Advice for the Female Musician Career Choices
by Shannon Kennedy
The Different Types of Musicians
There are really two main types of musicians - the local musician and the solo musician. As a female, the career that you choose is based on your
future goals. Here I will explain the difference between the local musician
and the solo musician as well as the different variables that affect the
career path that you choose.
The local musician is the "starving musician". The local musician has
regular gigs. They are in the bands that you find at weddings, parties, and
they play in the same club every Friday night. Their gigs pay usually $50 to
$200 on average, and the musicians usually have to work most nights of the
week playing local gigs to pay their bills. I would also like to add that
the single gigs are not very exciting - for example, how great is it to have
to play a whole gig wih Aebersolds? Not very fun. The local musician
rarely ever travels because they would have to sub out their regular gigs and
risk losing them. A lot of local muicians also have day jobs. The local
musician finds it a constant struggle to find and keep gigs and is always on
a constant job search.
The solo musician is a minority. It is really hard to make it as a solo
musician, and if you plan on becoming one, you have to have killer chops
on your axe - there is no room for mediocrity as a soloist. The solo
musician spends the majority of the year out ont he road in different
states, different countries, etc. with different groups and artists. They are
always being featured and their names are the ones you see on headliners.
Their schedules are always full and they are always getting called for bigger
and better things.
How to Choose What is Best for You
As a female musician, your career choices are greatly affected by your
personal choices. I am going to focus on the family aspect of personal
choices and how it will affect which career you CAN do.
At one point in time, you have to decide if you want a family of your own
or not. As a solo musician, you are constantly on the road, making it
really hard to have a "home" and be there to raise children. You become
the parent who is never there. The local musician is the better parent
because they are always close to home.
As a female, you also face pregnancy if you decide to have a family. You
can't really travel while you are prefnant and you won't really want to
right after you have your child. So if you think about it, you are giving up a
year of your career. Since music is all about the connections you make and
keep, that is a whole year's worth of connections that you lose. So after the
year of work that you lost, you have a few years after that you have to
spend completely rebuilding your career. As a local musican, you don't
have the issue of traveling, so you can keep doing your gigs while you are pregnant.
As far as image, being a single female gives an added appeal to a female
jazz artist. It gives the impression of availability, so marriage can destroy
that. Also, since sex sells and being pregnant isn't very sexy, it is also a
major downside to being pregnant as a female musician.
It all really comes down to which you feel is more important - having a
family or having a successful career as a musician. It is a very personal
decision and should be based on which ever would make you happy. Granted,
you can still have a family as a solo musician, but I feel that it would
be very difficult and wouldn't suggest it unless you are mentally and
physically prepared for its difficulties.
