, Linda, and Rena F. Subotnik. "Wisdom from Conservatory Faculty: Insights on Success in Classical Music Performance." Roeper Review 32.2 (2010): 78-87. CrossRef. Web.

Michael Parsons. "Commercial Music: A Paradigm Shift in Music Education." ILMEA (2017): 33-6. Web.

Ramirez, Rafael, et al. "Discovering Expressive Transformation Rules from Saxophone Jazz Performances." Journal of New Music Research 34.4 (2005): 319-30. CrossRef. Web.

Annotated Bibliography:

Jarvin, Linda, and Rena F. Subotnik. "Wisdom from Conservatory Faculty: Insights on Success in Classical Music Performance." Roeper Review 32.2 (2010): 78-87. CrossRef. Web. – This source was about what it takes to become a successful musician. The insight was mainly taken in by interviews of the faculty working at three world-renowned classical conservatories that train new musicians. The article discussed what it took to become a successful musician in today’s environment, specifically on becoming a western classical musician. The article looked at what was necessary for a person to have throughout development, as well as what the staff described was necessary to advance in one’s career. This included connections, charisma, and musicality.

Michael Parsons. "Commercial Music: A Paradigm Shift in Music Education." ILMEA (2017): 33-6. Web. – This source taught about a new program in some schools across the nation teaching commercial music. While many musicians in high school are in band, it does not appeal to all. There is a large portion of young student musicians who go untaught as they do not want to be in the band program, and instead would rather just perform on their own and learn through self-education. The program was established to help these students learn skills in performing and establishing connections. Students were offered chances to perform in recitals and school concerts, as well as receive touring opportunities across the nation. Students also learned to write songs for themselves and how to record in a studio to capture their music. This would then lead to them becoming professionals in the music field, as there was much that they learned building these connections, and through the wisdom gained performing they knew the environment more than someone who didn’t partake in the course.

Ramirez, Rafael, et al. "Discovering Expressive Transformation Rules from Saxophone Jazz Performances." Journal of New Music Research 34.4 (2005): 319-30. CrossRef. Web. – This article went into detail about what made musicality in today’s jazz performers. The authors listened to recordings of several standards in jazz and broke it down in electronic analysis. The authors found similarities and differences between the players, and were able to write a general algorithm that would predict how a musician of lower skill would play the piece. They tended to follow many patterns in the way that they played the pieces, and when applied, many students ended up falling into their predictions and did not change from the expected algorithm. This differed with professionals however, as they seemed to change the music to their taste, and it was very different to what they predicted, and none of the professionals played identical to each other. This gives insight into the individuality of the players as they become more and more advanced.