The Musicpreneur Space
A Conversation with Alexia McLean
Our conversation traverses this unique score, as Alexia shares her experiences and insights, shedding light on the oft-unseen roles artists can play behind the scenes in shaping the future of the arts industry.
The pressures and challenges facing musicians today take center stage as we explore the evolving landscape of music education, the strategic use of social media, and the importance of self-discovery in carving out a fulfilling career path. Alexia's story is a testament to the transformative power of personal vision, as she discusses the delicate art of maintaining one's identity while navigating the professional world, and the unexpected treasures found in networking, mentorship, and the simple yet profound act of being true to oneself.
Pulling back the curtain on stereotypes that paint music as a precarious career choice, we celebrate the hidden pathways and rewarding aspects of the industry. From Alexia's advocacy for musicians in educational policy to the creative intricacies of producing multi-track video arrangements, this episode is an ode to the passion, innovation, and resilience of those who dedicate their lives to the arts. So, if you're a lover of music, an educator, or someone fascinated by the inner workings of the arts industry, join us for a narrative that masterfully blends artistry, education, and the undying quest for personal growth.
Outro
Our conversation traverses this unique score, as Alexia shares her experiences and insights, shedding light on the oft-unseen roles artists can play behind the scenes in shaping the future of the arts industry.
The pressures and challenges facing musicians today take center stage as we explore the evolving landscape of music education, the strategic use of social media, and the importance of self-discovery in carving out a fulfilling career path. Alexia's story is a testament to the transformative power of personal vision, as she discusses the delicate art of maintaining one's identity while navigating the professional world, and the unexpected treasures found in networking, mentorship, and the simple yet profound act of being true to oneself.
Pulling back the curtain on stereotypes that paint music as a precarious career choice, we celebrate the hidden pathways and rewarding aspects of the industry. From Alexia's advocacy for musicians in educational policy to the creative intricacies of producing multi-track video arrangements, this episode is an ode to the passion, innovation, and resilience of those who dedicate their lives to the arts. So, if you're a lover of music, an educator, or someone fascinated by the inner workings of the arts industry, join us for a narrative that masterfully blends artistry, education, and the undying quest for personal growth.
Outro
a little bit about yourself, what you do and, the big thing, why you do it.
Alexia McLean:Thank you so much, austin, for having me and it's I was so excited when I saw your invitation to do this. We were literally just talking about it. We need more stuff like this. We can have these kinds of conversations. So, hi everyone, my name is Alexia McClain. Thank you so much for listening in.
Alexia McLean:So I am a saxophonist, but I am in my professional career work as the assistant director of recruitment and admission operations at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. If that could be a longer title, you know, that would be great, really a lot of my aspirations in what I do. I thought for the longest time I wanted to be a saxophone professor. I went through my undergrad and my master's in saxophone performance. I really thought that's what I wanted to do. I was ready to do the DMA and something just really clicked for me when I was doing my master's degree and the first thing that clicked was wait a minute. We live in a society and a career industry where professors are not needed anymore. And I say that and I think that's a better way of thinking about it versus there's only like a 13% chance of a job opening in the entire country and then thousands of people apply. That sounds so much scarier, but that's actually how it was presented to me when I was first inquiring about jobs at grad school, and that was super scary to hear. So it felt like I hit a dead end and after that I was doing a lot of soul searching why am I doing this? Why am I pursuing music? Did I do it just because I did band in high school and I continued onward. You know you have a lot of those kind of personal questions to yourself. So I did a lot of soul searching, did a lot of thinking, I did a lot of reading, just trying to do research on what's needed and what's important. And between that and being a first generation college student, I learned a lot about disparities between students getting the information that they need to pursue higher education if that's something they're interested in or just to have aspiration and goals and dreams in their life. I think there's just not enough resources for things like that. So that's kind of what inspired me to start doing arts administration.
Alexia McLean:I am innately organized. It's literally burned into the edge of my human existence. When I was a kid, my mom would always find me making rules in my room, so when people would come in my room. They weren't allowed to sit on the bed and things like that and just doing those. I just was always an organized person.
Alexia McLean:I was a very structured person definitely to a fault, but that kind of found a way of like, how can I really fire this passion for wanting to help students? And arts administration was the way to go. So I started out kind of finding my way there and I just found being involved in higher education and as big of a conversation as possible. So the real kind of goal is to keep moving upward in higher education so that way I can be in places where my voice matters and it is listened to, because I think it's valuable. I don't think we have enough art administrators out there in the world who are actual artists and I think that really kind of hurts opportunities for the future generations because it's being run by people that don't even understand what the needs are. So that kind of in short or in long, rather really fueled it because I saw these disparities and I thought about it and I was like what can I do? And that's where I'm trying to go. So that's yeah.
Austin McFarland:No, I like that. You've what you hit on. It speaks, I think, to a lot of all of us that kind of go back and forth between that artist thing where we're playing a lot to running whether it's our own business or our own organization, or we're taking on work for, like professional organizations, nasa, the clarinet association, like whatever and part of what I think people sometimes gets caught in people's head is that you can't do both. So how do you as an artist and arts administrator juggle that whole like being musically satisfied or artistically satisfied, I guess, and then manage the work aspect of it?
Alexia McLean:Yeah, definitely. I don't think we'll ever be musically satisfied with ourselves. You know, I even think about like the most amount of playing I did was grad school. I think that's the most amount of playing any of us do is when we're in college. And even then I just kept getting frustrated because I wanted to play more, I wanted to play more pieces, I wanted to play more gigs, I wanted to play more concerts, but I literally didn't have the time. I think that's how much I was playing.
Alexia McLean:So in terms of juggling it back and forth, I one definitely appreciate the small things, I appreciate the little things of opportunity. So my husband is also a professional musician. For those of you listening in, obviously Austin knows that already. So he is a professional percussionist and he is definitely the one that gigs amongst the two of us. So I say that because having conversations with him, especially when they're critical music conversations, really fuels that a lot. It almost reminds me about things that I originally forgot about. You know, remember that one time in theory class we spoke about this very specific composer and how interested we were in X, y and Z, and I think a lot of that really fuels that need of feeling musically involved in some capacity. Listening a lot definitely helps. I still teach private lessons quite frequently and that definitely is supportive of that In terms of actually picking up the horn and playing, I think what really helps with that.
Alexia McLean:And I discovered this very quickly when COVID hit. Obviously it shut all of us down and we had to find ways to adapt and at the time I was playing a lot of gigs, I was teaching a lot of lessons, I was keeping myself pretty musically busy per se in addition to my arts administration job at the time. And when COVID hit, everything shut down and it almost felt like we had to kind of start over and find an avenues to sustain ourselves. So I started looking online and seeing what can I do to entertain my time? Because we're home literally 24 seven and you're living with someone that you're seeing all the time and you're figuring out a way to be around each other all the time and what you know, and I again in the kind of person it's burning my soul to be as productive as possible. I don't. I have a really difficult time relaxing and taking it easy. I always feel like there's something to do and there's something to improve on and there's something to learn about.
Alexia McLean:So to take up my time, I started diving more into studio recording and sound engineering. I actually bought an iMac during COVID because I didn't even have a desktop computer like a personal one, and it came with Logic and Final Cut Pro and all of those things and I just started figuring stuff out on what to do and I started creating these multi track videos because I loved I've always done this, I've always arranged fun pop songs, video game music, tv show music into saxophone arrangements. I think it can sound so good, you know it's. It excites me to be able to put things together and I put these multi track videos out, I posted them on YouTube, I shared it with the Facebook world and it took off. People really liked it and I was posting a video every week for over a year and it it took up way more time than I anticipated. It's something that I would love to get back into again once I can kind of start to put more of my ducks in a row, if you will, because people even started asking for the arrangements and I started, you know, getting them through Sheet Music Plus and selling them.
Alexia McLean:Not that I care about payment of money, because you don't really get that much commission off of already copyrighted music. You know, and if for those of you listening don't know that much about copyrighting, you know you got to be careful when you're arranging music and you know if it's already the melody is already originally copyrighted. But I did it just because I just knew people enjoyed that stuff. I think the sheet of music costs like $15 to buy or something like that, and I would get like 10 cents off of each sold copy. And again, it didn't matter to me, I just did it because I liked it and I enjoyed it. So that really fuels the fire for me. And in addition to that, I'm not going to share too much because it's still in the works, but there is a project that I am personally working on and hoping to launch within the next year or so. That's also going to feel that fire, because the fire started to go out a little bit and I'm wanting to find new ways to do it.
Alexia McLean:And yeah, so that all in your spare time, right, doing your job and, I think, trying to when you work in a workplace, no matter what it is, rather you want to love it Because you're spending what? 60% of your life in your job. So I know it can be really difficult for us to have this idea of not every single musician out there can play music and make a living off of it. But I think we need to figure out better ways to adapt to the world, and I think our world is starting to shift in that direction. But now we're looking outward and thinking well, what do I do now?
Alexia McLean:I think it took a long time for our when I say our world, I mean our music colleagues and friends and things like that but I think that thinking is starting to agree with the traction, or whatever you want to call it. They wanted to push back for so long, but now we're starting to go with the flow instead of against the flow. But now we're starting to figure out well, now what? Working in a admissions office out of college, I see that all the time where students and parents are like well, how do we get a job? Are you going to give us a job? Give it. You have no idea how many times we've been asked that Give me a job. Who are you going to connect me with?
Austin McFarland:If only it were that easy right.
Alexia McLean:I know, and maybe it makes me think, because I'm like does engineering do that? Does the? You know? Do these other fields do that for you? You know why? What makes music different? To think that you can't do it on your own? And it definitely got me thinking into stereotypes. And why does the music career feel like this? Like why are we made to feel like when I say we, I mean I think we as musicians in general why are we made to feel like you have to be the best and you have to perform everywhere and you have to get a job in this very specific field and if you don't, you failed. So it just. It got me thinking about a lot of things, and I think arts administration really helps with that, because nothing's gonna change until you do something about it.
Austin McFarland:And I think you've kind of hinted around at everything that I think a lot of us in the education world I guess. I teach at a community college and then most of my other students are all middle school and high school kids, but one of the things that I've discovered in working with the students, at least here, is that like yes, okay, we've got to work on technique and all the things that come with being a musician, but at the same time, are we spending enough time at those middle school, high school levels developing the artist so that by the time they're in high school, they have their own ideas about what their art needs to be, so that they are more marketable? I think that's a shift that has taken a long time.
Alexia McLean:Yeah.
Austin McFarland:And unfortunately I still don't know that. I see it at the K-12 level, but it definitely is starting to stick at higher ed. Do you feel like the same way? I know you don't have the K-12 experience, but definitely higher ed.
Alexia McLean:Definitely higher ed. It's starting. It's going to take a long time to be really implemented well, and I think you brought up that really good point of the balance, the checks and balances, right. Are we making them the versatile artists that they need to be to take on the world in whatever they choose to do? I do believe that answer is no, not right now, and that's not the teacher's fault, that's not the music educator's fault. In my opinion, I think it's a bigger issue than that.
Alexia McLean:I think it's almost the same thing with higher education, where, at the higher education level, we are expected to take a student and turn them into a professional in whatever they're majoring in, whether it's music or engineering or English or whatever it is, and what I've discovered very quickly and very early on when I started working in higher education, was how separated that was. It still had this super zoomed in focus on technique and pedagogy and literature and history. All of that stuff is so important, and I'm not denying any of that. It's all very valuable, it's very important. It's what the knowledge is only half of the part, though, of becoming a professional. It's. What do I do now in the field? How do I network with others? How do I get a job? How do I apply? Who are the appropriate people to network with? Social media is such a huge thing now and people I think just now are realizing to be careful on their personal profiles and things like that because of how connected and easily searchable things are. And I think with higher education, in terms of having that balance, I don't think it's there still. I think we're doing a better job as a higher education industry.
Alexia McLean:I've only worked at two universities so far, but I have collaborated with a lot of admission professionals across the country with varying conferences and committees and things like that, and what I have discovered is the curricula across the university is just not catching up fast enough with the job market changes that are happening out there. Job market that stuff can change as early as every couple months. We saw that with COVID on how quickly everything shifted and how in person was no longer in need because we all had to stay indoors. So I mean the job market can switch as quickly as that a few months On average. I would say the job market probably changes every year, every other year, to that nature, whether it's small or significant changes. But the biggest thing I noticed was the curricula was not accommodating that whatsoever. A department that I knew about updated the curricula the most recent was in 2016, and the time before that was 1982. Well, do you think the job market never changed between 1982 and 2016? I think the answer to that is it may have changed a little bit.
Austin McFarland:Personal computer, cell phone, just to name two.
Alexia McLean:Right exactly. Linkedin.
Austin McFarland:Email, social media, all of the things.
Alexia McLean:Yeah, so much. And I remember reading that and I was like what? What it blew my mind and it was for an undergraduate music degree and I was like why is it like this? And the colleague I was speaking to at the time is well, you know how curricula changes work right it's decided by a faculty committee. The faculty committee have to bring it to the table and then it takes over a year for the curricula to even get the change approved. It goes up to the provost and then the president and then everyone looks at it and has to check off.
Alexia McLean:It's a very, very long and strenuous process and I spoke to some faculty about it to get their thoughts on it, and a lot of them, as soon as I mentioned just a whiff of curricula committee things, they would scoff and say, oh, I hate that stuff, it takes too much time and it's so boring. And in my head I wanted to just be very upset, to say the least, because I'm like well, don't you care about this? And I don't think that they don't care, but I just think they don't know, because a lot of their responses were well, everything's fine. Why does it need to change? Don't fix what's not broken kind of phrasing, and it's broken. They just don't know it.
Alexia McLean:So I think that has a lot to do with it, I think because of how strenuous of a process it is to actually change the curriculum. And I think the people sitting in the seats just are not the people who are on the ground, front lines, doing the battle right. They're the ones that are sitting back at their castle and sipping their tea and thinking everything's wonderful and dandy when it comes to things like that. I think some faculty even now are more aware of it than others. I think a lot of it just has to do with what they do on their professional and spare and personal time. If they're actively involved in their personal music community, they probably have a way better sense of it than the faculty who don't travel and recruit students at all, and unfortunately there's a handful in both of those populations.
Alexia McLean:So it's just, it's a difficult thing to change, but I have seen some curriculum changes, ranging from how to make yourself marketable to applying for jobs to things of that nature. But what I have seen more often, because I think it's almost and this is almost kind of sad, if you will, I think it's easier to create a whole new department or an office than update the curriculum. Because what I've seen more often is career advising offices popping up. That's becoming way more popular, and these career advisors are supposed to be trained with resume building, interview prep, internship opportunities, things like that.
Alexia McLean:But the problem is a lot of universities don't have music specific career advisors, because musicians have such a different need than the typical college student. I personally think there needs to be career advisors in every department, because I'm sure what we're talking about directly applies to every field out there. We have different needs than any other program out there, and I'm sure other programs will say the same about their own department. So I think, yeah, I wish it would change man, I wish it would involve more people. But it's just. It's something that frustrates me almost, because I almost think sometimes well, there's only so many events we can do, there's only so many things that we can offer. But I think it needs to go to the root of the problem.
Austin McFarland:I want to think. Also included in that, I think and partially the creation of this podcast was to speak to that need is that the people that are doing that are making the living for themselves, doing the thing outside of academia and outside of the full-time player studio, recording, playing in a symphony, whatever. There's no space for us. It feels like. I think it's perceived.
Austin McFarland:I don't think the space. I think the space totally exists, but I think we haven't, as a group of musicpreneurs as the term that I'm using right now have not done a good job of creating a space that is both inclusive and diverse and where we're talking about what it's like to be adjunct at three universities and teach a private studio of 20 high school students and gig and work at McDonald's or whatever has to be done to pay rent. So I think you're right in that while, yes, change has to happen and it's slow change, I think some of it also is on us as musicians that are out there doing it, to sort of take a second and go. Okay, I can make a greater impact if I take 30 minutes once a week and interact with people somewhere on social media and talk about what it's like to live my life do the thing that I'm doing. So, speaking of social media, well, we've talked about it a couple of times. That's how, I think, you and I met.
Austin McFarland:I think I saw some of your videos during the pandemic and we became Facebook friends and then when we got hired for the NASA Marketing Committee was when we actually started to engage. So you've always sort of been the saxophone social media queen. How do you feel as musicians? What are we doing right and what are we doing wrong with social media, and how can we sort of change the wrong to make it right without making huge shifts or anything like that?
Alexia McLean:Yeah, I love music printers. By the way, I was reading it out loud and I'm like wait a minute, how do you say this out loud? Because in your head it makes sense. I just wanted to note that, yeah, it's so funny that I feel like I've been doing social media for NASA forever now.
Alexia McLean:All started out with when the Committee on Gender Equity was originally the Committee on the Status of Women and I went to their very first panel and they had a volunteer sign up form and I remember going up to Connie Frigo and being like please send me that form. I want to contribute, I want to help, because I just thought their mission it just really just sparked something inside me and really kind of touched on a lot of things that I felt passionate about. And I remember getting the email and saying we want you to help with our social media and I thought it was great but in my head I knew I could do it, but I was obviously so nervous about it because doing social media in respect of your peers is strange. I think we live in a world and in our community we tend to be very critical of each other. I mean, that's just part of the job. So I was definitely nervous about that. But I did have a lot of social media experience from working at my first university, which was actually LSU this is my alma mater and I was tasked with doing the Instagram page and it was hard. It was such a hard learning curve and learning about branding and content templates and just all the rules that go into everything. And then I think CSW at the time now CGE posted something about me and then Rulan Brown from Keely's reached out and was like, hey, let's collaborate on things. And then I became his executive assistant for about two years and did a lot with his social media. So when it came all the way circling back to NASA, I was like, yeah, I got this. I know how to do social media. Now I understand these things. And then, never being able to feed the beast and never being able to satisfy it was something I quickly discovered. And doing multi-track videos too, man, it's never enough.
Alexia McLean:And I say social media as its own entity, it's just the way it's crafted. So I just think the way in terms of your question, what's right, what's wrong that we're doing? I don't think it's necessarily wrong, because I think my personal opinion is, your social media page is whatever you want it to be. If you want to post once every year, go for it. That's what my husband does. He's on his Instagram, I think, every six months or something like that. He doesn't care for it too much. You know, if you plan on posting every single day, you better keep up with it or you're going to lose traction and you're going to lose followers. So I think that is the challenge of social media is creating a plan and having to actually stick to it to get any kind of traction going and success going. Social media, again, is a beast that will never be satisfied, no matter what you do, no matter how many videos you put out, no matter what you want, because you are presenting something to the entire world what you're up to, what you're doing, what video you are posting, and that's a really crazy thought to think that the entire world can actively see that. So I think that's a huge thing and I think sometimes we forget about that because you know, typically our posts and our images and things like that are generally intended for friends and family and colleagues and things like that.
Alexia McLean:A lot of people have very specific opinions about having a professional page versus a personal page. I have experimented with both. I find it really challenging to have a professional page. I think it makes sense if you want your personal life to be very private, but for me, I consider my colleagues and all of that as part of my personal life, so I have a lot of that integrated on my own personal social media. So for Instagram, I just have one Instagram page. I know folks that have two and prefer that, and then for my Facebook page, I have my personal Facebook profile and then I have a Facebook page, so that way people I don't know can follow that and that's working for me. I like that. But I think everyone can do whatever they want. I don't think it matters. But I think the biggest challenge is again just being consistent with whatever you choose to do, because the audience is always going to want more and when you don't post it, they don't watch you anymore. So I think that's the and I quickly discovered that again with doing stuff at LSU, doing stuff with key leaves, monitoring that data analytics stuff excuse me, doing my own multi-track videos and it got really, really stressful too, trying to keep yourself humble in the aspect of don't let those comments get to you when they're your own. They'll get to you when they're not happy with something or if they want more or they thought your filter was weird. I mean, whatever it is is considered a negative towards you. You have to just kind of put it in the back of your head. And I think the other thing too that musicians tend to do wrong is posting all of their thoughts on social media. I always caution people. I think that's the biggest thing you need to be careful with.
Alexia McLean:I think social media started out, and I'm kind of referring to Facebook. I would say and I know there's younger folks out there that have never even made a Facebook page because it's it's not considered part of that generation or something. But when Facebook was first, you know, open to the public, I remember getting a Facebook page in school and only being friends with my friends from school and it was a way for us to talk to each other and it was a way for us to let each other know what's going on. You know it's like oh, I'm having a get together at my house. Who wants to come? And people will comment on who's coming. And that's kind of how you did it. It was. It was easy because it was easier than getting phone numbers, because at the time again for younger listeners, you had to pay for every text message. So, you know, I think it became, it started out as a communication tool and then it became a notification tool.
Alexia McLean:That's how I kind of view it, because now Facebook is an opportunity to check in and see how your friend is doing, or to connect with your uncle that lives 3,000 miles away and see what they're up to and you look through their page and you see, oh, they just got a promotion at work, good for them. Or, oh, my goodness, they're in the hospital. Are they okay? I should check in on them. I will see more like that than the original communication tool I was talking about, and I think the problem is that some people think it's a journal tool where they go and they post every single thought that they have, whether it's positive, negative or neutral.
Alexia McLean:And then the common sense, to where I almost kind of view that as a opportunity for, I don't know, a group chat, a video FaceTime chat. Get your friends together and vent about what you need to vent about. I don't think Facebook or Instagram is an appropriate place for that, especially in the professional world. You know, if you are mad about a movie, does anyone really care? If you went to go see the new Meg 2 movie and you liked it but everyone thought it was bad, you know, is that something you are ready to see on your Facebook news feed? I personally don't. I want to see what you know, people are going on in their life. I want to support my colleague who, just you know, got a promotion and moved across the country to do a new job somewhere. I look for those things on my social media but I think everyone's different on what they're looking for.
Alexia McLean:But I think, in terms of musicians, we do kind of have some kind of integrity we should be upholding for ourselves, and especially if you want to be in a very public facing job and I think a lot of our careers are public facing, where we interact with the public so we kind of and because the musician is us, it's not our instrument, and that's the other reason why I have my own one page for Instagram. People forget that too. So you know, people meet you because you're a saxophonist. Then they stick around because you're a person, right. So I kind of think about it that way.
Austin McFarland:Yeah, I think it's also a great way you were talking about you know, the uncle that lives 3000 miles away. It's a great way for us now, post pandemic, to collaborate and create bigger, larger projects that affect more people as artists, and so I think it's a great way to sort of interact with the larger community without having to wait for the next conference. I know that's one of the things that kind of always frustrates me, you know.
Alexia McLean:I know, I totally agree. I think it's. It's so fun going on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and even TikTok now and just seeing fun videos that your friends are playing, you know, or people you went to grad school with, and you're like, oh my gosh, like look at them, go. Or even just maybe it's not necessarily videos, but I have a friend from grad school that every time I see their posts you know they're doing a gig with some big band kind of thing and I'm like, yes, go good for them.
Alexia McLean:You know, because I think we need to root for each other a little more, and I think social media is such a good opportunity to do that, and I don't think we do that enough and I think, especially in this last year, due to some personal things, it's definitely I've definitely got thinking more about. You know, count your blessings, enjoy the small things in life. Life is very short and I know that sounds so existential and some people might roll their eyes at that and they're like yes, of course life is short, but it is. You know so, and I think sometimes people start to lose sight of things, especially as musicians, because you spend so much of your time working on your instrument. Do you remember why you did it in the first place? You know, it's just so interesting seeing how some, how very passionate some people get, and I appreciate it, but I don't think I would want to be completely labeled as that too. I think the other thing that a lot of musicians forget about is that they're human beings first, and saxophone is second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever it is. You know, a lot of people tend to put their instrument first.
Alexia McLean:I actually figured this out the other day I want to go see my physical therapist and I mentioned, you know, one of my videos to her and she stopped what she was doing. She looked at me and she was like you play saxophone. I never knew that, austin, and I've been seeing her in like six months. I just burst it out laughing because I was like I can't believe I never mentioned that to you and I share that story because I don't want to be labeled as saxophonist. Only you know, yes, I'm a saxophonist, yes, I'm a musician, I love those things, I love playing my horn, but I'm other things too, and that is my, honestly, my main reason for having one Instagram page, because I don't want to be labeled as oh, here's this girl with big, curly hair that plays saxophone. I wanted to be, oh, this person seems like they have great content. Let me follow them and connect with them and that kind of thing. You know, because I'm also a dog and cat mom. I, you know, live in central New York but I'm from Florida, so snow to me is fun and everyone around me hates it and I'm the only one with the winter spirit, you know.
Alexia McLean:So I think if we can dive ourselves into a little bit more as people. I think those conversations are great because it's just, you know, learning about other people is so exciting. But I think we get really, really too deep in the music side of things because, as much as we all love it, we're not saving lives. You know, we're not curing cancer. We are doing some really fantastic and significant things out there in the community and the world and I think it's important, but I think we also have to remember that we also have to be human too. So I just think that stuff is really important. So I some of the things I see people posting about, or when I talk to them at NASA conferences and all they talk about is saxophone. It gets a little overwhelming sometimes because I'm like I don't know anything else about you, you know. So I think it's.
Alexia McLean:I think it's important to learn about who we are as musicians, because I also think, too, that's really helpful for jobs. You know, figure out who you are. Why do you love things? What do you want to do with your life? So a huge part of my job is to my arts. Administration job, more specifically, is to talk to students and figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives, because it's a lot to figure out when you're 18 years old. Whoever thought of that method to the madness should be yelled at pretty hardcore, like who who thought it was a good idea. You know the minute you turn 18 that you should figure out what to do with your life, whether it's go to college or go to a trade school or follow your family's business, whatever it is you choose. I don't know why that has to be figured out so soon. I think a lot of us came out of high school thinking we knew what we wanted to do and then we probably changed our mind three times, and that's why I changing your major.
Austin McFarland:Yeah, three is about right.
Alexia McLean:I think I think I was two. No, I think three. Three is the golden number here. Yeah, because I think change, I think it's it's very common to change your major in college. I think it's like a they say 60%, 70% of incoming freshmen change their major at least once and I don't think that's telling up the college, but I think that's telling about expectations.
Alexia McLean:For our 18 year olds who graduated from high school is okay, what do you want to do now? And it honestly just frustrates me. So I, when I have these conversations, these students, whether it's potential undergraduate or graduate students, and even those students, sometimes don't know I surely didn't when I got out of my undergrad degree and I was like, well, I guess I'm going to grad school now because I don't know what I want to do and and for me that was a really good idea, but maybe not for everyone. And I, you know, talking to these students and learning so much about them, about what they love and what they enjoy doing and what their passions are in life and how they want to positively impact change in the world. You know that's a question I asked them a lot about is what do you want to do to impact change in the arts. That's every time I ask them and they all sit there for a good minute.
Alexia McLean:You know, and I just remember thinking back to when I first applied for college, no one ever asked me that they're like all right, well, what do you want to do? You want to be a music teacher? Cool, go major in music. And it's like is this it? Are we just being shifted down, like in those images that you see all the time, that we're just being made to work until, and that's it. So you know, I think we need to put meaning into things that we're doing. You know, if you have no meaning in your job, is it because of you, or is it because you're not in the right spot, or is it because you haven't found meaning in it? Is there really no meaning in it? You know, I mean, I've seen some of the happiest and unhappiest people and some of the best jobs out there. You know where. They have a really fantastic job that is super secure, great benefits, great pay, all the stuff, and they hate it. And I'm like, well, what's the fun of that?
Austin McFarland:What do you guys do?
Alexia McLean:it. You know, and, and I remember something, this one student said she was an incoming art student from a country that doesn't have a lot of gender equity rights and it's very unfortunate because we don't realize how fortunate we are sometimes and that kind of thing. And I mean, believe me, I know there's a lot of problems with how things currently are in the United States, but you know all that to say. And, speaking to the student, she broke down and just started crying and said you know, I want to be able to do what for other women back in my country, here, because I can't do it there and I have this opportunity here to do it. She wants to make art and make this inspiring art and get commissioned and all of these things about women in her home country being, you know, abused and being put on that lower level and I can't think of the word right now. It's totally slipping my mind. You know being on the lower level.
Alexia McLean:Then you know, cisgender men, and it just really inspired me. I was like, oh my gosh, and this woman's only 25 and all this stuff. And she was super sweet and she gave me this hand painted dish and I put it in my office. It's still there and it's hand painted and it's pointillism, where every single dot is part of the whole image, and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe she made that for me. It really made me emotional, but it kind of reminds you of what this is, what's important. You know, people want to do things and impact change and I don't know where she's going to end up and all of that. Obviously I can't see into a crystal ball and protect the future, but I bet you she'll impact change, you know, and that's where, in some cases, I think, you know, higher education can be really good, but I think we need to be able to say how can we cater to that? And, you know, really maximize on that, because it's important.
Alexia McLean:And those kinds of things just kind of get me thinking about what's important in being a professional musician. Why is it important? You know, do I want to sit here and live in a dark room and, you know, play my scales and make sure they sound really good? Or, you know, do this and from you know, it depends for everyone, and I know there's a millions of players out there that are so much better than me and so much better than I ever was, and kudos to them because they dedicated the time to accomplish that, and that is something I was just not willing to do. So that's where my trajectory took me.
Alexia McLean:So I've talked to a lot of students about just trying to figure out what they want to do and why and what's important to them, and they seem really inspired by that and that inspires me, you know, because the day to day stuff can definitely get challenging.
Alexia McLean:Every job is challenging nowadays and dealing with disparities and policies and how things work, and this is how it's always been and you know, and for that unfortunate divide from faculty to staff, the university I met is does a really good job of trying to eliminate that disparity as much as possible, but of course it's still there. I've seen universities where it's so far off the charts and I think that opportunity you know, that creates a lot of opportunities on what university should be doing better and what I'm kind of seeing. A more initiative is being taken and stuff like that. And I'm part of a staff the staff disability affinity group at Syracuse University, and they intentionally made it first before faculty because they wanted that inclusion there, because we're always viewed as an afterthought right, as with a lot of things. So just thinking about ways we can make those more positive changes.
Austin McFarland:Yeah, I think. So I'm going to going to hit you with another question here and see if I can phrase this in a way that makes sense.
Alexia McLean:And if you don't.
Austin McFarland:It's fine All the thoughts running through my head at the moment. Right, I talked a lot about like diversity and equity and inclusion, and then having different ideas and sort of sharing those with your community on social media. As artists, should we be cultivating our own communities or trying to give back to the communities that we already are a part of, or is it a combination of both?
Alexia McLean:That's a really great question. So I mean I would say both, you know, because when you're contributing to a community that's already established in place, I think there's a lot of opportunity for influence and positive impacts, and then when you're creating your own communities, it's because the diversity wasn't originally there. You know, like I almost kind of see my own personal community including Individuals like yourself and Nathan Mertens, and you know all the other colleagues that I have in my life and I love that. I get to know every single one of you because of how different your Music choices are and what you choose to do with your life and why do you want to do it. I think what, I think the why, is pretty similar with a lot of us, but I think the what and the how is so different and to me that's so cool because you know I could have a conversation with you and we can have totally different ways of approaching something, but that could come together to a very similar conclusion or want or whatever, whereas if I'm going to interact with a bunch of other people who went the exact same journey as me, you know what's there's. I don't know how much more value can be added into that unless they came from completely different backgrounds. Maybe there's a little bit of opportunity there, but I think having diversity in general is important to include all of that together. So, when you know, I think about contributing to bigger communities that are already in place. You know, obviously I think of NASA as a huge one.
Alexia McLean:One of my biggest personal professional goals of my life was to network within NASA as much as possible, and that was mainly because I didn't even know NASA existed until I was in grad school and I was blown away and so frustrated because I felt so behind. I felt like a late bloomer and you know, I remember going to my first NASA conference and all of these people knowing each other and I only knew the people from my studio and I went and met as much as many people as I could and interacted with as many, and I remember being at the bar this was the NASA conference 2016, I think. In Cincinnati, ohio, there was a bar directly across the street from the university and I remember going to that bar every night, even if I was tired, not to, you know, drink, but to socialize as much as possible, because everyone was there at this one bar, because it was right across the street and I got to meet a lot of individuals that you know, that particular conference and because I established that relationship, my hope was to then start to build that relationship with them, because I wanted to get to know people. I wanted to get you know, pick out the brains of well, how does this community work? What you know, what's the value, what's the hope here? What about folks like me that maybe don't want to be a saxophone professor?
Alexia McLean:That was a huge learning curve to discover that at the time, the at least feeling that I got, not to say that anyone came out and said like you don't belong here. It was kind of like a feeling, a vibe almost, of you don't want to do, you know, active performing or be a professor or be a music educator. You know, people look at me like I grew ahead on my shoulder. Seriously, they're confused, you know. And it wasn't, it didn't seem malicious in any way, it just seemed like just pure curiosity of like I don't understand, what else is there, kind of thing.
Alexia McLean:And I was definitely scared because I didn't know the answer at the time, because I was like what else is there? I have no idea. I'm figuring it out myself, you know, and so I think that, right, there is a huge thing that I'm always excited about, so anytime I have an opportunity to be more involved with the community. So obviously, doing the communications committee and doing, you know, helping supporting the committee on gender equity with their social media and things like that, has really helped to cultivate relationships across that board and just did like a trail beyond it, because I ended up joining another committee for the National Saxon Museum, because I knew someone from the committee on gender equity that was going to be on the executive board and she knew me.
Alexia McLean:So she was like I like her, she's cool, she's organized, let's invite her to be on the marketing committee. And then I just somehow started to do that just kept happening, and I felt so fortunate because I was like, oh my gosh, this networking thing is paying off, because no one taught me how to network, and I think in this field it's. You know, they always say it's not what you know, it's who you know. I think that's really really true in this field, but it's also the. What kind of relationship do you have with the who you know? You know, if you just go and add them on Facebook and that's it, you know you're not really cultivating a relationship.
Alexia McLean:So throwing yourself out there and putting yourself in situations that are uncomfortable and new and weird is scary, to say the least. But I think it's important and I think we need to. We as a community need to be better about teaching that and teaching how to do that. I see it sometimes in students, but I think COVID pushed us back really far. I've met a lot of incoming grad students that are not ready for that kind of stuff and they should be, you know.
Austin McFarland:So that that's another struggle too, but I also I also feel like the more we put ourselves out there and the more we take those steps, even though they're uncomfortable, we discover subsets of the community that we didn't know existed for, and I think about the clarinet festival. Over the summer, I was looking for music on a break from the booth and stumbled upon a publishing company that had an entire bin of music for clarinet or chamber music that involved clarinet, and the entire bin was themed around cats. So there is a subset of clarinet culture that is all about cats, and I want to be friends with all of those people.
Austin McFarland:So, like I think the more, the more that we dig in and let ourselves sort of get immersed in the community, the better we are sort of figuring that out for ourselves, because we start to see what other people are doing and how can we do something that may not be the same but has similar threads or similar ideas that we can go hey, how did you handle this, because I want to start this, or how can you know, and something like that.
Austin McFarland:So there's a great opportunity there and I like that you're talking, that you've hit on sort of all of the same things. This is part of why we're friends. We think a lot of this, we think a lot of which is great. But so you just talked about a couple of grad, about grad students that you've talked to recently or that are looking to come to grad school, not being ready. What advice do you have for artists that are whether that's going into grad school or coming out of grad school at the end of this year and like sort of their next steps, what are things they should be focusing on and doing?
Alexia McLean:Oh my gosh, so many things, especially based on what I've seen in these last, I would say, two or three years. Networking is obviously a huge one we touched on that quite a bit already so important because it's how you develop those relationships. Like you said, it's how you have that opportunity for jobs but putting your best foot forward in the sense of developing your own professional profile, whatever that means to you. I can't tell you how many applications I've seen and this is this is the fun part about my job of just really getting the insights on things and getting be able to kind of have a hand in that and seeing that process, because just to kind of move backwards just really quickly, you know a lot of students get really frustrated, especially nowadays with funding issues. You know I didn't get a full ride, or I didn't get the assistantship I was hoping for, or I didn't get into this school, and you know it's because of me, it's my fault or I didn't do good enough. I cannot tell you how many reasons it could have been that had nothing to do with the student. So many things in the nuts and the bolts and the behind the scenes of things. So that's the other thing where I say, you know, taking things with a grain of salt and moving onward. But to go back to the topic here, developing your professional profile, putting your best foot forward, so I can't tell you how many applications I've seen where the resume was told like different fonts, and I'm not sure if you've seen colored borders. I mean just these crazy things where I'm like is this person for real? Is this a real resume? Or the things that they choose to do, how they choose to email people and email people at the university. I cannot tell you how many emails I've seen that were not professional, personal emails. So each others are based on our names, which is what I always recommend.
Alexia McLean:Do your first thing, your last name, do a couple numbers if you need to, but keep it as simple as possible so it's easy to phonetically spell, whether it's over the phone or in conversations, because you're going to forget your business cards all the time and all of that. And I've seen a lot of emails that are not that. You know they're way too many numbers and I've seen where they're just really interesting phrases, you know I've seen there's one that keeps coming to my mind while I'm talking about this. It was like that dude and a bunch of numbers at gmailcom and I'm like, who is this person? And they didn't sign their name ever in their emails, so I never knew who they were. So it's just, you would think that is an innate information in a student's head, but maybe because of COVID, I don't know, it's just not. And so things as simple as that make sure you put your first name in your last name in your email address, so that way, when emails pop up, it says who you are and that your email address is a very simple, easy to spell, you know, are easy to read, rather, and have an email signature. For goodness sakes, please have an email signature, oh my gosh. And if you and if you don't know what to put, just put your first and last name and put you know your email at the bottom. Keep it simple. I've seen over complicated email signatures, I've seen over complicated personal statements, all of that.
Alexia McLean:But I think the biggest thing in order to prepare yourself for grad school and I'll talk about post grad school in a moment is tell us who you are, not just your name and your email and all of that, because there's always an opportunity for personal statements and things like that A personal essays. Tell us who you are, tell us why, why you know, why do you want to do this, why do you want to pursue the arts, what is so interesting about it and what your personal professional goals are, and why do you think that particular university will help you to succeed. You know, what things do you find within the university? You know, maybe the university has a really fantastic study abroad program in London. I don't know. London's been a huge one for music lately, stuff like that, because that's the stuff faculty wants to read. Don't repeat your resume. All of them do that. It's crazy. It's like yes, I read your resume, Now I want to read something different. So that is a huge part, and, of course, the normal stuff. But I'm going to say it because apparently it's not innate and subconscious for a lot of people.
Alexia McLean:Be polite, be professional and be patient the three P's I guess Be polite, professional and patient. There's been a lot of times where I've received an email for needing of assistance from a potential student at five o'clock in the evening on a Friday and they email me 9am on Monday like why didn't you respond and get super angry with me? You know. So, having an understanding that, and this goes for businesses in general. You know, when you're trying to inquire about maybe an interview or something like that, a lot of the same stuff applies.
Alexia McLean:So, really applying for grad school, really think of it like applying for a job interview and that's the best way to go, because that stuff matters just as much as your audition, because I'll tell you right now I've seen really fantastic auditions but really really crummy application things and that affects it. It affects your scholarship stuff too. So with postgraduate school, you know how to prepare for the working world. I think graduate school is probably some of the best time for you to one, perfect your craft, whatever you choose it to be, whether it's composition, conducting, music, performance Maybe you're in the arts, you know whatever it is that is the time to do it.
Alexia McLean:You will have someone told me this and it's forever etched into my brain. You will never have as much time in grad school as you do in any other part of your life to perfect your craft. So take advantage. Take full advantage, because you are probably at the healthiest of your life, because you're a young adult and ideally you're in good health. As much as possible, take care of yourself, obviously, to keep it going. You have time because you're in grad school. Even while working a part-time job, that is the most amount of time you will ever have.
Alexia McLean:I worked a part-time job when I was in grad school. I was teaching, I think, about 30 students a week in a private studio and I was still practicing four hours a day. That was my thing. So take advantage of that. I think that's big thing number one. But big thing number two is learn how to be a professional and exemplify it in everything that you do, because you know I'm going to sound again existential again. But manifesting those kinds of things, I mean only good opportunities can come to you then. So when a faculty member says I will be going to X gig, you all should come and check me out Friday night, even though it's a Friday night and you rather go to a party go, you never know who you're going to meet. You know I decided to go get coffee with my professor that particular NASA conference I was referencing earlier and we ran into Brantford Marsalis in the Starbucks line and ended up talking to him for like three hours and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I got to do that and just like, pick this professionals brain and it was like my first real insight into a professional other than my professor. So exemplify it always. You know, put your best foot forward. You know developing those other professional things, like with your email and your resume, and you know cover letters and things like that.
Alexia McLean:Take advantage of opportunities. Look into your university. I bet you there are graduate school resources like you know programs for jobs, internship opportunities, stuff like that Sorry, my Siri decided to yell at me and stuff like that. Like there's something that we have at our particular university where it's like a whole slew of resources within the graduate school and I don't know if it's because they don't market it enough or something like that, but no grad student ever seems to know about it.
Alexia McLean:Do your research into your own university, which I know kind of sounds silly. But you'll never know. You might learn something new that you didn't realize. That you need to take advantage of. And guess what? You're already paying for it in your fees. Those are not negotiable fees. You're already paying for it. Take advantage of it, even when it comes to stuff like going to the gym, taking advantage of mental health counseling, their pharmacy. If there are professional development courses, which there are at your university, and there's one specifically for students, sign up for it and go. You're already paying for it in your fees. Go do it. You will never know what you learn in those kinds of things, but those are the kinds of things that help develop who you are.
Alexia McLean:And all along the way, keep reminding yourself of the why. Never forget it, because that's the only thing that's going to drive you in your life, especially when you hit, you know, adversities across the way, because I guarantee you and I'm sure I know we both have. You know you've applied for a job. You're hoping for that good news. You get bad news.
Alexia McLean:It's so easy to get so down and hard on yourself, you know, especially in today's economy. You know getting a job is not easy. So doing those things appropriately to prepare for that, and then, of course, picking your faculty's brain as well they're the professional they did it and figuring out what your passion is, if you like you know, I don't know recording music. Obviously sound engineering is the way to go. Maybe you want to be the manager for people like Brittany Spears. Then you need to figure out what you should major in in grad school to get to that.
Alexia McLean:There are more and more programs at universities developing programs for stuff like that, because they are starting to realize that's a need. Figure out the programs that are appropriate for that and always invest in your future, even if you have to take out loans, which totally stinks. No one wants to do that. Student loans are scary, all of that stuff. There's so many stipulations with student loans, especially with the whole Biden relief situation that's been happening. So many varying opinions on that. I personally think that student loans are a way for you to invest in your future. Yes, we're aware college is expensive. Believe me, I know. I work at a private liberal university. My college is so expensive. It's like double the price of any other college I've seen. I get it. It's expensive, but hey, I don't make the prices. There's a method to the madness, unfortunately, but I always see it as invest in your future. Well, if college costs too much here, maybe you should go to college in a different country. Everyone does it.
Alexia McLean:Nowadays, about 60 percent of our incoming population for grad school is international students. So I mean, I think it's just. In short, it's just taking advantage of all of your opportunities that are available to you at your disposal, because that is the only time that will happen. Every other time you need to look for resources like that. You have to pay for it, which, again, you already are, but it's going to be more expensive.
Alexia McLean:You have to actively look for it on your own, at least by taking advantage of it at your university. You know it's going to be a good resource, because some they had to go through a whole hiring process to be able to sit in that chair and be able to support you. On a very specific thing At our college we have career advisors for music and art students. I always advocate for grad students to go see them because they help you with resume building and getting internships and stuff like that. I can't tell you how many grad students were like. I didn't even know that was a thing I didn't even know you all had that. It's on our website, but Also to speak to that.
Austin McFarland:I think it's also important that you do it while you're there, paying for it, because that's where you're going to have access to it Once you leave that institution that's trying to figure out that you needed it.
Austin McFarland:Good luck getting it back that the time has already come and gone. So if you're struggling to figure out who you are, then what do you want your art to say or what that mission is? Taking advantage of those opportunities and doing the things that are provided for you, Even if it's I'm going to go sit for a while, listen to an hour long lecture and pick your favorite topic. It doesn't matter. Yeah, Any institution is going to tell you you're going to find something, yeah. So I think, yeah, there's a lot of good advice there. So, those of you listening that are undergrads and grad students, there you go. What's a tune to do?
Alexia McLean:Rewind about five minutes and listen again Exactly. Yeah, it's crazy. The mission statement's important. I'm going to insert a little thing in there. Austin, nathan and I are going to do that lecture again that we did at NASA On September 9th. Is it one o'clock central time?
Austin McFarland:Yeah, One o'clock central is CGE. What if you're a saxophone player? Look for the check out social media, there'll be stuff on it.
Alexia McLean:Look for the social media posts. It'll get up there. Trust me, I'm working on it. September 9th this is Saturday. I love everything that all three of us talk about, but I think the way we have it organized and everything with Nathan talking about developing your mission statement, that is so important. It seems obvious after the fact. The whole hindsight 2020 thing yeah, of course, bigot. What do you want to do with your life? That's obvious, but actually doing it is so hard because you have to do some serious soul searching and look into yourself.
Alexia McLean:What's important to you? What's important to you may not be important to your mentor, whoever that is, whether it's your professor, or your parents, or a friend, a colleague, whoever it is out there. So you need to figure out what you want to do and don't follow footsteps because you don't know what you want. I almost did that and I would have really regretted it, I think, and I'm really glad. I didn't.
Austin McFarland:I did do that, you did, I did.
Alexia McLean:Oh, my goodness.
Austin McFarland:Grad school was the escape. The decision to come back and do the performance master's degree was my escape from the K-12 grind. I was a K-12 music educator doing it all and I needed something different.
Alexia McLean:Wow, do you think it was because when you were in band in high school, you just saw how fun and positive and great being a band teacher could be, or do you think it was something else?
Austin McFarland:I think there was a little bit of that. There was this well, if you're going to do music, you either have to perform or teach, and that's the only options. And I was like, well, performing seems kind of like a grind that I don't know that I want. So teaching, I guess is it. And then I got an opportunity to do some teaching and was liking it, getting great feedback from people that were watching me teach. The student was learning and being successful. We were achieving the goals that we needed to achieve. So I was just like this is what I'm going to do.
Alexia McLean:Right.
Austin McFarland:And then I got in there and I discovered all of the things that come with public education and realized that there was stuff happening that was outside of my control and that was limiting what I could do with my students and how we taught the art and how we approached the art, and I was just like I can't, I have to have a different way to do this. Yeah, and then it was sort of piecemeal it together because nobody, at least in this area, the artists that are doing it, they're married and or they have built huge studios so they're not trying to live all on their own or be the sole provider, all that stuff, right, and they're all doing different things. Some of it's some teaching full time, some of them are adjuncted community college and teaching run private studios. Some of them are doing arts admin. I mean I think we've got some friends in the area that are driving three and four states, you know, all over our area performing because they just have built this performance group that they spend most of their time on the road.
Alexia McLean:Right.
Austin McFarland:And like if that's what you want to do, great, but that wasn't what I wanted.
Alexia McLean:It's not far, ron. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, you know. I honestly and this is no stab or jab brother to music educators who are listening, music educators, man, that is it's a thankless position. It's, and I am so grateful for all the music educators out there. And I think I'd agree with you, austin.
Alexia McLean:You know, I started out very similarly, where I'm like I think I want to teach, I like it, and then I did it heavily. You know, like I said earlier, I was teaching 30 students a week and I was like I'm on a roll, this is great. And then I burned out so fast, you know, and maybe if I tried it again, maybe it would be different now, because also learning along the way too, because I kind of got thrown into it where someone was like, yeah, I know someone that can teach you, and that was my very first student. It was like I've never taught a lesson before. So I remember having to go to my undergraduate professor and be like how do I do this? And the first thing he said to me was give them a contract to sign. And that is, I think, the best advice, that any professor has given me.
Alexia McLean:But I was like what do I do? How much do I charge? You know?
Austin McFarland:do. I should do that. Should do that as a podcast episode. Put a whole panel of people that just teach private studios to talk about how we run them. Oh my goodness. Yes, everyone does it differently.
Alexia McLean:Yes, Everyone does it differently. You know, it took me forever. And then I remember increasing my prices and notifying everyone and doing it, you know. And then I remember one parent getting very, very irate about it and dropped me as a teacher, and all of that. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I have fails this is awful.
Alexia McLean:I'm going to hide under a rock now, never come out, and that's usually my first reaction. Right? I mean we are super critical, or even more critical of ourselves because we spend so much time in a practice room practicing, practicing, practicing, analyzing every little thing we did wrong. Fix all of it. Practice, practice, practice, practice. And some of us are more emotional about it than others. You know, I'm sure we've all cried in the practice room. I've done it. It's not a fun experience, so I think a lot of that translates to that too. But yeah, I remember being so upset and then the next day I looked back on the whole situation and it was like whatever, who cares, you know? And now, thinking back to it now, I'm just like I'm sure she can find a cheaper teacher somewhere in the area. It's not a big deal. I did everything I was supposed to do. I didn't violate any contract. You know anything within my contract and stuff like that. So yeah, I, you know, and again, I really I do enjoy private teaching.
Alexia McLean:I do enjoy it. I think, though, it took me a long time to find my worth, though I think that's something that a lot of at least I did a lot struggled with my worth as a private lesson teacher. You know how much am I worth. Who decides that? And I remember starting to teach privately very seriously, and seriously in the sense of like teaching an entire studio. I went from high school to high school in the area, taught lessons, all of that, and the previous teacher that taught them only charged $15 a half hour, and that is probably the cheapest you can probably ever charge anyone anything, and I took it and I didn't change it.
Alexia McLean:Oh, especially right now. This was only five years ago, I think five, six years ago, and I'm like and thinking back to it now. I'm like I cannot believe I did that. And you know, and to me, I thought I was rolling in dough. I was like teaching 30 students a week, $15 a half hour. I'm killing it, all this stuff.
Alexia McLean:And once I started teaching more and more and started getting involved in networking and connecting with other people in the community, I felt like I was getting ripped off and talked to the previous colleague about it that, you know, let me that studio and was like, well, unfortunately that's a really poor area, so they can't afford more than that. And I stopped and was like, whoa, okay, so now I have to think about location too. Or you can, you know, and it's so true, though, right, because obviously, if you're a teacher in New York City or Los Angeles or Orlando, or you know Austin, texas, houston, all of those huge places you can absolutely charge more. But if you're in, you know where was this? This was somewhere in Louisiana, when I was working on my master's degree, and unfortunately there's quite a few poor areas, you know, surrounding Baton Rouge, and I was like man.
Alexia McLean:And then the empathy me settled in. It's like calm down. You know, yes, you're worth more, but this is for your experience. You know this is a good learning opportunity. So I obviously kept it and kept going. And you know, now those students follow me on Instagram and stuff and seeing them growing up is crazy and doing what they do in their life. And but it also taught me like do I want to deal with that? And again, no jab to private lesson teachers and music educators If that is your fire and your passion. I am friends with a lot of band directors all over the country and seeing them get so excited about teaching is what is why I didn't do it, because I was like, if I'm not getting that excited about it, I don't want to do it.
Austin McFarland:It's not worth it.
Alexia McLean:I need to figure out what gets me that excited. We're and we all have bad days and we have bad coworkers and bad bosses and bad jobs and not great pay. You know there's so many factors into what goes into a job, especially now. But if you're not waking up in the morning and at least being like, well, at least I'm doing this, you know, like starting small and then going from there, then you might need to think about this a little bit more. You know, if you're going in every day thinking I hate what I'm doing, I hate, hate, hate it, then you need to reconsider your job and your career choices and things like that. And I think a lot of musicians are scared of that because to them that means they're bad at it or they're not good at it.
Austin McFarland:But you and I can also come up with. You know probably 10, 20 names each of musicians that are doctors or lawyers, that have fulfilling performing or teaching careers, because they can only do. You know they play in one symphony or they teach five or six students because that's all their schedule can handle. But they're getting that fulfillment and still a part of the community. And that's, I think, where we miss the whole the the idea that we are musicians but it's not entirely who we are. You can be in different things.
Alexia McLean:Right, exactly, you know, and it's funny you mentioned that because my neurologist was a piano player, or is a piano player, and we talk about that all the time every time I see her you know.
Alexia McLean:So it's awesome, I think it's great. I think majoring in music in college or just doing music at any kind of capacity whether it's elementary, middle, high school or taking private lessons through grade school and then stopping any capacity of that is such a positive impact to your life because it teaches you responsibility, right, you can give your instrument. You know showing up to rehearsals. All that stuff teaches you technique. You know dexterity I mean responsibility. You know all those soft skills, right, that employers are looking for and that people are looking for in life.
Alexia McLean:And you're absolutely right, I think for a very, very long time and I don't say our community exclusively, but the music community in general, and kind of maybe just this could apply to art too.
Alexia McLean:I'm not sure, but I don't want to speak on it because I don't know as much as I would for music.
Alexia McLean:But I would say that a lot of the problems with our field and with stereotypes of our field, of being the starving artist and the starving musician and you know, I'm sure you heard this a million times, like I have, when you told people you're majoring in music, they're like you, ready to work at Target, doctor, and there's nothing wrong with working at Target.
Alexia McLean:There was no confidence in us being successful in what we want to do with our lives. You know and it's so interesting because I remember being out of fare for my job, because obviously that's part of the job and talking to students about their interest in music and a mom and a daughter coming up to me and I'm thinking, you know, oh, the mom's going to ask me about, you know, are the majors we have, or get more information? She literally started with please convince my daughter to not pursue music and be a doctor because there's no jobs in music. And the daughter looked at me with this like terrified look on her face, like I am so sorry, lady, I don't know who you are, but I'm so embarrassed by my mother and I she has no faith in me, kind of look and it broke my heart.
Alexia McLean:I looked at that mom and I was like you can get a job in music Absolutely. And she's like well, what? And I looked at the daughter. I was like, well, what do you want to do? What makes you happy? And the daughter got excited and started saying these things and the mom kept cutting her off and saying, well, there's no sustainability in music. So for her to so confidently say that and that to be a not unfortunate like that, it's not the first time we've heard of that, you know, and that really, man Like Peter Griffin would say that, really, granted my gears, man, I just not enjoying that at all, like that feeling of like, oh man, I want to argue with this woman, so bad, but that is not my place to do so.
Alexia McLean:So that's actually what sparked a lot of my interest in diversity, equity, inclusion, was with the jobs and Started me giving lectures about music, career stereotypes and stuff like that.
Alexia McLean:But I did a lot of research and found that unemployment rates for artists are very low. It's under employment, that's the problem. It's not unemployment. I mean, unemployment is always going to be a challenge, right, but it's under employment, that's the problem. Because we major in things that we think we want to do but then realize we don't want to do it and then we don't do it. So then the stats are always going to be forever skewed because we major in math, because we think it's more sustainable than majoring in music, but then you still aren't doing what you intended to do in the first place. So I think there's going to be a lot of, you know, as higher education changes and accommodates to that, and as Policy change, I think we'll start to see more accurate data moving forward. But I think for a long time the music community has just followed in the footsteps of the people in front of them.
Austin McFarland:Yeah, we've. We've allowed the sort of the loudest voices just to repeat those stereotypes. Yep, and those of us that are, you know, head down, grinding it out, making sustainable livings, are Just so used to tuning out that, like we, we know what the phrases are that are leading to starving artists and we just like turn the volume down and keep right on going Instead of standing up and challenging those ideas.
Alexia McLean:I completely agree, and that's part of why I'm trying to. That's part of why I'm in the specific role that I am for arts administration, because arts administration is such as you know, it's such a huge Umbrella, you know, and I think that should come as an excitement to a lot of people, because there's so many job opportunities out there in arts administration specifically. Um, I couldn't, I can't remember the exact statistics, but apparently this is what I do in my free time. Austin, I was looking at someone's dissertation about arts administration. It came up on my Google because I was just looking at stuff and I go down these rabbit holes and I'm like, well, why is it like this? And I go down a rabbit hole and read everything I can about it? Because I just, I Am a bookworm. Always happen, I grew up reading books, not, you know, I had bookshelves in my room as a kid like that's who I was and am and I was reading this person's dissertation.
Alexia McLean:I don't remember the exact data, but it was something along the lines of part of the reason why it's so difficult to advocate for music programs in college is because there's not enough advocacy in leadership in music programs and in colleges, because the people who are in those higher up positions like leadership, like Deans and associate deans and stuff like that, is because a lot of them don't host careers In our field or have any kind of experience in our field. Again, that is shifting now but it's. It's taking a long time, um, but I remember interacting with a lot of people. Especially, I'm a part of something called the music admissions roundtable and it's essentially a conference for folks like myself who are arts administrators in music recruiter, art recruiter kind of jobs and admissions and a lot of those folks. They're amazing. Everyone in that community is absolutely fantastic and have these kinds of conversations a lot, because we are in front of the families that are saying, no, you can't do this. So for me, that is a really great opportunity to stand back and say, actually, you know, according to this data, it says this, this, this, and those are some of my most favorite conversations to have, because I get to challenge their Subconscious thinking of there's no opportunity in this. I get to challenge it. How exciting is like to me. That's so exciting is, you know, because you and I can have that conversation for hours. We probably have had that conversation for hours before, you know, but, and we can have that conversation with other musicians all day long.
Alexia McLean:But, like you said, until we actually challenge that statement to the general public, I don't know how much is actually going to change. You know, no one, I don't think anyone knows out there that there are music conferences for specific things. When I say anyone, I mean you know the general public, non musicians. Um, there's so many musicians that I meet on the gigging scene that never went to college for music, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But those kinds of musicians, I think, need to be just as involved in our kinds of conferences so they can also learn too. Because a lot of them get so content with themselves, because they're so used to the general public saying, I'm amazing. And then they meet musicians who come from an academic background and recognize that there's always more to improve on. Well, that is really scary for a lot of people. People don't like to as much as we don't Want to admit it to ourselves. We don't Like like the idea of thinking there's always something to improve on.
Alexia McLean:No one likes that thought. You know you want to think. You know I think about as something as simple as you know, um, Getting off it, getting up from a chair, you know everyone can. You know Able body people, they can all do it and they do it all the time. Imagine someone telling you you're sitting down. You would look at them like get out of here. But you know there's always opportunities to improve on that. You know, improving your posture and all of that Alexander techniques, right.
Alexia McLean:So, um, I don't think the general public is ready for that kind of stuff, but we just need to get in front of it as much as possible if anything is going to change. So and I know, you know, um, my parents always say this stuff like, oh, she's going to Change the world and all this stuff. Because of the way I talk about things, I don't ever think I'm going to change the world. I'm just one person. But if I can make a small impact In my community, that's enough for me, because that means I change some people's minds. Now, can I change everyone's minds? No, absolutely not, because you know I I don't have that kind of front facing kind of opportunity yet. But that's, you know, all the other reason for getting in the positions that I'm in.
Alexia McLean:But there's so many people in my field my particular small niche of a field, um that are in an arts administrator role that has no art background and they're amazing at their job, but they have a limitation on it because they Don't have that firsthand experience on what the needs of musicians are, what the current field looks like. You know me, being able to go to these nasa conferences is obviously a really great opportunity to see friends and network and Attend great performances and maybe check out new world, you know, um, new pieces and stuff like that. But it's also a really great opportunity for me to see what's going on in the field. You know, it's like almost like an insight into it. So I think having that is really important. But, yeah, we man, if someone could like Speak on behalf of all artists in the entire world and say this is not true, you know, because didn't the starving musician idea derive from, like, mozart, being poor? I mean that far back, I think.
Austin McFarland:Yeah, yeah, we trace, we trace the origins back to wherever we, you know, wherever in music history you want to put it, because that's been the. As musicians and artists, we've relied on other people, whether that was, you know, through patronage of some sort. Or then you know now that organizations exist. You know we rely on this symphony organization to provide everything that we're going to do and it's not quite that accurate. I think about, you know, like Artists that are that are doing things in, you know, paint or clay, or you know people are spending tons of money to buy those things. Why aren't they? Why aren't they looking for events? Well, they are. We just aren't organized enough to be put like we have in as artists gone. You know I have control over that. If I want to go play at that bar down the street, like I'll just go talk to the guy that owns the bar down the street and figure out when I'm going to come play and then be done. But we think that somebody else has to do that. And music printers.
Alexia McLean:Yes, yes, just just take the take the initiative, it's okay.
Austin McFarland:No one's gonna hurt you. Well, and the worst is going to happen, is they're going to say, no, you're going to be?
Alexia McLean:bummed about it and you're going to figure out how to do better next time?
Austin McFarland:Yes, I think that I play in a duo cynical duo, if you're. You know the our lovely name both of us music educators. We did our masters together like and we love playing not only, like you know, new contemporary classical Saxophone stuff, but we also do a lot of just like roll up and throw out the, throw out an amp and play Backtracks for my real pair of pro and our from our phones and then you know play, you know the head of jazz tunes and some solos over it and we've actually played gigs that have been like on open air train cars for the you know by so cool event that happens here, and what's great about it was it's a great opportunity to connect with people that have no idea.
Austin McFarland:Like you know, they love the saxophone. We keep getting asked to play acody sax. You know stuff that like, as saxophone players, we all go, uh, you know I want to do that, but at the same time, yeah, all the things that we don't want to hear that we don't want to hear, we don't want to play, because they're not really the most fulfilling.
Austin McFarland:But if that, if I can play that for one person and get them to engage with me, and then turn around and and give them another way to engage with me, that's something Similar vein it's still saxophone music.
Alexia McLean:They might. It might be some beat-bop boops and some multi-fonics and things that nobody wants to hear.
Austin McFarland:But they've got. It's still music, it's still something that they might engage with, and I think, that's a great opportunity To engage with and I I'll never know unless I actually take that step. So I think it's important that we, you know, keep telling other artists like go do it absolutely I.
Alexia McLean:That is literally why I started making multi-track videos. And well, let me, let me rephrase that that is why I created very Try to at least attempted high quality arrangements in videos, because I wanted to play music. That was one really fun to play around and something that I enjoy. Um and again, right, the human aspect of being a musician, things we enjoy beyond the the traditional, you know, classical jazz repertoire out there. Um, I am a huge anime and video game lover. I have always enjoyed it.
Alexia McLean:Um, so, obviously, if anyone goes to my youtube channel, they'll see that a lot of the multi-track videos I play are a video game, music songs. And that's actually why because I knew, and if I could figure out the youtube algorithm which I mean, I'm getting there. It's. It's a different, it's a different kind of beast. That's the only thing. That's things about social media. Every single platform is totally different in their algorithms. Um, tiktok is the worst. Oh my gosh, you cannot figure out that algorithm. I know, I know how tiktok works for the record, the algorithm of you know, getting more Of your content out there is incredibly difficult because they do things totally different than every other platform. And youtube is a little difficult too. Um, if you can really figure out, I've even, uh, taken my job as an opportunity. There is someone in NACAC, which is, um, national administration of college advising or something like that, it's. It's it's college advisors and college admission counselors. Um, it's it's another conference and someone did a youtube specific session and I went to it because I was like, oh, am I going to learn anything new, maybe to apply to my saxophone stuff? And I learned a couple things about you know, um, a little things beyond what I already knew about seo and stuff. But Anyways, um, I purposely did video game music and I purposely did songs that were requests from friends and family. And I remember doing one song which everyone knows. It's the Shire from Lord of the Rings. Um, a friend requested that and I was like man, really Lord of the Rings, and I like Lord of the Rings Don't get me wrong, my husband is a huge Lord of the Rings fan and he was like, oh, you have to do this right. Like he was like ready, he always helps me with the lighting and the uh Recording and stuff and I put it together and I think now to date it came out maybe two years ago. Now to date it has like over 5000 views, which doesn't sound like a lot on youtube, but for me I was like, oh my gosh, 5000 people. I've watched it like that. I don't know this is so cool. So to me that was so cool to be like. You know, let me play something that everyone knows Literally everyone has heard of the Shire and put it as a saxophone ensemble or a saxophone quartet in this particular case.
Alexia McLean:You know, it's like have you ever heard of Lord of the Rings in a saxophone quartet? I don't think so. Let's do it. And um it really, it really taken suit. So, like, for me, that is my way of just trying to appeal to the wider audience and say hey, do you like Lord of the Rings? Check this out.
Alexia McLean:Guess what the saxophone doesn't sound like screaming Cats all the time, or jazz, or you know, quote-to-quote, lame classical music. As a general public would think. Like the sax, one has this incredible versatility to it that it can sound like so many different things, and that's kind of my intention. Um, and plus, arranging music is always fun, but yeah, it's always a good time. And um, you know, I remember doing which one was it that I did? I think I did a Mario 64 one which, oh my goodness, I that was a hard week, remember, I was doing them. Whoo, I was re.
Alexia McLean:Because what you don't realize, if you've never done a multi-track video before Um, is you are playing and tuning with yourself. That is so hard to do. It doesn't sound hard, but it's so incredibly difficult because you are hearing yourself in your ears while you're playing another part and you're trying to tune to what you originally did. So you need to make sure that that baseline is pretty good, because it's not like you're playing live. You can't adjust to yourself live, because you can't play four parts live by yourself. So it was so difficult.
Alexia McLean:I was in my head. I was thinking, well, this is going to be easy because it's me, so I'm accountable for me, and it's not like where you're playing in a quartet and you're relying on other people to do it. So I'm going into this thinking, oh, recording is going to be easy. It's some of the most difficult stuff I've ever done. It's so much harder than playing live. I mean it was a stressful learning curve. I figured out a lot of it. I definitely will not say I'm an expert by any means in sound engineering.
Alexia McLean:But at least I have a basic understanding of it. So I remember we did the one that was the bombs the bomb battlefield theme music, and I wanted my husband to play drums on it because it has a really cool beat and sometimes, as we both know, live instruments rather does something that MIDI cannot, and we argued a lot that week about that. And that is, I think, the con, if you will, of being married to a musician when you're a musician is we always have differing philosophies and opinions on how things should be performed and recorded, and he's a percussionist and I'm a saxophonist, so we think about things differently. He would tell me I was playing a rhythm wrong and I'd be like no way. And I'd listen back and I found out I was playing it wrong. But you're like you would admit that you're wrong to your colleague but never to your partner.
Austin McFarland:Right, exactly it wasn't me, it wasn't me.
Alexia McLean:Yeah, exactly so, but no, it was great. So, if anyone ever listens to that fun fact, it was live drums and live saxophones, which is really cool, and I loved what he did with his part of the recording, but it was so difficult to put together because the timing is not what you think it is?
Alexia McLean:So that's the other thing too. That was really fun about putting video game music together. You hear it and you're like, oh, this will be fun, and then it's not, because it's it's still real music and it's still challenging and you're playing against yourself. So definitely a lot of learning curve, for sure with that. But I would love to do more, like I said, and anyways, I did that one and someone commented and was like, can you do Mario Galaxy? And I'm thinking my head sure, why not? I go to work on it. And I ended up arranging like a ton of altissimo for myself.
Alexia McLean:And it has to be sounding beautiful and lyrical and all this stuff. And I'm sitting here doing it and I'm like, why did I do that to myself? I think I have to like, at the very end, do an altissimo A that starts in fortate, like piano isimo. You know it's like, keep it in tune. And when it's live it's different than recording it, because you record it, you hit play, you listen to it. Listening to yourself playing, it's like it's like listening to yourself on a voicemail. You're like, oh my gosh, is that what?
Austin McFarland:I sound like that's.
Alexia McLean:That's what would happen to me all the time.
Austin McFarland:So I'll just do this again. Seven thousand takes later you.
Alexia McLean:Yes, I can't tell you how many, how many hours I would spend at our home studio re recording a part, because I was getting so, such a perfectionist with myself. I felt like I was in grad school all over again.
Austin McFarland:I'm working on music.
Alexia McLean:So that's, that's the other problem right With being a musician and working towards not perfection, but as good as you can. And when you're recording something, you have this idea in your head that Well, if I don't like it, I can just redo it. And that is the most dangerous thing. And there's definitely some times where I had to just stop, like with the bomb battlefield song. That's definitely not my best work, but it got to a point where I was like I can't do this anymore, I'm going to fall apart, like I literally going to fall apart over Mario. This is crazy.
Austin McFarland:So, ultimately, the content deadline that we set ourselves Right.
Alexia McLean:And it's like no one told me to put out a video every week, but I set that deadline for myself. Well, I have to do it every Friday at one, so I need a brand. So it was like I have a week to figure out what song I want to do. Arrange the whole thing, record it, record it in logic video, record it in final cut, put it all together and then post it, while in the meantime battling the social media beast of like is everyone ready this week? And do engagement and polls and whoo, it's a full time job. I give so much credit to people who do social media marketing as a full time position because that stuff is no joke, because social media never turns off. You know there's so many challenges with it. So, yeah, I don't know if I would recommend doing that to yourself unless you have the time and commitment to it. I just don't right now.
Austin McFarland:And the passion and the passion, and the passion. It is fun though.
Alexia McLean:But it is fun though, because I haven't posted a video in over a year and I still get comments on my YouTube channel. So I'll get the notification on my phone. I'm like, oh, I think it's a message or an email or something and it's YouTube studio, being like whoa, I love that soprano sound or where's that sheet music? That's so cool. So that's always really nice too, because I don't know if they're musicians. You know, obviously I have no idea. I like to think that they are and they're not. So there's the opportunity. But definitely some of the people who have watched those videos and commented I could tell you know that they're not professional musicians, but they really enjoyed it. So for me, like, that's really exciting too, because then they can tell their friend hey, look at this really cool video I found of this person playing a saxophone arrangement of Donkey Kong.
Alexia McLean:And I love Donkey Kong country or whatever you know, and watching it and being like, wow, I didn't know the saxophone could sound like that. I'm sure you've heard that a lot too. I didn't know the saxophone could sound like that. So always a really, really fun thing to do.
Austin McFarland:It's my favorite conversation with audience members is when they say the saxophone can ever sound like that. I'm always like is that a good thing or a bad thing? Where are we?
Alexia McLean:coming from here. Did you enjoy it or?
Alexia McLean:not Well, think about the stereotype with playing saxophone. Right, it came to the United States through military bands, I believe, and then really got popularized with jazz because there was not a lot of professional teaching opportunities. Right, I mean, it was way back in the inception of the saxophone and then went from there. So America, at least, because I know in other countries people view the saxophone very differently but the United States views the saxophone as this jazz military instrument or something like Clarence Clemens, and there's nothing wrong with any of those things. I love Clarence Clemens. May he rest in peace. He was an amazing saxophonist with Bruce Springsteen, but that's not the only thing you can do. Exactly, yeah, it's really really neat. So, yeah, I agree with you, though Whenever I do play live gigs and I get to play the saxophone, people are always like whoa, that is so cool, because it's not often that the general public sees these things. So definitely, doing it and getting out there is important.
Austin McFarland:Well, it's called the community stage for a reason. So how can the community connect with you? Where can they find you other than YouTube? And how can we just keep the conversation going outside of just the podcast episode?
Alexia McLean:Yeah, absolutely. So I would say, first and foremost, I do have a website. It's alexiamaclaincom. That's the other fun thing. If you ever choose to have a website, finding domains is no joke. So when you can find one with your first and last name, take it, keep it. Never let it go. So, yeah, alexiamaclaincom, on my website there's more information about who I am, what I do, what I'm currently doing. There's also links, direct links, to my social media. So please, to anyone listening, follow me, be friends with me. I'm more than happy to have conversations about that. You can also find my YouTube channel through there as well. But, yeah, I would say that's the easiest way to go.
Austin McFarland:Well, thank you so much for being on and being the first guest. It's so exciting and so much fun to get to talk to friends and dig in to stuff that we don't normally get to talk about. Whenever I'm with alexia and I get to meet, it's always about NASA stuff. We never get to talk about all the other things that we're working on and believe in and are all about. So it's been so great to have you and I look forward to seeing you next.
Alexia McLean:Yeah Well, thank you so much, austin, for having me. Thank you to those that are listening. Please continue to listen to the Community Stage podcast. I am really excited to see what other episodes you bring on. And not that I don't love talking about NASA, but it was such a pleasure Talking about all the other things we love about life and music and being saxophonist, so I appreciate you having me.