Elf on Tour: Detroit, MI part 2
The opening night show went well. The band had one snafu that almost derailed us, but we hung on and kept going and made it without crashing. It's during a dance number so if we mess up, it's bad for everyone on stage too. I'm sure it'll get worked out
( Read more... )
Having never memorized how baseball leagues work, I know our local league (the Spokane Indians) is "professional" but none of they players are rich and certainly need jobs aside from playing baseball 5 months a year in a minor league regional team and generally age out of being able to play at that level by the time they are 35 or 40!
They are paid, they've "gone pro", and its their full-time job for at least part of the year... but they're not making any more than a grocery store clerk... but that's a pro-athlete making "a living" right alongside our minor league symphony members. All pro, yet none are rich, and all are told they are spending their life "playing" and they'd better be grateful their play is tolerated/enjoyed/supported by OTHERS as much as it is, because its a selfish waste of time otherwise.
Its a far-fetched dream whether you play sports or play music.... to get rich doing it, but it doesn't stop people from trying, and it doesn't stop parents from cautioning their kids against trying it as if it were "a plan" rather than... you guessed it, "playing around".
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On an individual sportsball player/musician level I agree with you, I think.
When it comes to "sports" or "musicians" as a broader concept of value in relation to saying someone is "playing," I'm sorry but imo the terminology "playing" doesn't have a values attribute in the same way for both. The sports industry is a billion-dollar, much-beloved part of society, taken so extremely seriously even though everything is "just a game." Music? Not so much.
Also...I can't speak for others but I didn't go into music "to get rich doing it." That was never part of MY dream. I want to get PAID, obviously, for doing work that I enjoy and that supposedly others would find such value in that they WOULD pay me. But it's not, like, The Factor. And anyone who goes into either sports or the arts with that as the primary dream-goal really IS playing. It's nice if things work out for you and you get the big bux $$$$ but if money is the goal there are other careers with higher odds of achieving that (, said Captain Obvious.)
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The additional money devoted to sports compared to music is from *gambling*, aside from all the other markets it shares with music such as its intrinsic value, entertainment value, value as a skill/talent, value as a tradition, social value, or for the love/joy/health benefits of playing.
And I think the life choices/financial experience of being on an Olympic gold medal winning water polo team probably mirrors that of someone who plays in a world-class symphony/philharmonic. If they play their cards right, they can make a living between a patchwork of practicing/playing/performing and often supplemented by coaching/teaching.... but the environment necessary to "play" at their peak skill is *expensive* and requires a team in most cases, and yet not valued like other people's "work", despite the respect of their peers and world for their ability to perform at the highest of levels.
I think MOST things that people do for love... is undervalued in straight money terms, just... in general.
And I think it is due to a capitalist society's mistrust of anything we do that isn't ABOUT the money.
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Yeah, an Olympic team (or a sports team) has sponsorships and funding. I don't know much about the Olympics and have considered them a seasonal thing, so to bounce back to something I can actually speak on, college football teams have million-dollar budgets. College! They are FUNDED, they are BACKED, they are SUPPORTED.
I suppose if the team is good then the school marching band also enjoys support and funding. Because of the sports.
I haven't seen football players, or Olympians, marching on strike to receive a living wage.
The MET is on a labor lock out right NOW.
Chicago Symphony went on strike for SEVEN WEEKS in 2019.
Anyway, I don't know. Whether sports are financed through gambling or other means (there are definitely other funding sources), I don't think there's any comparison using the word "play" as an excuse for how musicians (and the arts really) are treated compared to other occupations whose actions are defined as "playing." But that is just my opinion so I default to your knowledge and experience on the topic.
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I don't think it's an *excuse*, I'm posing that it's a subconscious part of our language which reflects (or infects) our English-speaking Protestant-work ethic-obsessed society with having a dismissive attitude toward the *work* of "play" **even when** its a profession.
I'm not saying I'm right or I'm wrong, but I am making a case for my posit.
I remind you I don't get an eff about sportsball, but I'm a music nut who is also a talent booker for musicians/dancers/poets, fighting with my company to raise compensation and making sure they are supported, and spent last 20 years of my life interviewing artists (visual, sonic, experiential, performance) about the struggles of being a professional in the industry, and I have a line-item budget in my **personal** budget I devote to buying recordings, tickets to shows and merchandise from musicians. Please remember, I'm not ignorant of what you do. You're singing the choir about what musicians suffer.
Just because you haven't heard of an athletic strike (natural... since you don't follow sports) but it happens all the time.
Major league baseball (ALL TEAMS!) went on strike for a YEAR... not that long ago!
https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/03/us/pro-sports-lockouts-and-strikes-fast-facts/index.html
So yes, it sounds like you simply aren't aware how athletes make money in sports outside of the "Rock Stars" of major league sports, when much like musicians, 99.5% of everyone is ACTUALLY playingworking in relative obscurity.
Here's how pay in baseball works for example:
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/how-much-are-minor-league-baseball-players-paid-in-2024/
To me it seems commensurate with the pay range for orchestral musicians: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Orchestra-Musician-Salary
Lots of people making almost nothing at/below minimum wages, some people making a living, a handful of people making a nice/comfortable living, and just a few people getting rich. Local symphonies are funded, get grants, and corporate sponsorship, too but that doesn't translate to the individual musicians getting rich doing it. Same goes for local league sports teams.
Most Olympic athletes work wage/salary jobs (https://olympics.com/en/original-series/day-jobs/) or raise funds independently to **afford** to practice and compete at that level - and if they win a medal the wealth/gratitude of their home country decides their payout for their accomplishment, but they are not paid directly to compete in the games.
Being an Olympic athlete is a lot of people's second (not very well paying) job.
In fact athletes have *to pay* to compete at most of the qualifying level matches. This is exactly why Olympic athletic teams are sponsored, and this does NOT necessarily translate to the athletes being *paid* mind you, just that they can afford compete, practice, and are equipped to do so.
"More than 90 percent of all Olympians reported spending as much as $21,700 in competition fees and membership dues in the lead-up to the [Olympic] games."
DId you know college athletes are not paid salaries or wages for their performance except in the form of scholarships, (much like musicians)?
A college or Olympic team might be funded/sponsored (for their equipment, their team travel/entry fee to matches, their team accommodations) but the Olympic athletes as individuals are generally not paid for their performance, win or lose. But if they lose, they risk losing their sponsorships.
Two things athletes and musicians have in common are that the majority ARE NOT paid well and their individual performance contributions are dismissed *unless*/*until* they become famous doing it,... and what they do is called "playing" rather than "working" is all I'm saying.. and wondering if this flippancy is related to their struggle to do what they love and feel passionate about.
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Thank you for taking the time to share this, and the links. I learned a lot (haven't read everything yet but your summary is awesome)
Yeah, I essentially didn't really know how to respond, so to put some sort of response out there i opened my ignorant mouth. Actual answer should have been, "I don't know!"
I blow air into a metal tube for a living and make slidey sounds. The fact that I EVER get paid to do it is kind of flabbergasting.
I want to earn a living wage, but it's not required that I earn it via the trombone. I think that many entertainment and sports people would feel the same. Given the current way-things-work, of which I don't know a lot, it's ideal to be earning money "playing" the instrument/sport if you also want to advance publicly/professionally. But certainly it's not a requirement to earn money doing the thing, in order to keep enjoying doing the thing, whether society/people take it seriously or not. Idk.
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"But certainly it's not a requirement to earn money doing the thing, in order to keep enjoying doing the thing,"
Nope, but of course... to afford the time to keep doing it, you need to be able to afford other things... like food/shelter/healthcare... which you know and understand quite well. It's a privilege give our time to music, but it's also required to give our time to music *to* play music,... time/effort/energy ain't free, and study/practice ain't paid.
Performers are paid TO PERFORM... and all the rest is on their shoulders, getting to level where they *can* perform reliably and on-demand.
For my job, I talk. I don't just flap my gums... I need to be socially fluid, choose my tone, improvise, read rooms, make people comfortable/excited, connect authentically, be relevant, and be able to express/inform/educate/control while making others understand me clearly... and being good at understanding others whether or not they are good at expressing themselves.
But it's almost impossible to itemize my art of conversation skills as a professional skill because it gets catalogued with my "attitude" (because it's how I express myself) rather than the *work* I am LITERALLY getting done every time I talk for work, because it's seen as just... .talking. Most everyone does that.
Almost everyone can blow wind through a recorder
https://youtube.com/shorts/_u3EV5D_8UI?si=1jYk1cCJF7dq0s-V
but it takes time, practice, patience, focus, sacrifice, and dedication to become a musician at it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwSWIZ6V6pY
I'm a conversationalist but my time, practice, patience, focus, sacrifice, and dedication to doing it well and to a high level on demand, with anyone... is not something that is seen as work, only the outcomes. I feel that is something I share with musicians.
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