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Rick Gustafson
on Flying with your guitar and having a 'Guitar Career'
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 14:39:28 -0500
Subject: Flights and Guitar Careers
I'll offer my comments about the threads on airlines and guitar careers.
- Airlines. My first experience with airlines was taking my Guild Starfire V electric guitar to Colorado from Wisconsin. I packed the guitar in rags, etc. and taped over the locks with duct tape. I watched in horror as my guitar was FLUNG into the cargo bay. As I had to transfer in Denver to Colorado Springs, my guitar survived 4 such handlings during the round trip. In subsequent years, I bought a Les Paul and got an Anvil (brand name) Flight case for it. The case is quite heavy but darn near indestructible. Since I'm not on the road any more, I sold the Anvil case and just use the Gibson case now. For my Ramirez, I have a Mark Leaf case. It is bulky, heavy and awkward, but also almost indestructible.
A related and recent guitar travel story below - see the follow-up videos for suggestions relevant to our current travel environment...
- I was going to be a rock star for sure - like every other teen-age guitar player in the 60s. I spent many years on the road playing in mostly dumpy venues and conditions. While my bands played quite a bit, we never made what I would call a real living wage. I worked my way through college by teaching guitar however. I studied classical guitar in college but am not what one would call a full fledged classical guitarist although I enjoy playing that style. Actually, I do better playing classical music on my electric guitars. I've taught guitar either privately and/or for the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan for the past 35 years as a PART TIME gig.
When my students ask me about guitar as a career this is what I tell them:
If you want to be a professional guitar player you have a couple of options - much like a doctor. You can become a specialist or a general practitioner. If you want to be a specialist, you will be competing with a very select group of players regardless of the specialty. For instance, there are a very limited number of TOP classical guitarists making a decent living by playing ONLY classical music and concerts. If you limit your style, you will limit your overall capacity to earn a living.
On the other hand, if you become a general practitioner or an ALL AROUND type guitar player, you will have a lifetime of opportunities awaiting you. If you learn many styles pretty good, you will be in demand. If you learn HOW to teach kids and adults as well, you can make good money (my city is 50,000 and my long time guitar buddy has 100 students a week! or approximately $60,000 a year). If you learn theory and how to read music, improvise music from chord charts and keep an open mind on the gig you are playing at the time, you will be in demand. If you want to be a professional guitar player, you have to be flexible. And if you can learn to play bass guitar as well, the door opens even further.
So, you say, what do I as an assistant director of a library do in the realm of guitar playing? I play guitar for church, I play in a community jazz band, I play for the university musical productions, I play murder mystery theater gigs, I play at weddings, I give lessons, I recently played electric guitar with the Sheboygan Symphony for the "West Side Story Suite" and many many years ago I performed the Vivaldi Concerto in D with the symphony. I promote the guitar locally as best and as often as I can. I host guitarists for programs at the library and have had the pleasure of presenting such artists as Eduardo Fernandez (do you remember playing here Eduardo?), Jorge Morel, Assad Brothers, Sharon Isbin, Marcelo Kayath, Paco Pena, Norbert Kraft, Frederic Hand, Newman and Altman duo, Paul O'Dette, Vladimir Mikulka, as well as Guy Van Duser (and Billy Novic - clarinet), Muriel Anderson, Pat Kirtley, Steven King, Phil Heywood, Peppino D'Agostino, Tommy Jones - all great fingerstyle players. Guess what? Because of our trust funds, there is never an admission charge to the public for these concerts. We don't have a great recital hall, but the people are exposed to artists they would unlikely otherwise see and hear.
In fine, the more versatile and open minded one is about the world of guitar and its opportunities, coupled with a moderate amount of positive effort, one can play and enjoy the guitar for a lifetime. And, if one does it with professionalism and sincerity, a good amount of money can be made too. This may not happen over night, but, what's the rush anyway. Like any other fine artist or craftsman, a guitarist must be willing to devote the necessary time as an apprentice and forget about the "instant gratification" mode that pervades our society today.
Enjoy your guitar playing. Try to learn something new about the guitar and/or music every time you play it. Try this today: figure out 4 different positions of an A minor 7th chord. For example, 1st position is A (5th string open) E, A, C, G.
Thanks and good luck in your various guitar careers,
Rick Gustafson
Assistant Director
Mead Public Library
Sheboygan, WI
(Note - articles are presented here by permission from the author.)
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