Abstract
Photo of Robert A. Cutietta courtesy of the author
The text was brief: Brian died last night. Those four words marked the end of a multi-year health battle for a musician who was much too young to leave us. A month later there was a memorial service. Brian had written, performed, and recorded all the songs for his memorial service, and we heard them for the first time. One to his wife, one to his friends, and a few others simply wishing us all hope and happiness for the future.
The service had a printed program. In it was an extensive autobiography of Brian’s life. It told the story of his early days as a musician: the bands he had played with, the other musicians he had performed with, what he had written. The description of his musical career was detailed and moving. There was one sentence, however, that stood out to me as a message to all of us who are music teachers. Buried about three-quarters of the way into the biography, it said, “He joined IBM and retired after 35 years of service.”
And that was it.
I performed with Brian over many years, and I knew him as a talented, enthusiastic, and dedicated musician. Playing music was his passion and his life. But it was only after you got to know him that you learned he was leading a secret life, and you never learned it from him—always from someone else. His secret life was that he worked as a programmer for IBM and had worked his way up in the corporation to the point where he was overseeing an entire division of programmers working on new and innovative projects. In short, he was a highly successful executive in a major technology company, but his “day job” allowed him to follow his true passion in life.
There are many others like Brian: the international commercial airline pilot who arranges his flight schedule so he can play viola in both the local community orchestra and a string quartet; the senior research librarian for Yellowstone National Park who drives 180 miles round trip each week to rehearse with the Bozeman (Montana) Symphony Chorus; the communications professor in Texas, and father of two young children, who plays in the local banjo orchestra. Even famous professionals such as movie stars Woody Allen (clarinet) and Steve Martin (banjo) or executives like Microsoft’s Paul Allen (guitar) find the time to maintain musical lives outside of their day jobs. There are politicians to mention, too—perhaps most notably Mike Huckabee, who maintained a band called the Capitol Offenders while governor of Arkansas, and President Bill Clinton, who played his saxophone at his Inaugural Ball. These people who didn’t “quit their day job”—not the former students who become professional musicians—may be our profession’s most significant music education success story.
How Well Do Our Music Programs Support This Population?
There is nothing new or controversial about music teachers supporting these music-making alumni. Indeed, one can find numerous articles pointing to the importance of these future musicians in the Music Educators Journal going back at least seven decades. In a 1956 article, music educator Ralph C. Rea pointed out the importance of nurturing these future musicians and concluded that music education programs were not doing enough to encourage them. Rea wrote, “The time has arrived for the instrumental music teacher to give some serious thought to this matter.” 1 And there have been continued calls since. 2 But if lifelong music participation is that important, by now all high school programs should be systematically working to support these future lifelong music makers. Are they?
To become more strategic about increasing the number of “non-career musicians,” 3 we must think about students who graduate from high school music programs. Essentially, there are three large categories. The first group of students are those graduating from high school and heading to college to major in music. These students will continue with their musical studies, and while we follow their progress, they are a very small percentage of our students.
The second group of students are those going to college but not majoring in music. Many music teachers encourage these students to continue performing in college, and I know of teachers who have emailed college ensemble directors to let them know a skilled player will be coming to their campus. But encouragement—or even an email introduction—only goes so far. First-year students stepping onto their new college campuses will be overwhelmed. Everything will be new. Even if they think about joining a music ensemble, they probably won’t know how to sign up. They likely do not know how to find the music department or what ensembles are available. And they also can’t find out who to talk to in order to know how good a player they must be to participate.
For the minority of students who put in the effort to get answers to these questions, they often get them too late. Far too often the answer will be, “Sorry, we already auditioned, but you can audition next semester (or next fall), and we would love to have you.” Most likely, these students will not play again. Research backs this up. Researchers found in 2014 that only about 15 percent of students who participated in music in high school continued to participate in college as non-majors. 4 Even when adding in the smaller number of students who continue as music majors, there is still a 75 to 80 percent attrition rate for our profession among the students who should be the most likely to continue. This is nothing to brag about.
The third group of students is made up of those not attending college. This includes students who are going to a trade school or not continuing with any formal education. I fear this is the group we fail the most, but there are few statistics about them. These former students have no obvious structure to walk into. Now the student must seek out and find opportunities on their own. Is there a community band, orchestra, or chorus? How do I find them? How good do I have to be? How can I start my own band? Where do I find bands looking for members? Even for the graduate who enjoyed being involved in a school ensemble, this is an overwhelming task at a time when they are starting out in life and in a job.
Give ‘Em HEC
These challenges won’t go away, but we can increase the odds of former students seeking out a way to continue performing. In the earlier articles I found there was a call for emphasizing the nurturing of these students but rarely any indication of how to do it. When suggestions were offered, they usually revolved around developing musical skills in students, which, of course, is important but maybe not the root of the problem. It is much more likely that there are certain non-musical skills that need to be developed in addition to the musical skills. To do this, I propose a simple yet effective method that is easy to remember and implement. Just give ‘em HEC.
What is HEC? The H stands for How. We can show our students—not just in passing but in detail—how to go about finding opportunities, how to get into an ensemble, how to contact and prepare for the ensemble. For those going to college, investigate two or three schools that students are likely to attend. From their websites, find the different types of opportunities. Explain the difference between a concert band and wind ensemble or university chorus and chamber singers. Find examples of when and who to talk with, ensembles for credit versus non-credit, and how to prepare for the audition or placement exam—and explain the differences.
For those not going on to college, bring in a leader of one of the community ensembles, either in person or virtually, to talk about their program, what they are looking for, and how to be in touch. Don’t bring in leaders of professional groups. Bring in the individuals who are running community bands, orchestras, jazz ensembles, or choirs. Let them talk about their programs, welcome the future members, and reduce the mystery around the groups and their procedures. Don’t just restrict the opportunities to community ensembles. Talk about how to find or start a pop band or play in a pit band for a musical or attend local jam sessions. There are many ways to continue playing and these opportunities are on a spectrum in terms of ability level and commitment level.
The E stands for Example. In addition to talking about these opportunities, expose your students to examples. Invite members of a community group (any genre) to come in and play for your students (notice I didn’t say perform a concert). Keep it light and inviting. Invite past students who are still performing to come in and talk about how they do it and why. Show YouTube videos of amateur performing groups having fun playing. Seeing an example of the enjoyment these groups provide is perhaps the most powerful image you can leave them with, an image they will not soon forget. Again, don’t restrict examples to just community groups. There are small bands, church choirs, and many other types of opportunities.
Finally, and most importantly, C stands for Confidence. Entering almost any music opportunity in the future involves the dreaded audition, whether formal or informal. Will your student who played in the clarinet section for three years have the confidence to audition? Probably not. They may have never played a solo in the band or at solo and ensemble competitions. Yet, they enjoy playing and are content with their role. This is the student who may lack the confidence to pursue playing only because of the audition. So, we need to help build our students’ confidence that they can, in fact, continue to play. The H and E components will help, but the encouragement that we as their teachers provide will amplify the impact. When your guest speakers from community groups speak to your class, encourage them to talk about the audition process and what they look for. Tell students, individually, that they can continue to make music. It is one thing to tell the whole group, but it is another to tell as many individual students as possible, “These groups would love to have you, both as a musician and person.”
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
The phrase “don’t quit your day job” is usually meant as a derogatory statement for people who are poor musicians. After a performance, it is the last thing anyone would want to hear. But let’s reframe this idea. For many musicians, having a day job relieves the pressures of trying to make a living playing or constantly preparing concerts. Making music enhances their lives and often becomes their source of inspiration in life, as it did for Brian. Encouraging alumni to keep performing will create more live music in our communities, enhancing the lives of many more and showing the positive power of what our programs produce. In short, we need to strategically support the future non-career musicians in our programs. They are our success stories, and we need to celebrate them. Go ahead and give ‘em HEC.
Footnotes
Notes
Robert Cutietta (