JackD

Dear Ed,

I'm about to graduate from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK (teachers have included John Miller & John Dickinson), where I've studied classical trumpet, and am lucky enough to have been offered a place to study jazz trumpet at PG level in London next year.

However, I can't help having doubts and money worries - my course fees will be £8,000 a year, for two years. I am applying for a Career Development Loan, which will be a maximum of £8,000 over two years (leaving me about £4,000 short, per year). I have been turned down for every other source of funding I have applied to including from the college itself - I have been told that due to the financial crisis, everyone is tightening their belts.

I'm really excited about the course - I have been offered the only jazz trumpet place this year and will be studying with a teacher I greatly admire and respect. However I'm simply in the position that I'm not sure how I will be able to afford the course.

My reasons for wanting to do the PG are various - I will get the chance to study with a fantastic teacher, surrounded by a fantastic jazz faculty, and as well as the tuition, will hopefully make contacts that will be invaluable for my career. My undergrad has been in a different city, and in classical music - I have had jazz lessons, but have never had any jazz trumpet playing peers at all.

Many people reassure me that "it's only money", and that I will be able to find a way - but I'm struggling to see where I can possibly find the money from. In addition, I will be starting my career saddled with debt (I also have large amounts of debt from my undergraduate degree). In a profession that doesn't seem to be made of money, this is also, quite frankly, terrifying.

I love music and playing the trumpet, and try my best to push the various projects I have on the go (you can hear some of my music here: Jack Davies on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads ) and really feel that I can't reach the next level without the help of a jazz-specific course. However, I sometimes wonder if I would be better of pursuing a more secure career path; especially since it seems even the very best jazz musicians in this country sometimes struggle for money. It may sound banal, but this genuinely stresses me out a lot. (I love playing music, but if it's a choice of only function gigs to pay the rent or a a full-time office job, I'd take the office job.)

I'm not sure if I have a specific question really - I just wonder if you have any thoughts on postgrads, fees and suchlike. My understanding is that things are similar, but worse in the US. Many of my friends are heading for Europe, where fees are small or non-existent, but I really don't want to do the same - I have too many ties to this country!

I'm just massively frustrated, because it seems that after managing to get a place on a PG, it's more difficult to actually find the cash to do the course.


Regards,


Jack Davies

ecarroll

Jack,

Firstly, thanks for posting your concerns. There's no right or wrong answer to the questions that you raise. I can only add my personal perspective.

Focus on the world economy, focus on the job market, or focus on the general lack of appreciation of art music in our cultures and your answer becomes very clear. Nobody wants to enter their professional life with debt coupled with elemental questions. Focus on yourself, however, and another circumstance emerges.

Examine those around you (Jock and Rachel, for example). Ask yourself why you wanted to pursue music in the first place. Was it to live a particular lifestyle or was it to live the dream of contributing to the music? The investment that you describe isn't an investment in a career, it's an investment in yourself.

Don't get me wrong -- I recognize that many weigh the pros and cons of the moment and choose to defer. There's certainly no shame in that. I do believe, however, that those who have the talent (which you must have to be at the Northern) and, most importantly, the will to be be a musician will find a way. Maybe your path will lead you to London -- a musical city unlike any other, save New York -- or maybe your path will lead you elsewhere. Be honest with yourself and your personal goal and it won't matter very much, will it?

Best and write to me privately at edward.carroll@mcgill.ca if you'd like. TMers?

EC

MJ

Good for you for really giving this one some thought. It's easy to think "it's only money" when you are a student and racking up loans. Its a real pain in the ass when you get out of school and find yourself making next to nothing compared to those who pursued a different field in college and trying to pay those loans back.

What do you expect to be doing when you finish your degree? Do you think you will be able to live off performing? Will you perform and teach? Do you have gigs and students lined up. It's tough out there to begin with and the economy isn't helping.

Do you think the education you are considering might put you over the top so that you can make it
as a performer? Will it help your teaching career? Will you be able to pay these loans back and still be able to fix the car when it breaks down and be able to make it to your next gig?

If you can't imagine doing anything else for the rest of your life and you absolutely can not pass this up maybe it's worth it. If you have any doubt at all about the trumpet as a life long career I would suggest skipping this degree and getting out into the real world and see if you can make it and even like the "job". If you are in the real world and think you need the degree to become a better player and you really think the extra schooling will help you in the real world you can always go back to school. Being out of school is probably the best education you can get and you won't be racking up loans.

Best of luck!

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tunefultrumpet

I have to agree with MJ's sentiments. If you have been through all the options and cannot see a way to afford the course fees, plus you already have outstanding debt, then it cannot be an realistic option for you to do it, unfortunately. I was so lucky to get my undergrad degree free and for my post grad degree I got a salary to do it. This was in a science related field by the way. I think you have to start making money somehow. Hope this doesn't sound too disheartening, remember when one door closes often another better one opens. Best of luck.

tedh1951

Is there any chance that you might be able to get a job with the University itself - if they have offered you the "gig" then you would hope that they may be interested in helping you out. Throwing yourself on their mercy may be only an embarrassing moment, rather than something more 'fatal'.

I was really lucky to have a full time career when I did both my UG and PG degrees, but then I was also working 48 hours per week shift work, with a young family, and then lectures, study, and assignments on top of that. When I say to you, that there is a way - it's not lip service, I have been there - but not with the financial pressures you have.

May I suggest that you bare your soul to those in power - despite the feeling of degradation - you may be surprised. Have you thought of things like auditioning for one of the Military Bands (often part time work)? Keep your eyes peeled for the other opening doors too.

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Ted

GordonH

Hardly anyone I know who studied trumpet at university or college still plays at all, either in a professional or amateur capacity.
Maybe one in ten. Definitely one in five at most.
Of all the people who I played with at School in all brass instruments only one other is still playing to my knowledge.

I find it quite shocking, not the issue of people not finding work but just stopping playing even for pleasure when they leave university or college.
Maybe its a British thing more than American thing.
I know someone who did post graduate studies on trombone and hasn't played since.
He has been a car salesman most of the time.

Part of it may be that people go to college because they are good players and it makes sense to study music as thats their best shot at getting a degree, but they don't see it as a career or they don't have the drive necessary to make a go of it.
A lot of them want to go into teaching and invariably they stop playing as well.

Sorry this is a bit of a downer, but thats thirty years of experience.

On a brighter note, nearly all the trumpet players I know don't have music degrees and still enjoy playing. One of them is a member of parliament and still not a bad trumpet player!

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I used to have a career, now all I do is play Schumann.

GordonH

Addition:

People I know who went into military bands and studied that way have invariably kept playing afterwards. I don't know a single one who has given up and the local brass bands are full of old ex army players.

There must be a reason for this.

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I used to have a career, now all I do is play Schumann.

tunefultrumpet

You raise interesting points, Gordon. I think one of the reasons so many who do performance degrees on trumpet don't continue with it is that there are simply not enough jobs out there. You have to be very, very good to get a job in a professional orchestra and very, very good to get session work. You have to be incredibly good to make money as a soloist. It believe it was different back in the 20's through to 60's when professional bands needed and hired trumpet players. It must be disheartening to be good enough to finish a degree on trumpet, even a post grad degree and then not be able to make a living from it. Maybe that is why many stop playing all together. Unless a young student shows exceptional talent it would seem sensible for them to plan to have a backup or supporting career in mind.

tedh1951

Perhaps Gordon, because of "team bonding", this may be the closest thing to Mr Wise's formative years where the Band became your family - and so it endured, and engendered that same mindset?

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Ted

GordonH

That may well be the explanation for it, but its depressing to know that there are lots of people who have stopped playing, yet there is a dearth of amateur orchestral brass players. There are so few trumpet players around I am being asked to play further and further from home as the years go by.

__________________
I used to have a career, now all I do is play Schumann.