The Freelancing Trombonist

Posted by David on May 7, 2012 | 2 comments

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I find myself in a new city/state/region for not the first time in my career.  A family & career decision has landed me in Seattle, a place I had never considered moving to prior to this opportunity, but have already fallen in love with.  The support not only for local professional music and arts organizations, but also for music and arts in the educational system here makes it an ideal place for me to dig into the two things I am best at and enjoy the most: performing and teaching.

I have a methodical approach to finding work in new places, and it is slowly but surely beginning to bear results.   There is this swanky new website to help publicize myself; something that, if you know me, isn’t exactly something I am terribly comfortable with. I have identified my audience and designed and implemented a corresponding marketing strategy, to reasonable success to date.  And I’ve delved into every musician’s favorite pastime—networking. If there is one thing that moving around has taught me, it’s that despite the competitive nature of our profession, the musical community is a supportive one and most musicians are more the willing to help the ‘new guy,’ for which I’m grateful.

However, all of that is moot unless I adhere to what one of the true legends in my field once told me.  Some years ago, during the course of my dissertation research, I spent a beautiful spring morning with George Roberts.  He was very open with the story of his career, sharing anecdotes about how he had been in the right place, met the right people, was doing the right things, at the right time.  It was astounding how one small decision, to switch from tenor to bass trombone, changed the entire trajectory of his career.  His timing, on both the micro and macro level, was incredible in the truest sense of the word.  That said, it doesn’t really give those of us in the midst of the fray, attempting to make something of our careers, much to go on. As we were finishing up our visit, however, he also imparted these words of wisdom that, I believe, apply to all of us, wherever we may find ourselves:

Show up early,

Shut your mouth,

And play your ass off!

Some sage advice from one of the true masters of what I aspire to do.  I’ve heard this proverb said in other ways and from other distinguished people, but none of those held as much meaning or weight as to hear it directly from Mr. Bass Trombone himself. And so, as I find myself in a new place, with new colleagues, attempting to solidify my place in what is a seemingly endless music scene, when the phone rings and the gig is set the only bit of advice I really need to remind myself of in order to be successful: show up early, shut your mouth, and play your ass off!