Part 1: Committing to the Goal

I wanted to play keyboards on Broadway, but I didn't know where to start. The first step I took was committing to the goal. This is part 1 of a 5 part series on becoming a Broadway musician. For the full story, visit the series:

How I Became a Broadway Musician

Background

First off, I’ve always loved theatre. I remember the first Broadway show my parents took me to see as a kid. We sat in the front row of the balcony where we could peer down into the orchestra pit. I saw the keyboard players down there and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

I started playing piano for my local theatre company in Illinois when I was 13. At 15 I was playing in the pit. At 18 I was music directing the shows. But music directing local shows in Illinois is one thing – playing on Broadway in New York City is much different. It took me another 12 years before I got my night on the Great White Way.

Now, I know this is going to be confusing, but I’m actually going to start the story after I went to college. I imagine you’re probably expecting this story to be something like: I went to college, I majored in music, I moved to New York and I got a gig.

But that’s not at all how it went for me.

To be honest, college was a confusing time for me. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere. I liked jazz, but not so much that I wanted to spend every minute listening to it or playing it. I liked classical music, but my high school training had all been in jazz, and the classical department wouldn’t even consider me. I studied composition for a few years, but I always wished that the classes and lessons would focus more on orchestration and arranging a less on pointillism and nihilism.

I tried a few other things in college, but nothing quite worked out right. In the ending I grabbed a liberal arts degree and left a little disappointed in the whole experience.

So let’s start the story after that.

Chicago, 2003

Ok, it was 2003. I had just graduated college and, really, things weren’t looking very good. I was a really good pianist and I spent the majority of college studying music but left with a completely unrelated and mostly unemployable degree. I knew I wanted to work in theatre and music, but experience (and everyone I knew) told me that it would be nearly impossible to make a living doing that.

I was living with my parents and I really needed a job.

I took a desk job at a nearby company and I started taking gigs at night. I worked for the local theatre companies, I formed a jazz trio and took gigs anywhere I could find them. I played keys in an African reggae band in Chicago and played in a few other original bands.

Personally, I found the whole scene very frustrating. I’d work 8 hours a day at my day job, then another 8 hours (at least) as a musician. I hardly made any money at either job and there was no hope of moving out of my parent’s place. I was frustrated and I knew I had to try something else, but what was there to do?

Cruise Ship Gig

I had heard other musicians in the scene talking (usually disparagingly) about cruise ship gigs. I started to research the job – and, considering the situation I was in, it sounded pretty good. Hang out on the beach...play some music...I thought that sounded like fun.

In April I auditioned for Proship at a recording studio in Chicago. In late June I booked a cruise ship gig and took off to Europe for 6 months. I played keyboards in the showband.

While on the cruise gig I wrote the Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Musician, which later became the first content we put here on MusicianWages.com.

It was 2005 by the time I got off the cruise ship. Then this happened.

It’s a long story, so I won’t go into it, except to say that it set me back a year and taught me (at much too young an age) the value of perseverance in the face of adversity. It was a good thing to learn, as I’d need to use that perseverance again when I moved to New York three years later. But, yes, it was a real drag.

It was during this experience that I committed to working as a musician on Broadway. It had taught me that life was just too short to settle for anything less than what I really wanted. From the time I committed to the goal until the night I first played on Broadway was approximately 5 1/2 years.

Working Full Time as a Musician

By 2006 I was back on the scene and – this time – working full-time as a musician in the Chicago area. I played the same gigs I’d played before the cruise gig, but now expanded to teaching lessons and working as an accompanist at the local college.

I had some nice gigs, and I was finally making a living as a professional musician. But I still wasn’t satisfied.

I was increasingly frustrated with the theatre scene in Chicago and the suburbs. I’d lived in the Chicago area for 25 years at this point – working night and day in theatre for much of it – and I had never once met a single musician that played in the Broadway shows that came to town. I wondered how that could be? Where were they all hiding?

Moreover, I became aware that all of the major shows brought their keyboard players from New York (which is often true) – so if you wanted a gig in Chicago, you’d have to move to New York anyway.

It just seemed like there was a glass ceiling for musicians like me in Chicago. I knew I had to leave.

Here’s the problem, though – I didn’t feel like I could just walk right into New York and start working. I felt like I needed some good credits first – or at least some more experience in professional theatre.

That’s around the time I received an email from Michael. Michael was two things. First, he was a reader of my cruise ship blog and somebody that was interested in learning more about that gig. And second, he had toured for 15 years as a bassist with Cats and Les Mis.

It was Michael’s advice that landed me my first tour as a keyboard player.

What was his advice? Well, like I said, this story is pretty long. So let me stop for how. Come back tomorrow morning and I’ll give you the same advice Michael gave me.