The Savvy Musician 2.0: an interview with Dr. David Cutler, musician and author
“With your unique background, perspectives, and talents, what might you do better than anyone else?”
This the question multi-genre pianist/composer, author, educator, facilitator, consultant, and Yamaha Master Educator Dr. David Cutler asks musicians in his quest to help every one of us create bespoke musical careers for ourselves. In his latest book, The Savvy Musician 2.0, he shares practical, real-life advice that has been lived out in his own career and in the careers of the many fellow professionals he interviewed for this book. If you (like I) came out of university capable of playing advanced repertoire but possessing no training in how to get paid to make music, this book is for you.
How do we as musicians identify what we do better than anyone else? How do we share our unique musical gifts with others? How do we learn the gentle art of networking, or master the practical steps of getting paid for what we do? In my experience, we put aside all the “shoulds” and outdated visions of what constitutes a successful musical career, and we learn from the advice of other musicians. Does The Savvy Musician 2.0 offer a one-size-fits-all solution to creating a musical career? No. But it gives us essential guidance and abundant encouragement to find our own paths. It is an honor to feature Dr. David Cutler and The Savvy Musician 2.0 on No Dead Guys.
Congratulations on creating a successful career as a speaker, author, consultant, educator, and musician! When you first decided to pursue music as your career, did you have any idea how varied your life would be?
Ha, not an inkling! When I decided to become a professional musician at the ripe age of 12, I naively suspected my future career would consist solely of piano and composition.
Those activities do play an important role today. But my portfolio career includes so much more: teaching, writing books, facilitating “innovation GAMEs,” delivering musical keynotes, conducting cultural diplomacy, consulting with arts/education/business organizations.
I love this variety. Doing just one or two things, no matter how amazing, would leave me unfulfilled. Each activity helps me meet new people, develop skills, and shape perspectives. I feel incredibly fortunate.
You state that you are a “self-proclaimed ‘weekend traveler’”— one who weaves together classical, jazz, popular, folk, and world music. Can you tell me more about this?
I have travelled the world, literally and music-metaphorically. (While writing this, I’m en route to northern Iraq!) Along the way, I’ve discovered incredible styles like tango, bluegrass, bebop, flamenco, Klezmer, Bulgarian round dance, Balinese monkey chant, Lebanese microtonality, and so forth.
These experiences have impacted me deeply. I want to share them with others but, to be honest, I don’t feel particularly authentic to any. I’m merely a weekend traveler. If you want to hear the real deal, there are better examples to seek out than mine.
My approach, rather, is to start composing or playing with a particular style in mind. I deposit it into my imagination alongside all the other stuff in there. Then things get shaken up, like mixing a martini. What pours out is distinctly my own, yet profoundly influenced by the original.
I was particularly intrigued by your SuperNova products. What are these and what do they offer teachers and students?
SuperNova is my wild, virtuosic reimagination of the 17 tunes from the most famous violin book of all times: Suzuki Violin School Volume 1. Accompaniment parts are inspired by different genres of music from around the globe, performed by a virtuosic, superstar rhythm section. Melodies are unchanged, playable by even young children.
There are many educational benefits. It makes even beginning tunes super fun for performers and the audience. After all, music is something that should be “played.” There are also embedded lessons around creativity, technique, ear training, and learning to “groove” with a drummer. In addition to sheet music and recordings, there are ensemble arrangements and a set of improvisations based on the same accompaniments.
At what point in your career did you discover that you needed to become an entrepreneur in addition to being a successful musician?
I used to think that talent plus ironclad work ethic led to success. Everything seemed to be going well until one day, something tragic happened in my life. I graduated! At that point, I had no idea what to do. Looking around, it seemed that jazz was dead; classical was irrelevant; my life had been a lie. It was a hard moment.
Not knowing where else to turn, I participated in a ritual known to all music school graduates. I moved back home with my parents! When I emerged, it was with a sense of determination. I would somehow solve my career.
One idea guided thinking: Could I take lessons from music and apply them to other areas? For example, I knew how to arrange a tune. Could I also arrange a marketing campaign? I was passionate about music learning. What if I devoted the same level of commitment to personal finance, business models, or entrepreneurial perspectives?
When did you first conceive of and create your book The Savvy Musician?
Many years ago, as an educator, I became ethically uncomfortable with a focus on the art and craft of music making at the complete expense of the art and craft of making a living. So I started sharing success tips with all my classes. That catalog grew and grew until it became unwieldy.
I ultimately decided to turn it into a book, which took five years to write. When The Savvy Musician was released in 2010, it was essentially the first title focused on music careers and entrepreneurship for classical and jazz musicians.
On your website you write that “the essence of The Savvy Musician can be captured in a single word: balance.” Can you tell me more about this?
Success as a musician requires artistic AND business excellence. One must balance discipline and technique with creativity and taking a chance. Great art/careers are informed by the past while innovating the future. It is valuable both to play from a score and improvise by ear. You gotta work your tail off and also have a blast doing so.
Congratulations on the release of The Savvy Musician 2.0! The first edition was a great success. Why did you feel it needed updating and what did you change from the original book?
Thanks! For starters, it had been way too long since my first publication was released. Despite writing several books since then, it was high time to revise.
At first, my idea was to craft a second edition. But as I dove in deeper, it became apparent just how much the world had changed. I had also grown so much. It ultimately became clear that this should become a sequel rather than a revision, a completely new book.
While the themes of opportunity creation, creativity, and pro-active discipline remain, all stories and sections are new. People with both books have a double lexicon of career strategies.
I was flattered that you chose to include me as one of the many writers and musicians you interviewed for The Savvy Musician 2.0. Why did you feel it was important to have multiple different views represented in this book?
You have a powerful story to share! Thanks for agreeing.
It is one thing to hear about a success strategy in theory. But real-world examples feel a lot more instructive and actionable. I worked tirelessly to identify diverse musicians representing different regions, instruments, backgrounds.The right person always shares something way more powerful than what I alone could have imagined. These are the true superheroes of the savvy world.
Incidentally, stories do not feature the rich and famous. True, Taylor Swift or YoYo Ma might be able to achieve something great. But with their endless resources it is easy for readers to dismiss their potential as replicable role models. But if someone you’ve never heard of from Seattle or rural Wisconsin accomplished a great feat, maybe you can too!
What is the one thing most music students don’t understand about creating music careers for themselves, and how can The Savvy Musician 2.0 help them better prepare for the music marketplace?
Here is one of many answers. If you ask most music students “What makes you good (or not good)?” they will quickly respond with a detailed dissertation. To the question: “What makes you interesting?” they often look like deer in the headlights.
In a world oversaturated with outstanding talent, excellence alone is rarely enough. To stand out, you must display your own distinctive value. This means knowing what you stand for, and what you don’t. For your Big Idea to be compelling, it must be highly differentiated, easy to comprehend, and substantiated with actual examples.
How might you become the best in the world? Most musicians argue practice, and that’s obviously important. But for most mere mortals, no amount of shedding can achieve this aspiration. A more feasible question: “With your unique background, perspectives, and talents, what might you do better than anyone else?” Changing the question changes the answer.
TSM 2.0 includes an entire chapter around this issue.
What do you feel The Savvy Musician 2.0 offers mid-career professionals?
A lot. I tried to write it in a way so that musicians of any level find inspiration, fresh ideas, and actionable instruction. They will open up thinking about what is possible, and which projects to pursue. It instills ambition while challenging readers to question core assumptions. My belief is that just about any puzzle in life can be solved with enough creativity and grit (including your career model!). And there are a hundred solutions to most puzzles.
This book teaches strategies for innovating remarkable ideas, pitching powerhouse proposals, implementing a comprehensive Arts Marketing A-List, winning the money game, and much more.
One of my favorite testimonials about the book came from the renowned jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, best known for his work with Wynton Marsalis. “This is the book you need!!!! In fact, this is the book I needed to unlock new ways of thinking.”
Where may we purchase a copy of The Savvy Musician 2.0?
Amazon, or anywhere books are sold.
Thanks for the opportunity to chat, Rhonda, and for all you do to make music relevant and impactful.
Dr. David Cutler is a multi-genre pianist/composer, author, educator, facilitator, consultant, and Yamaha Master Educator. His books The Savvy Musician, The Savvy Music Teacher, and The GAME of Innovation have shaped a generation of artists. His latest title, The Savvy Musician 2.0: Amplifying Impact, Income, and Inspiration (Oxford, July 2025), is the most comprehensive resource available addressing music entrepreneurship, innovation, and career models. More information: www.savvymusician.com.