Posted by js on December 28, 2001 at 03:22:16:
In Reply to: Opportunities to play? posted by Jason on December 28, 2001 at 03:01:44:
Jason,
Even here in a city consisting heavily of trailers (or "trailer" mentality) and projects (i.e. NOT particularly a cultural mecca) I "could" eek out a living as a tuba player. I used to do it...before I had teenage and young adult children with extremely expensive tastes. These days, I still play - and only for renumeration - but selectively. Some who used to call in the past do not because I've said "no thank-you this time" too many times to them.
Too much personal info in the paragraph above but the point is that you can play for renumeration (i.e. "serious") and do other stuff. The trick is to make the "other stuff" (if you indeed do "tuba" + "other stuff") be on YOUR terms as well.
If you decide to be a tuba player, don't spend too large a percentage of your time practicing "the thirty" asked orchestral excerpts. That's an extremely (tragically?) narrow definition of "serious tubist" and a microscopically narrow definition of "musician". That route brings employment to few and happiness to even fewer. If you decide at this time to wear the "tubist" hat, pursue as wide a definition of "tubist" as you can imagine, and do it with all the energy that you can muster.