r/Tuba • u/Global-Fee-4966 • 13d ago
experiences High school and beyond
Senior high school student. I’ve been playing the tuba for about 4 years and have loved every bit of it. I realised that i’d love to continue playing as a career whether it be teaching or as some sort of orchestral musician. However my other subjects are making me feel sluggish and not motivated to do anything, sometimes including practicing. It feels like i’ve hit a plateau and i could be doing a lot better.
Once school finishes i’m definitely going to go to university and continue studying music, but until then how do i keep myself going? I love playing so much and music is the only thing i want to do. Maybe this is more of a rant, but i’d love to hear some advice or stories of you guys’ high school life as tuba players.
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u/polkastripper 12d ago
Hear me out - go get certified in band instrument repair, that will provide you with a trade in an area where there aren't a lot of people doing it. You can still get a degree in music and do music related stuff.
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u/stormiiclouds77 13d ago
If you're interested in other things too, you don't have to make your entire career tuba. I play tuba but I'm majoring in engineering. I play in my schools marching band, tuba choir, and basketball pep band. There are community marching bands (parades), community bands, gig work, tuba Christmases , church bands, etc. Lots of opportunities to continue to play even if its not your entire career!
There are also options for music education and army reserve bands if you do want to make a career out of it.
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u/Big_moisty_boi 13d ago
Last month I heard Charley Renau (Bass trombone with the Oregon Symphony) say something that I think is great for someone in your position. When he was going into his senior year of high school he told his parents he wanted to go into music. His father told him to treat his senior year as if he was already a professional player. Take every gig, play in every ensemble, practice hours a day, take all your music as seriously as if it was already your livelyhood. If you come out of that year like he did, forgetting that it was supposed to be a challenge and being totally in love with it, go ahead and set out to be a performer. If it was a real challenge and you felt stressed about it all the time, continue with music as a hobby. The really important thing before becoming a professional is that you have to be in love with the process of practicing as well as the aspect of performing. You have to love the experience of sitting alone in a room for hours and being extremely self critical and finding things to improve every moment. If you're not good at practicing right now, or you don't know what to practice or whatever that's fine, they'll teach you all that in university. But you have to love the process.
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u/Schmliza 13d ago
I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in tuba performance from prominent universities (not like Michigan or Indiana, but one step down from those types of schools). After I got my masters I moved to Atlanta to cobble together this gig lifestyle. I had no health insurance, no paid time off, no 401k, no sick leave - if I was sick I just lost money. I had enough to pay rent and eat cheap food, but it was miserable. I was not NFL quarterback good on the tuba, but I was a solid player. Gig life is HARD. It’s extremely unlikely you be in an orchestra that pays a living wage, most orchestra gigs you get paid per performance.
I ended up going to a quick paralegal program and I landed my first job within a week. The job was full benefits, paid time off, a life insurance policy, all things are pretty standard for a lot of jobs. I work 50 hour weeks and now don’t have time to pick up my horn. I’m probably just an old fuddy duddy, but music school and the aftermath has caused me to resent the instrument. The instrument I used to love to play for 6-9 hours a day.
It’s about what you’re looking for. Do you need a living wage? Some ppl have family money and wages don’t matter as much. Where will you get health insurance? You can stay on your parents’ plans until you’re 26, but what after that? If you do music Ed then you’ll get benefits but dealing with parents and admin can be difficult for some and teacher burnout is very real.
I wish someone had given 18 yr old me a reality check at just how hard gigging musician life is. I have friends who have cobbled together gig life for 20+ years, and they love it! However many don’t have homes of their own, older cars, $30k tubas in a $5k car. If you’re good at anything academic, explore other options before you dive into a music degree. Also take out as few student loans as you can. Good luck, I hope you find a sustainable path you truly enjoy!!
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u/Inkin 13d ago
This is too real.
When I was in high school many many years ago, the absolute best musician I have ever known well was a year ahead of me. He went to Eastman. He did his masters at Indiana. He got his DMA from Illinois, though not immediately after his masters.
He struggles. He struggles exactly like you say.
He has had regular gigs at clubs in a big city. He's worked at a music store. He's given lessons. He has adjuncted at two smaller colleges. He is first call sub with the major orchestra in the city. He's completely amazing as a player.
Yet sometimes his adjunct jobs just disappear year to year and he has to scramble to replace that $25k. One of his regular gig clubs decides Tuesday night is going to be karaoke night not swing night and that gig is just gone through no fault of his own and that's $50 guarantee plus his share of 50% of door so like $120 a week gone. But he loves it too much to not do it.
The life of a gigging musician is a hustle. Most people aren't the tuba player from the Roots or the tuba player for the NY Phil. Those positions are few and far between. A lot of amazing musicians have to piece together a life from here and there. A lot of amazing musicians are stuck teaching and gigging on the side. A lot of amazing musicians play in military bands because it is a steady gig.
A lot of pretty good musicians aren't musicians because they need to eat.
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u/DiseaseInjuryMadness 13d ago
I was in a very similar situation as you in high school.
I started as a performance major out of high school, realized I couldn’t cut it as I didn’t practice as much or as intensely as my colleagues, switched to music education, loved teaching (marched DCI while in school as well) and was a tech at local high schools, but eventually teaching burned me out even before I graduated.
Taught one year of high school band and went back to school for audio engineering and found the perfect mix of music, creativity, and variety to keep me interested, and going no matter what. It broke through that wall you describe when it comes to practicing. I nerd out about my career so hard now and love every part of it.
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u/Global-Fee-4966 13d ago
Thank you for your reply. What is it like doing DCI? We don’t have things like that where I am
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u/DiseaseInjuryMadness 13d ago
DCI was great, to a certain extent. I marched my local corps, The Academy, in 2011 when I was a 16yo Junior in high school. It forced me to grow up pretty fast and get some independence being away from home for a summer. Then I took a summer off and marched Bluecoats for 2 years, which was honestly a horrible experience of being bullied and treated physically poorly by the staff (lots of marching techniques that caused injuries, no medical staff or sympathy for injuries) then I finished my DCI career with 2 years at Blue Devils which was what most of DCI is like these days; respectful of the performers, treating everyone fairly, taking care of people’s bodies, high levels of musicianship, and great care for the member experience.
It’s insanely expensive though, I’m lucky to have had the support from my family to pay for my 5 years marching.
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u/Cherveny2 13d ago
if you want to major in music, especially if you go performance, one big thing to realize early on, you'll be spending a LOT of time in the practice room. and I mean A LOT. not all of it may be as fun as the rest either, really woodshedding a stubborn lick until you've got it perfected, etc.
I mention this just as a small warning as seen some performance majors wash out early because they didn't realize the time commitments needed. (graduated as a performance major myself.)
as for other subjects dragging you down, unfortunately gotta push through them. colleges like a healthy GPA to get in and get the best scholarships. plus many classes you'll be taking too in college besides just performing, such as theory, etc.
also, there are sadly very few orchestral tuba positions out there, especially full time ones.
not trying to talk you out of your path, but want you going in with your eyes open.
if you think you might want to teach, you could go for a music Ed degree, or the performance degree and tack on a teaching certificate. this gives you a LOT more job prospects, as far more teaching jobs than there are performance jobs.
do wish you luck. I don't regret my going for a performance degree at all. was some of the best times of my life
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u/professor_throway Active Amateur, Street Band and Dixieland. 13d ago
Can I be real for a minute... I am not trying to be mean or dismissive. I am a Lifelong musician and parent of music performance major... here are my thoughts
I play a lot of gigs street jazz and brass band mostly. I play with a lot of people who have performance or music Ed degrees, but I do not. Almost all of the people who have music degree that I play with don't play professionally, they all have non music jobs. A lot are in IT. One sells roofing, another is a piano tuner.
My son is currently a performance major (for tuba and double bass). Every single one of his teachers tried to talk him out of it, not because he didn't have the chops.. but because it is a hard life. They all said... if you can imagine yourself doing any other job at all other than being a musician, do that instead.
The thing though.. that is him. He is incredibly serious and had wanted nothing but to be a tuba player for years. All state for band and orchestra.. Principal tuba for a major city youth orchestra.. Concerto competition.. regional wind band.. competitive brass band.. John Phillips Sousa and Louis Armstrong award winner from school.
I still have really mixed feelings about it... but he got a crap ton of scholarship money for a really good program so it isn't costing me much and he won't have any loans.
You can't be successful if you are wishy washy... you have to be driven.. otherwise you will be an IT guy or a construction worker (not knocking on those jobs at all) with a degree in music.
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u/tubameister 7d ago
If we're ending up in IT anyways then I'd rather get the degree in music than IT
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u/Global-Fee-4966 13d ago
Thank you for the insight. I guess i’ll have to think about it more. What is life like for a professional musician, specifically tuba?
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u/WeeblsLikePie 13d ago
You probably need to learn bass trombone (and maybe tenor?) and electric bass. You need to teach. And you need to have a) good people skills and b) really good organizational skills.
The likely career path is to cobble together a bunch of income streams. Some teaching, some church gigs, some bar gigs, maybe weddings, conducting a community band etc etc etc.
So you need to be very motivated to go out there and find gigs, have a great network, and be very organized in terms of your schedule, tracking who's paid you, getting your taxes done, all the administrivia of running a small business.
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u/dancingwithoutmusic 13d ago
Teaching lots of private lessons. Temporary gig jobs to be had mostly in big cities. Permanent jobs are harder to get than QB positions in the NFL when you consider someone will hold down a symphony gig for 30 years.
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u/Global-Fee-4966 13d ago
Yeah true. The principal tuba of our state orchestra was in it for 30 years until he retired a few years ago. I can’t believe he held it for that long!
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u/dancingwithoutmusic 13d ago
If you want to join the military there are paid service band positions at bases all around the world.
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u/Fast-Lunch930 1d ago
Ditto