photo credit: vestman

Railroad ridership peaked during World War II, as troops and supplies are moved toward the coasts to fight in the European and Pacific theaters. After the war, though, increased automobile and plane travel led to a decline in rail travel.

By the 1950s and 60s the interstate highway system, modern trucking and the first jetliners took a huge bite out of railroad ridership. As the industry took a dive, they adapted with mergers and consolidations.

Musician Mergers

Most industries respond with mergers and consolidations when times get tough. Take, for instance, the recent merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines. Or the merger of Washington Mutual Bank with Chase Manhattan when the recession hit.

We’ve seen it in our own business as boutique record labels were swallowed up into The Big Four (…and sometimes dissolved entirely…). When times get tough, businesses consolidate. For better or worse, there is strength in numbers.

I was watching TV today and I saw two commercials in succession. The first was for Earth, Wind and Fire & Chicago (who have merged) and the second was for Carole King and James Taylor (who have consolidated). These mega-groups are opening for each other, they are combining their concerts into one concert.

This isn’t anything new (I should note that Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago have been doing this for awhile now). I’m sure you can think of a million examples of all-star bands and mega-star collaborations.

Good Business

It’s good business to combine expenses and resources. It doesn’t have to be mega stars and railroads that combine for more strength – everyday working musicians can do it too. Think of all the different ways you could work with similar acts in your area.

Here’s an interesting project in NYC, NewMusicalTheatre.com. This is a sheet music website that features the music of new, contemporary musical theatre composers. What a great idea.

You could start something like this too – maybe a joint website of all the bands in your area similar to yours. Your scene will be a lot stronger if you cross-pollinate your fanbase. I remember growing up outside Chicago in the 1990s and listening to endless punk and punk-ska albums from local bands. There were so many! They all had the same fan base – which at the time was everybody. The scene was so strong you just couldn’t escape it. Alkaline Trio, The Smoking Popes, Screeching Weasel – these were all bands that grew out of the strength of that scene.

Here’s another example of strength in numbers. Check out the Mayfair Workshop, also out of Chicago. This group has 11 composers in the team. When a business needs music or a jingle, they come to the Mayfair Workshop. All 11 composers write something for the jingle, and the client picks the one they like. Most of the money goes to the composer who’s song was picked, but a small percentage goes to everyone. (For a less fun, true crowd-sourcing version of this model, see MusikPitch.com).

This is a tough business, and always will be. It’s a great idea to find people to merge, consolidate and collaborate with. Who are you working with?

Charts

Here is how I earned my income, by percentage, in 2008, 2009 and the first 6 months of 2010.

2008
Music Directing	61%
Musical Theatre Performance	29%
Writing	6%
Copyist	3%
Recorded Music	1%

2009
Accompanying	36%
Music Directing	28%
Church Organ	22%
Writing	7%
Recorded Music Sales	2%
Classical Performance	2%
Jazz Performance	2%
Weddings	1%

2010
Musical Theater Accompanying	45%
Church Organ	26%
Writing	13%
Music Directing	9%
Copyist	4%
Recorded Music Sales	2%

Notes:

Musical Theatre Performance – this means playing for shows, but not as the music director. 2nd keyboard, for example.
Accompanying – includes accompanying for classes, auditions and rehearsals. This does not include performances.

Analysis

You can see that in 2008 I was working nearly full-time as a music director for regional theaters and tours. When I wasn’t working as an MD I was playing 2nd keyboards somewhere else. I made a little money from blogging, a little from copyist work and very little from selling albums.

I experienced a sharp decline in music directing jobs in the 2nd half of 2008. Regional theaters had been hard hit by the recession, and many were not hiring or closing their doors. It was clear that I would need to fill in the income gap with other work.

As you can see from the chart, I tried a lot of different gigs and had the most success with accompanying and church organ gigs. I started my church gig in spring of 2009. Around the same time I found a job as an accompanist at college.

In 2009 I remember I was just trying everything to see what took. I was taking jazz gigs, gigs with symphonies, weddings – whatever came my way. I didn’t turn down anything in 2009. You can see that none of that took hold though – it has been the accompanying and church organ that pulled me through the economy.

Recovery

Like most people, the recession changed my career. Once the regional theatre and tour scene declined I moved full-time to New York and, for once, stayed here. Prior to the recession it was difficult for a lot of theatre workers like me to stay in the city. Out-of-town jobs were always calling.

Now that I’ve been in NYC for several years, I’ve set up a life here that I didn’t have before the recession. Things didn’t happened as I expected, I just had to adjust to the changing musician economy. What’s interesting to me is if the economy went back to 2007 levels tomorrow, I couldn’t just jump back into my own scene like nothing happened. With a recession this long, some doors close and some doors open and by the end of it you find yourself in a different room. Who knows how to get back to where you were?

Income from writing has increased – primarily because I put more time into it when the economy changed. I recorded a Christmas album during the down time of the recession, and that helped (marginally) increased income from recorded music. Lately more calls for copyist work has been coming in.

More calls have been coming for music directing work as well – that seems indicative of a recovery in our sector of the economy to me, but it’s purely anecdotal. Even so, it feels like good news to me.

You get another call.
photo credit: Cameron CassanIt’s a local non-profit. They are throwing a fundraiser at a fancy venue and they want you to provide entertainment for a couple of hours. They can’t pay you, but you’d really be helping out the cause if you would do it.

A third call comes in. It’s a local venue. They are having an event next month and 5 bands are playing a 30 minute set each. They’d like to invite you to perform. It doesn’t pay, but everyone gets a free drink and you can set up a merch table in the corner.

So what do you do? Do you take these gigs? You know that you have to make a living, but you know you also have to get out there and play for people.

People Die of Exposure

In my experience, taking a gig for “exposure” has questionable value. What kind of exposure are you really getting? I mean…are you playing the Tonight Show? The local news? Or are you playing for a group of 20 people that are generally not your target audience?

There’s a big difference between general exposure and specific exposure, and I think that’s the thing to consider in these situations. People that call you and use this term often mean it in the general sense.

Definition of general exposure:

There will be a room full of people, and there will be you. You will play your music. It will travel through the air between you and the people, and the people will hear this music. In this way you will expose yourself to these people, and it’s conceivable that they will care one way or another.

But I’m telling you, this kind of general exposure is usually not valuable. If the situation is not targeted to the kind of audience that you are looking for, you’ll waste your time. Say you are a sci-fi string band and you get a call to play at a Star Trek convention – that is good exposure. But say the same band gets a call to play the Christmas party for a ladies luncheon group. Sure, it’s possible that someone at that luncheon will be a sci-fi fan and care, but the odds are not good.

Definition of specific exposure:

There will be a room full of people that love the kind of music you play. They will resemble your target audience in every way possible. You will play your music and they will listen to your music. It’s very likely that many of them will want to know more about you, sign up for your email list and maybe buy an album.

My point is that you should be very, very cautious anytime someone uses the term “exposure” in the sense that it is some kind of compensation. Oftentimes that is the sign of a pro bono gig that will waste your time. It’s your responsibility to make sure that the exposure they are peddling is relevant and valuable to you, in a specific way, before you take the gig.

Will You Enjoy It?

I’ll tell you a story. When I first came to New York I got a call from a celebrity. She’d been on TV, on Broadway – my mother was a big fan. Imagine my surprise. She asked me if I would play at a non-profit event at the Plaza Hotel. She couldn’t pay me, but there’d be a ton of rich people there (it’d be great “exposure”) and I’d get a free meal. And bonus – I could bring 2 guests to the dinner.

I played some cocktail jazz during the event, passed out a few business cards, chatted to some of the guests. At dinner I brought 2 friends for an incredible meal. We sat next to the celebrity and a city councilman. We all took gift bags full of perfume at the end of the night. I followed up with the celebrity and city councilman afterwards. I gave the perfume to my girlfriend.

Altogether it was a cool event. I’m glad I did it – but certainly not because of the “exposure”. I never got another call afterward from anyone involved. The truth is that is was a lot of fun. I was able to treat 2 friends to a fancy dinner, I played at a historic venue, I met a celebrity, and I gave my girlfriend a bag full of perfume.

I enjoyed it – and that’s a perfectly good reason to take a free gig. Being a musician can sometimes get you into the hippest situations.

Meeting New Colleagues

It would be great if you took a free gig and suddenly you had 100 new, dedicated fans who, from that day on, buy everything you ever create. Great plan, but let’s assume that won’t happen. Ah! – but what if something better happens?

In everyone’s career there are key people, friends, usually, that help further your success. I’m talking about colleagues and collaborators. You are both heading down the same road, but maybe there’s a time that they travel quicker toward success and they bring you along. And then at another time you are traveling faster down that road and you take them along.

These relationships are really important in a musician career – the best successes usually involve a team of people like this. Playing free gigs is sometimes a great way to meet these kinds of friends, colleagues and collaborators.

I’ll tell you another story. I volunteer regularly for a non-profit in New York that puts on big productions at least once a year. They contact musical theatre composers and lyricists and ask them to write new music for the events. I music direct the production, and we find great musicians to perform with us.

Throughout the process I meet and work with tons of new people. Some of them I really click with and we become fast friends. Months down the road maybe they are working on something else and they give me a call to music direct, or play piano, or whatever. And maybe this time it’s a real gig that pays.

That’s a best case scenario! I took a free gig, I met a ton of colleagues and we collaborated later on something else. I think the key here is that the free gig was a big production involving a lot of artists all working toward a common goal. Compared that to the Plaza Hotel gig where I was the only musician in the room and there weren’t any colleagues to connect with. Two gigs, I’m glad I took both, but for very different, specific, reasons.

What Is In It For You?

You can’t just play everywhere and anywhere for free. This is a career. People expect musicians to play for free much too often. There is value in what we do, and most of the time we should get paid for it. When someone approaches you with a free gig think specifically about what value the situation holds for you. They are getting something out of it – what about you?

Let’s take the 3 situations I opened with. I can’t give you definitive answers, but I can give you the questions you should consider.

Ok, first situation – someone calls for a private party and wants you to play for free. My first question would be: why can’t they pay? It’s a private party, not a fundraiser for a good cause. It’ll probably be a room full of 20-30 friends, drinking and having a good time and…uh…that’s called a gig.  It’s supposed to pay money.

Sure you can sell CDs, but who’s going to buy a CD in that situation? It’s not a house concert, they aren’t specifically there for the music. Who knows if they’ll even like your music?

Personally, I wouldn’t take that gig.

Second – a non-profit calls for a fundraiser. First question: do you believe in the cause? You’ll be donating your time to the organization, and you should think of it just like you’re donating money. Forget the “exposure” you’ll get – the people that attend the event will be there for the cause/organization and it’s unlikely they’ll also spend a lot of energy on you too. So it really comes down to whether or not you want to donate to the cause.

The third call – a local venue wants you to play. This could be good. Do you know the other bands on the event? Are they a similar genre, or at least a similar target audience, to you? Are there musicians in the other bands that you’d like to meet? Do the other bands have a creative team (manager, publicist, etc.) that you would like to meet?

If this is a situation where you could meet colleagues and future collaborators – I say take it. If it sounds like the venue is just trying to fill a spot and there’s nothing in it for you – your instincts are probably right.

What If Someone Else Calls?

A 4th call comes in. It’s for a real gig with a band you regularly play with. Unfortunately it’s for the same night as the unpaid gig that you’ve already committed to. Now what?

If the unpaid gig has enough value to you that you committed in the first place, this shouldn’t matter. Nobody should ever cancel on a valuable gig – and if it wasn’t valuable, why’d you take it in the first place?

This is a problem that is so common that you should plan on it happening before you take any unpaid gig. Expect that someone will call you with something that does pay for the same night as the free gig and make your decision with that in mind.

Live Music Is a Valuable Thing

The truth is that live music is a valuable thing. These days people have constant access to music – but it’s not usually live music. There is an energy in live music that humans just can’t get enough of. People love live music so much that they will pay money just to be in a room where it is happening.

So when someone approaches you to give away this valuable thing for free, it’s fair that you should still expect something in return. Maybe the compensation is new fans, new experiences, or new colleagues.

On the other hand, if there is nothing in the situation for you, don’t take the gig. If you take an unpaid gig and it ends up being a dead end – no one bought a CD, no one seemed interested, there wasn’t any worthwhile networking, it didn’t manifest any future gigs – then maybe you took the wrong unpaid gig. Before you take an unpaid gig, ask yourself: what’s in it for me?

The short answer is “try something else”.

Consider for a minute animals in the wild. If resources become scarce – what do they do? They have a variety of coping mechanisms. Some migrate. Some hibernate. Over time, some adapt. The one thing they don’t do is sit on their hands and just hope it gets better. And neither should we.

I’ve tried a lot of different things since this recession started. Some worked, some haven’t.  Here are some of my thoughts.

Try Something Else

There are 5 basic employers for musicians. For-profits (i.e. corporate gigs, cruise ships), non-profits (ballets, symphonies), individuals (weddings, parties), education and churches/synagogues. The first 3 on that list have been hit pretty hard by this recession, and it’s my experience that a lot of those gigs are gone for now.

One of the ways that I’ve been able to survive this recession is by focusing on colleges and churches. I asked a friend to give me a little lesson on organ, and I found a job in the Bronx playing every Sunday. It’s not the Broadway gig I was hoping for, but it’s a good gig for a recession. The Church has been hiring musicians for hundreds of years, no recession is going to stop that.

Next, I found a gig accompanying and occasionally music directing at New York University. I started with just 1 class, and now I play for 5. The truth is that I really enjoy it – in a way that I didn’t think I would. The students are smart and the work pays my bills. Again, it’s not Broadway, nor is a the stadium rock tour, or playing with the New York Phil, but it’s a job that I like and I’m glad I tried something else.

Specialize

When work becomes scarce, I think our natural tendency as musicians is to try to generalize, to throw a wider net, to try to get gigs. So instead of a “saxophonist”, our business cards now say “saxophone – piano – keyboards – synth programming – conducting – arranging – transcribing – transposing – orchestrating – notating – cooking – cleaning – eating – breathing”.

Yes, yes, it’s probably true that having a wide variety of skills will get you more work. I encourage anybody to always try new things, try to make money with any skill you have. There’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem, though, is that generalizing can have the effect of making you a scavenger (back to the animal world).  Consider cockroaches…rats…vultures, they can eat anything and always survive.  But, for real, they eat trash.  They are bottom feeders.  I know that in my career, sometimes the wider I cast my net, the more crap gigs I get.

Generalizing is not always what works in the animal world. When resources become scarce, a lot of animals adapt by specializing. Think about animals that have adapted to thrive in areas or climates that no other animal could live in. Polar bears. Mountain goats. Gila monsters. Camels.  Perhaps as musician opportunities shrink, we should try to adapt and be that one musician that is making a living in the most inhospitable economy or geography.

Imagine, for instance, if you specialized in music for documentaries and you landed a gig composing the music for all American-produced nature shows on the Discovery Channel. Or maybe you are the only creole bandeon player in all of Minnesota and you land a job playing every day at the newly opened French-American History Museum (just an example, not a real museum).  Maybe you are simply the best bluegrass zither player on the planet.

I’m not saying that specialization is the key for everyone, but if generalizing isn’t working, you might consider trying it. In my case, I’ve become a sight-reading specialist since the recession began. Nearly every gig I play is a straight sight-reading job these days. I play for auditions, singing classes, church services – situations where it’s just not possible to see the music beforehand. I find in my case that being an expert sight-reader is a specialization that is relatively rare and valuable, even in a big city like New York. It gets me gigs.

Meeting People Outside Music

I stole this one from David Cutler. When he wrote for our Dear 1999 project back in December, he made a great point that has stayed with me for months. Here’s it is:

“Consider your circle of acquaintances, for example.  With few exceptions, they are all musicians.  While this is a great network to have, branching out will vastly influence your potential impact and perspective.  Surround yourself with the greatest minds available.  Find ways to befriend influential leaders, artists, educators, media voices, business owners, arts patrons, and other interesting personalities.  These relationships will lead to fulfilling encounters and open many doors.”

That is a really valuable insight. I’ve really taken his advice to heart in the past 4 months.

I volunteer now for several environmental organizations. Last week I went down to D.C. for a few days to meet new people, and to talk with my congressional representatives about the environmental policies that I believe in. Yesterday I gave a little speech at the Bronx Zoo to a group of runners before their 5k began.  Since I started this I’ve met congressmen, policy experts, researchers, other volunteers, and it’s been really interesting. Sure, I connect best with musicians, and all of my best friends are performers – but it’s been really eye opening to step outside of my bubble and meet new people.

Also, non-musicians tend to be much more interested in my albums!

Start a Community

We started this website around the time the recession hit. I had suddenly found myself with more than enough time on my hands, and I wanted to get more involved with the online musician community, help others out, and make some connections.

Since we start this site we’ve seen a lot of benefits. I’ve been lucky enough to connect with a lot of our readers through the forums, email, Twitter, or a cup of coffee. Also lot of the colleagues that I work with read MW and are glad to have a place where gigging musicians can congregate online. In effect, that puts myself and other MW writers in the middle of a community. A solitary man is going to have a hard time finding a gig, since gigs come from friends, so I’m certain that we have all immeasurably benefitted from starting this website and creating this community.

Get Together

Look at schools of fish. Why do they crowd into big clumps of fish like that? It’s because it’s safer in a group.  They are stronger when they are together.

About a year ago I decided to start a private listserv for music directors in the theatre industry. I felt like there really wasn’t a place for MDs like me to gather and talk about issues in our little sub-industry of music and theatre business. The rules I put in place were that anyone can join, provided that they work as a professional music director and have credits to prove it.

There are now a couple dozen experienced, qualified, trained MDs on the list and it’s a great resource. We trade gigs back and forth, ask for advice and talk business. Just today we were giving out ad hoc reviews of Mainstage for the members of the group that hadn’t switched over yet.

In February I asked a friend to help me arrange a meet-up for the listserv at a restaurant in New York City. It was a great event, and John Miller even showed up. John Miller is a music contractor on Broadway. The list of Broadway shows that John has hired the musicians for is decades long. He is by all definitions a MAJOR CAT in the Broadway scene. He stayed for quite awhile that night and let us ask him question after question about getting gigs on Broadway, getting gigs in a recession, and about old stories of shows and recording sessions.

I can promise that the only way you can get a MAJOR CAT like John Miller to come give an improvised question and answer session is if you band together like we have. We are undoubtably more successful as a group that we were alone.

See What Takes

When nothing is working, you have to try everything to get back on track. Write songs, invest in your relationships, make new friends, create or strengthen a community, read new books – try everything and see what takes.

In a new (or, perhaps, “broken”) economy like this one the old tricks just aren’t going to work anymore. So go try something new!

With all due respect to Mr. Passman and that seminal book, the changes in the musician industry since the late 1990s have made that book largely irrelevant. The contraction of the major label industry in the past ten years has meant that recording contracts, and the nasty tactics that Donald Passman was so good at warning us about, isn’t as large a threat to our profession.

And it’s not just the Passman book that has become outdated. The past decade has, if not completely negated, at least disrupted nearly a century of accepted musician business practices. The Internet, CD Baby and cheap home recording gear have ruined whole libraries of music business books. And publishers have not been keeping up with the changes – how could they? We’re not at the end of a major change in the industry – we’re right in the middle of it.

A Book for the Modern Musician

Except now that’s changed. I finally feel like I’ve read a book that accurately provides a blueprint for the successful career of a modern, working musician.

The Savvy Musician is written by David Cutler. You can find it at Amazon, or at the SavvyMusician.com.  This is the book of the decade for the musician industry.  It should be required reading at music schools and every pro should have a well-thumbed copy on their shelf.

There are several striking things about this book.  First, the comprehensive depth of material in this book is remarkable.  From marketing, to performing, to networking, to composing – this book covers a huge amount of material.

Second, there are 165 short vignettes of stories and interviews from successful, non-famous, working musicians in the book.  The vignettes add a lot of credibility to the material without any gimmickry.  The fact that they come from successful, non-famous musicians is what makes them genuine.  It’s easy enough to make a living as a famous musician – I’m sure Paris Hilton has sold more albums than me – it’s stories from regular musicians that are really interesting.

Third, Mr. Cutler has thankfully not fallen into the trap of glorifying the almighty Internet – and I say that as an avid blogger, Twitterer, Facebooker and all around new media addict.  In this book the Internet is treated as any other tool in the musician skillset, but it is rightfully nestled aside other, just as important tools – like face-to-face networking and printed press kits.

Again, I know that is a strange thing to say on a blog, but even I know the limitations of this, my favorite media.  While the Internet has probably been the one invention that has most changed our industry in the last 20 years, we still have some ways to go before the Internet can solve all of the challenges that it has created.  Until then, the Internet is a tool, and as this book shows, a savvy musician would be best served using it as such.

That said – as our industry progresses into the 21st century, and as things continue to change for our profession, sequels to The Savvy Musician will likely need to expand their coverage of internet-related techniques.  Take that for what it’s worth – a pre-emptive criticism of unwritten updates in an unknown future.  For now, the coverage of the Internet in The Savvy Musician covers those things that are known advantages – having you own website, joining networking websites, etc.  We’ll have to see what Internet-related advantages prove themselves in the future.

Possibilities

One of the things I really liked in this book were the endless lists of possible gigs, contacts, venues and possibilities for a music career.  There are a lot of opportunities mentioned in this book that I either hadn’t thought of, or hadn’t considered in a long time.  It’s those lists that have really stuck with me since I finished reading this book, and it’s left me with a head full of possibilities for the future.

Can you imagine a better outcome from reading a book?  To walk around for weeks afterward, still considering all of the new possibilities it inspired in you?

I also appreciate the focus of the book – again, not on the famous – but also, not on the urban pro.  This book is not about New York or LA or any other major music center (a fault that we here at MW may well be guilty of).  This book focuses on, and gives examples of, musicians working anywhere.  One of the underlying themes of this book is that we can make a career for ourselves nearly anywhere.  There are always possibilities, but it’s for the savvy musician to go out and get them.

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The Savvy Musician is published by Helius Press.  Visit the Savvy Musician Blog at SavvyMusician.com/blog.

Marv, aka “Marvalous”, is a musician selling his CD.  I had no idea what his music sounded like, but after talking to Marv for a few minutes I bought his album. I just have to admire a guy that is willing to stand out on a New York City street for hours at a time, facing the early February cold and sustained rejection, in order to give a pitch and a hard sell to one face after another.

And after talking to him awhile, two more things impressed me: 1.) He does this full time. 2.) He makes a living doing this.

I think about my own albums, which I’ve safely stashed in the big, anonymous cloud of iTunes, and I sheepishly push from behind the shield of Facebook and Twitter – giving my hard sell to profile photos and not real faces. Could I stand on the corner and sell my music? I think I could, but it doesn’t matter – I don’t.

As Marv tells it in the interview below, he hit the streets when the music industry machine started to break down. He had used standard music distribution routes before they started to go out of business, and then – not to be stopped – he just walked outside and starting doing it himself.

As we move further and further into a new musician industry, it is, and will be increasingly, tempting to settle behind the largely faceless infrastructure that the internet is building for us – where we interact largely through email, wall posts, newsletters and bursts of text 140-characters-or-less. For a lot of us, this infrastructure is working – certainly it’s working much better than the infrastructure we had in place before this. But look at Marv – he’s doing something right, too.

I asked Marv for an email interview, and his answers are below.

Q. How many hours a week do you stand outside and sell your album?

A. It’s a full time gig year round, unless the weather is to an extreme that people won’t be inclined to stop and listen. Like the old adage says you get out what you put in. So I’ve put in many a 12 hour day.

The good thing is you never stop selling. In the course of even a traditional conversation, someone is bound to ask you, “What do you do” or a similar question that allows me to segue into my spiel. So assuming I have product – I’m always promoting.

Q. How do you get people to talk to you on the street? Do you have an opening line that always works? How do you get people to buy your album?

A. I genuinely love people, and that helps I’m sure. Especially in NYC people are many times apprehensive and guarded. So I smile, and ask open ended questions or make a remark based on an observation, it could be a shirt or a brand that they’re wearing or A sports team, etc. People are like squirrels they want to see your nuts, they just don’t want to get hurt or victimized in the process. Selling is about product knowledge after that it’s just a matter of tailoring it to the individual.

People like new music/artists and people gravitate to confident assertive types, too. It’s like they can or want to identify with you and how they would like to see themselves. Many have abandoned their creative side in some way due to fear, societal pressures, or just the everyday harsh realities of life. We’ve all been there and very few, if any, escape.

Q. In your experience, do you feel like you receive primarily positive feedback from people you talk to on the street, or primarily negative feedback?

A. I appreciate any feedback I get. It’s really gratifying when someone tells you that they can relate to something you’ve said or experienced. It’s like the palms on the proverbial glass. I know everyone won’t like my music, but maybe they’ll respect my story. I even tell people that, it’s the truth and I pride myself on being honest.

Q. Do you sell your albums through traditional distribution sources (stores & online) as well? Which is more successful – selling through traditional distribution sources, or selling one-on-one on the street? Why do you think one method is more successful than another?

A. I’m in the process of re-launching my web-site, and getting back into the online markets. I was one of the many artists who several years ago thought we were ahead of the curve, by having a fancy website and a company that would house and ship my product for us. The company was absorbed, then eventually went out of business, so I found a different avenue, literally.

It’s not a matter of which method is more sucessful, when you can do both. The online market pretty much takes care of itself, and being outside on the Ave in NYC gives you a similar kind of world accessibility. Plus you’re always thinking marketing, and dealing with and overcoming rejection, two essential skills in business.

I will say this – in one day I can move more CD’s than in a year in a storefront (when there were store fronts). I remember going to the Virgin Mega Store just to show people the CD’s I was featured on, which no one was really promoting. Now both have gone, and are going, the way of the dinosaur, so the web is definitely the place to be. But like with anything else you gotta research and work it.
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If you’d like to know more about Marv, visit his myspace page, or visit him on 6th Ave. Marv also produces a show called Fire Your Boss, a party for the independent artist. The next show will be May 6th, 10pm, at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.

It seems that with a record deficit and 10% unemployment, space travel is not a priority to the U.S. government. NASA suddenly finds itself, not for the first time, in a situation where it must argue on behalf of it’s tax-dollar worthiness.

This is a familiar situation for arts organizations. The threat of budget-cuts to arts education is a near constant concern at public schools, and the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts was only recently restored to Clinton-era numbers.

Ok, so the science kids finally got their budget cut, too. The MIT and Stanford grads at NASA are a smart bunch, of course, and I bet they put up a pretty savvy fight. And you know what? The arts community can learn something from the rhetoric that they will use to protest the budget cuts.

So far, I’ve seen two interesting things:

1.) In a Senate hearing this week, Obama’s budget director argued with Senators about the budgets cuts to NASA space flight program. The most vocal opponent of the plan, as you might expect, was Florida Senator Bill Nelson. Nelson is, himself, a former astronaut and, of course, well aware of the $4.5 billion impact that the space industry has on his home state. The aerospace industry in Florida represents 23,000 jobs in Florida. You can bet that senators from other space-industry states (…clap! clap! clap! clap! – DEEP IN THE HEART OF…) will also be protesting these budget cuts.

This is a good technique. Every industry needs advocates, and senators are a good start. You know what else works? Those numbers. But check these out:

The non-profit arts industry in the United States brings in $134 billion every year in economic activity. The industry includes 4.85 million full-time equivalent jobs. Altogether we generate over $10 billion in income taxes for the federal government.

I’m not done. According to a 2005 study there are 49 congressional districts in the country that have more than 10,000 arts workers, and more than half of all congressional districts have more than 5,000 arts workers. The highest concentration is in the 8th Congressional district – New York City – which (just in this one district!) includes 119,320 arts workers. In New York City alone the arts create an economic impact of $21.2 billion, including $904 million in taxes back to the city.

Take that, Florida, with your lousy $4.5 billion for aerospace industry. We make nearly 5 times that much in just New York City.

The next time the arts get into budget trouble, I hope to see the senators from arts-industry states (Hello, Cal-eee-forn-ya) fighting as hard for our jobs as the space-states are right now for theirs.

2.) In an interview on the Lehrer News Hour, Michael Griffin, a former NASA administrator, made the case for NASA. He said:

“I think the contribution of human spaceflight to the posture of America in the world and the technology and industrial base that we have today more than pays for itself.”

Pretty good, right? Like I said, these guys are smart. Let’s use this.

Try substituting “human spaceflight” with “jazz music”. Also, replace “technology and industrial base” with “commercial and cultural benefits”. Also (just because it bothers me), clean up the grammar. So it reads:

I think the contribution of jazz music to the posture of America in the world, as well as the commercial and cultural benefits that they have created, more than pay for themselves.

BAM. Replace “jazz music” with any kind of art – ballet, sculpture, opera…  The next time we find ourselves with looming budget cuts for the arts, that’s our talking point.  It’s brilliant.  It was formulated by some of the smartest scientists on the planet.  That is a space-age talking point.

Maybe we could use it today and get an increase in the federal arts budget instead of letting it remain flat?

No, let’s not push our luck.

The Head Nod

Here’s the problem. You’re sitting at the piano, sending out your part of the groove – and, well, basically – you’re busy. Both hands and sometimes both of your feet are working on your instrument, and you don’t have any appendages left over to cue the band. So what do you do? Nod your head.

A good head nod is harder than it sounds, though. Major complaints from sidemen in pits usually involve some variation of “the head nod doesn’t match the hands” – that is, the head nod brings the band in before or after the piano-conductor plays the beat with their own hands.

If you only take one piece of advice away from this article, let it be this: get your head and your hands together. Practice it and get it right. Video tape yourself to make sure it’s happening the way you intend it. Don’t let this basic part of the piano-conductor skill set be the complaint you get from your band.

A good head nod, as with any ictus, is usually more about the preparation, or “prep”, than the actual nod. The “prep” is the beat(s) leading up to the first beat that is played by the ensemble. A head nod, then, is not just a sudden drop of your head. A full head nod with prep has both a clear upward swing and a downward nod.

Three more things to keep in mind with the preps and nods:

1. Don’t prep your prep – One common affliction among new piano-conductors is to give a slight prep, almost a tick, before their actual prep. This is misleading to the band, who will be confused as to which prep was the actual prep.It’s perfectly acceptable to give your band more than one prep, of course, but if you are going to do that, really do it. Tell your ensemble how many preps you are going to give and then give them very clear, in tempo, preps before the beat.
2. Breath with your prep – Just a regular breathe will do the trick. Your horn and wind players will be breathing before they come in as well, so just breath with them. The band that breaths together comes in together.
3. Make sure your prep is in tempo – Including your breath. Whatever tempo you give your prep in – that’s the tempo the band will enter with.

“Give your upbeat in tempo!! And give two beats when you can, its harder to feel a tempo out of one beat when the conductor’s hands are on their way back to the keyboard.” ~ Brendan Whiting

The backup plan

As a backup plan for the head nod – it’s also a good idea to sit your rhythm section where they can see your hands. That way, if you do give a bad cue, the rhythm section can still see when you hit the keys.

“I make a point of seating my drummer and bass player to the right and left of me (respectively), so they can both get a clear visual of my hands. If there’s a second keyboard, he/she is usually right behind the bass, with the rest of the band behind him/her…it’s the whole “keep the rhythm section together” idea that’s even more vital when there’s no stick to follow.” ~ Sarah Brett England

Adjusting the material

A lot of the repertoire that we work with as piano-conductors was written with the expectation of a standing conductor. For many shows there most likely was a standing conductor in the pit when it originally mounted.

When these shows are pared down for smaller pits with a piano-conductor, you sometimes have to make little adjustments to the show to accommodate the circumstances. And in this case “the circumstance” might be that you can’t even be seen because you are offstage, or because the only place to put the band was down in an underground storage closet (this was exactly the case for the Broadway production of Avenue Q!).

Consider this advice from music director Sarah Brett England:

“I can’t always be seen, so at times, I’ve had to make slight adjustments to the score to guide singers along the way, be it adding a pickup to establish a downbeat when there’s otherwise no set tempo prior to that, occasionally keeping a light beat in my left hand (or setting it in the drums) during a fermata, accenting downbeats in extended vamps under dialogue when the singer is having a hard time keeping track of the beat for their entrance, etc.”

Don’t be afraid to make little changes like these to your score. Quick fixes like this will make your productions run much smoother.

Management

As I’ve alluded to, piano-conducting most often accompanies a management position in the arts industry (such as music director). As such, I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about this part of the job.

Scheduling

Be sure to schedule reasonable amounts of time for band rehearsals, and to schedule regular breaks into that time. For example, if you have the option of scheduling your initial band rehearsals into either:

1. Two 4-hour rehearsals in two consecutive days or
2. One 8-hour rehearsal in one day

Always pick the former. Humans can only concentrate for so long (including you!), and you’ll find diminishing results if you hammer your band with a marathon rehearsal right off the bat. This is especially true for bands with horn players – you have to know how to pace your rehearsals so that your lead trumpet can still hit those high C’s at the end of the 1st act.

Rehearsals

The first few rehearsals are the best time for your musicians to get to know your conducting style. Help your band out by demonstrating how you show basic conducting gestures – for instance, what sign do you give to leave a vamp, how many preps should they normally expect, what does your “speed up” or “slow down” gesture look like. A quick overview of your movements will allow your musicians feel more comfortable and concentrate on the music.

Notice that this vibe is a lot different than you might expect from a standing conductor for a symphony orchestra or opera. The traditional relationship between a symphony and their conductor is a complex relationship of mysteries, posturing, affection, discipline, charisma and many other things. My personal advice is to leave that approach to the classical cats and lighten up if you want to be a piano-conductor in the commercial music world. As a piano conductor you are the leader, but also one of the players – and you are better off leading by example than by intimidation or posturing. Perform your part well and expect that your musicians will match your level of musicianship and professionalism.

Hire a Good Drummer

“A great working relationship with the rhythm section as a whole, especially the clearest and most consistent communication with its members, is crucial.” ~ Anne H. Tortora

The relationship between a piano-conductor and his drummer is an important one. The conductor is the one that everyone looks to – but the drummer is the one that everyone listens to.

Lucky for us, there is no shortage of extraordinary drummers in our industry. I’ve been lucky enough to work with a number of very talented drummers over the years. They all have a few things in common – they are very smart, they are very consistent, they accept the peculiar demands of a theatre gig and they are very good at both following a conductor and leading a groove. When you find a drummer like that, don’t lose their phone number.

“I find if you have OUTSTANDING chemistry with your drummer, many issues are avoided off the bat. In other words, you may have the finest drummer in the world, but if you don’t “feel” music the same instinctively, you’ll be constantly struggling with a lot of things. Interestingly enough, I’m not just talking about tempi. I think it’s a synergy thing.” ~ William Asher

Performing the Show

After the initial rehearsals are over, once you’ve been playing a show for a few days or weeks – the role of the piano-conductor changes. After an ensemble becomes familiar with a show they will come to know the show as well as you do.

Once this happens your job is to give the ensemble everything that they need, to trust them, and also: to stay out of their way. Assuming you have great singers and great musicians in your production, you can move into a dynamic that more closely resembles a chamber orchestra. A chamber orchestra is an (almost) conductor-less ensemble that breathes together, plays together and follows the leadership of it’s concert master (that’s you).

“I recently talked about [piano-conducting] with a pro who has been in the business for a long time and conducts shows from the keyboard at a major venue. He said that he loves working with musicians he knows well; after a week or two of playing a show, it becomes almost a chamber ensemble, where people just groove and breathe together, and it’s less about one person leading the pack.” ~ Markus Hauck

Certainly I don’t mean to say that you should dial it in. I only mean to advise against a common pitfall of piano-conducting: over conducting. For instance, if you come to a long vamp for just the drums and bass – should you start your conducting pattern and give the two musicians each beat? As long as the tempo remains constant and everything continues according to plan – no. Trust your players and let them play. When you give your performers more responsibility in sections like that, they will take ownership of those parts – and eventually the entire production. Personally, I find over and over again that musicians work better when their piano-conductor doesn’t micromanage.

Troubleshooting

Sure, the chamber ensemble idea sounds great – but what if it doesn’t work? What if your musicians or singers aren’t as good as you had hoped? What if you let the bass and drums handle that long vamp and they take off with the tempo and trainwreck the section?

Ok, this kind of thing happens. How you handle these situations will be the test of your leadership, and every situation will be different. Here are the 4 things I always try when I need to troubleshoot a difficult situation.

1. Servant leadership – “Servant leadership” is the management style that I always try to use first. With this philosophy you approach your job responsibilities with this question: “What can I do to help my performers do the absolute best job that they can do?”If there’s a problem with someone’s playing – a trumpeter splatting every entrance, a singer that’s never prepared for rehearsal – I’ll often take them aside and privately ask them just that question. Approaching these situations in a helpful way, rather than an accusatory way, fosters effective conversations that can often solve problems.
2. Ask for feedback – Don’t be afraid to ask your band for feedback. Sometimes piano-conductors feel like asking their musicians and singers for feedback shows weakness, but you shouldn’t be afraid of that. Ask your band if there are any parts of the show that they need more from you, or if there are any cues that are unclear, etc. You are all working together, after all, so if your clarinetist needs a bigger head nod for the entrance to their solo, let them have it. If you respect your performers enough to ask their opinion, they will often answer back with the same amount of respect.
3. Make a change – Sometimes you just have to change something to get it to work. If your saxophonist can’t play the flute part, re-write the part for sax. If your alto can’t sing that high G, lower the key. If your chorus can’t see you and won’t cut off together, nominate someone on stage to act as the surrogate conductor and give a small head nod for the cutoff.Again, you should feel justified in making small (or medium) -sized changes to your show in order to show off your ensembles strengths and not their weaknesses. Sure, there is a sanctity in the material we work with, but your audience won’t care about it if your alto squeaks on that G.
4. Fire somebody – It’s not fun, it’s always awkward, but sometimes the only thing to be done is to fire someone. If you’re thinking about making a personnel change like this, discuss it with your bosses before you actually fire anyone. If you can gather the united support of the production team, situations like this are easier (on you…).

Piano-conductors can be found on Broadway shows, small summerstocks and all the productions in between. It’s a complex position that is incredibly important throughout the arts industry.

Many thanks to the Theatre Music Director Yahoo Group for their help.

Are you a music director? Join the Theatre Music Director Facebook Group.

The closing of Broadway shows Finian’s Rainbow, Ragtime, Shrek The Musical, Bye Bye Birdie and Burn the Floor eliminated 97 musician positions from the Broadway industry this month, leaving 269 positions still secure.

According to a recent report in Variety Magazine, cumulative attendance is down 3.6% for Broadway shows this season. Yet, despite lowering attendance and a sputtering economy, Broadway has managed to take in slightly more box office money this season than last season – $692.2 million versus $689.6 million in 2009.

The number of musician positions available on Broadway is a slight increase from the same time last year. 23 shows closed between September 2008 and January of 2009, shedding 150 musician jobs over the 3 month period and leaving only 257 positions still working, primarily with long-running musicals like Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera and Jersey Boys.

Ticket sales for the revival of A Little Night Music show house capacities at 99.2% with a box office take of $928,670 for the week. Nevertheless, other shows have felt the post-holiday box office slide, most notably West Side Story, which finished the week $200,000 short of it’s usual numbers.

The Broadway musician industry will undoubtably be helped by several big openings this spring. Broadway newbies The Addams Family and American Idiot both have highly anticipated openings in March, and the revivals of both Promises, Promises and La Cage Aux Folles should soak up some missing musician jobs in April.

The 2004 revival of La Cage boasted a 24-piece orchestra, but there’s no word yet on whether this season’s rebirth will see the same sized roster.

Are You a Music Director?

Don’t miss the NYC Music Director Meet-Up on February 8th, 2010 at 8pm at the Trattoria Dopo Teatro in New York, NY. See this link for details and please RSVP on Facebook.

Author, blogger and professor David Cutler sent us a copy of his new book, The Savvy Musician, for review. We’ll be reading it and sending out a review soon.

In the meantime, please visit Cutler’s excellent site, www.savvymusician.com, for more information.