Students and paying gigs
Sometimes I get phone calls from people hoping to hire my students for gigs. I’m delighted when I can pass a professional opportunity on to a hardworking, high-achieving student, but often these calls are troubling.
Obviously, the callers want students because they assume students will work cheaply. Lots of college students work for not much money, as restaurant waitstaff, custodians, babysitters, and so forth. Those jobs don’t pay much because they are (ostensibly) “unskilled” labor. But “musician” is very much a skilled job.
Not long ago I was hired to play lead alto saxophone for a gig backing up a singer, and the contractor asked if I had a couple of students who could play in the section. Then he asked what I thought would be fair to pay them. I told him immediately that he was hiring them to do a professional service, and should pay them as professionals. Happily, he saw my point and agreed to those terms.
I suppose some hiring parties assume that students will be cheaper than non-students because they are not as skilled, and therefore can’t negotiate higher fees. (This may or may not be the case—I’ve certainly played gigs with “professionals” who would be far outclassed by undergraduate music students.) Sometimes they want to compensate for hiring less-skilled musicians by planning extensive rehearsals. In most cases, I think they would better spend that same money hiring skilled players to sight-read.
Musicians, enrolled students or not, are specialized, skilled professionals, and should be treated (and compensated) as such.
The worst are the ones who contact me at the university asking for students to do their wedding “for the experience.” I often wonder if the event is catered gratis by someone who needs ‘experience.’
It’s ridiculous to offer experience instead of money, as if the other option was money but no experience. Experience comes from paying gigs, too, plus you get to pay your rent.
Whenever I get asked to “play for exposure” my go-to response is “people die from exposure.”
Seriously, though. For an event like a wedding, even a charity event, you’d be VERY hard pressed to find a venue, catering services, equipment rentals, and even cleaning staff that would volunteer. So asking/shaming skilled musicians to work for free out of the “love” for their craft is insulting at best.
Great post!