(no subject)

[oakenguy]

My Assistant Chair (and highly skilled jazz musician) had a pensive moment yesterday, after lunch with his friend who's touring with Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac is one of the highest-paying gigs his friend has had in his life, but musically.....apparently at one point a guitarist has a one-note solo. A loooong solo. With grimaces and scowls at the strings, the whole nine yards. It's not about the music, it's about making it look fresh and fun each night, even if it's exactly the same concert they've done 3000 times before. It's about selling the performance.

And here's our Chair's pensive moment: one of our main goals is giving students all the tools they'll need to get jobs. But ain't nothing in any of our courses that would prepare our kids for Fleetwood Mac...or, to be fair, almost any of the other 50 highest-paying gigs. If we want our students to land these gigs (and do we?), how do we prepare them? And how much time do we take away from teaching them musicianship, in order to teach them how to sell themselves to a crowd?

Comments

[malterre.livejournal.com]

Wah! You should hear the speech I give my Interns and the young artists I meet!
"If you are going into this for the money, realize that you will be sadly dissappointed. Do it for love, understand that it won't always be your vision and save a special,controlled place in your life for the pieces/parts/code/creation/writing that suit your dream. Also you can be the smartest, most talented person in the word but if you have no social skills it doesn't matter."
In my internships;
50% job skill 25% social/marketing/patience techniques 20% learn to research 5%encouragement. (which is 5% more than they'll get in the real world)
:(

Yes, I realize it was rhetorical but I parallel your frustration.

Re:

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

It wasn't really rhetorical--in fact, I was thinking about you and fightguy during the conversation, and everyone else who does stage combat and has to be slower and broader than they'd naturally be in order for the audience to have some idea what's going on.

Oh, update: Fleetwood Mac has a hidden drummer, down in the stage behind and below the visible one. I guess being a founding member gives you the right to mime your way through a few numbers...