Life As A Musician In Lockdown

Tom is a full-time musician based in the US and has been working with Artist Management Services for the best part of two years. He is primarily a pianist, but also enjoys the chance of putting his skills on the oboe to good use. Like the majority of us, Tom is currently trying make the best of life under lockdown. We caught up with him and asked him what it’s like for a working musician stuck in quarantine. 

Hi, I’m Tom. I was born in Devon but moved out to the US six years ago to be with my (now) wife and to try and pursue my dream of working as a session musician. Long story short, it took less than a month since the move to land my first bit of work – playing piano on a recording for a children’s choir. It wasn’t exactly the rock and roll beginning I was expecting from a life in music, but I was grateful for the opportunity (and the cash, of course), and it actually led to some other exciting projects that I’m still involved with today. As well as session work, I also play regularly as part of the house band at a well-known Jazz club in town, and I also teach music one-to-one at my house. 

As in the UK, after the outbreak of coronavirus in the States, the work for session musicians dried up very, very quickly. I was suddenly thrust into a very precarious situation; I suddenly went from making a comfortable living to having virtually nothing coming in the bank. When you’ve got a mortgage and a car to pay for, that is seriously scary. It wasn’t even like I could supplement my income with more teaching work. Lockdown made teaching all but impossible – or so I thought… (more on that later!)

Thankfully, my wife is a midwife, so we still had some money coming in, but that didn’t stop the worry or the feeling of uselessness I had. Friends suggested I take a second job in a supermarket, which I really strongly considered. To make matters more complicated, I’m severely asthmatic, so I had to take my health seriously too. In the end, I decided I would wait it out and hope that something – anything – would drop in my lap to keep me busy and make a little bit of money. After less than week into quarantine, I got a call from the owner of the studio where I get the vast majority of my work. He told me that the studio was being forced to close and it was very unlikely to ever open again. My heart sank. “Right,” I thought. “I really need to find a way to make some money…” 

I was out in the back yard doing Pilates one Saturday (yes, I do that), when the mother of a boy I taught piano to called me out of the blue. She said that she was struggling to keep her son entertained with his school being closed and wondered if I’d consider giving him a lesson over video call. I was sceptical at first, as it wasn’t something I’d ever done before – and to be honest, I’m a bit of a technophobe. I agreed, wondering if there might be a way to resume my teaching after all. 

Fast forward a fortnight, and I’m happy to say that things are great. I’m teaching fifteen pupils via Zoom (what a god send!), which is more than I was working with when lockdown was first introduced. Financially, I’m stable. Working with the guys from AMS, we found a few other ways I could make some extra cash and they also helped me to apply for a couple of grants which I was entitled to, which was super, super helpful. The really interesting thing to come from all this is the live streamed lessons I’ve started to put out daily via Facebook – entirely free for beginners. On average, I get around 200 watchers interested in getting started learning the piano. I get enquiries every day for formal lessons, making me feel a lot more comfortable about my financial situation going forward. All in all, I’m delighted with how things are working out for me right now. I’m grateful because I know how much people in my line of work are struggling because of all this craziness. To anyone reading this who feels they’re in a position similar to mine, I would really encourage you to get creative with how you might use your talents to fund yourself in new and exciting ways – don’t be like me and be put off by lack of technical know-how! Having a team like Artist Management Services on your side is also a huge bonus – I can’t thank Kev and the team enough for how they’ve helped me over the last month. 

Thanks for reading and stay safe!