The Toughest Question, Part 3

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to post! My apologies....

In the first part of this series, we look

ed at things that might keep us from asking ourselves the following very challenging question:

Do I have what it takes to be a professional bass player?

In the second part, we moved on to considering how and from whom we might collect information that could help us answer this question.

So.... it’s decision time! How do we get a grip on this question and start coming up with an answer?

Let’s start with the logic part. Here are some parts of this question that actually have an empirical element - that is, they actually relate to things that we can verify in the real world.

Talent: OK, this is of course partly subjective - there are many parts of musical talent out there and no two people agree exactly on what they are! That said, some aspects of musical talent are not so subjective. If you are consistently told that you play well in tune and have a good ear, that is a big plus for your musical future. If you make relatively few mistakes when sightreading (a skill that researchers increasingly think isn’t all that teachable), that’s another plus in your column. If you can consistently count and play in rhythm, another plus! Please don’t think we’re talking about perfection in any of these areas - no person on Earth is perfect at any of these skills. But people who are still struggling with the basics in these areas, especially by the time they are applying to music school, need to take a hard look at why that is and what that may mean for their future.

Money: This is the toughest part of this decision for me to write about, because it’s inherently unfair (since talent and money aren’t always distributed in equal amounts to everyone!). But it would be unfair to ignore it or pretend that it wasn’t a real factor. Being a musician is expensive. Taking private lessons is expensive. Getting a reasonably good bass or bow is expensive. Going to college is expensive, even if you manage to get a big scholarship. Going to a great summer music festival instead of working at CVS over the Summer is expensive. Flying around the country to auditions with your bass is expensive! While none of these things on their own have to be an obstacle to your musical career, it’s smart to consider what your financial options are, even before you go to music school. Especially in the performance area, you should not assume that you will be making much money in the years immediately following your graduation from school. I have seen bass students go to college with no realistic plans in place for how they will pay for their future instruments or for further training, with frustrating and often embittering results later when they can’t make ends meet. This doesn’t mean that you have to be rich to be a musician (although it doesn’t hurt), but it does mean that you shouldn’t be a Pollyanna about how you will manage your money.

Academic Skills: “Wait!”, you say. “Isn’t the whole point of going to music school that I won’t have to take all those academic classes?” Well, yes, to a point. But the reality is that you do indeed have to take academic classes to get a bachelors’ degree, even at the most elite conservatory. And even if you don’t much care for those classes, you still have to pass them - and you certainly don’t want them causing you unnecessary stress or distracting you from your performance work. And of course, you may be attending a university for your musical studies, where your academic load will be more challenging. Plus, many of the skills that help you do well in academics - organization, quickly ingesting new data - are a huge help in some aspects of music. Besides, no matter how many musicians say otherwise, I feel strongly that having good knowledge of things like theory and music history are actually pretty helpful in building and hanging on to a good performance career. Not to mention being able to do things like write a good grant proposal for your chamber group....

Now, on to the less logical part. These two questions depend on your view of yourself and your personality, as well as how other people see you:

Organization/Problem-Solving: Musicians have to be problem-solvers, always trying to find answers to further improve their skills as a player. Unlike some academic classes, where often merely memorizing and recycling information given to you by a teacher is enough to do fairly well, a musician has to be able to figure out how to use their own body and brain to accomplish very tricky and complex tasks. If you are a more passive learner, this can be make growth and success as a musician more difficult.

Musicality: Are you a “musical person?” This question is meant to cover the non-empirical side of music-making - that quality that shines through in a good performer even if their chops aren’t in the best of shape. Do people like to hear you play? Do people seem to have a (hopefully positive!) emotional reaction to your playing? We need to rely on others’ views of our playing in this area to get a sense of our own innate musicality, but also to remember that this is a very hard thing to get a solid answer on.

And finally, we tackle the big one:

Passion and Drive: It’s certainly one of the most-repeated cliches in the business, but it’s true: perseverance is the #1 trait that I see in successful music students who move on to be happy in their careers. This perseverance can be seen in various areas:

- a passion to have a certain musical career (“I always wanted to play viola in a string quartet more than anything”);

- a passion to perform at the highest professional level (“I’m gonna solo with the New York Phil someday!”)

- a passion to finish what you start (“I’m gonna figure out this bowstroke if it kills me!”)

- a passion to play a certain type of music (“without bebop in my life every day I can’t function.”)

- a passion to play your instrument as much as you can (If I don’t practice 4 hours a day I get grumpy!”)

- a passion that expresses itself competitively (“I wanna be the best player in my school.”)

- a passion for always exploring and improving your playing (“I found four new fingerings for my concerto today.”)

Not everyone will have all of these passions - if you did I think you’d be a pretty unpleasant person to be around. However, most successful musicians have a very deep need on some level that drives them on to constantly work towards their musical goals, especially when that means making personal sacrifices in other areas of their lives. You’ve gotta want it bad!

So: look at all these areas. Do you feel like you’ve got ‘em all covered? If you see some areas where there are struggles, do you feel like you can make a plan to improve in or overcome whatever issues or problems you face? Going into music as a profession is a bold and somewhat foolhardy act, even under the best of circumstances, and no one goes into it with any sort of guarantees of success and an easy cruise to full employment and musical satisfaction. But taking some time to think through your own skills, strengths, and weaknesses can help you figure out if making that leap is the right choice for you.

The Toughest Question, Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at fears that keep us from asking ourselves the toughest question that we all must face as musicians looking to have a professional career:

Do I have what it takes?

In this part, we’ll look at the next step in the process:

After we ask ourselves, who else should we ask this question?

I think that the best way to start looking at this is to flip it over and look at it from the other side. What do we need to have in order to succeed as a professional musician? Here are few I think are important. Some are more essential than others, and some aren’t strictly necessary, but they all make success in music more likely:

- Musical talent, including but not limited to a good ear, a sense of good sound, and rhythmic skill. We all can work to improve in these areas, but if you have major deficits in any of them it can be very tough to catch up to the necessary levels for career success.

- An ability to effectively organize one’s own work and practicing.

- A strong drive to succeed - this can mean having a competitive nature, but it primarily means an intense need to complete any task that one starts, and a desire to always do one’s very best.

- A supportive family and friends.

- Adequate financial resources to help pay for school and to afford a good instrument and necessary supplies.

- Good academic skills so that your school work doesn’t take up too much time or effort.

I’m sure that you can think of more things to add to this list, but these are a good group to start with. Ask yourself: Who from among my friends, teachers, and family knows me well enough to tell me whether I have some of these things? The answer may be different for each item on the list. Your music teacher is probably a good source for an assessment of your musical talent, but may not know much about your financial situation or your academic talents. Your parents may be highly supportive and you may have lots of financial resources, but they may not be well qualified to tell you whether you have good intonation.

As you think of people whom you feel could offer you some insight on these questions, go ask them. When you do, try to be specific and explain that you’re trying to figure out whether to choose a music career - this way they can make sure their answers reflect on your goals and don’t end up getting off topic. I encourage many students to ask for answers in a written form - usually email. Face-to-face or telephone conversations by their nature can sometimes make it difficult for people to express thoughts that they might be uncomfortable with, and it can also be harder to organize your thoughts when you’re in a conversation with someone. You want to person you’re asking to have a chance to reflect and pick the right words to express their feelings and opinions. It also can help to have a written text to refer to later. When we don’t have a written record, we can forget or even unconsciously reinterpret what someone said to us.

No one person knows everything about you or completely understands you, and you shouldn’t base your decisions about your career on any one person’s opinion. It’s even possible that someone may give you an incomplete, biased, or even dishonest answer to your questions, for reasons good and bad. But it’s just as true that none of us can ever have a totally accurate picture of ourselves! We need the opinions of others to help us make important decisions, and by collecting the views of others we can start to get a sense of whether our own self-image is accurate or whether we need to reconsider some of our beliefs about ourselves.

In the next section, we’ll take a look at how to start to use all this information and self-reflection to make the best decision we can about our futures in music.

The Toughest Question, Part 1

I’ve addressed a variety of topics here on PBDB, and almost all of them are based on conversations with bass students that I have had over the years. People ask me for advice on music school choices, technique questions, instrument purchases, teacher options, and almost any other question that could possibly seem relevant to a young bassist who is looking for ways to grow and improve as a musician. I certainly don’t always have the best or even a useful answer to their questions, but I try my best to be as helpful as I can based on my own experiences and knowledge.

However, there is one question that students very seldom ask me. This question is incredibly important, so much so that sometimes I choose to ask it of the students themselves. It’s no surprise that this question is often avoided by even the most inquisitive students. It’s a question that we all ask ourselves, but seldom do we feel sufficiently comfortable with anyone else to ask them:

Do I have what it takes to be a professional bass player?

I want to look at three aspects of this question:

- what keeps us from asking it in the first place,

- when and to whom we should and shouldn’t ask it,

- and how we can evaluate others’ responses to find the best and most complete answer.

The short answer to what keeps most of us from really asking this question is a four-letter word that starts with F - fear. If you’re even asking this question of yourself, you probably already want to be a professional musician on some level. Our society generally doesn’t steer lots of people into classical music or jazz careers. Even if you have a supportive family or teacher who are encouraging you in music, there are still lots of other societal pressures pushing almost all of us in the other direction! Asking ourselves this question means that we are acknowledging that there might be an answer other than “yes,” and no one likes to hear the word “no” when they truly want something. This is actually even more true when our own teachers and parents are telling us that we do have what it takes for a musical career. These people are usually people that we love and respect, and their opinions mean a lot to us. Asking ourselves these questions might also mean confronting the possibility that these revered authority figures might be wrong, or at least misinformed, about something important to us, and that can be a scary realization in and of itself.

This question is also hard to ask because it is fundamentally a question that asks people to tell us what they really think of us, and regardless of who we are and what our passions and interests are, that is a tough thing to do! It requires some trust and even intimacy with the person we are asking. If we feel that we are organized and mature people, and someone tells us that they think we aren’t, that can affect or even destroy our relationship with that person. For most of us, our feelings about music are deeper than our feelings about our skills at arithmetic or essay writing. Music is (among other things) about expressing ourselves and communicating our deepest feelings to others. Our self-image and our self-esteem can be intertwined with our feelings about our musical abilities, and finding out that others’ image of us isn’t the same as our own self-image can be a jarring and sometimes painful experience.

FInally, another reason that we hesitate to ask this question is that we are asking ourselves and others to predict the future with this question, and we all know that predicting the future is a highly inexact science at best. My best friend in college and I used to periodically play at predicting where each of us would be in twenty years’ time or so. We tended to get pretty ridiculous with our fortunetelling, often seeking to transplant one or the other into some bizarre, exotic location or weird relationship. I speak for both of us when I say that our lives and musical careers have both turned out in ways totally different than either our “realistic” predictions or our bizarre fantasies! No one who heard me play bass when I was 17 years old could ever have been accurate in judging the course of my musical life. However, many of the predictions that my private teacher and other musical authorities in my life at the time offered have largely come true. The collective wisdom of the people who truly knew me as a person and a musician was largely trustworthy, and I’m glad I listened to it and took it.

So, should we ask this question? Yes! If we want to have the courage to pursue a musical career, we need to have the courage to overcome all the obstacles that I’ve listed

above and collect the information that will help us make a good decision. Success in music requires us to “grow up” faster than a lot of our non-musician friends. High schools and colleges are designed to help and support students who are unsure of what they want to do with their lives. In fact, they are organized around the idea that you will use high school and college to begin to figure out what you want to do with your life. To decide to go into music as a career usually means that we need to make these sorts of decisions - and have these sorts of tough conversations - years before our society makes most young adults decide on a career path. It takes maturity and a realization that you’re on a slightly different path than everyone else to go into music. Looking at your suitability for this career in an honest way is essential.

In the next chapter, we’ll look at the next aspect of this topic: Whom we should ask this question, and what specific questions we need to ask to make sure we’re collecting good information that can help us sort out our choices.

Does it matter if your teacher doesn’t use the same bowhold as you?

This is a question that is always rattling around out there in Bassland. Many students stress out about the role that the teacher’s bowhold should play in their choice. Many parents of students seem to stress out about it even more than the students!

As with so many questions of this sort, the answer.... depends. However, I will certainly say the following with great certainty: You don’t have to study with a teacher who uses the same bowhold as you. You can learn very effectively from a teacher who uses either bowhold. How do I know? I, who played German bow pretty much exclusively until about four years ago, never studied with a German bow-playing teacher - they’ve all been Frenchies. I know of more than a few successful professional players who can say the same. So it’s certainly possible to develop an effective bow technique from someone who doesn’t use “your” bowhold.

That said, my story is certainly not the norm - most folks play the same bow as their teacher, and most folks keep studying with a teacher who uses the same bowhold even if they go on to study music in college. For their initial teacher this makes perfect sense - of course their teacher will initially train them on the same bowhold that they primarily use if at all possible. For one’s later teachers it is a bit more complex. I suspect that folks gravitate towards later teachers with the same bowhold because they suspect they’ll learn more, plus the teachers tend to more actively recruit students with the same bowhold because they feel they can teach them more effectively. This doesn’t tell us whether these people learned more effectively from these teachers because of the similarity in their bowholds. They might have learned just as much from a teacher with the opposite bowhold. All we know from this is that folks tend to use the same bow as their teachers.

So, which is it? Do bassists tend to study with a “similarly-bowed” teacher because it’s better for learning? Or do they do it out of habit, tradition, or an incorrect belief that it’s better for learning? Or are they one and the same? If you believe a teacher is better for you because they use the same bowhold, won’t you learn more simply because this makes you feel more motivated to learn?

Wow, we’ve gotten deep into the weeds on this! Most of these questions are not really answerable, since to my knowledge no one has done a long-term research study on the topic. I hereby offer it up to any enterprising education major who wants a dissertation idea - let me know your results....

Let’s pull back for a minute and focus instead on a more concrete situation that folks often encounter in the real world. You’re a French bow player applying to music school and you got into two schools that you really like. You’ve checked out both programs and you have met with the teachers you might be studying with. You like what they’re both have to say. One of them plays German and the other French - which one should you study with?

First, you should ask the German bow teacher about his or her views on teaching a French bow player! The teacher may have some good information to offer - perhaps they play both bows very proficiently and just prefer German overall, or perhaps they don’t play French at all and don’t seem to have much interest in exploring it. Either way, you’ll get more information to help you out.

Second, you need to think about how you learn - and more specifically, whether learning by visual imitation is a central part of your learning style. If you need to see someone demonstrate a skill in order to effectively understand how to do it yourself, you may be more of a visual learner. For some, visual learning is a key element of their studies; or others, it is much less important. Some learn more by auditory imitation - they try to reproduce the sound they are hearing from their teachers. For others, learning is more cognitive - they need to understand intellectually what they are trying to accomplish in order to make the most effective progress. For others, learning can be more related to touch and the kinesthetic sense - the sense of where their bodies are in space. Everyone learns by a combination of all these senses, combined with their own experimentation with what they learn.

If you are a more visual learner, then it may be more important for you to actually see your teacher demonstrating things using the same bowhold as you. Without this element, you might have more difficulty learning bow technique. If you don’t focus as much on what you see when you’re in your lessons, but rather how your teacher sounds or what they are saying to you, then it may be less important that your teacher play the same bow as you.

Having spilled so much (digital) ink on this subject, I’ll leave you with a quick summation: In my opinion, it’s not at all essential that your teacher play the same bow as you! I and many others out there who play the bass studied with folks who played a different bowhold than they do, and I think it’s far wiser to study with an excellent, highly respected teacher who plays a different bow than you than to play with a less qualified teacher who plays the same bow as you. However, if you’re choosing among several good teachers, what bow they use could be a factor in your decision, especially if you’re a more visual learner.

What do you think? Write me a comment - I know there are some strongly-held opinions out there on this subject....

Shopping for a music school Part VI - Grad School

Most of the issues that music students face when applying to graduate school are the same ones that undergraduate students face - researching teachers, figuring out what you want from the programs, learning about ensembles at the various schools, etc. But there are some issues that are more unique to grad school applicants, and certainly some issues are far more important to grads than to undergrads. I'm going to create four "case study" grad music school applicants to look at the different issues that they bring up. All of these categories of grad applicants are based on the grad school applicants that we often see at Peabody, as well as on my own student experiences and the experiences of others I've met over the years.

#1: Plugging the Holes

This grad applicant has usually attended a solid undergraduate program and has a good grasp of most technical basics. He or she has also done a pretty good amount of playing over the years in his school ensembles, as well as probably participating in some summer music festivals. However, #1 may have a couple of technique issues holding them back from being ready for professional work. Perhaps they don't feel they've ever mastered their spiccato bowstrokes, or maybe they have difficulty controlling their vibrato. For this applicant, they need to focus first of all on finding the right teacher that can help them work through these issues, and then help them incorporate these changes into their solos and excerpts. It's probably not as important that they be at a school with a great orchestra program, or lots of fascinating music academics (see more on this below). Their two years at grad school will be very teacher-focused, so that should be their emphasis.

#2: Liberal Arts Convert

Applicant #2 went through a liberal arts program, planning to do their music on the side as a hobby, or perhaps as a minor. But at some point, they got bitten by the music bug and decided they wanted to switch to a music focus. Perhaps they did in fact switch majors, or perhaps they finished their original major choice while practicing more on the side. Their playing may be quite strong, and their commitment to music ensures that they will keep strengthening their technique. What they need more is the chance to work with a good ensemble and/or chamber music program, and also that they have opportunities to get some good music theory/history classes in. While they of course will seek a strong teacher, they should probably put extra emphasis on looking into the playing opportunities that they will have at various schools.

#3: On the Circuit

This applicant pretty much has it together professionally: good training, good ensemble experience, and good orchestral audition prep work. They are looking for an environment that will support them as they take orchestral auditions. They need a teacher who can be a great audition coach - a teaching skill that is very different from the skill set you need to work on more basic technique. Some teachers have both of these skills, while others are stronger in one or the other. They also need a school program that will not place a lot of demands on their time so that they will be able to practice, go to auditions, and hopefully seek professional freelance work to pay the bills. They should also consider school location carefully - flying to auditions in expensive and unpleasant, and choosing a school in the Midwest or on the East Coast will place them within driving distance of a lot more professional orchestras.


#4: Playing Catch-Up

Perhaps this applicant wasn't at a very strong undergrad music progam. Perhaps they just slacked off a lot in school. Perhaps their progress was hindered by illness, injury, or personal problems. For whatever reason, they may be arriving at their grad school application process lacking some core technical elements, or needing more ensemble experience. This person needs to first make sure that whatever issues were holding them back in undergrad are worked out before they go to grad school. They don't have the option of wasting time in grad school - they will need to hit the ground running and work hard to make it. They need to do what applicant #1 did, but on steroids - finding a teacher who can give their technique and musical knowledge a full-body workout, and making up for lost time in acquiring ensemble experience.



While of course no student will match any of these categories perfectly, many will find similarities with their experiences. Consider what you really need grad school for and make sure that you have as good a chance as possible to get what you need.

Now, for some general thoughts. Money is usually a stronger issue for grads than undergrads. Parents are often not able to help with graduate school tuition, and students already carrying loans from undergrad don't want to add on even more debt. Besides the standard strategies on getting financial aid, look for schools that are located in places with relatively low costs of living, and research what the gigging opportunities are for you, especially what sort of driving you might have to do to get to those gigs. Gigging can be relatively lucrative, but not if you're spending all your time (time that you should be practicing) driving to gigs in traffic!

Another way to reduce costs and increase your available work time is to look into programs with minimal academic requirements. Many schools - Peabody is one of them - offer some type of degree that offers all the performance requirements of a Masters' degree with few or no academics. This degree is usually cheaper and, for an applicant who doesn't have a strong need or desire for more academic work, can be a great way to get the teaching and ensemble work you need. Peabody's degree is called the Graduate Performance Diploma, but at other schools the name is different; be careful not to confuse this type of degree with an Artist Diploma, which is usually very competitive and oriented towards those contemplating solo careers.

Finally, consider whether grad school is really the right thing for you. If you can find a way to get high-quality teaching on a private basis, you might be better off freelancing - or even working at a non-music job - and practicing independently. This option certainly isn't for everyone, and you shouldn't undertake it if you're not extremely motivated and able to work independently.

Shopping for a Music School, Part V: The Culture

Around this time I like to point readers to the series I wrote about looking at music schools - the various parts are here, here, here, and here. Many seniors in high school and college are looking at their school choices and planning research trips around now, and hopefully some of the ideas I mention in these articles might help.

Upon rereading the series, I've decided to add some new chapters this Fall touching on some other topics related to choosing a school. I'll be doing a chapter especially for grad school applicants later on this month, and one on taking school auditions as well. Here are some thoughts on a mysterious and hard-to-define thing: the culture of a music school.

Any institution as large and long-lasting as a music school develops a culture - a shared set of attitudes and beliefs - that last and are transmitted through the students, faculty and staff of the school. Within that culture are all sorts of subcultures that interact with each other in various ways. Peabody has a culture. Orchestral instrumentalists at Peabody have a subculture. Bassists at Peabody have another subculture. The same is true of every conservatory and music school. That culture colors and effects the experience of students in various ways. In a school with a culture of competition between students, those who thrive on striving to do better than their colleagues do well. Students who thrive in a more collaborative environment may feel isolated and stressed. In a school with an inward-looking culture, students with a strong need for community and continuity will excel, while those needing lots of stimulation and input from the outside world will be frustrated.

What makes up the culture of a music school? Some answers include:

- The personalities and beliefs of its teachers
- The culture of the place where it is physically located
- The history and famous graduates of the school
- The physical characteristics of the campus
- The cultural origins and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students

The degree of importance given to these (and other) categories for each school depends on an impossible-to-define blend of history, choice, and dumb luck. Defining the culture of an institution is a tricky thing, and of course no school or group of people can be simplistically labeled or pigeonholed; every school has people and attitudes of all sorts. And I'm sure that some would argue that even trying to define or discuss these matters is useless and counterproductive. But I feel that trying to understand the basic tendencies of a particular music school can help you consider whether that place would be a good fit for you.

Here are some elements that are often part of music school cultures. You can use them as yardsticks to consider elements of the schools you are looking at. Some of them are offered with more than a little tongue-in-cheekiness.

Community: Do students value their social time together? In some schools, the music students (or bass students in particular) socialize and hang out together outside of classes and practice time; in others, students' social lives may rotate around a wider circle of friends and acquaintances. Some students want the chance to mix with a wide group of friends, while others love the intensity of friendships that can be formed among a smaller group of dedicated fellow musicians.

Competition: Do students feel that they are competing with each other to be the best in the school, or that they are each helping the other to achieve their own personal best? Are there particular venues of competition - juries, concerto competitions, orchestra seatings - where the students focus their competitive fire? Competition is a big part of life as a professional musician, and any school worth attending is going to have chances for students to compete against each other. But for many students, too much competition can be anxiety-producing and counter-productive.

Tradition: Does the school emphasize that its students are joining a great ongoing tradition, or does it focus on how students will impact the future of music? Some students feel pride and belonging in joining a historic tradition, while others enjoy a culture more focused on change and innovation.

Teacher as Mentor/Teacher as Advisor: Do students see their teachers more as mentors to revere and study, or more as advisors or even co-collaborators in their learning? Some students thrive in an atmosphere where the boundary between teacher and student is more sharply and traditionally defined. Others prefer a culture where they can have a more relaxed atmosphere of dialogue with their teachers.

Nerdiness: Let's face it, some of us are just bigger music nerds than others. Hopefully you are at least somewhat music nerdy - you're applying to music school, after all - but maybe you're not as hard-core as that guy in your youth orchestra who literally stays up until 2:30 am listening to bass soloists on YouTube. Some people love an environment entirely focused on their instrument and it's every minutia, while others want to take time off from music nerdiness now and then.

Partyosity: This is of course related to Nerdiness, but certainly isn't always correlative - some of the nerdiest music schools are also big party schools. The key here is not only whether you like to party, but rather how the partying affects the musical life at the school. Some schools have a "work hard play hard" culture where intense partying coexists with intense work. At others, the partying may end up interfering with your musical efforts.

This is of course not an exhaustive list, and it bears repeating that no school is black and white on any of these cultural traits - indeed, people at the school may disagree passionately amongst themselves about whether or not their school has any of these characteristics. Still, it's worth asking students and faculty at the various schools that you are considering about these cultural traits and seeing if their answers tend to match up or not. If they do, it can provide you with some interesting and informative data for your school research. In this area in particular, I recommend not taking any one person's views too strongly. People's attitudes about a place can change over time and be affected by their mood or by minor events. Try to get as large a group of opinions about the school as you can, and then take the average of the opinions you've collected to get an overall sense of things.


No one wants to spend years in an environment that may be stressful to them or that works against their own best path to musical growth. Learning about the culture of a school can give you a sense of what your life might really be like at that school that no amount of glossy brochures from the admissions office can ever reveal.

Peter Lloyd Master Class

For those of you in our neighborhood, Northwestern University faculty and former Minnesota Orchestra principal bass Peter Lloyd will be giving two master classes tomorrow, Sunday the 9th at Peabody. The first will begin at 5:30 and focus on orchestral excerpts; the second will begin at 7:45 and will focus on solo material. Both classes are in East Hall and all are invited. Please contact us if you need any more information or directions to school.

Music School $$$ - Finding the Balance

by JW

No one doing any bass blogging can escape the influence of our acknowledged master, Jason Heath. His bass blog is the best and most comprehensive around, a clearinghouse of all that is noteworthy in bass on the Internet. His posts describing life as a freelancer and teacher, and his comments of the business of music in general, are thought-provoking, informative, and often hilarious. Jason has been kind enough to mention this blog on his site, and even to give us a few compliments. Combined with “Contrabass Conversations,” his excellent and informative series of podcasts, he is a one-man bass media empire. All this, and he is a full time performer and teacher. Does the guy ever take a nap?

A post of Jason’s that I’ve thought of quite often is this one from May 2007 on rethinking performance degrees. I had just started teaching at Peabody in 2006, and I was already thinking about many of the issues he touches on in this post when I first read it. As prospective students contacted me about Peabody, I felt increasing anxiety about the financial burden a Peabody student must take on vs. the employment prospects in music. No matter how talented and hardworking a student is, no matter how big a scholarship they receive, they are signing on for a profession where it can take many years to achieve any kind of financial security. Jason’s post offers some solutions, but for someone like me it offers mostly challenges.

Doctors, dentists, lawyers, MBA students, nurses – all these professional degrees require their students to take on lots of debt. But in each of these fields, work of some kind is readily available upon graduation. I’m not saying that every lawyer gets some fantastic job right out of school, or that people in these professions don’t face sacrifice and financial struggle in their career. The difference is that for any lawyer or doctor, there is a clear path out of debt after school, even if it features long work hours and drudgery. In music, you can face long hours and drudgery and get paid nothing. Even if you graduate from college with no school-related debt at all, you face the following major costs:

- traveling to and from auditions or competitions
- purchasing and maintaining your instrument(s) and bow(s)
- general travel expenses, either for car ownership and maintenance or for taking mass transit

All these expenses have a few things in common. They are all costs that either aren’t issues at all for non-musicians, or tend to be higher for musicians than non-musicians. They all are large – especially instrument costs! And unlike for student loans, there is no federally subsidized loan system waiting to help you buy a bass or attend an audition. On the contrary, it is very difficult to get a loan for an instrument, and they tend to have very high interest rates.

So what does this mean? Am I telling everyone they shouldn’t go to music school? Not at all. Music school is an almost universal prerequisite for success in our field. The percentage of working professional musicians who didn’t go to a major music school is incredibly low, mainly because there is no substitute for the four years of focused instruction and practice that a music major gets. Just as important as the actual coursework and lessons are the lessons you learn from your community of fellow music students as they work towards the same goals you have.

However, I’m less of a Polyanna on this subject than I once was. For every music student, there is a level of financial burden that is simply unwise. Exactly what that number is varies for each person, and it is determined by a complicated equation that takes into consideration your family’s income, your talent, your drive to succeed, and your ability to be smart with your money. I can’t tell you what that level is for you, but I can tell you that there is one, and I encourage all music students to consider what it is before they make the financial commitment to a music education.

The most important thing that facing the high costs of music education teaches us is: don’t waste it! Work hard while at school and absorb all you can. After you leave the college setting it gets harder and harder to stay focused on your musical work as the ugly realities of adult life begin to intrude on us. Having four or two years to become the best performer and musician you can be is a great gift – use them wisely and they’ll pay you back later.

Shopping for a Music School, Part IV: Putting it Together

After figuring out what you want and doing all this research, what then? Where do you apply? How do you know which factors to balance against the other? Based on my own experiences and on many discussions with students and teachers, I feel like the most important factors are:

- Private teacher. Obviously, after all is said and done, this remains a top factor. If you see a great teacher in action and make a good connection with him or her, and they have a good national reputation in your area of interest, you should do whatever you can to get into their studio. Remember, the most important factor to consider is whether you can get what you need from them to achieve your goals in music.

- Money. It’s hard for most students to look at this issue honestly - it’s not very pleasant to deal with. The reality is that music is a tough field, and unlike other professional fields like medicine and law, it may take a long time before you have a career that enables you to pay off your student loans and still survive. I generally discourage students from leaving music school with enormous debt if at all possible. If your parents don’t have the resources to cover your top school choice, it’s usually unwise for you to take on most of the debt yourself in loans. It’s much harder to truly devote yourself to music post-graduation while maintaining a full time non-music job. Try not to create a financial situation that will make a desk job essential for your financial survival after you graduate. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take on any debt, but that you should do everything possible to keep that debt from crippling you if you graduate and need time to establish a career.

- Program focus. What makes elite colleges like the Ivy League desirable is not primarily the instructors, but rather the intensity and focus of the students at these institutions. Likewise, in a conservatory you want to be surrounded by people who are working hard towards the same basic goals that you are. Not only will this help you learn from your colleagues, it will also help you stay on your practice regimen when the going gets rough. People who do things in groups generally succeed more than those who go it alone (see Alcoholics Anonymous or Weight Watchers).

- Location and atmosphere. This is a vague category, but it’s often overlooked. If you thrive in a competitive atmosphere, consider schools that have that feel. If you hate cold weather, don’t to go the Northern Maine Conservatory! You will need to work hard every day to achieve your goals and should find a school conducive to that.

Lots of things I’ve mentioned in this series may seem basic or obvious to a lot of readers, but I’ve seen students ignore many of them and not get the college experience they were hoping for. Doing some homework can help you choose among the many music programs out there. We have an excellent program at Peabody and we love to talk about it with anyone who’s interested, but we don’t want anyone going here who isn’t going to feel challenged and satisfied by what we can provide them. Thinking about these questions can help you better know the answer to that question.


That's it for this series. I hope that it's helped some of you look at the school application process in new ways. Now, it's your turn.... Offer up some comments! Did I miss anything? Have I changed your life forever? Am I a complete idiot? Let me know.

Shopping for a Music School, Part III: Orchestra and Chamber Music

by JW

As a music performance student, you’ll probably spend more of your “work” time practicing and working on your private teacher’s assignments than on anything else. The thing you’re likely to spend the second largest block of time on is your orchestra or other ensemble classes. School orchestras are often misunderstood. Students often see their orchestra requirement as:

- a “gig,” something they need to do to appease the school and earn their scholarship. When you’re grinding through a boring opera rehearsal it can certainly seem that way.

- An activity, something they enjoy and do primarily for their own musical enjoyment. We all want orchestra to be fun, but it probably won’t be all the time.

- A PR organization, presenting concerts to encourage community involvement in the school, get in the local paper, and entertain the trustees.

Parents and school administrators can also see orchestra as one or more of these things, although they may assign them different values than students. For example, to a college administrator, the school orchestra is indeed sometimes a PR organization or scholarship requirement. That's fine, but that has to do with the orchestra's role is satisfying their needs, not yours.

The thing I encourage all prospective (and current!) music students to remember is that your school ensemble is a class. Playing in a large ensemble requires developing specialized skills – figuring out how to find and agree on tempo with 100 other musicians in an instant, learning which notes on the bassoon tend to be sharp, learning how to hear and adjust your pitch while everyone is playing fortissimo, and many others. Your school ensemble should help you acquire these skills, and hopefully the conductor should focus his rehearsal time not only on learning the music in front of you, but on teaching you how to learn the music in front of you. Sadly, some college orchestra programs fall short in this area; finding those that don’t can mean the difference between a great orchestra experience in school and an OK one.

If you can work it out, go see a rehearsal of the orchestra or other ensembles at the schools you are interested in. Try to contact students and ask them about the orchestra experience at the school. Try to see if the orchestra is something that you can see as a learning experience, and not just a place to play through orchestral rep.

Many of these same principles apply to chamber music. Almost all schools have a chamber music requirement for undergraduate and graduate students, and that program should also ideally be a learning experience for you. Inquire about it as well. How many coachings do you get with the faculty? Who are they and what is the experience of working with them like? All these questions can help you glean some important nuggets of information as you consider your choices.

Shopping for a Music School, Part II: Researching Teachers

It is a truism heard by most music school applicants at some point: “Don’t worry about the school, just get the best teacher.” It’s a statement with a lot of truth to it. Music performance is an art that stubbornly resists efforts to turn it into a classroom subject. It is such a complex and all-encompassing discipline that it has to be taught in a one-to-one setting. Your studio instructor will be the center of your musical education, and to be successful you need to find one who will guide and support you.

What do I think we need to look for in a teacher?

- Successful and satisfied former and current students. Talk to current and former students of the teacher. Did they come to that teacher looking for the same things you are looking for? Do they feel they got those things? What are that teacher’s students doing after they leave him or her? Are they things you want to do eventually?
- A teacher who comes from good teaching. No one is (or should be) a carbon copy of his or her own teacher. And some wonderful teachers and players can come from a less-than-fantastic teacher themselves. However, we are all influenced by our teachers, and your future teacher probably was influenced by theirs. Who were they? What was their philosophy and style?
- A teacher who will be dedicated to your goals. Many good teachers will give us good advice and explain good technical and musical concepts to us, but not every teacher will stick with us as we go through to hard work of internalizing and perfecting those concepts. Is the teacher interested in their students’ goals, and do they individualize their approach for each student?
- A teacher you can trust and respect. For all of us, there are times in our learning process that we need to simply take what our teachers say on faith. Often it will take months or even years of work before we can fully internalize and understand a concept that we are taught. If we harbor doubts about the basic trustworthiness of our teacher, it makes that faith difficult to maintain, and hampers our growth.
- A teacher you like. You’ll be spending a lot of time alone with your teacher, and you’ll enjoy the process of learning more if you don’t grimace at the thought of spending an hour alone in a small room with them! This isn’t absolutely essential, and music lore is full of stories of the famous, cruel teacher and his terrorized students, who all adored him. I’m not sure all those stories are accurate, but even if they are, they don’t constitute the majority in my opinion. It certainly doesn’t hurt to like your teacher!

Which brings us to Prof Weisner’s Second Rule:

When it comes to teachers, test drive and check the ratings before you buy.

As much as possible, I encourage music school applicants to have at least one trial lesson before applying to a particular teacher’s studio. Many teachers are busy people and this can be difficult to do, but do your best to make it happen. In conjunction or separately from the lesson, have an extensive discussion/interview with the teacher. If they are too busy for a phone conversation, email can be a great method here. Based on your thoughts about your goals and issues, ask the teacher what he thinks about them and how he might help you work on them. I often recommend writing down a list of questions for the teacher before you speak with them so that you are sure that you’ve covered all your questions. You should also try to contact current and former students of the teacher and ask similar questions. I recommend trying to talk to more than one former or current student, and not placing too much weight on any one student’s opinion. Every teacher has certain students that they had a special bond with, and others that just didn’t ever work out well. Some of that may be the teacher’s doing, some may be the student’s, and some may just be other life circumstances unrelated to either person. By speaking to a group of students, you can hopefully get a more balanced perspective on their teacher.

Some of this may sound a little nosey or inappropriate; I don’t think it is at all. You and your parents are making an important choice for your future and you need to understand your options as thoroughly as you can. I’ve heard more than a few horror stories of students who graduated from a particular school bitter and unhappy about their experience after they made a teacher choice without meeting or learning about them. While there are no guarantees in life, there are more and less informed decisions and you owe yourself an informed one on this important topic. You have every right to know what you can and can’t expect to get from a teacher.

Shopping for a music school - Intro and Part I

by JW

Around this time of year, we start getting calls and emails from bass students who are interested in Peabody. They have often heard about the school either by reputation or through an alumnus or current student. Or they may know of a particular faculty member in which they are interested. They often want to meet with one of more of us for a lesson or just to discuss their options.

A lot of these students aren’t really sure of what they are looking for in a school. This is understandable. While high schools have lots of resources available to help students seeking a traditional academic degree, the student who wants to pursue a serious career in music performance is often pretty much on his or her own. Many guidance and college counselors don’t know what is involved in selecting a teacher or program, and sometimes even offer actively unhelpful advice. Parents, assuming they support their child’s musical passions at all, are often not musicians themselves and don’t always have a lot of experience to draw on. If you are a serious music student interested in a performance career and looking to attend a top music program, both generally and for your instrument or voice, you are often have to do a lot of your own heavy lifting when it comes to researching your school choices. Even your music teachers, who can usually offer the most support and help in your search, may not have the breadth of knowledge you ideally need.

I’m going to be posting intermittently over the next few weeks on this topic. As someone who went through this process myself when I was a student, and now participates in it on the other side at Peabody, I hope to offer some ideas that can minimize the stress and confusion and help you focus on what options really work for your needs.

I’m not going to focus much on the issues that all college applicants have in common, such as:

- Large vs. small schools
- Regional preferences
- Academic requirements
- Affordability and financial aid issues
- Applications and essays etc.

There are plenty of resources available for learning about these topics and music students should certainly consider them seriously when choosing a school. I will instead take a look at the issues of musical curriculum and learning that your average college guide won’t mention. I’m going to use bassists as an example when necessary because that’s who’s most likely to be reading this site, but most of these ideas apply to all music performance applicants.

Part I: What do you want?

Saying “I want to be a musician” can mean a lot of things when it comes to the choices we make in life. Choosing a musical career path means dedicating oneself to a lot of hard work, personal discipline, and sacrifice. It also usually means some disappointment and frustration, no matter what area of music you’re in. The number of musicians who have built a successful and happy career without going through some periods of struggle and difficulty is unfortunately pretty small.

There’s lots of talk in the music world these days about how today’s performers need to be more ready to work in a multifaceted and increasingly complex job market. The hot buzzwords of the day are “diverse” and “adaptable.” There is a lot of truth to these statements! Jason Heath’s excellent blog series “Musician Without an Expense Account” offers some very interesting perspectives on this topic. (I don’t agree with everything he says in this series, but that’s a topic for another day….) The number of full-time symphonic jobs is certainly not getting much larger, and the competition for them is only getting tougher. The same is true for full-time teaching positions at colleges and universities.

However, this diversity approach can neglect one key truth: while you may have to be able to do more things to be a full time musician, you still have to be able to do what you needed to do back in the “old days” when orchestra jobs were more plentiful – play well. If today’s young musicians have to play (and teach) all styles of music and run a website/company/teaching studio as well, they are going to have to be even stronger players than past generations were. Which leads us to Prof Weisner’s First Rule for Prospective College Musicians:

Look for a school that will best help you build the core skills you need to play the types the music you want to play professionally.

Attaining the technical standards expected of musicians today requires a lot of work. A classical bassist needs at a minimum:
- excellent intonation
- solid rhythm
- a command of all bow strokes
- an appealing and flexible vibrato
- and an ability to understand (and perform well in) a wide range of musical styles

Jazz players also need great improvisatory skills, plus an even greater command of pizzicato techniques.

Look at this list. Where do you see your strengths and weaknesses? What does your teacher tell you every week that you need to work on? Be honest with yourself – before you can pick the right school you need to know what you need! I am always impressed by applicants to Peabody who honestly tell me what their problem areas are when I ask them at their audition (and I almost always do). They usually have solid, realistic long-term goals and are mature enough to achieve them.

Putting in some time to understanding what you want is one of the best investments you can make in your education. Many schools (including some of the most prestigious and well-known ones) may not in the end be the best environment for you to grow in. Being able to ask the right questions as you research schools and teachers will bring you the answers you need.

In Part II we'll look at private teachers and how to find ones that will work for you.