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Last night I was playing at a corporate dinner. During a the welcoming remarks, the speaker shared this anecdote:
An old but vital piece of office equipment broke down. None of the techs currently employed by the firm knew how to fix it, so they called a retired engineer. He came in and spent only a few of minutes working on it. The only thing those observing his progress really noticed him doing was placing a chalk mark in its inner workings. But minutes later, the machine was up and running. A few days later, an unitemized bill arrived in the amount of $10,000. Feeling that something was not right with this bill, they called the engineer, hoping he’d lower the fee. Failing that, they requested an itemized bill. When it arrived it read: Placing chalk mark – $1.00. Knowing where to place chalk mark: $9,999.
We spend years and lots of money attaining a wonderful skill. Don’t let people without this skill, who often have never hired someone with your skill place a dollar amount on the value of what you have to offer before you’ve even provided the service. This is not Priceline: it’s our livelihood.
I use this chart with one student: http://www.essential-music-practice.com/support-files/weekly-and-session-targets-planner-a4.pdf
I fill in the broad goals at the top (detailed notes from our lesson go into a notebook) and she fills in the other blocks daily. She’s young, so we are using this to teach her how to set goals, analyze progress, and use that information to set new ones.
Do tuner pick-ups like the Matrix work as an external microphone for an ipod touch with either of these apps?
I think that the interaction with the audience in between pieces is just as important as the music. This is how we can personalize the live music experience for our audience. In addition to giving them information about the music, about the harp and about you, find other ways to engage them. I like to play medleys and ask them to name the tunes I played afterwards, for instance. This can be very therapeutic for aging audience members. I also have ways to include the audience in building my program like having the names of tunes written on pieces of paper in a grab bag, and giving individual people the chance to pick the next piece.
Funny story about this concert. The orchestra manager sent me a pdf of the Barber 2 days before the concert, and a pdf of the 1919 edition, but no apology for sending the 1911 2 days earlier. OK, fine, I’ve played 1919 and the Barber, just needed to focus on the Strauss. Rehearsed the Strauss right before the concert, conductor says, let’s do the Mahler and then take a break. I glance at the music on a neighbor’s stand: it’s the Adagietto. Final score for the orchestra manager? He accurately hired me for 1 out of the 4 pieces on the program.
My ball gowns are taffeta, which I don’t really want to wear in warmer weather (they tend to be noisy, too, so I don’t wear them a lot). I can’t imagine that it would be too much fabric – if you’re trying to smarten up the look, you can’t go wrong with a beautiful skirt drape.
My long dresses and skirts are usually A line or in that awful, yet so useful stretch poly. Though that section of my wardrobe happens to be based on straight lines, there is still a bit of extra fabric to do the trick. I went with a long A line dress and beaded jacket last night.
Last night I played a gig in a venue that was not pedal harp accessible, but I was expected to be in black formalwear regardless of harp. The joy of playing my Swan on that gig was wearing my highest heeled, pointiest toed open back shoes!
You nailed it, Saul. They actually only thought to hire this lone harpist on Tuesday for a Saturday rehearsal concert that also includes Don Juan. Actually, the contractor only mentioned those two pieces, but their publicity release also lists Barber’s Knoxville… The contractor seemed surprised when I mentioned he might want to look into a harp part for that and I haven’t heard from him since. The musician in me wants to be studious about the Stravinsky (I do have the score), but the realist is resisting – too many notes in not enough time with just harp 1. It’s not my problem to solve, unless, of course, they pay me the salary of 3 harpists…
Ways to stay inspired with all of the playing: Bring a lot of new music with you to learn. Practice in your cabin (that may mean removing furniture to make the harp fit). Set goals during certain sets – sight reading, improvising, chord substitution. Work on the service side of your job – making eye contact with every guest who walks into your lounge or passes by, greeting them with a smile, learning their names, favorite tunes…
Ways to take advantage of life on a cruise ship: Sign up to host shore excursions, if that’s an option (it’s a free means of doing some really fun things in ports). Find the non-tourist ways to visit ports (where it’s safe, hire a cab for the day to get away from the ship, for instance). Some crew members bring bikes to get farther away. Attend lectures, shows, demonstration and take advantage of your passenger status. And enjoy!
“I want to spend all my time working towards this goal, and achieve it.” This says it all, by the way.
My husband was a self-taught electric bass player, and at this age, made the switch to major in bass at North Texas, which has a jazz program equal to conservatory training. He had never played an upright bass prior to this switch. After getting his BM, he stayed on for an MM in classical (having never played with a bow prior to the switch, either). He is a professional musician today. Good luck!
When I got out of college, I traded my puny style 14 for a hefty Salvi Diana, and for the first time, had to move a harp without help. For the record, I’m rather tiny and have been lifting weights since I was 18. I think the ability to move a hulking beast of an instrument required a psychological change. I simply had to make it happen. Abandoning fear was probably the change. I needed to stop worrying that I’d harm harp or self. I’m reminded of that now, as I have a leg injury that puts use of my right hamstring off limits. If I am in pain and feeling wimpy, I struggle. I overcome those moments by ignoring the fear of pain and I hoist my Salzedo up a step or two. I do have to limit myself to very short flights now, but pre-injury (into my 40’s) I could still do a flight of stairs – I’d empty my head of “reasonable” thoughts and get in the groove of the repetitive motion of each successive step. Grunting’s ok, BTW!
This string quartet discussion brings up another side to the point I was making. Harpists are not shy about taking care financially of the cost of the their instrument, the difficulty in transporting it, etc… when quoting fees, which has helped keep harp rates high enough to support a career in background music, nationwide, for many years. When I first became involved in my local AFM, I learned many in the union were grateful to the negotiating powers of harpists in the 80’s to help all musicians.
Union price structure is based on a base scale (5, actually, depending on length of engagement and the day of the week) and then the premiums – cartage, travel, leader fees, doubling, pension, health care… Saturday scale is the highest, and was a lot more than I knew non-union offices were paying non-harpist musicians. Which was a revelation: shouldn’t the basis of out fee be our skill, not the labor of moving an instrument?
Although I use NY’s Saturday scale + premiums as a target for my own fees, I also use that for my sidemen. I get a little more to cover the cartage and leader fee, but we all bring our chops to the gig, and that deserves more respect (read: bucks) than anything else.
The cheap string quartet plague is prevalent in NY. And these often feature some really fine musicians, too. This is another reason musicians can be their own worst enemies in this field. Value yourselves and what you do!
At this risk of being repetitively redundant, I want to share a story, via my husband, a bassist. Recently, he was hired as a sideman on a cocktail hour. Keys and flute played the ceremony and then joined him for cocktails. The gig was booked by a pretty big wedding contractor in our area. Husband was inside, enjoying the AC on a hot day at the point the processional was due to begin. There was a little frenzy, as the mother of the bride couldn’t be located outside for the line up. She was found inside, not inside to enjoy the AC, but rather because, in her words, “I can’t stand to hear that music being played out there.” My husband silently concurred – the flute player, especially, was simply awful. Both ceremony musicians have day jobs and don’t rely on gigs for income. And this contractor books musicians at abominably low rates. I won’t work for them. My husband shouldn’t, but work is slow right now.
So long as people agree to go out for low rates, the market will continue to demand them. And in the case of an office that employs a large number of musicians, the quality of the musicians they employ will continue to slip. If one of the most recognizable names in the local industry is sending out unqualified musicians, what motivation does a potential client have to book live music provided by anyone if so-called name brand music falls below standard? This is where musicians hurt each other. The contractor will never raise his musician fees if he can keep finding musicians at low rates, and as bad as his reputation may be, he has never seemed to be hurt by it, so he’s here to stay, besmirching the field of live music for all, thanks to sub-professional hacks.
