What a crappy situation I'm in

[Z]

I didn’t known which category of the forum to put this in. But I just wanted to say something ironic about my life. At the end of the school year I got a job at Mcdonalds. It’s been great! I needed to get some extra cash to get some recording equipment, buy the altissimo course, start practicing the sax more over the summer. Ironically, since I have the job and work all the time, I never have time to play! Maybe if I have a day off which is one or two days a week. It’s just a real struggle and it totally sucks! When have any of you been able to start making money from doing anything music related?? I could give lessons on the sax or the piano/theory but nobody really cares about music here as much as I do, especially enough to pay me to teach them (I’m 16, what do I know is probably the main thought). Its such a struggle. I’m waiting until college so I can get a chance to work with some real musicians that are as passionate as I am. I’m curious to hear about how (or if at all), any of you broke out of the garage/basement/bedroom practicing into making some money or getting a job with your passion of making music.

[Anonymous]

advertise your details in local music shops – customers often ask for a list of teachers in them!

i know someone who rings up restaurants and asks to play in them with backing tracks – that works!

Once you start getting yourself out there – word starts to spreading around.

i listened to John Lennon talking to someone about life in the beatles after they split up – you have to be a contant mr nice guy, bend over backwards to please people, constantly degrade & humiliate yourself so as not to offend people – so they wont complain! and ruin the image of yoyr band – he didn’t paint a pretty picture of what they had to put up with to avoid bad press – but that was then – not nowadays!
Not to mention the scum that will rip you off! lol

i think you mainly have to keep pushing/selling yourself.

I’m too old for that stuff – so i’ve joined up with playing in a jazz band and the occasional orchestra – basicsly meetup with
like minded people

no but good luck mayte!

[Michael Bishop]

Hey Ammin,

It’s really great that you’re so passionate about your Sax playing and music in general, hats off to you there for sure. I know what you mean about not everyone appreciating what you do.
Along with some of the suggestions that JB is giving, what about looking for PT work or arranging your work schedule accordingly? Johnny’s Altissimo course can be paid for with only a few hours work. Also, usually if you explain your position to a hiring manager that you’re a Saxophone/music student and you need time to practice and dedicate yourself to your lessons, they usually will respect that. If McDonald’s doesn’t have the decency to respect what you’re doing, then find a place of employment who will! My nephews out west who have their band do hard-core gigs every single week and have told me that it’s a matter of “putting your foot down” so to say and let the hiring manager know where you work that, “I’m not asking you what I need to do, I’m telling you what we’re going to do….and if you can’t work with me on this, then I’m going to start working for someone else who will”. I’m talking about being rebellious or something, I’m just saying it’s a matter of making priorities keeping things in their place. If you explain to them you’re a student of music and what you’re doing, places of work usually have no problems working with you on this…if anything they will commend you for it!
Yes, we all have to work and earn a living–for myself, I am married and have 4 kids to raise. The oldest is going to be 17 and the youngest will be 8 in August. If you only knew how busy/crazy things can get raising a family……..but when it comes time for my practice sessions, I do not allow ANYTHING to interfere with what I’m doing, it’s too important. There’s a time for everything—my wife/kids understand that and my work understands that. My work has never given me any problems. If anything, they have encouraged me to do so in this regard, they think it’s the coolest thing in the world. They know that there are other areas in our life that need attention beside just work/money. Of course work and earning a living is important–but it’s not the only thing. I’m always getting asked about things regard music, what have I been working on, future plans, etc.. Things come up from time-to-time that I have to mend with my work/family activities and be balanced and re-schedule a practice session, so I can’t be so hard-core with the Saxophone that I just neglect these things. The point being is that it’s about making priorities and keeping things in their place.

[john]

Music is a tough road to make a full time living. Most people do it as a side hobby because they love it so much.
Sixteen is very young so you can plan several things to ensure success…
Sounds like you’re interested in teaching so, much like the road I took, get a college degree and you can become a music teacher to secure full-time employment which we all need!
Along the way you WILL meet other students that are as passionate about music as you, this is when you can start a group.
Take a look at what others are doing like perhaps a duo, trio or quartet that specializes in cool saxophone music for private functions. The general public loves saxophone, it has a reputation of being a very cool, sexy instrument along with a rock and jazz instrument too so your options are endless here (get focused though and choose one).
Once you have some repertoire and a video and website you can promote it and get some work (it’s never too soon to get this going). This type of thing normally isn’t full time which is both good and bad; you need something else but you also have a few gigs coming in to look forward to…of course you can scale it out later on into more or even a 2nd group that specializes in something totally different like a saxophone quartet or ?
The main point is to take control of these ideas and you be “the guy” and don’t rely on others because next thing you know you’re 20 and still working at McDonalds… at least be 20 and working at McDonalds but have a successful group that performs and even records their own music to sell.

The best thing you can do at this time is to better yourself to sound so good everyone wants to listen to you play, which will make putting together a group and getting hired an easy thing to do. Sound amazing, have a huge repertoire and be able to improvise and you’re off. I know you made the investment in getting the Altissimo Course, that’s good. You should realize that it’s not only about getting those high notes… the exercises at the beginning are also the basics to developing your embouchure and air control which is the whole thing for getting a good tone. Spend a lot of time on this. That’s what I did and after 2 years I was working almost full time with bands around my town and eventually around the globe. (If you sound good people will want you, simple right?).
So you have big picture stuff and day to day stuff; your big picture stuff is how you are going to play music and get paid but to be successful at that you need to be a great player and that is done with the smaller day to day stuff I mentioned.

[Michael Bishop]

Those are great points Johnny that you’re sharing–especially the need to go to school. I’m 42 years old and I work in the Medical field and I’m so glad that I went to school, it has benefited myself, my wife/kids so much.
Speaking for strictly myself, I really can’t imagine myself getting paid to do gigs or anything along those lines. There are some upcoming events rolling around next year, like the annual River Fest here in Little Rock that’s held every Memorial Day Weekend, that I have been encouraged, by others, to play at but it’s just all for the fun and enjoyment. The deadline for getting that going was this past December and I missed the deadline because of being out west helping my bro-in-law. Funny and surprising thing was a friend called me afterwards and asked how come I didn’t want to apply to be able to play at the River fest? I had to remind him that it’s not that I don’t want to…I wasn’t here in Arkansas to apply in December! LOL And besides, what are the odds of me getting picked to play at an event like the River fest anyway? LOL Don’t get me wrong, I feel good about the progress I’m making…but I still have much to learn. In any case, the River fest is over a year from now and a lot can happen between now and then. They don’t just pick people who play music either, they pick locals who have all kinds of talent, everything from Comedians to jugglers. There’s 3 stages for the event–2 of those are for local folks. You can click on the link below to see what kind of things they featured this past Memorial Day weekend. The place is packed with about 300 people watching you. In the rare event that I did get picked…there’s no question whose backing tracks/music I would play 🙂

http://www.riverfestarkansas.com/music-lineup/overview

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