Time for a Change

I have been wanting to play more and more over the past few months. I practice daily now, trying to get my chops up and pull my level of playing up to at least a respectable level. I play sometimes after work and sometimes before I go to work. I go up to the school(UNT) and use their practice rooms on my days off. This has helped somewhat but what I really need is performance opportunities. There are several that I could perhaps take advantage of except for my work schedule.

Some have asked, 'Can't you change to days?' 1. The last guy who asked for dayshift waited for a year before the change was made. 2. The schedule would then be 7am-7pm which would still make it difficult to do any performing(I live in Denton & work is 35 miles away in Plano) 3. I would also not be able to go to church 6 months out of the year. 4. I am no longer interested in working in the command center(reasons are named in an earlier post).


So I've made a decision. On August 1st, 2006 I will quit and pursue a career in music.

This is a bit scary as I don't have another job waiting for me but I am more scared of seeing the life & joy drain out of me in what should be the best years of my life.

Financialy it will be tough. A 50% cut in income means that we'll have to tighten our belts so to speak and I will have to come up with ways to meet the gap between bills & income each month. I have come up with the following ways to make money with out compromising my ability to play.

1. Music Copying - I worked my way through grad school mostly by preparing composers handwritten manuscripts on the computer for publication. I am in the process of setting the computer up to do the same thing again.

2. Teaching private students - I'll need to get cleared by the local school districts to do this.

3. The occasional odd gig - might provide a few bucks but nothing to count on.

4. A part-time job - as the situation dictates


As far as playing goes, my foremost priority is to find a position with one of the local community orchestras. I really want to get orchestral experience. Also, there's a local trombone group around here called 'Slide Area' run by a local freelancer. That looks like it could be some fun. I also wouldn't mind being in a brass quartet or quintet. Lastly, I'll keep an eye out for any local musicals that need trombones in the pit.

My ultimate goal is to either 1. Get a full time gig with an orchestra or 2. Teach college full time. For #2 I'll have to back to school for a DMA but I'm not doing that just yet.

I had a lesson with Jan Kagarice on Tuesday(wife of my former UNT teacher). She is such a wonderful teacher. We mainly worked on breathing & relaxation. I've incorporated the exercises that she had me do into my daily playing routine.

I visited with Dr. Vern Kagarice a couple of weeks ago and he was very gracious and gave me some solid ideas for playing opportunities in the area.

Tony Baker(the other UNT full-time trombone professor) also had some good ideas. He was very kind in replying my email and also agreed to give me lessons. Tony and I actualy have a tiny bit of history together. We went to the same bandcamp one summer(Henderson State University). We were placed in the top band together. I was first chair, David Herring was second, and Tony was third. Now David Herring is the Principal Trombone of the Minnesota Orchestra, Tony Baker is a full-time professor and free lancer, and I'm...uh...well...I'm trying to get back into it.



That's it for now. I'll update this more as things progress.