Defining the Professional Performer
GUITAR MASTERCLASSES with Richie Robinson
How Defining the Word “Professional” Also Defines Your Income
Everybody has a slightly different bent on the definition of the word “Professional” when it comes to the music industry.
For those of us who are professionals or who would like to become professionals, it is necessary to dispel the differences that “loose”users of the term have brought to its meaning. Every industry from soldiering, to fruit picking, to medicine and science uses the word in alignment with certain principles and circumstances, yet somehow many involved in music industry feel it is okay not to do so.
Once the principles and circumstance are abandoned when using the term, any associated quality one may suggest, offer or demand, is abandoned as well. The result is that those who are professional and do offer a professional service have non-professionals competing for their work dollars, and the buyer is left unaware until it is too late. The audience has an inferior experience, the venue has shown it has less to offer, and thereafter venue management is hesitant to offer professional fees to anyone because of their bad experience with “money-grabbers” using the term.
This in-turn lowers the fees available for professionals, who then look to other sources for income, and the audience ends up with fewer and fewer professional acts to see. It follows then that the work goes more and more to people who have day jobs and can afford top work for very low rates. This in turn lowers the expectations of the audience, which in turn makes them hesitant to go to see live music acts because they feel they wont get a valuable experience.
__________________________________
What Happens When Are Not Honest With Their Language?
Let’s just momentarily imagine people using the term “Professional”in a different industry. What would happen if we drew “mechanics” from a hat and went with that?
A young person likes fixing cars. She is very good on social media and gets quite an audience as she posts pictures and blogs about her car fixing. Although she is quite a beginner, she feels confident that she can fake it till she makes it. As a result of her ability on social media, she soon has a venue give her a job as a mechanic, and they lay their reputation on the line for her.
She sets her prices low and before long, people from all over town are scrambling to get their cars to her. She is flat out with bookings, and the venue is very happy. However, as she works to fix the cars she has booked she can’t keep pace because she doesn’t have the skills or experience to do the job. She gets cars back to customers, but inevitably they are unsatisfied. The low money they paid just doesn’t justify the low quality work that would have come from a seasoned professional mechanic.
Sadly, in her advertising she was able to convince customers that she was amazing, that she was professional, and every bit as good as any other seasoned professional even though she did not have the history to prove it. She had only done a few paying jobs, but had never had even as much as a season working full-time. She had no proof from her actions or experience that she had all it takes to remain in that position for life if she so chose.
When the word got around about her work, and customers stopped coming, the venue’s reputation followed her downward spiral.
__________________________________
What Are The Questions We Need To Ask?
Should she have told people she was professional when she wasn’t?
Was it honest to compete with professionals by lowering her prices and offering the same same service, even though she could not deliver?
Was it wise to set her prices so low that no professional would step in and help her or the venue with her workload?
We could ask many more questions here…
Let’s instead look for a solution.
__________________________________
How Do We Find A Solution?
The Oxford Dictionary uses this description among others -
Professional (Adj) - engaged in an activity as a paid occupation rather than as an amateur.
During our tutorials, and indeed in all our communications, we will use the word Professional to mean precisely that the sole, or prime income is derived from a given activity, and that no other income is required to support it.
It is timely to say at this point that Olympic athletes are not professional athletes, and are required not to be so. This does not reflect their ability to train regularly to occasionally do a refined skill at a competitive level. On the other hand, professional soldiers and firefighters do extreme tasks on a daily basis, and are required to be up to such tasks regardless of their mood or how they slept the night before; their lives and the lives of others depend on it.
One would doubt that a firefighter would use the word “Professional” to describe someone who is really good with a hose.
__________________________________
When Does A Description Give Us The Wrong Impression?
A secondary description by the Oxford dictionary is this -
Professional (Noun) - a person having impressive competence in a particular activity.
If taken out of context, this definition would mean all Olympic athletes are professional. Hence this definition needs to be contained to a description of one’s capacity within their profession or job.
We define this impressive competence to mean that it is an activity that provides a reliable primary income because of its quality, and the activity as a whole is conducted in such a manner that reliance on the income derived from it is maintainable for as long as the Professional chooses to continue the activity.
The term "Professional Performer" should not be confused with "Professional Performance". As the latter refers only to a particular single performance for which the performer was paid. Nor should it be confused with “Professional Quality Performance” which suggests that though the quality was there, fees were inadequate or non-existent. Further, those with a vested interest are likely to give a different description of a performance than those who are not.
It follows, and is interesting to note at this point that it may be easy to be misled by some that claim they have been "doing professional performances for years" - giving the impression that they are in fact long-time (and likely full-time) professional performers, when in fact their income from those rare performances over a few years may not average out to cover the cost of their weekly ice cream treat.
How Can We Help Ourselves, Our Audience, and The Industry By Being Honest?
Here are some variations on honest descriptions of the word “Professional” in the music industry;
A professional musician would derive their entire income from musical activity.
A professional teacher would derive their entire income from teaching - be it musical or not.
A professional music teacher is also a professional musician.
A professional performer would derive their entire income from performance.
A musician relying half & half on performances & teaching is a semi-professional at both tasks, but still a professional musician.
A professional music teacher doing performances on the side is not defined as a professional performer - even tho he/she may do professional performances.
A professional performer teaching music on the side is not defined as a professional teacher - even tho he/she may teach in a professional manner.
Someone with an alternative source of income (be it a day job, welfare, or reliance on a family member) is not a professional musician until they can rely on, or have until recently relied on their performance or teaching capacity to make a full-time living.
__________________________________
Would You Go To A Pushbike Shop To Get Advice On Tuning Your Sports Car?
When learning or teaching any given profession, the "un-blinkered" view is to consider why the teacher thinks as they do.
If we are looking for a teacher to advance our musical skill, the important question to bear in mind is “what do we want to learn?”
By that I don't mean defining things in terms of particular rudiments or exam requirements, but instead let’s ask “where do we want to place ourselves in the industry, and how can we learn what we need to get there from the teacher we choose?”
We do much of our learning is by osmosis. We may not even realise we are learning things that we need to know to meet your goals, but choosing an honest teacher with the relevant experience will make ALL the difference to where we end up in the industry.
FOR INSTANCE, let's consider the scenario of taking music lessons from a teacher who is fresh out of teachers college, or has just finished their diploma in music at the local conservatorium. Their mind will naturally be focused heavily on the academic requirements to achieve the goals they have been working on, and their most ready responses to questions they can answer will be weighted in this way.
As students we should also consider that the teacher's musical and social tendencies will be about establishing an environment within the institution that will most positively effect the outcome of their endeavours. The strength of this point should not be under-estimated, as social needs are are a powerful call to action in human nature. They also define the approach this teacher's students will take as a matter of solidifying their place within their chosen niche. Further, they will also define the students' stylistic preferences, and in many cases, define their entire performance style and approach.
This is of course a fabulous option if you want to attend a similar institution and gain the advantage of pre-acceptance within its stylistic niche and social circle. As well as this obvious head start, it can bring about a solid grounding for passing hard-to-get hand-me-down, institutionalised social-circle knowledge on to up-coming students, ensuring that those most suited to the role of professional academics, and the means of attaining those positions, continue to uphold those same academic standards in our institutions.
__________________________________
AS AN ALTERNATIVE, let's consider that you choose not to be a teacher at all, and simply want to become an independent full-time performer. A completely different set of 'osmosis' influences will be necessary. Of course, it may be an advantage to do some academic study to gain certain skills to enhance your development, but you will need to bear in mind that professional performer and professional academic requirements are worlds apart.
THE REQUIREMENTS for becoming an independent professional performer are most certainly never covered by the requirements put forward in academic circles. (Please note that "independent professional performer" in this tutorial refers to independent performers, and does not refer to 'day job' performing gigs such as police or army bands, nor does it refer to young players receiving promotional awards from people they know in the industry - again, we are only discussing independent professional performers in this tutorial, ok?!!).
Professional performers tend to centre on such matters as a "we" mentality, team reliability, knowing how to read an audience, knowledge of equipment and maintenance, marketing & promotion, - and living to work seems to take precedence over working to live. Professional performers also tend to focus on all the topics laid out in the lessons below in Series 1, and they know that there is no fall-back but your live performance and how well you appeal to the audience that has chosen you.
THE FIRST THING you, as a performance student will need to learn, is how to recognise a teacher that is a part-time performer - to notice how they fall back on a day job or teaching, and how their attitude differs from the performer that relies entirely on gigs for a living. Once you can recognise this subtle but ultimately vast difference, your mind will open to learning to become a professional performer yourself.
THE PROFESSIONAL PERFORMER simply will not want the luxury of rolling up to school or work on Monday to ensure the bills are paid. To do so would mean they are no longer a professional performer! This means that they need an entirely unique approach to almost everything they do regarding practice, performance, their attitude towards fellow musicians, their audience, and their clients. These 'osmosis' principles can ONLY be learned from an independent professional performer, and will be the greatest influence on whether you can later position yourself as one in the industry.
The downside of this is that professional performers do not usually make themselves available to teach, and if they do, it will likely be because they favour the student. So it will be difficult to find a teacher of this value. If you are a part time or semi professional performer, the alternative is that a professional performer may take you on as a musician to learn the finer points 'on the job'.
__________________________________
This tutorial is only scratching the surface on this topic. However, I feel enough has been said to make it clear that you can only learn what your teacher knows - you simply can't expect to learn something from your teacher that is not within their experience. So if you do have the desire to become an independent professional performer, you need to get close to one to learn how it is done!
__________________________
All the best in your development as a professional performer!
Richie Robinson
