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Robert Zie
I am either going to Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman, or Mannes. I want to know what jobs are out there for me after I graduate with a degree in music performance for classical guitar or jazz guitar, or both.
Answer
Jobs? Pick an orchestral instrument, you get jobs. Guitar is a different matter.
Classical, you either teach or do recitals. Jazz, you can teach, do recitals or get gigs.
The best gigs are in band residencies, theatre pit orchestras or on cruise ships (helps if you can sing). Anything that doesn't involve touring the country and playing every night in a different place, with inadequate sleep and a sensation that your entire body needs ironing.
If you're very good at classical you become "in demand". Julian Bream was so good at classical that it is very hard to find his jazz recordings. That's a shame, because he was a great jazz guitarist that just happened to be so good at classical guitar that he scared everybody.
Look at what opportunities there are to get into a "scene" around the places you want to study. The jazz scene is always easiest to get into, because it is a jazz tradition to give everyone a chance to play. Classical is harder, you'd have to join something like a Baroque Consort to get going, and learn to play "continuo". Then again, it might be easier to do that if you're young looking and not really old enough to go in bars, where the jazz is happening.
You don't get forward by getting the qualification, then looking for opportunities. This is performance. You have to look for opportunities to perform and take them, so your foot is on the bottom rung of the ladder when you want to break out, and you can learn from the experience of the musicians you play with on the way.
You do need a second instrument to be useful. For jazz, think about electric bass or clarinet.
For classical, think about clarinet or oboe. Those baroque music people use a lot of recorders and the piffero (ancient Italian ancestor of the oboe).
Those are all easy instruments to play, and the fingering is roughly similar. Play any one of those and you can play saxophone even if you never touched one in your life.
Jobs? Pick an orchestral instrument, you get jobs. Guitar is a different matter.
Classical, you either teach or do recitals. Jazz, you can teach, do recitals or get gigs.
The best gigs are in band residencies, theatre pit orchestras or on cruise ships (helps if you can sing). Anything that doesn't involve touring the country and playing every night in a different place, with inadequate sleep and a sensation that your entire body needs ironing.
If you're very good at classical you become "in demand". Julian Bream was so good at classical that it is very hard to find his jazz recordings. That's a shame, because he was a great jazz guitarist that just happened to be so good at classical guitar that he scared everybody.
Look at what opportunities there are to get into a "scene" around the places you want to study. The jazz scene is always easiest to get into, because it is a jazz tradition to give everyone a chance to play. Classical is harder, you'd have to join something like a Baroque Consort to get going, and learn to play "continuo". Then again, it might be easier to do that if you're young looking and not really old enough to go in bars, where the jazz is happening.
You don't get forward by getting the qualification, then looking for opportunities. This is performance. You have to look for opportunities to perform and take them, so your foot is on the bottom rung of the ladder when you want to break out, and you can learn from the experience of the musicians you play with on the way.
You do need a second instrument to be useful. For jazz, think about electric bass or clarinet.
For classical, think about clarinet or oboe. Those baroque music people use a lot of recorders and the piffero (ancient Italian ancestor of the oboe).
Those are all easy instruments to play, and the fingering is roughly similar. Play any one of those and you can play saxophone even if you never touched one in your life.
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