Roar Like a Violin Monster
Violin Monster makes a living playing violin in a halloween mask. See the video below
Legendary jazz drummer Billy Hart once told me, “You’re more than good enough to be a star.”
Just before he said that I had asked him, “What should I be working on to improve?”, thinking that if I could just become “good enough,” somehow this would translate into success as a jazz violinist.
In retrospect, I now understand his answer to mean that any artist, given a baseline of talent (i.e. “good enough”) can create a successful career, provided that he or she hustles hard enough (doing promotion, sales, marketing, networking, etc.)
If you’ve been playing the violin for 10 years you’re probably more than good enough to succeed as well.
You don’t have to be a blues viola player or a rock violinist to build your distinct brand and succeed. But you DO have to work hard, and creatively, to build your audience, find your niche, and make a living playing music.
Check out Violin Monster in this video. He’s not a virtuoso, but he’s paying his rent playing the violin, and it seems like he’s having fun doing it.
Regardless of the style of music he plays, Mr. Monster fits my definition of a “creative string player,” because of the clever way he interacts with his community and makes a living making music.
How often do you hear people complain about how their community isn’t cool enough to “get” what they do?
I really have a problem with this way of thinking. Just like teachers, doctors, lawyers and everybody else, we should be able to create a demand for what we do as artists. We can’t and we shouldn’t expect to count on the “stability” of an orchestra job.
Being good isn’t good enough.
It’s not enough to be good at playing music. Most artists believe that if they’re good enough, success will fall in their lap. This amounts to a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world works.
Philosophers and historians have argued that major historical changes can only occur through a confluence of ready-made socio-economic/material conditions with the bold actions of visionary individuals. See Noam Chomski, Karl Marx and Georg Hegel.
Consider the emergence of any major religion, World War 2, the Civil Rights movement, and the Arab Spring. All of these events involved not only the change in both popular thought and material conditions, but also the drastic action of strong-minded individuals which helped to create a Tipping Point.
To create your tipping point (building buzz for your brand), you’ve got to 1) take drastic action and 2) do it within a community that has the minimum necessary conditions to support/receive your efforts.
As I always say, living on a mountaintop with goats does not a jazz violinist make, and even if you live in a booming cultural mecca, it may take time to generate the reception you’re hoping for if you’re presenting a new heavy metal string quartet.
- Creating your brand may take a little time.
So exactly how big/diverse does a community need to be in order to accommodate or support a “creative” artist’s expression? Consider Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Violin Monster is based. It turns out this small town has been the growing grounds of all kinds of creative string players and teachers.
Not more than 20 feet from Violin Monster, I met locals who remembered Grammy-winning Jeremy Kittel playing at the same farmers market when he was 8 years old. Just an hour before, my friend Dana Leong and I jammed out in a free-jazz parade as part of Kerrytown Concert House’s annual “Edgefest”. Check out the hilarious pictures on Dana’s flickr page!
Ann Arbor is not a thriving metropolis, but it has enough of the necessary conditions to allow a courageous musician to build an audience.
The next time a fellow musician complains about how “the scene in this town really sucks”, tell them that they need to either MAKE their own scene, or move.
Don’t wait for a club to open that features jazz violin 7 nights a week. Open your own venue or work with management to transform an existing spot into something new. Promote shows in unlikely locations. Try stuff!
Kerrytown Concert House took advantage of everything its community has to offer over years of doing concerts and festivals (and free-jazz parades!) again and again, making Edgefest a staple of the international creative music community.
One of Jeremy Kittel’s teachers, Bob Phillips started the Saline Fiddlers in a little town outside of the city. Bob is one of the leading advocates for modernizing string education today.
Other members of the Saline Fiddlers such as Corinna Smith have gone on to play with Barrage, offer forward-thinking music education programs, and are defining a new era of Creative String playing today.
Other proactive and cool creative string players from Ann Arbor include Gabe Bolkosky and Brandon Smith.
What’s the difference between these Ann Arborites and every other musician complaining how the world hasn’t caught up to their vision? They took a chance. They acted boldly. They had the courage to act on what probably seemed like a CRAZY idea. Now they are powerful brands succeeding at their art on their own terms.
Jeremy and Corinna will be coming back this June to the Creative Strings Festival, my annual Columbus, Ohio-based fiddle camp built on the unlikely idea/curriculum that every participant performs improvised music in public concerts throughout venues around the city. All together, we perform over 25 concerts during the week!
When we began ten years ago, I was barely sure whether it would work, but I took a chance, kept doing it every year, and found that the community, as well as the string players who come from around the world, make it better every year.
What’s up?
Are you a Creative String Player?
Come to the Creative Strings Workshop or check out the Creative Strings Academy. 2012′s festival and camp happens June 19 – 23rd.
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Wow great article Chris. Thanks for the inspiration. Check out the “MichaelFraserViolin” channel on youtube. This guy is a great example of the article above. He started out playing swing jazz violin and is now mixing techno and house music with live violin. He is the DJ and the player at the same time. Amazing.
Thanks for this post, Christian.”It’s not enough to be good at playing music. Most artists believe that if they’re good enough, success will fall in their lap.” I’ve been saying this exact thing in nearly the exact words for many years now, and it’s the reason I’d like to someday (soon) begin teaching a class to performance majors on how to do “promotion, sales, marketing, networking, etc…” for themselves. So many of the musicians I know or have worked with seem to think that “If I win this competition, the calls will start coming to hire me as a soloist. All I need to do is win this competition.” Sure, that helps, but really, winning simply isn’t enough. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (in other words, effort) that has to go into creating a successful career beyond what happens in the practice room and on stage. Self-promotion (the effort to be heard by promoters and producers over the clamoring of all the other thousands of voices trying to be heard) is an extreme challenge, one that takes practice, training, and dedication.As a former Strolling Strings member under Walt Straiton in Williamsport, PA, a Music Education major at the University of Miami (Miami, FL), a former Barrage and Cirque Dreams violinist, and now a dual MBA/MA in Arts Administrator student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, my successes have come only because I took chances. My Barrage audition, the Cirque Dreams audition, applying for an MBA program when my last math class had been during junior year of high school … all of these things took guts and an acknowledgment that disappointment was a real possibility.So you’re right—so, so right. “What’s the difference between [successful musicians] and everyone other musician complaining how the world hasn’t caught up to their vision? They took a chance. They acted boldly. They had the courage to act on what probably seemed like a CRAZY idea. Now they are powerful brands succeeding at their art on their own terms.” Just like you, Christian, and like Jeremy Kittel, Corinna Smith, and, it turns out, Violin Monster.
Thanks for this post, Christian.”It’s not enough to be good at playing music. Most artists believe that if they’re good enough, success will fall in their lap.” I’ve been saying this exact thing in nearly the exact words for many years now, and it’s the reason I’d like to someday (soon) begin teaching a class to performance majors on how to do “promotion, sales, marketing, networking, etc…” for themselves. So many of the musicians I know or have worked with seem to think that “If I win this competition, the calls will start coming to hire me as a soloist. All I need to do is win this competition.” Sure, that helps, but really, winning simply isn’t enough. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (in other words, effort) that has to go into creating a successful career beyond what happens in the practice room and on stage. Self-promotion (the effort to be heard by promoters and producers over the clamoring of all the other thousands of voices trying to be heard) is an extreme challenge, one that takes practice, training, and dedication.As a former Strolling Strings member under Walt Straiton in Williamsport, PA, a Music Education major at the University of Miami (Miami, FL), a former Barrage and Cirque Dreams violinist, and now a dual MBA/MA in Arts Administrator student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, my successes have come only because I took chances. My Barrage audition, the Cirque Dreams audition, applying for an MBA program when my last math class had been during junior year of high school … all of these things took guts and an acknowledgment that disappointment was a real possibility.So you’re right—so, so right. “What’s the difference between [successful musicians] and everyone other musician complaining how the world hasn’t caught up to their vision? They took a chance. They acted boldly. They had the courage to act on what probably seemed like a CRAZY idea. Now they are powerful brands succeeding at their art on their own terms.” Just like you, Christian, and like Jeremy Kittel, Corinna Smith, and, it turns out, Violin Monster.
I really like this! It speaks so much needed truth to musicians with unrealistic expectations. Thanks for confirmation on some questions that I had, regarding my own approach to the music industry!
I love this part, especially: “What’s the difference between these Ann Arborites and everyone other musician complaining how the world hasn’t caught up to their vision? They took a chance. They acted boldly. They had the courage to act on what probably seemed like a CRAZY idea. Now they are powerful brands succeeding at their art on their own terms.”
#Truth
That’s a great blog Christian. I work as a teacher educator across a system of 78 schools in Sydney, Australia and I’d love to get you ‘down under’ for some creative strings workshops one day – especially after reading this blog. Strings is only one aspect of my workflow but it’s a passion for me to drive a strings program in our schools in places where kids would never have known the opportunity otherwise.. and we had Bob Phillips out for a clinic/workshop back in 2009 when the program had only been running for a few weeks and yes… Bob is just great at motivating HUGE groups of string players at any stage. We now have 10 elementary schools (in some fairly rough neighbourhoods in Western Sydney) implementing the strings program in the classroom as well as small groups and ensembles, taught by a team of 8 specialist teachers and 5 very talented class teachers – nearly 1300 kids who did not know what a violin or cello looked like 2 years ago, now playing in ensembles and orchestras.
It concerns me though, that SOME string players – well…. Classical musicians generally – well.. for that matter Jazz musicians as well do have the view that if they are top of their game, then the gigs will just flow. But in contrast, I can name a few composers and string groups here in Oz that are approaching things differently – one that comes to mind is The String Contingent http://www.thestringcontingent.com/ This trio is very innovative and talented and when Christopher approached me 12 months ago and asked my advice on how to approach schools to do workshops, they were only aiming at secondary schools but I suggested they put together a concert/workshop for elementary schools and they did a BRILLIANT concert and workshop that had the kids on the edge of their seats – many kids decided to take up a stringed instrument that day :D go to: http://www.fiddlinphil.com/page3.php and scroll down to The String Contingent film clip.
Now….. to save my holiday pay and persuade my boss to send me to your Creative Strings Camp – it sounds like a week of very innovative and exciting improvisation and performance, practicing the “Art of the Possible”
Hi Christian: I’ve been following for a couple years. I like your approach, energy, passion and ability to continue to re-invent the violin. Your cover of Black Keys, tighten up is cool. There was a bubble that popped up about what tune to cover next. I’ve got about a dozen tunes I try to practice regulary on Octave Mando and play violin over. One is my favorite beatles tune While My guitar Gently Weeps, the other is Hotel California. Finaly, I’d love to see you do any kind of homage to ELO, my aboslute favorite super group that featured violin and cello prominitly. P.S. I play a Barbera Acoustic electric 6-string. Its my only axe but I love it for all music styles and settings. Happy New Year! Oliver Thompson (the one in Boise)
Thanks Phil. I actually plan to be in Asia next December and a trip down under is definitely in order! sounds like there’s plenty of action over there! my friend and former student, Luke Moller is doing quite a bit of fiddling out there and we also had Roger Young, a symphony player from Sydney, in last year for the Creative Strings Workshop. great to connect/
right on Bobbi. No doubt you’ve got all the talent AND hustle power…!
very cool, jason, great story! I worked with the strolling strings about 10 years ago and am friends w Walt- small world. Look me up if you come up to Columbus!
thanks Walter- very cool. The more examples we see of artists finding their own path the more it confirms we should be doing the same I guess..hope to see you on the ustream thursday. thanks again
I am utterly astonished! Thank you for your kind words and wisdom. It helps me feel like I’m on the right path. I never know who’s watching/listening/talking to me – I’m pretty blind and hard of hearing while I’m wearing the mask. (I wear thick glasses when I’m not playing) I’m ecstatic that I caught the attention of such an amazing strings player such as yourself. I just listened to your version of Amazing Grace; beautiful! After high school, I didn’t play violin at all for 7 years. When I picked it up again after some other things in my life fell apart I instantly realized how much I missed it. To take the risk and go for it all the way, quitting my t-shirt factory job and committing myself as a full time street performer, has probably been the best decision of my life. My travels have been wonderful. I’ve been to Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans, San Antonio, and Austin so far. I have lots of stories, and I’ve met a lot of cool musicians and performers along the way. Thanks again for this big piece of affirmation! I like to think of every new day as my new starting point, and try to build from there. I’m looking forward to a lifetime of violin-ing, and learning and getting better all the while. I’ll be checking out your video lessons and your Creative Strings program.
Always Fiddlin’,
Violin Monster
Thanks Oliver- I will put these suggestions on my list for sure. I actually did do a lesson on “Hotel California” which is available to all members/subscribers of the Creative Strings Academy. Yeah Boise-tht’s one place I need to get to one of these days…!
That’s great to hear that this met with your approval! I think as long as it’s (your current career path) making you happy, and it sounds like it is, then it’s the right path (until something changes!). No doubt you are enriching others through what you do. I’m really glad I got to meet you briefly in Ann Arbor and hope we cross paths again Mr. Monster!
Chris,
Indeed you did :-) You actually played with my bluegrass band that summer — we had been hired by Walt to work an amusement park nearby, and he had us come down for part of a day to jam with you so the students at the Strolling Strings camp could see a blending of styles.
I’ll be sure to look you up in Columbus, and if you make it down to Cincinnati anytime soon, please let me know. Also, I think you know my friend Peter Harris — we grew up playing Suzuki together.