In November of 2008 I moved to New York City. I'd been working in local, regional theatre and tours for over ten years and I was determined to get a job playing keyboards on Broadway. This is part 4 of a 5-part series. For the full story, visit the series home page:
How I Became a Broadway Musician
It was 2009 and I had started to find some work in NYC. I was accompanying for private musical theatre classes, giving a few vocal coachings and generally getting my feet wet in the NYC theatre scene.
I needed more work, but I was also stubborn. I didn’t want to take any commitments that would interfere with my goal of working on Broadway.
Which is a pretty bold thing to say, no? Come on, right? I was flat broke.
Well, yes, that is all true. But there’s another side to that. Even by within my first year I’d already become familiar with a problem I knew I needed to avoid.
The Catch-22 of Survival Jobs
See, and I’m sure you already know this, New York City is an expensive place to live. A cheap beer is $6. Rent is too damn high. Every time a bell rings the MTA raises the subway fare.
It can be very difficult. One of the traps that performers often fall into is grabbing a job that they legitimately need to survive, only to find that their job doesn’t allow them to pursue the goal they came to New York City to achieve. Two years down the line, they are financially stable and also terminally miserable in a job they could have done back home. And they never had the time to chase their goal.
This city can eat dreams just as quickly as it can make them.
(In all fairness – that’s not always how things go. But I felt that was how it what would happen with me if I didn’t keep my eye on the prize.)
So my next step was to find work that fit one of two criteria:
The first gig I found was a church job.
My friend Ryan taught me how to play his church organ and I started to sub for him at his church gig. $100/service and somewhere between 2 and 5 services a week. The gig helped get me through some very thin months and it very rarely interfered with theatre gigs. I’m still so grateful to my buddy Ryan.
A few months later I was recommended for my own organist position at a nearby church. I still have that same church gig every Sunday.
Job, Type 2
One of the MDs I had interviewed for MusicianWages.com suggested that I try getting a gig at CAP21 – which is a musical theatre school for actors in NYC. They often hire pianists and I could make some good connections there.
I emailed them right away and asked them for work. CAP21 happened to be looking for pianists right when I called and they gave me a job a few weeks later. I was so glad to have the job. I still work there from time to time.
I made great connections at CAP21 and I feel a lot of affection for their program, the administrators and the teachers. They were very good to me and it was a job that met all of my #2 criteria – it was in, around and moving toward a job on Broadway.
Reputation Building
Getting work as a musician in the Broadway scene is all word-of-mouth. That’s the reason that community building is so important, as I discussed in Part 3 of this series.
The next step is reputation building. You not only have to surround yourself with a vibrant community of genuine relationships – you also have to be very, very, very good at what you do.
Here’s the thing about Broadway work – since the collapse of the recorded music industry, Broadway work has become one of the best jobs in New York City for commercial musicians. It pays a living wage, provides health insurance and pension benefits through a union contract with the American Federation of Musicians. This is a deal that, outside of Broadway work, is largely available only to symphony musicians in ICSOM orchestras.
Famous sidemen who used to play for Sinatra or Bon Jovi are now playing on Broadway. Look – say what you want about having to play the same music every night – nobody can deny that it’s a good gig.
So nobody plays on Broadway these days except the best musicians in the world.
Moreover, it’s not just about playing well, it’s also about working well with others, communicating clearly, working with humility and flexibility and, generally, being a nice person. You can be the best, baddest bassist alive, but if you have a bad attitude, no one is going to recommend you for a long-term situation like a Broadway show.
Working It
So I took every gig – big or small – very seriously. I knew that my work would come (or go) from raves (or complaints) about my playing and demeanor.
I met great, talented people. I learned something from everybody. One gig would lead to the next. At the gigs I’d pass out a business card if asked for one, I’d send a short thank-you email with my info if not.
That’s not to say I didn’t mess up a few things. The first all-sight-reading gig of Sondheim music was not my finest work. The first time someone asked me to both sight-read and transpose down a minor 3rd didn’t go very well. My knowledge of musical theatre composers and their signature styles improved immeasurably. My sight- reading became laser-sharp.
I was starting to see more theatre – both because I could better afford it, but also because I started to know someone who knew someone who had free tickets, etc. I learned a LOT about the art and business of theatre. I learned so much, just by being around the scene, that it was hard to believe that I knew much of anything before I’d moved to New York City.
A year after I’d arrived, in 2009, I started music directing projects here and there. A gig at Symphony Space, a reading at Playrights Horizons, a class at NYU.
More gigs started to come in – a music directing gig at Town Hall, another reading, an off-Broadway show. Projects with big names and a little larger paycheck.
Using My Strengths
As you may have guessed by now (what is this? Part 4 already?), I like to write. It’s always been a hobby of mine. As I said before, Cameron and I had started this site about a month before I’d moved to New York City. Before this, though, I’d written a few other blogs, briefly worked on the side as a freelance copywriter and had a (very) small amount of luck as an amateur writer.
The union paper (now a glossy magazine) in New York, Allegro, started publishing articles from MusicianWages.com in 2009. I thought it was a neat thing. Allegro is mailed to 10,000 NYC union musicians every month, including all of the musicians on Broadway, and I figured that couldn’t hurt.
Once Allegro printed an article I’d written about creating a musician resume that included a copy of my resume in it. Cool, right? In other words, my resume was printed and mailed to every member of the New York City musicians’ union. I got a few phone calls after that one. That’s probably my favorite story about MusicianWages.com.
The union paper in LA also asked to publish our content. Then the International Musician, which is sent to over 100,000 North American union musicians, published 2 of our articles.
It was around then that Cam and I both started to have the – especially at first – surprising experience of meeting a musician who knew us from our articles. I’d be out on a gig and a musician would say – “Hey man, I read your article.” (Or, more frequently, “Hey man, now my resume looks just like your resume!”)
The content was making their way around the scene and that felt pretty cool. Blogging works. (Don’t forget how I landed my first tour – see Part 2 – that was also, indirectly, through blogging.) Sometimes it’s subtle, but it does work. It helped me with the reputation building that I knew I needed to continue to do.
Closer and Closer
Along the way someone had told me that it would take 3-5 years to break into the Broadway scene. At this point I felt like I was going the right direction and just had to keep going. But would it really take 5 years?
Tomorrow I’ll talk about how I finally got a gig on Broadway. I’ll also post a list of resources for aspiring and veteran Broadway musicians as we wrap up this 5-part series.
How I Became a Broadway Musician
It was 2009 and I had started to find some work in NYC. I was accompanying for private musical theatre classes, giving a few vocal coachings and generally getting my feet wet in the NYC theatre scene.
I needed more work, but I was also stubborn. I didn’t want to take any commitments that would interfere with my goal of working on Broadway.
Which is a pretty bold thing to say, no? Come on, right? I was flat broke.
Well, yes, that is all true. But there’s another side to that. Even by within my first year I’d already become familiar with a problem I knew I needed to avoid.
The Catch-22 of Survival Jobs
See, and I’m sure you already know this, New York City is an expensive place to live. A cheap beer is $6. Rent is too damn high. Every time a bell rings the MTA raises the subway fare.
It can be very difficult. One of the traps that performers often fall into is grabbing a job that they legitimately need to survive, only to find that their job doesn’t allow them to pursue the goal they came to New York City to achieve. Two years down the line, they are financially stable and also terminally miserable in a job they could have done back home. And they never had the time to chase their goal.
This city can eat dreams just as quickly as it can make them.
(In all fairness – that’s not always how things go. But I felt that was how it what would happen with me if I didn’t keep my eye on the prize.)
So my next step was to find work that fit one of two criteria:
- The job didn’t interfere with pursuing Broadway work.
- The job was in, around or moving toward Broadway work.
The first gig I found was a church job.
My friend Ryan taught me how to play his church organ and I started to sub for him at his church gig. $100/service and somewhere between 2 and 5 services a week. The gig helped get me through some very thin months and it very rarely interfered with theatre gigs. I’m still so grateful to my buddy Ryan.
A few months later I was recommended for my own organist position at a nearby church. I still have that same church gig every Sunday.
Job, Type 2
One of the MDs I had interviewed for MusicianWages.com suggested that I try getting a gig at CAP21 – which is a musical theatre school for actors in NYC. They often hire pianists and I could make some good connections there.
I emailed them right away and asked them for work. CAP21 happened to be looking for pianists right when I called and they gave me a job a few weeks later. I was so glad to have the job. I still work there from time to time.
I made great connections at CAP21 and I feel a lot of affection for their program, the administrators and the teachers. They were very good to me and it was a job that met all of my #2 criteria – it was in, around and moving toward a job on Broadway.
Reputation Building
Getting work as a musician in the Broadway scene is all word-of-mouth. That’s the reason that community building is so important, as I discussed in Part 3 of this series.
The next step is reputation building. You not only have to surround yourself with a vibrant community of genuine relationships – you also have to be very, very, very good at what you do.
Here’s the thing about Broadway work – since the collapse of the recorded music industry, Broadway work has become one of the best jobs in New York City for commercial musicians. It pays a living wage, provides health insurance and pension benefits through a union contract with the American Federation of Musicians. This is a deal that, outside of Broadway work, is largely available only to symphony musicians in ICSOM orchestras.
Famous sidemen who used to play for Sinatra or Bon Jovi are now playing on Broadway. Look – say what you want about having to play the same music every night – nobody can deny that it’s a good gig.
So nobody plays on Broadway these days except the best musicians in the world.
Moreover, it’s not just about playing well, it’s also about working well with others, communicating clearly, working with humility and flexibility and, generally, being a nice person. You can be the best, baddest bassist alive, but if you have a bad attitude, no one is going to recommend you for a long-term situation like a Broadway show.
Working It
So I took every gig – big or small – very seriously. I knew that my work would come (or go) from raves (or complaints) about my playing and demeanor.
I met great, talented people. I learned something from everybody. One gig would lead to the next. At the gigs I’d pass out a business card if asked for one, I’d send a short thank-you email with my info if not.
That’s not to say I didn’t mess up a few things. The first all-sight-reading gig of Sondheim music was not my finest work. The first time someone asked me to both sight-read and transpose down a minor 3rd didn’t go very well. My knowledge of musical theatre composers and their signature styles improved immeasurably. My sight- reading became laser-sharp.
I was starting to see more theatre – both because I could better afford it, but also because I started to know someone who knew someone who had free tickets, etc. I learned a LOT about the art and business of theatre. I learned so much, just by being around the scene, that it was hard to believe that I knew much of anything before I’d moved to New York City.
A year after I’d arrived, in 2009, I started music directing projects here and there. A gig at Symphony Space, a reading at Playrights Horizons, a class at NYU.
More gigs started to come in – a music directing gig at Town Hall, another reading, an off-Broadway show. Projects with big names and a little larger paycheck.
Using My Strengths
As you may have guessed by now (what is this? Part 4 already?), I like to write. It’s always been a hobby of mine. As I said before, Cameron and I had started this site about a month before I’d moved to New York City. Before this, though, I’d written a few other blogs, briefly worked on the side as a freelance copywriter and had a (very) small amount of luck as an amateur writer.
The union paper (now a glossy magazine) in New York, Allegro, started publishing articles from MusicianWages.com in 2009. I thought it was a neat thing. Allegro is mailed to 10,000 NYC union musicians every month, including all of the musicians on Broadway, and I figured that couldn’t hurt.
Once Allegro printed an article I’d written about creating a musician resume that included a copy of my resume in it. Cool, right? In other words, my resume was printed and mailed to every member of the New York City musicians’ union. I got a few phone calls after that one. That’s probably my favorite story about MusicianWages.com.
The union paper in LA also asked to publish our content. Then the International Musician, which is sent to over 100,000 North American union musicians, published 2 of our articles.
It was around then that Cam and I both started to have the – especially at first – surprising experience of meeting a musician who knew us from our articles. I’d be out on a gig and a musician would say – “Hey man, I read your article.” (Or, more frequently, “Hey man, now my resume looks just like your resume!”)
The content was making their way around the scene and that felt pretty cool. Blogging works. (Don’t forget how I landed my first tour – see Part 2 – that was also, indirectly, through blogging.) Sometimes it’s subtle, but it does work. It helped me with the reputation building that I knew I needed to continue to do.
Closer and Closer
Along the way someone had told me that it would take 3-5 years to break into the Broadway scene. At this point I felt like I was going the right direction and just had to keep going. But would it really take 5 years?
Tomorrow I’ll talk about how I finally got a gig on Broadway. I’ll also post a list of resources for aspiring and veteran Broadway musicians as we wrap up this 5-part series.
