But, for the moment, that's okay. As sad as it is for to admit, my purpose at this point in my life is to not be a full-time musician or teacher...yet. The reason we moved to Oak Harbor is because my wife Holly got a job teaching at one of the elementary schools here, as a full-time music teacher. She's an excellent teacher, and a fine representation of how music should be taught to students from the very beginning...which eventually will lead to instrumental and vocal proficiency.
With Holly having a full-time job during school hours this fall, I will become a stay-at-home dad for our two boys. But, that is not all that I will be doing. There really aren't any proficient brass teachers on Whidbey, in an area where there are three middle schools and two high schools in a 10-mile radius, and roughly a total of nine middle schools and five high schools in a 30-mile radius. That's an ideal opportunity for me to introduce myself to the music educators here (some I already know well) and show students the benefits of taking individual lessons from someone who has several years of teaching experience and many more years of performing experience.
So, I am optimistic about my chances of getting a good amount of private lesson students here on Whidbey over the next several years. Based on experience, I know it takes time to get established. Of course, there are the obvious methods to advertise lessons, but the most helpful method for me has been to actually visit band classrooms and do a presentation on the horn (and through in a quick blurb about lessons). It's always a hit, since it's an instrument that so many of the students hear about and love, but hardly ever played well. Plus, they don't really know anything about it, since almost every band teacher I've worked with seems to have slept through their entire Horn Methods class in college. So, not only to I get to showcase myself for the students and show them the awesomeness of the horn and being a performer, but I make a good impression on the teacher. And no teacher I've met has said that they don't want their students to take individual lessons. So they'll push it, and I'll encourage it.
Of course, even with that method, or with normal advertising online or in a newspaper, it's still is a long and patient process to build up a studio of enough students to actually have a decent amount of work. But persistence is key. And attitude. That's huge. I always aim to show students that you don't have to be unapproachable or snooty or mean or anything like that to be a successful performer. It's all about having fun while being as good as you possibly can.
In addition to lesson teaching (and any performing gigs I can get, of course) I plan to keep up on composition. I am happy to see a good number of traffic on this website, and I can assure you that I still am in business and am still publishing my own music. The lack of anything new in my compositional output has mainly been due to time constraints, which are a lot less of an issue now. I have some great plans for new works, as well as some plans to promote my older works.
On that note, if you hear a recording of one of my pieces on my Catalog that you really like, please spread the word about it. It's a composer's goal to get as many people in the world to hear (and hopefully enjoy) their music. Also, if you see a piece that doesn't have a recording, and you have the ensemble skilled enough to make a decent recording, I would be forever grateful, and would showcase your recording on my website. Please contact me for that!
Take care and value music.