We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bill Muter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bill thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

Behind every successful musician is somebody who believed in them…

I’m going to take a moment to brag about some special people and show you why I was destined for success as a professional tuba player. Crazy, I know. It almost seems like an oxymoron, “professional tuba player.” Well I have two very important people to thank (or blame) for that.

I was very fortunate growing up to have two very influential teachers in my life, my mother and father. The lessons I have learned from them both are different and have helped me build a career doing the thing that I love most in life, music.

My mother instilled in me how to be passionate for the things that I believe in. I spent most summers as a teenager performing in a drum and bugle corps called the Boston Crusaders. We would tour and compete in about 30 different states every summer for roughly 3 months a year. Every season my mother would take off work to come volunteer, drive busses, cook, clean and work as a nurse for the members. She agreed to help out the organization for free everyday as long as she could see my show every night. Fast forward a few years later, I land my first professional gig in a touring Broadway show. You can bet, my mother attended more shows than the casting director himself. I can’t imagine the sacrifices that she had to make to be there for me. My mom SHOWED UP! She continues to show up for me in my life despite any obstacle that comes her way. The best gift you could give somebody is to believe in them. My mother believed in me and believed in how the power of music can transform an audience. That belief continues to give me strength every single day.

I see so many parents that are desperately afraid when their teenager says they want to pursue music for a living, nonetheless playing the tuba. Well, I think my father had a pretty good poker face when I told him. He couldn’t necessarily see where the future would land me and I know that worried him. Regardless, he didn’t fight back. He gave me space and was patient. He let me grow, stumble and make mistakes. Most importantly, he was there to pick me up when I hit the ground. Every time he pulled me up, a very important life lesson always followed. I could write a book about all of the lessons I’ve learned from my dad and maybe I will someday but suffice to say, I would not be where I am today without his patience and guidance. My father showed me how to take this hobby and turn it into a business. My father is also the most giving person I know. Over the years he has shown me the value of going that extra mile for the people around you, whether it be your friends, family or just the stranger off the street. I think about how I can apply this mentality for every gig I take on.

What is the morale of my story?…

If you have kids, help them find something to be passionate about. Nurture their talents and show them how to achieve their goals. Not every kid wants to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer. You may get an oddball like me who just wants to play the tuba. That’s okay…and if it’s not okay, hit me up! I can help!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I wear a lot of different hats depending on the day. I am a tuba player (amongst other instruments), I am a U.S. Cultural Ambassador, teacher, best selling author and a writer. I also wear a lot of hats because I have no hair, but that’s besides the point. When most people ask what I do for a living, I can never give them a straight answer. I’ve learned that if you tell someone you are a musician, the stereotypes often pop up of a broke guy who does too many recreational drugs and lives with his parents. I can’t hate on it though because I was a little bit of that early on in my life but there is much more to my story to be limited to that.

Ultimately what I REALLY do for a living is GIVE music. I’ve been very fortunate to have enough success as a performing musician early on in my career that allowed me to travel all over the world and play with some of my musical heros. I’ve spent many years “taking” from music to provide for myself. My business today is to give back to music to allow others to have some of same experiences I have had.

I work with over 1,000 music students each year in some way shape or form. For some, I’m just the guy who wrote their marching band show and for some, I am much more involved. From a business standpoint, I am a contractor. Instead of being a band director and working at one band program, I get to be the fun uncle and work at as many music programs as I can see in a year and have fun, inspire kids and move on to the next group in need. On top of that, I still maintain a performance career, although much of my performance engagements are geared towards music education and outreach.

I started this crazy venture when I was 17 years old. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had enough musical training and professional experience that I felt I had something to offer and give back to other peers in my age group. I would lie and say that I had already graduated high school and started seeking out teaching work. That lie landed me a job teaching a drum line at a high school in Miami on the weekends with one of my best friends. This kept up for months until I was involved in an car accident and wrecked my father’s brand new Mustang leaving the school on the way to get a hot dog at the famous “Arbetters” (Go grab a hot dog next time you are in Miami, you can thank me later). Anyways, I gave it a rest to slow down for a bit and focus on my school work until I actually graduated high school and my Dad got his car back (with a little frame damage). Since those rough beginnings, now at 37 years old, I have worked with more schools than I can count. I have students in Mexico, Nigeria, Japan, South Korea and all over the place. My business is people. My passion is growth and musical philanthropy. There was no handbook out there that explained to me how to make a living doing this strange thing I love, so I just did it anyway. I followed my passion and everything else eventually caught up along the way.

Still when people ask me what I do, it’s confusing. If you go to any of my social media pages (tubavisionary) you will generally see a lot of videos of me just playing the tuba. You don’t necessarily see the story behind it. You don’t see my “why.”

Every concert I play, every album I release, every book I write and every video I make is just to show some young kid out there that they can do it to. If I can make a living playing an obscure instrument. You can do whatever you want because anything is possible.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Build for the job you want. Some see social media as a counter or tally of how many fans and followers you can get. For me, it has nothing to do with that. My profile is my body of work. My body of work displays my talents, abilities and the skills that I am trying to market. My potential clients are on social media and that’s who I produce content for. I can’t tell you how many gigs I’ve landed because someone found me online. My most recent encounter was a film scoring project. A guy from a studio in Atlanta was tasked to score a film about a young euphonium player. He needed someone to play the part behind the scenes. Like most people, he didn’t know any euphonium players so he gets on Instagram and searches for the hashtag euphonium and my profile comes up. He sees a video of me playing with Grammy winning pianist Shaun Martin and figures I must be the guy. I then get hired to not only play on this film but to also score two original pieces of music for it. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now on Amazon Prime Video and was just nominated for an NAACP award. I got all of this because of a hashtag. That is HOW and WHY I use social media.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We all need to participate in our own rescue. If we want arts to be around for many more years to come, we need to be patrons of the arts. Go to live concerts, buy music, buy art and support the things you love or else they won’t be around to love anymore.

Contact Info:

• Website: tubavisionary.com
• Instagram: Tubavisionary
• Facebook: Tubavisionary
• Twitter: Tubavisionary
• Youtube: Tubavisionary

Image Credits
Chase Maddox