Broaching the Subject
We have started an advice column "Ask M" in the NEC student newspaper, The Penguin. The column is meant to catch all sorts of questions—personal, artistic, career-related, and more. M's words of advice will also live on the EM blog for all to read. If you're moved to submit a question, we'd love to hear from you at em@necmusic.edu.
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I’d like to discuss some potential career building opportunities with my studio teacher, but feel unsure about the best way to broach the subject. I want to find a good balance between exploring these questions and opportunities and making progress on my studio repertoire. How should I best approach my teacher with these questions? How can I respectfully push back if my teacher isn’t interested in dedicating time to discussing the questions or opportunities that I’m interested in?
Dear Broaching the Subject,Navigating your early professional life can be choppy and I’d say the more help, guidance, and support you can drum up, the better. It’s totally natural to want to bring these kinds of questions to your studio teacher, the person who has watched over your musical development during this important stage in your life. That said, I understand that there’s much work to be done in your lessons, and carving out time to discuss career goals can feel like a distraction from the job at hand. The fact that you’ve submitted this question, and framed it so thoughtfully, makes me confident that you’ll find a way to broach the subject with grace.Allow me to drill into your question a bit more. I would first think about what your teacher is in the best position to advise you on, and craft your questions accordingly. No one person can address all of the questions you have about your career, and even if there were such an all-knowing person, collecting a range of perspectives will probably keep you in the best stead. I know that many teachers advise students on pursuing and preparing for festivals, auditions, competitions, and recording projects. These activities are certainly career building blocks, and I’d wager that your teacher has much experience to draw from in these areas. I’d also wager that many teachers would feel comfortable and excited to provide their perspective on a wide range of topics. And, after working so closely together, I bet you have a pretty solid sense of which topics to broach. So go with your gut. Go with your gut, and then be prepared for the possibility that your teacher may not want to discuss your questions in the context of a lesson. If that’s the case, try to understand why that may be. It might be because your teacher feels that there are other pressing priorities. It might be that your teacher doesn’t feel the question matches her area of expertise. It may be that your teacher feels it’s not the right time in your development to fully explore certain opportunities or questions. It may simply be that your teacher prefers to have such discussions over coffee at Espresso Royale. Once you understand where your teacher is coming from, you’ll be in a position to frame your questions more deliberately, or strike the right tone, or feel out the optimal time. You can certainly push back respectfully, by broaching the subject a few times, but if it becomes clear that it’s not something there’s time or space for in your lessons, that’s okay too. There are plenty of addresses for these kinds of questions at NEC and beyond. The Entrepreneurial Musicianship Department is one. You also interact with a wide range of faculty at NEC, many of whom would be open to carving out some time to chat over coffee. You have your peers. They may not all have the benefit of experience and hindsight, but they can be called upon to have a good cathartic talk. Then there are your past teachers, and your siblings, a mentor you’ve carried with you, or your parents. They may not all move in musical circles, but I bet that many of them are wise, and care deeply about your development.Draw on the strength of your whole community--the project of forging a life as a musician is layered and requires many helping hands. Your teacher’s guidance is so important, and you should absolutely seek her counsel. But don’t stop there. Seek a lot of counsel, from many sources, often.Older Posts
- Cage / Cardew
- Five Lessons in Six Months Since Graduation
- Shades of Understanding
- “The idea of Entrepreneurial Musicianship invokes to me a sense of responsibility of the artist in the world to create opportunities to share their skills and knowledge.” –Dave Cordes (MM Contemporary Improvisation, ’11)
- “Entrepreneurship and innovation are nearly synonymous. Innovation for the sake of itself is nothing more than invention. On the contrary, entrepreneurship connotes re-imagination of a possibility to the mutual benefit of the entrepreneur and consumer. Bringing a piece to performance is akin to a company bringing a new product to market. It takes prototypes, test designs, among other things, to ensure that the product adequately meets the needs of the market.” -- Vanessa Wheeler (MM, Composition, ’13)
- “Entrepreneurs, to me, see possibility in what is in front of them and use their personal resources and relationships to bring vision to life. They find commonality among the passions of their collaborators and channel them into a unified goal.” –Michael Dahlberg (BM Cello Performance, ’11)
- Making A Life In Music: Thriving, Not Just Surviving, In the Outside World
- Seek out real-life career models. Most musicians do not support themselves exclusively from performance. We are bombarded with stories about either end of the spectrum – about people making it big, or struggling mightily – but we don’t often hear about musicians who are actually getting by. Poverty is not a necessary condition of for great art, nor is it an inevitable consequence of a life in music. Most musicians I know are doing more or less OK. Find some of these people and see how they’re doing it.
- Nothing you do right now is going to make or break your career. You have time to figure things out. The important thing is to face up to the reality of your own set of options and to figure out a way to build a life that has the time, space and context for you to keep developing your music. Ask yourself, “What is the best way I can fund the musical life I want to have?”
- Don’t compare yourself to others. Each of us gets handed a different deal. I generally advocate looking to others’ lives for inspiration, but please avoid comparing yourself to others. Remember that you are on your own path, with your own great fortune, and your own liabilities, and your own things to learn. Don’t waste time comparing your situation to anyone else’s: get on with living your life and developing your music.
- Being accountable to your art means being financially responsible. The ability to be accountable to yourself and to your finances might be the most important skill you can cultivate to allow you to realize your creative dreams.
- Start by taking an honest appraisal. Get a handle on where your money comes from, and where it goes.
- Track your spending for a month. Be rigorous, but don’t beat yourself up.
- Tally your figures. Tally your income from all categories. Then tally your spending. Assign categories for Gas, Rent, Utilities, Clothing, Musical Supplies, Food, Entertainment, Loans, Medical, Local Travel, Concerts, Treats, etc. Be sure to account for things you pay quarterly or yearly (taxes, memberships, instrument insurance) and come up with a monthly amount to account for this cost. Think ahead to upcoming expenses, too. Will you be taking auditions? Recording an album? Buying new performance clothes?
- Compare your income with your expenses. Are you spending more than you earn? Are you just breaking even? Are you earning more than you expected? Do you have the time you need to invest in your future career? Compare this against your short, medium and long-term goals.
- Cultivate multiple streams of revenue. Most people think about supporting their art through one thing: either the job or their dreams, or a day job. One source of income is precarious. Cultivate multiple streams of income to build a stable platform. You can reconfigure it constantly, and will better be able to ride the ups and downs of your career and the economy. (See the list at the end of the page for some things musicians I know have done to make money to keep careers afloat.)
- Charge more. Educate yourself about the fair market value of your services. Make sure you account for the cost of benefits in your freelance prices (up to 30% more). Be clear about terms of payment. Don’t be shy to follow up.
- Barter for everything you can and use every resource available to you. Trading dollar for dollar (not hour for hour) can net you free graphic design, dental care, photography, you name it. And there are numerous free resources for artists: medical clinics, legal services, databases, workshops, consulting services. Find out about them and use them.
- Reduce your overhead. I know that sometimes you will have to spend more money than you earn. But over time, if your income is not meeting your expenses you will have no choice but to re-evalute your spending patterns.
- Be fierce about defending your time, creativity and well-being. Keep time available to yourself. Set aside regular time for reflection, evaluation and recalibration.
- What’s your security style? Do you feel more comfortable knowing your needs are met with a steady cheque? Do you feel confined by a regular job? Can you tolerate uncertainty?
- What are your natural strengths and how can you turn them into paid employment? Do you love spreadsheets? Do you love the company of kids? Are you a meticulous organizer? Are you multilingual? Do you love yoga? What classes are you naturally good at? Any of these skills can be turned into a source of income. But in order for you to make money there has to be a market: you have to identify and fill a need.
- What schedule works best for you to practice and play music? Do you need regular time set aside for practice? Do you need flexibility to tour and travel? If you work nights, will you miss out on networking opportunities?
- How can you find the right balance of activities that result in a life where you don’t merely survive, but where you thrive? In general, look for the job that will provide you with the greatest income, with the lowest demands in terms of time and stress.
From the start, we have been less concerned with mandating a specific definition of EM, and more interested in creating an environment where students, faculty, and staff can come to the concept on their own terms. And they have. We have seen so many shades of understanding emerge, and suspect that these and other definitions will continue to evolve as our students do. We look forward to sharing more student-driven creative work with you in the New Year. Until then, we wish you a happy and restorative holiday break.
How to Make a Budget and Live Within Your Means
How to Improve Your Lot in Life
Things to Think About When Thinking About Day Jobs
Things I or People I Know Have Done For Money*
Grants, Artist residencies, Teaching, Investments, Work sales, Bartering, In-kind donations, Living with Mom and Dad, Awards, Freelancing, Consulting, Income from your partner, Busking, Weddings, Day jobs, In-kind donations, Teaching residencies, Adjunct teaching, Proofreading, Accounting, Voice coaching, Translation, Bartending, Tutoring, Babysitting, Nannying, Subletting,
Real estate investment, Royalties, Workshops, Cover band, Coding, Pizza delivery, Cater waiter, Kickstarter, Security Guard, Courier, Museum Guard, Administration, Assisting, Dog walking, Paralegal, Therapist, Life coach, Graduate school, Tour guide, TESOL, Travel grants, Couchsurfing, Housesitting, Playing for dance classes, Teaching another instrument, Dinner theater, Cleaning services, Personal assistant, Private school teaching, Church musician, Arranging, Choir directing, Personal trainer, Yoga teaching, Copying, Painting, Producing records, Guerilla marketing, Summer workshops, Steady restaurant gig, Radio/print journalism, Archivist, Construction, Piano tuning, Stay-at-home parent, Graphic design, Makeup , CDs for Irish Dancing, Chess teacher, Math and Music Coach, SAT tutor, Modeling, Hair model, Movie extra.
*Out of these 82 items, there are only 20 that I can't claim to have done at one point or another
CHARLES IVES