Hey Nick, thanks for the video. I've been wondering how you've gone about building a private lesson studio of students. Over the last few years, I've been bouncing between teaching gigs at different music shops, sometimes with their own curriculum, which is cool, but I ideally want to consolidate all of my students to a single place, be making all the money that I am teaching for, and have more freedom in what I teach the students, especially as I'm about to graduate from college. I also teach a lot of younger kids, and want to focus on getting more highschool/college aged students. Any thoughts? Thanks! P.S.- Really dig Lucas's new record, and caught you guys at Smalls- killing!
Hi Larry! Thanks for the note! Yea that can be a real challenge with all the different schools and students.... I was in the same position when I was in college, and wanting to consolidate. My guess is that you’ll have to decide to run your own studio, and let a bunch of the students go if they don’t want to come you and you’ll have to build it up again. The best way to get students is by getting recommendations from other teachers who are too busy to accommodate additional students... so I would let folks know that you’re looking to grow your own studio, and what types of students you’re looking for. It can be challenging to take a lateral step and rebuild, but that’s the only way to really build up a studio in the image that you want rather than what others want you to do!
How do u know ur loud especially in a small room im told that u can never be to loud ik that is true to a degree but how do u know loud vollume in a auditorium compared to loud in a practice room
This is a good question! You always have to have awareness for the space you are playing in - just ask a drummer! If you're playing in a very reverberant space, you're going to seem louder than if you're in a dead one.... just use your ears to tell you if you're in balance with the other musicians around you! You should mostly always listen to everyone else more than yourself in an ensemble. Also playing too loud for too long can be really detrimental to your sound/tone and endurance, I recommend practicing at a "speaking volume" not too loud, not too soft :)
Hey Nick, I really appreciate the insightful video. There’s an article I’ve seen pop up every now and again about how difficult it is making money as a jazz musician, specifically in New York. I was wondering if you could talk a little more about the financial side of playing music. Like how often you gig and how much those gigs pay. Not that I need to know exactly how much you make, but it would be helpful to know a little bit more about the realty of playing music music for a living. I’m also wondering about how much the city your In matters. I know a lot of people swear by New York while others say the market there is so saturated that you shouldn’t even bother. From my understanding, the majority of your playing has been in Rochester, New York, and now Texas. It would be interesting to hear about how you think location plays into your financial success as a musician. Here’s a link to that article if you haven’t read it. www.villagevoice.com/2016/06/21/almost-famous-almost-broke-how-does-a-jazz-musician-make-it-in-new-york-now/
Hi Jordan - thanks for the insightful comment. I grew up in Rochester and started gigging there, but most of the gigs I've played are actually probably on the road! Second after that would be gigs in New York City. I think this might warrant a longer explanation in a future video... which I'm happy to look into, but for now I'll do my best to answer you here. Creative music gigs (playing at Smalls, or other peoples music here in NYC) is likely to pay little to no money. Maybe 50 or 100. But that is certainly not the case when I lived in Rochester. Similar gigs there paid maybe 10-20 bucks. Or maybe just a few drinks and dinner. You're totally right that location is an extremely large consideration into whether you can make it SOLEY performing music. And if you want to only perform you have to decide at some point which gigs you want to take that will actually pay the bills. Wedding/corporate bands, touring acts, and theatre shows all pay much more than any average jazz gigs... I'd have to think about it a bit more to give you real numbers, but my income has fluctuated up and down for years. There are busy months and slow months... good years and bad years. But I would say I've never ONLY performed. It certainly has not been viable for me only to perform. If I wanted to be on the road 90% of the year, I could definitely make that work as only a performer, but if I want to have any semblance of freedom to do the things I want - all the other things I've mentioned in the video come into effect. To be honest, I can't think of too many trombone players that would be "highly accomplished" that don't at least teach a little bit. The music now is so much intertwined with academia that I don't think it's really possible to not interact with students in some way. So for me, I play in NYC, tour, teach at Univ of North Texas, and try to reach beyond any one location here on the internet :) - hope this is a start to an answer to your question!
Nick Finzer Thanks for the Reply! It’s great to hear about this stuff from you. They don’t really teach you this in school (at least not at my school) so it’s good to hear from someone on the field.
Totally. I know what you mean. I try to pass it along to students... but, you really have to be in the right headspace to even receive the information... I know my teachers tried to tell me this kind of stuff, but I wasn't ready to hear it...
Thanks Nick for the great content as usual
Hey Pablito you’re very welcome. Thanks for watching 🤗
Hey Nick, thanks for the video. I've been wondering how you've gone about building a private lesson studio of students. Over the last few years, I've been bouncing between teaching gigs at different music shops, sometimes with their own curriculum, which is cool, but I ideally want to consolidate all of my students to a single place, be making all the money that I am teaching for, and have more freedom in what I teach the students, especially as I'm about to graduate from college. I also teach a lot of younger kids, and want to focus on getting more highschool/college aged students. Any thoughts? Thanks!
P.S.- Really dig Lucas's new record, and caught you guys at Smalls- killing!
Hi Larry! Thanks for the note! Yea that can be a real challenge with all the different schools and students.... I was in the same position when I was in college, and wanting to consolidate. My guess is that you’ll have to decide to run your own studio, and let a bunch of the students go if they don’t want to come you and you’ll have to build it up again. The best way to get students is by getting recommendations from other teachers who are too busy to accommodate additional students... so I would let folks know that you’re looking to grow your own studio, and what types of students you’re looking for. It can be challenging to take a lateral step and rebuild, but that’s the only way to really build up a studio in the image that you want rather than what others want you to do!
How do u know ur loud especially in a small room im told that u can never be to loud ik that is true to a degree but how do u know loud vollume in a auditorium compared to loud in a practice room
I guess my question is, is there a limit to how loud u are in or out of the practice room
This is a good question! You always have to have awareness for the space you are playing in - just ask a drummer! If you're playing in a very reverberant space, you're going to seem louder than if you're in a dead one.... just use your ears to tell you if you're in balance with the other musicians around you! You should mostly always listen to everyone else more than yourself in an ensemble. Also playing too loud for too long can be really detrimental to your sound/tone and endurance, I recommend practicing at a "speaking volume" not too loud, not too soft :)
Ty
midnight assassin you’re very welcome
Hey Nick, I really appreciate the insightful video. There’s an article I’ve seen pop up every now and again about how difficult it is making money as a jazz musician, specifically in New York. I was wondering if you could talk a little more about the financial side of playing music. Like how often you gig and how much those gigs pay. Not that I need to know exactly how much you make, but it would be helpful to know a little bit more about the realty of playing music music for a living.
I’m also wondering about how much the city your In matters. I know a lot of people swear by New York while others say the market there is so saturated that you shouldn’t even bother. From my understanding, the majority of your playing has been in Rochester, New York, and now Texas. It would be interesting to hear about how you think location plays into your financial success as a musician.
Here’s a link to that article if you haven’t read it. www.villagevoice.com/2016/06/21/almost-famous-almost-broke-how-does-a-jazz-musician-make-it-in-new-york-now/
Hi Jordan - thanks for the insightful comment. I grew up in Rochester and started gigging there, but most of the gigs I've played are actually probably on the road! Second after that would be gigs in New York City.
I think this might warrant a longer explanation in a future video... which I'm happy to look into, but for now I'll do my best to answer you here.
Creative music gigs (playing at Smalls, or other peoples music here in NYC) is likely to pay little to no money. Maybe 50 or 100. But that is certainly not the case when I lived in Rochester. Similar gigs there paid maybe 10-20 bucks. Or maybe just a few drinks and dinner.
You're totally right that location is an extremely large consideration into whether you can make it SOLEY performing music. And if you want to only perform you have to decide at some point which gigs you want to take that will actually pay the bills. Wedding/corporate bands, touring acts, and theatre shows all pay much more than any average jazz gigs...
I'd have to think about it a bit more to give you real numbers, but my income has fluctuated up and down for years. There are busy months and slow months... good years and bad years. But I would say I've never ONLY performed. It certainly has not been viable for me only to perform. If I wanted to be on the road 90% of the year, I could definitely make that work as only a performer, but if I want to have any semblance of freedom to do the things I want - all the other things I've mentioned in the video come into effect. To be honest, I can't think of too many trombone players that would be "highly accomplished" that don't at least teach a little bit. The music now is so much intertwined with academia that I don't think it's really possible to not interact with students in some way.
So for me, I play in NYC, tour, teach at Univ of North Texas, and try to reach beyond any one location here on the internet :) - hope this is a start to an answer to your question!
Nick Finzer Thanks for the Reply! It’s great to hear about this stuff from you. They don’t really teach you this in school (at least not at my school) so it’s good to hear from someone on the field.
Totally. I know what you mean. I try to pass it along to students... but, you really have to be in the right headspace to even receive the information... I know my teachers tried to tell me this kind of stuff, but I wasn't ready to hear it...