My Story-My Life as a Music Entrepreneur

By Jeffrey Weeks Harrison

Music Entrepreneur

 

Why am I creating this blog?

My intentions for this blog is to share with others what I’ve learned in my music career with a particular emphasis on learning to play jazz and composing music. All lot of time will be dedicated to the processes involved in learning jazz. As well, I’ll be discussing how and why I became a music entrepreneur, the complexities associated with that choice and the feelings of freedom and exhilaration you get from your choosing to build your own music business. 

Through my process of learning to play jazz, I’ve begun discovering the never-ending world of musical motifs and devices available for jazz improvisation and useful in the everyday composition process in general. As I continuously expand my musical palette of sounds and increase my musical vocabulary, I’m developing my “musical voice”. It is my belief that creating your musical voice is the most important aspect of being a musician. I’ll talk about how one exercise in particular shared with me by a great jazz musician from New Orleans started me down this path of discovery.

Another aspect of what I do is composing music for film, dance, musical theater, animation etc. So as I discuss these compositions, I’ll reflect on the process of developing musical motifs using the exercise mentioned above and how it spurs musical inspiration and further development of melodic devices and patterns.

With these blogs, I’ll share tips (and occasional philosophies) that made learning jazz and composition more efficient, interesting and fun!

There is only so much time in the day to accomplish multiple tasks as a music entrepreneur. So time management and efficiency are critical. By sharing ways of streamlining your practice routine I hope to encourage and inspire more people to play jazz and to compose their own music.

Throughout this process, I hope to build a community of like-minded musicians that will share what we know and have learned in order to help us all become better musicians and composers.

 

Who is this for?

This will mostly be for musicians that play or sing jazz or want to play jazz… AND for composers of any style of music. I say “mostly” because some of what I will be blogging about may have value in general areas of business, social media applications etc. And as a composer of cinematic, film score music, there will be tips and information that I’ll share about that too. I released a CD of original music for films entitled “Music For Stories Untold”. If you are interested in hearing some that music, then please visit my website homepage. jeffreyweeksharrison.com

Much of what I’ll be blogging about will be about music-related topics associated with learning how to play jazz. So, these tips will likely be for musicians that already play jazz a bit or want to learn about how to play jazz. People that are interested will likely have to be fairly advanced on their instruments and able to read music. Some topics will be basic and some will be advanced. Some of what I will share will likely help many emerging jazz performers to improve their technique. I’ll share more on that later on.

Latest News

I’ll be sharing news about upcoming blog posts and latest news about album releases and various projects.

So if you want to learn more about my story, keep reading.

 

Brief Bio– (For People in a Hurry :lol:)
• I was born in New Orleans, sort of a long time ago.
• Started playing the French Horn at age 13.
• Graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), The Cleveland Institute of Music (BM), The Juilliard School (MM) and Lehman College (MAT).
• Bounced around for years playing in various symphony orchestras in the US.
• Arrived back in New York around 1999 to play on Broadway among other things and met my future wife Katie who introduced me to something called a computer.
• From 1999 through the present (2018) I diversified my career significantly and became a performer and composer of jazz music and cinematic music, thus becoming along the way a (cue drum roll) Music Entrepreneur.
• I’m currently living in New York City

(If you have more time…keep on reading.)

Ah…the life of a music entrepreneur. For me, it entails the following: being a musician…performer and composer…oh wait I almost forgot. Add the title of promoter…marketer…student…UGH. Is there more? Hey, you may as well add the title of “researcher” and “lifelong learner” to the list. The fact is that unless you are a household name in the music industry already, then you are likely spending a whole lot of time doing each one of those things in order to gain a foothold in today’s marketplace. And yes… it can be overwhelming at times. 😯 

But there was a time many moons ago when I was only a musician, a French Horn player of classical music and the occasional Broadway show. So…how did I become so much more?

For many, many years I was focused on one sole purpose in my music career, to get a job in a major symphony orchestra. That was how I was trained from high school at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), The Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. You come to school and learn about music theory, sight singing, and music history and perform in various ensembles all aimed toward the single, solitary objective…winning the job.

Granted, since the time I attended these schools and conservatories curriculums have changed considerably in order to “get with the times” and meet the needs of the modern-day musicians. When I went to The Juilliard School there was NO jazz curriculum. Since Wynton Marsalis came along, things changed.

As well, when I attended these institutions, neither my teachers, fellow students, student advisors, deans, school presidents or janitors ever mentioned a single word about the music business; or the importance of DIVERSIFICATION as a musician. One of my future blog posts will be about how I diversified my career and why I decided to do it. 

I can’t blame anybody for not sharing information about the music business or the importance of diversification because these things were just not a part of the curriculum. It was a one-track path to a career as a symphony musician.

As I reflect back in time, I realize that I was too impressionable and lacking in focus about what I wanted to do as a musician in the long term. Furthermore, I was too quick to accept advice about what others thought my career should be. To put it bluntly, I was ignorant and naïve. I couldn’t count on my parents to advise me because they weren’t musicians.

I practiced hard, a lot in fact. And I hoped that through hard work and practice that someday I would somehow play the perfect audition and miraculously get into a major symphony orchestra. Being from New Orleans I had a great appreciation for jazz and loved it. But because I played the French Horn, not an instrument considered to be a jazz instrument, I just went along with the flow and followed the path of classical music.

Things changed later on. I will talk about this later because I think many musicians, music entrepreneurs, and people in general, may find my story helpful and perhaps interesting.

So…if you wish to stay up-to-date with news about my latest CD releases, tips about learning jazz, composing or the music business, please join my mailing list below. Or if you just want to leave a comment on this blog, you will find the “reply” box below.

Thanks and Take Care.

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