How easy is it to make a living in music today?
Making a living in music today is definitely possible, but it is not easy. To do it well takes thousands of hours, and if you are cool with that there will be no problem. For me, there was never any other option and I never considered anything else. The music field has changed a bit from when I was growing up and everyone was going to become an orchestral tuba player full-time. Many of those jobs are gone, and players need to be open to other avenues such as military band performance, overseas performance, arranging, publishing, recording, chamber music, etc. The absolute most important thing is that you can envision yourself practicing all your life. There are more players than jobs no matter where you are. Music performance is not a nine to five job; it means nights and weekends, holidays, getting in late, catching redeye flights, lack of adequate rehearsal time, many miles on the car, and long hours with the horn on the face. Once that is done however, you are doing what you love fo
