Article about the life of a Musician

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Don't know if this article has made the rounds already. Most of us parents have encountered censure from someone thinking our kid is majoring in a "hobby." Here's a counter from someone in the Syracuse Symphony.</p>

<p>syracuse.com</a> : Making Music: The work of a Syracuse Symphony Orchestra musician isn't as effortless as it sometimes seems</p>

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I can’t imagine anyone looking at an NFL player and saying, “You know, that must be the easiest job ever. Those guys work for 16 weeks out of the year (19 if they have a great year), and on those work weeks they are only playing on one day, and on that one day there’s only one hour of actual game time, and then they’re only on the field for half of the game. They only work for a half-hour a week ... playing a game! There you go, easiest job ever.”

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<p>Now if only musicians could only command the salaries of a pro athlete!</p>

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<p>thanks for sharing binx! This one’s SPOT ON.</p>

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<p>I am passing this on to my D as even in college she gets a number of comments about how easy it must be to be studying music. I think the studying part is just as hard as the performing at least socially. Few other students understand the requirements to be practicing and rehearsing daily until late in the evening as well as managing all of your academics.</p>

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<p>Yeah, the common perception of music/music students and what it takes is way out there. Part of the problem is that a lot of people haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell or a book like “Talent is overrated” that lay out the truths of excelling, especially in music, and that is it takes a lot of work to get there. Whether it is 10,000 hours or 1500 hours or whatever, I don’t know, but most people don’t know how much work it takes. Through movies and filtered perception, they have this idea that a musician just ‘springs’ into life, they have been weaned on images of Mozart, the supposed prodigy (who yeah, wrote his first composition at 4, but didn’t write anything particularly notewhile until he was almost 20, which meant 16 years of work…). </p>

<p>When our child decided to get serious about music and pursue it when he did, even supposedly educated/knowledgeable people were shocked, they though music was like computer programming, okay as a hobby through high school, then you got to college and then become a musician…ironically, the same people will see the amount of dedication to become an olympic level swimmer or ice skater or gymnast, and will nod their heads and point out how hard it is, but will look when you talk about a musician or ballet dancer or vocalist about the amount of work and look shell shocked. </p>

<p>Part of the problem is heightened by the pop music world, with the ‘overnight success’ of programs like American Idol and the like, or the pop singers and performers that if it wasn’t for techology like true tone and similar systems would sound like crap…(ironically, it also makes the road for many in the pop/jazz/rock world look easy, when many of them are not overnight successes, where they had to sweat real sweat to get where they are, putting time on the road and so forth), or worse, by the little prodigies running around that make it seem like playing like Perlman or Yo Yo ma is a freak of nature, rather then real work…<em>yuck</em>.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, with the arts, that is the way it is, when the reality is a third violinist in a modest regional orchestra probably had to put a lot more effort into getting that seat then someone in a suit running a company has had to do…but the perception will be that an executive or CEO ‘earned their stripes’ while a musician is being hired to ‘play’.</p>

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<p>Musicprnt, do I sense a bit of pent up frustration in your post LOL :slight_smile: but I cannot agree more. When you actually have elementary and HS teachers that dont understand the amount of work that goes into being a classical musician it is hard for anyone else to grasp it. When I would see our D practicing 4 or 5 hours a day in the summer or driving 2 hours each way for a 2 hour private lesson while all of her friends (non music) were out having fun I realized that none of them would ever understand the mental and social dedication this would take. The one saving grace she had is that her boyfriend is also a classical music student ( different instrument and different school) and really does understand and they are super supportive of each other. My W and I are not musically inclined at all so where she got it from is beyond us but it is such a joy for us to listen to her both play and talk about it. The love and enthusiasm for music and performing is captivating. I agree that few CEOs have spent as much of their younger lives practicing and getting ready for a life long career as a musician or athlete has. I find it funny that here in Canada we have a tax credit for people who have their children in sports activities but nothing for musicians. We easily spend as much money as they do on private lessons, equipment, travel, competitions, etc. I do not blame the atheletes as it is great for them but our government officals need to wake up and look at the value of being involved in any extra curricular activities. I have watched my D go through a 3 or 4 hour rehearsal and come out physically and emotionally exhausted. That was my rant for the day :))</p>

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<p>Percussiondad-</p>

<p>I suspect you have written what myself most definitely and others on here would write, about the amount of dedication it takes on the part of the students and yep, us parents, to support an ambition to become a musician. The cost is generally pretty high, and then there is the travelling around, there is facing a child who gets into a period of doubt and crashes and there is also dealing with an often unsympathetic world that frankly don’t have a clue. And yep, been there, like when our child has a full day program, then the next day had a 4 hour orchestra rehearsal plus chamber music with two different groups…6 or 7 hours of work for them, 6 or 7 hours of waiting or killing time plus several hours of driving…or days with multiple days driving places for lessons, rehearsals, etc…I know parents whose kids are into sports, do travelling soccer or baseball teams and the like, have lessons at sports facilities, and they complain about the cost and committment…but for most of them, that only lasts a season of the year, whereas with music it is often year round:). </p>

<p>But it is worth it, as crazy as it is at times, when the kid truly loves it, lives eats and breathes it. Despite the times cursing out a teacher scheduling a lesson 300 miles from home on a holiday weekend, a chamber coach or conductor having a ‘special session’ on the same day a relative is getting married and the like, at wondering at the byzantine nature of auditions and admissions and seating, and the imperious nature of some in this gig, all I have to do is look at the passion and interest our S shows, and all that doesn’t matter (well, okay, maybe a little:). I also quite honestly feel that kids who at least attempt to go into music learn lessons few other things teach, that to achieve goals takes real work, and also I suspect that for many it teaches empathy for what others go through in life, learning the realities of how hard it is to make it in anything and (hopefully) be better people:)</p>

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<p>But WE know this. Thanks binx. Maybe we should hand them out at the door. ;)</p>