Abstract
This essay evolved from my own experiences as a professional musician. After leaving music school for the first time and moving to a new city, I felt lost trying to navigate my own career. Although I thought I was a decent performer, I was lacking important skills I needed to be a successful musician. As I experienced myself, and witnessed colleagues experience, being a good player will only get you so far as a musician.
In today’s music industry, musicians need to be more self-sufficient than ever. Jazz currently accounts for roughly one percent of music consumed in the United States. That, along with little governmental or institutional support for jazz music in this country and an ever-rising number of artists means burgeoning jazz musicians need to be well equipped with the tools to overcome these obstacles.
I believe there is a strong need for an examination of the current pedagogy in order to determine how to better prepare jazz students to build and manage their careers. This essay is an exploration of five music entrepreneurship courses offered to undergraduate jazz students in music schools worldwide. Much of the research incorporated throughout came from interviews with the teachers of these music entrepreneurship courses along with undergraduate jazz students to better understand what is currently being taught and what jazz students believe they should be learning in these classes.
Additional interviews were held with renowned jazz artists to see how they have managed their careers. The primary purposes of this essay are to see what’s currently taught in these music entrepreneurship courses and to determine if the information presented relates to a modern jazz career, ultimately to better understand the fundamental tools needed to build a career as a jazz musician today. I hope that this project will serve as a guide for educators as well as young musicians who are starting to think about their career outside of music school.