Composing for a Living?

Originally Posted by flint-wwrr

Piano == you and a million other pianists.
Sax == if you want an uphill battle... classical musicians tend to treat saxophonists poorly.
Bassoon == Profit!

that is, almost exactaly what my band director told me..
then he was telling my mom when you audition on bassoon for a scholarship for college it's like
*blat*
Judge: *gasp* you can make a sound come out of that stick! *hands full ride scholarship*

Originally Posted by Gardener

Piano isn't too bad if you're willing to give lessons. There may be a million of other pianists, but there are also millions of students. And you can always pair it with stuff like correpetition/accompaniment. Or even get a minor organist job in a small church, if you can play the organ a bit, which often isn't paid too badly. (Of course never so well as if you were an actual organist.)

If you want to get into a good orchestra, you need to be excellent, no matter what your instrument is. And orchestra life isn't always just fun.

i am currently giving lessons (to younger students, like 5-10) and have around 8 students... not much but i just started teaching like end of school year..

I have 0 students. Perform on one of the most competetive instruments (trumpet) and want to go into music.


HAHAHAHA

Oh that sounded funny to me for some reason. I shall try any way. My private teacehr seems to think I could make it. Mainly I need to become more assertive.

Find me a musician who only does one thing. There's no reason you can't be a programmer while teaching during the after school hours, playing in a band with friends and finding late-night and weekend gigs while doing your own compositions when you can.

Don't count on composing to make you money right away. You'll do a lot of composing because it's what you love before anyone pays you for it. Luckily, if you love teaching, that's a wonderful job to have to make money while you wait for your "big break." And being a computer programmer, a teacher and a composer can all happen simultaneously. You may decide that you like doing those enough that you don't even want to give one up.

For example, my primary income right now comes from my teaching jobs. I don't have private students, I teach acting classes. I also work as a music copyist for a composer, as well as freelance for singers. I'm also a songwriter and playwright, but that's not bringing in any money right now. I'm also running a small theatre company in NYC, which isn't bringing in any money for me, either. The latter two are things I do because I love it and I hope that they will eventually bring me some income. But I also LOVE teaching, and don't plan on stopping.

So, you don't have to choose just one, and in this kind of business, you'll do better by not choosing, and making money wherever you can.

I plan to always have a church job to support me, and as a relatively experienced organist, and the fact that there is ALWAYS a shortage of organists, I am pretty much guaranteed to have a steady organ job all my life.

That's what you have to do - find your steady back-up job. Most composers (after getting countless degrees, mind you) teach at a university level. Usually they teach theory, counterpoint, orchestration, or some just do composition lessons and masterclasses. But I don't plan to teach, so the organ thing is pretty much my only choice.

Once you find a way to have a steady income like a church job, freelance jobs, a position in an orchestra (good for you instrumentalists), etc., you can live AND compose at the same time!

Of course, marrying someone who has money or is willing to support you and your passion would always help.

I like to teach piano, but it's not what I love doing. I really enjoy it, although my first student thought i was really mad at her and started crying on our first lesson it's still fun.
I just don't think (right now) that I will be a good teacher because when I try to teach people those type of things it end up getting all jumbled up and confuses me and everyone else
I am good at teaching piano though because you basically just have to give them the proper technique and then help them on what they are doing wrong, I know what to listen for (because the songs they are playing are really basic..) so I can easily help them.

I didn't really realize that I should have something to fall back on, and I know that there is probably always going to be a shortage of bassoons (e.g. for the All-State band there were 158 alto saxes and 214 flutes and 104 clarinets that auditioned, and only 6 bassoons XD) so getting into the number of small bands (like the Derby Dinner Theater) shouldn't be too much of a problem, and I'm okay at improv soo I could also maybe get a few jazz gigs around town (that's what my old saxophone teacher did before he got a job on a cruise ship)

enter competitions and get your self known. There are call for scores and competitions out there for young composers every where all the time. If you are serious major in composition in college or better yet film scoring. Also make your talents available to people. Churches, small businesses, and any one who would need music could use your talents. There is a lot of options for composers but they are very hard to get unless you are aggressive, talented, and have a very good work ethic.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

LOL! Yes indeed! If you want to be a performer, play either bassoon, or oboe, or english horn, or perhaps viola. Rarities in instruments make you valuable. Remember, every Mahler symphony has at least 3 bassoons in it!

Yeah... uh... viola is pretty tough.

Originally Posted by Plutokat

enter competitions and get your self known. There are call for scores and competitions out there for young composers every where all the time. If you are serious major in composition in college or better yet film scoring. Also make your talents available to people. Churches, small businesses, and any one who would need music could use your talents. There is a lot of options for composers but they are very hard to get unless you are aggressive, talented, and have a very good work ethic.

Best advice I've seen so far. Follow it...all of it . The part at the end is probably the most important if you want to be successful.

Originally Posted by Verdi_Lver

Best advice I've seen so far. Follow it...all of it . The part at the end is probably the most important if you want to be successful.

yeah, I copied and pasted it and printed it out so I could read it without having to click a million times to find it

aside from that, where could i find competitions, other than those already on YC? meh, I guess i'll do some research for myself

and how am I to tell people I can write for their Church and whatnot? It's not like I can go around town stapling papers to stop signs and wooden posts saying "Young Composer available!" lol.... or.... could i? <.<