Majoring In Music

[pipperz]

Hello forums,

I’m currently a senior in highschool and as such I have to start preparing for college and what to major in. My dream has always been to major in music (specifically music performance as a trombonist) and to pursue it as a career, but I’ve always worried about the financial side of things. Music is definitely not the most well paying job, and my family is pushing me to do something more financially stable and lasting. And in a sense they’re right. I want to be able to live comfortably while doing the thing I love, but I still gotta think realistically. Yet again, I don’t want to do something that I don’t enjoy just for the sake of money. So these questions are for all the music majors who went on to become musicians: Was it worth it? If you ever had the choice to do something differently would you? And lastly would you ever recommend someone to go for a music major or keep it as a hobby?
I feel like asking a forum of people who have a wide range of a music background would be the best demographic to ask these type of questions.

Thanks y’all!

[BGuttman]

I can reply as someone who took the opposite tack.

When I was in your position (back in the late Pre-Cambrian Era) there was much more opportunity for professional musicians than now, but competition in the field was fierce. The only people who had a chance were people who would rather play than eat. The number of paying jobs was laughably small. Public demand for musicians was really limited to people who played electric things, keyboards, or drums.

Nowadays it's worse. There are some who can cobble together a career in music but they are in the minority. Sure, there are some fantastic opportunities out there, but most of the "winners" had to endure some really dry periods. I have a friend who majored in trombone at New England Conservatory who wound up playing bar piano in a club for a few years until he got disgusted and learned to program databases. We had lots of fun together playing in a community orchestra and various community bands. I know two grads of UMass Lowell who wound up taking jobs as a technical writer and an office "drone".

If you are in Europe, there are more positions for trombonists since the various governments support orchestras.

The Military takes a number of musicians and pays them well, but you have to deal with the red tape of being in the military. And when your 20 years are up, you are out looking for something to do. That's another 30 years or so to occupy based on current demographics.

I had a knack for math and loved chemistry. I chose the Engineering route. I ate better than most of the professional musicians I know.

You can succeed as a professional musician. It's a constant struggle to combine a bunch of "gigs" into a career. You could become a music retailer, instrument repairman, teach a studio, teach school (another can of worms), etc. to fill the gaps between paying opportunities.

Talk to your private teacher about whether you have the talent to succeed. Be honest with yourself. And if you don't have a private teacher your chances of success have dropped by about 1,000.

I know I come off as Debbie Downer, but I don't want you to wind up like my UMass friend the office "drone".

[Burgerbob]

Can you imagine doing anything else for a career? If you can, and you think you could enjoy it, then it's probably right for you. The people I see succeed in music (including myself) didn't see another option. Due to that lack of stability, you really have to be in it to win it 100% in a way that you simply do not in other majors, and if you have a backup plan... you're going to use it.

That said, if you really love music and you see nothing else? Then go for it. College is the time for trial and error.

[WilliamLang]

The field is hard, indeed, and takes a lot of focus and luck. You can make it without lessons before college, but you have to put your head down and decide to really make up those hours with good intentions. In some ways you can think of a career in performing music to be analogous to a career in sports.

But it's also good to remember that teaching, composition, music therapy, and music business are all under the umbrella of a music career - not everyone has to go perform 100% of the time, and very few ever actually will.

There is something to be said for the skills you develop as a music major. You learn how to work on your own to improve, how to take criticism, how to listen and work with others, and how to exist in public (playing as a form of public speaking.) Also people who can handle spending hours in a practice room fine tuning fundamental details tend to have a ton of focus relative to the average person on the street.

These skills make people valuable in any future field, and often aren't quite as highly developed in other majors. There are a ton of music majors who have gone on to have great careers in other fields (I think often of a pianist who got a DMA at a conservatory and ended up being the lead designer of the White House website a few years ago!)

[JohnL]

Do you enjoy practicing? If you're going to make it as a professional musician, you're going to have to practice - a lot. Not just the music for the next concert, either. Long tones, lip slurs, tonguing, playing with a tuning drone, scales (LOTS of scales), flexibility - there so many things to work on, and it's a journey with no final destination, just waypoints on the route. Once you start feeling like you're getting pretty good at a particular exercise, you need to raise the bar on yourself.

I only ask this because you specifically said that you want to be able to live comfortable while doing the thing you love. Some people really do love to practice; heck, one professional euphonium player told me that, when he was a kid, his parents would sometimes punish him for misbehaving by not letting him practice.

[MStarke]

I have studied classical trombone at major European conservatories/universities with renowned teachers, but now (mostly) doing something totally different professionally. Some thoughts:

- You should consider that already admission to music performance studies is really competitive. Only top (!) people from your local or regional youth bands and orchestras will typically make it to a good university and teacher
- This means that while before you might have felt better than anyone around you, once you enter studies you might be even below average
- Out of these only the top maybe 5-10% will make it to the typically desired top jobs. So again, out of an already strictly selected group, only very few will make it to what most people imagine regarding their jobs. It is hard.
- However: Those people with an open mindset, some creativity and some entrepreneurial spirit that stick to music seem to usually be able to build a financially okay and mostly satisfying living from it. Typically a mix of teaching, performing etc.
- For this option you need to be much more flexible than for e.g. an orchestral job!
- One important thing to consider: Whenever some kind of disruptive events come up (kids, especially if they have specific challenges such as disabilities, unexpected financial issues, other family events, health etc.) this is certainly much more difficult as a (partly) freelance musician than if you are having a more or less stable "regular" day job. Obviously a large aspect is also what your country offers regarding social security and benefits
- What I see with quite a few friends and what also applies for myself: Many people who study music, but have really good perspectives outside of it as well, will at least strongly consider going somewhere else
- What also might be interesting: While I did actually play on quite a high level during my music studies, already very early on in my studies I saw that a large part of it is just work. Playing the same operas and musicals dozens of times within a few months is not a creative experience, at least not for myself. On the other hand it is a real challenge to maintain a good playing level and playing opportunities once you have made a career change away from music

[LeTromboniste]

I'm not sure I totally agree with the common wisdom of "if you can see yourself do anything else at all, do that instead/only do it if it's your only option". Maybe it's just because I'm not American and wasn't faced with insanely high tuition that make going for a second degree unrealistic, but for me, knowing that there was other things I could do and would be happy with if music didn't work out has actually helped me become a professional musician. I always had a lot of facility academically, especially in STEM subjects. Knowing that I had a fall-back option that was both interesting to me and with much more financially stable job prospects took away some of the pressure to succeed immediately and allowed me to really take the time to establish my career.

There are too many stories of non-linear but successful career paths to think so black and white. Even among music majors youll find that everyone's path is unique and we all carve it out differently. I knew people who did double majors and stayed in music or others who chose the other field, some who quit music performance for related fields (teaching music in high school, music therapy, academia in musicology, etc), some who quit to do something else entirely of course, but that includes people who quit to study something else and work in a more lucrative field (some as engineers) who then came back to a career in music. And among those who become professional musicians, a lot of us are doing things we didn't know we might like when we started our studies (or in my case something I didn't even know existed!), or at least things that are not the thing we originally aimed to do.


But to answer your questions, pipperz:

I work full time as a musician, I have no "day job". Not every part of the job however is directly about music. Like most working musicians, on any given day my work consists of two or more of these things: practicing, playing, teaching, editing music, reading or researching, planning concert programmes, writing up and sending concert proposals to organisers and festivals, writing grant applications, booking travel arrangements, doing general admin stuff like finances, doing audio editing, doing video editing, doing some basic graphic design, etc.
There are periods where the various non-playing tasks take up most of my day on most days.

So I will say this:
-you have to really want it

-you have to seize every opportunity you have

-you have to be versatile, reliable, play great and also be fun to work with

-you have to keep developing any side skills you have or discover, and that you enjoy, because it's more likely than not you'll find out you can put them to use within your music career at some point, even if they have nothing to do with music directly

-you have to be okay with the idea that it's entirely possible and likely that as a professional trombone player, half or more of what you'll be doing on any given day won't be playing trombone.

-you have to be okay with the possibility that you might have to live a fairly simple life and not one with lots of money. Can you imagine being happy still having flatmates in your late twenties, or in your thirties, or even later? Can you imagine being happy not having lots of luxury goods and maybe not having a car, and not having the freedom to always do what you want in your freetime or to eat out too very often, because you need to be careful how much you spend?

-you have to have a broad vision of what "success" looks like and stay open to it including things you don't even know about yet, and not just "win an orchestra job". Is winning the orchestra job that would allow you to have a good and stable income while mostly only playing the only option that you would find viable?

If the answer to the last question is yes, or the answer to the previous two is no, then I would say, maybe explore what else you might want to do, because the chances of it living up to your hopes are small.

It also helps if you are interested to move to Europe — the studies there are immensely cheaper when not even entirely free, and career prospects generally better.

[Matt K]

Think the idea with that advice is that there are opportunity costs, even when the degree is free. I didn't start my professional career in earnest until I was almost 26 because I majored in music first and then did something else. I absolutely have regrets about that. Some things are just easier to do when you're in your 20s than in your 30s, and 30s than 40s, and 40s than 50s, etc.

I missed out on the radically cheap interest rates endemic of the mid 2010s. If I had even started 1 or 2 years earlier, I would have been able to get twice the house I currently have for 30% less.

I would have had my first kid earlier, too. My wife and I wanted to wait until we were on better financial ground. If I had known better, I would have probably been able to have a kid in my early 20s instead of 30 (and had them in a house that had as much space as they required! ). And now, when he turns 18, I'll be 48. We had some health issues that have delayed having more kids, and that only gets more perilous as you get older, too. If I had another kid TODAY, I'd be in my 50s when they turn 18. Whereas if I had had kids at 23 and 25 or something, I'd be 42 when they turned 18. In turn, if they have kids at the same ages, respectively, I'd be 60 when I saw my first grandchild vs. ~46!! On that trend, great-grandparents by late 60s vs early 80s.

That isn't to say you can't do that if you are a musician. Or that it's even worth having kids for you at all! Or that the journey isn't worth it. After all, this site would likely not exist if I had personally gone that route! However, nobody sat me down and mentioned any of the opportunity costs about career paths. It was all "do what makes you happy", assuming that "happy" in this case was solely focused on your job rather than the things that a lot of people ultimately find important.

I know more than a few people who were given similar advice and ended up chasing their passion, only to wait too long to realize they wanted kids, in their 30s... only to find the window completely closed on them. Almost exclusively health/fertility related reasons. Some musicians, some in other fields. They got where 18-year-old-them wanted to be only to find that there was more to life to them than their career.

Again, there are people who are musicians who don't have this problem at all! There are people who are not musicians who also end up with this problem. I'm not suggesting at all that you can't have a family and be a musician. I'm suggesting that it's hard work, harder than I think most 18 year olds imagine, and it may not be as important to play music as it is to have other things and those things should absolutely be factored into the equation.

I still play, quite a bit, and at a pretty high level despite doing something unrelated to music. The pandemic taught me that it was even less important than I had thought. I doubt that's the last one we'll see too. So if I were an 18-year-old, I'd not only be factoring in the aforementioned but also whether or not the risk of having a career that required physical presence was the basket where I wanted to put all my eggs. Maybe it is! The most important thing is that you are aware that it COULD happen and you may be sans job for two years. Are you willing to put life on hold for that long while you try to make ends meet, without being able to do the thing you do for a living because people are too scared to be in public?

[LeTromboniste]

I will also add after looking at your profile that if you've not yet been playing two years, unless you have been having very solid private lessons and/or are uniquely gifted, it's not super likely that you'll be accepted in college. And if you are, that doesn't mean you'd start college at a level where you're set up to succeed. Granted I haven't heard you play and I don't want to assume your level (for all I know you could be the next trombone virtuoso), but just going off the numbers and averages. Typically people who start college have been playing for 5, 6, 7 years, sometimes more. There are exceptions, some very notable ones like Lindberg or Trudel who started late and skyrocketed, but those tend to be unique, generational talents.

I would strongly advise, if you're not currently having lessons, to have an evaluation lesson with a professional trombonist, ideally someone who teaches at a good university or one where you're thinking of going, who can tell you if they think you're at the right level to be contemplating college, and help you orient yourself.

Again just going off the numbers and averages here and not knowing your actual level, and assuming you have a good but "within the norm" level for 2 years of playing experience, I would advise to maybe look at community college, which would give you more time to develop and also get a taste of what studying music full time is like and see if it's for you without spending the big bucks on college yet. That would then also give you more time to look at universities and conservatories and consider options abroad as well. But my thinking is that college goes by really fast and is where you do the bulk of your improving and more importantly shaping your artistic approach. You don't want to waste those years playing catch-up the entire time, it's good to go in already very solid. But yeah, I would first go get a professional opinion from someone who can hear you play and who's not your band director (unless they have or have had a high-level performance career).

[CharlieB]

Another comment from the Pre-Cambrian Era (thanks, Bruce).
To the OP:
Assuming that you are an exceptionally good candidate for admission to a college music program.........
Your number one priority right now should be to plan your financial future. Happiness is very hard to come by when
you're hungry. A few trombonists are able to be financially independent through their playing alone, but the odds are very much against it. Most players need a supplemental income. You don't want that supplemental income to be from flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, so you need to prepare.
Think about flipping the priorities. Select a college career path that leads to financial security. Use the trombone as the supplemental income.
Full disclosure: This is not my wisdom. It is the advice I was given by a professional trombonist (and followed) when I was exactly in your position, in 1962. I'm very glad that I listened.

[harrisonreed]

I want to be able to live comfortably while doing the thing I love, but I still gotta think realistically. Yet again, I don’t want to do something that I don’t enjoy just for the sake of money.

OP, this is life, in a nutshell. Work pretty much is doing things you don't want to do, even if you get a job as a full time musician. I don't want to play arrangements of Disney tunes or "jazz" arrangements for a brass quintet, but sometimes that's what the job calls for. It's tough to make decisions about your future career when you don't have to support yourself financially. If you had to make money right now to put food on the table and pay rent for your room in your house, and you had to do it as a trombonist, you would have an easier time thinking about it realistically.

- Out of these only the top maybe 5-10% will make it to the typically desired top jobs. So again, out of an already strictly selected group, only very few will make it to what most people imagine regarding their jobs. It is hard.

You might be being generous with those percentages, even! If the desired jobs you're thinking of are the ones I'm thinking of, it's easier to get a job on the NFL than it is to win those desired jobs. And that's for kids who grew up playing football religiously.

If the OP has really only played for two years, the odds are against them. Then again, Christian had only played for two years before winning his first job as principal for the Swedish Radio Orch. And his first album was only a few years after that.

[JohnL]

OP, this is life, in a nutshell. Work pretty much is doing things you don't want to do, even if you get a job as a full time musician.

Harrison is really on point - and this doesn't just apply to musicians. Pretty much any profession will include doing a lot of things other than what you "signed up for".

Hopefully, the OP has access to a community college with a good music program (or at least a good trombone instructor). If that's the case, go to CC for a couple years, work hard, and see where you're at, playing-wise. You'll be in a much better position to make the big decision at that point in your life. Just don't neglect your other (i.e., non-music) classes. At the very least, you'll need good grades for transfer. You'll also learn things, which is almost always a good thing, and you'll have a decent academic base upon which to build if it turns out music isn't for you.

[Doug Elliott]

Never forget the difference between a professional trombonist and a large pizza.

If you choose the professional trombonist route, make other life choices very carefully. Marry into money.... or somebody with a really good job.... or another musician who doesn't want kids and understands why you can't afford health insurance. Drive a 20 year old car.

Etc.

[ghmerrill]

What Doug said But let me add some long-winded details.

Apologies for the length of this, but (having been a teacher for years) I have a lot of empathy for students who are in the situation of trying to decide what they should shoot for as a career and how they should do that ...

Not everyone should "keep it as a hobby" -- but most should. In fact, most MUST. I wouldn't discourage anyone for going for his/her dream -- but not at the cost of closing other doors to yourself in the future. Also, at this point in your life, you have no idea what things you may encounter or learn (in college or otherwise) that will totally change your thinking in terms of what you want to do as a job career. When I was in high school I never imagined I'd graduate from college with the particular degree I got. When I was in graduate school I never imagined that only ten years later I'd abandon my tenured university faculty position and "go in a different direction." Partly, that was because of discoveries I made about what I thought things were going to be like (and were not) in my "ideal job." And partly that was because the world changed and some other stuff that was appearing in it became a lot more attractive to me.

In high school I was also good friends with an incredible trombonist who ended up getting both a performance and a composition degree from Eastman, went elsewhere for a master's, and then ... ended up going into the construction trades (but did keep playing and composing to some degree).

In terms of your ideal future and ideal job you can be a best case reasoner ("It's going to happen. I can make it happen.") or a worst case reasoner ("The chance of this happening is really small, no matter what I do or how good I am.") or somewhere in between. Take your pick and live with the consequences. Years into my second career I was running a heavy duty software development department at a well known statistical software company and one of the guys in my group was a good amateur trombonist. We used to joke about our jobs that "Well, if this gig doesn't work out, we can always go back to driving trucks." But in part that was because either of us COULD actually go back to driving trucks for a living. We hadn't ever shut that door.

Somewhat oddly, I guess, a member of a different group in my department -- and an excellent software engineer -- was also a trombonist with a performance degree. He'd in fact been doing the professional musician thing in Boston for several years (including subbing in places like the Boston Pops). His wife was also a musician (flute). But he'd given up the pro music route because he just couldn't make the life for him and his family out of it that he wanted at that point. And he'd been wise enough to not lock himself into that as his only career possibility. So he became a software engineer and his wife developed a good following as a flute teacher locally.

These are typical stories of people who -- at your age -- had their sights set on being professional musicians. And I don't think it can be argued that they failed at that for lack of training or talent. Things change. You will change. Whatever you decide about majoring in, beware of making a narrow one-way decision about what other skills you can acquire along the way -- in case you change your mind or need them in the future.

[robcat2075]

Full disclosure: I was a Music Education major, which is not the same as being a real musician.

Music schools don't take in music students because there are jobs waiting for their graduates, they take in students because they need the tuition-paying students to stay in business. (Yes, I know Curtis doesn't charge tuition. They still have to admit students or close up.) The fact that you can get a degree in Trombone playing doesn't mean that there are jobs out there that the degree is an entrée to.

I'm going to conservatively estimate that US music schools graduate more than 100 trombone performance majors every year. Are there 100 pay-the-rent-money openings for trombone players every year? No, not even it you totaled up all the classical and non-classical possibilities. So, every year there is a growing glut of people who can play trombone competing for the not-growing set of places to play trombone.

Here is a famous article about graduates of America's most famous music school. At least half of a class they tracked do not have current employment as musicians and many never did.

The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later

Practicing and determination and doggedly refusing to consider other careers are not enough... people who want to pay someone to play trombone are in meager supply.

Consider this too...

You don't have to be a performance major in college to take college trombone lessons and play in college ensembles. You don't have to even be a music major to do those things. If you are teachable they will teach you and if you can play they will place you in ensembles.

[GabrielRice]

I never discourage somebody who loves making music from majoring in it in college.

I resist the "accepted wisdom" that college is where you learn the thing that will make you money. College is where you learn how to learn and how to work towards your goals, and there are very few fields that demand as wide a range of problem-solving and interpersonal skills as music.

That said, unless you are clearly in the very top echelon of teenage musicians who can get into one of the top conservatories with big scholarship (or tuition-free, like Curtis), you are likely much better off majoring in music at a university or college with a great music school AND a broad range of other offerings. You may very well find another field you love just as much or more...and you might find yourself doing both professionally.

Finally, don't buy into everything you hear about there not being enough orchestra or teaching positions for all the musicians graduating. The vast majority of musicians I know and work with have many employers, not just one. It is simply not the same kind of profession as being a lawyer or engineer or auto mechanic. My freelance colleagues and I own houses and cars and have families and save for retirement. It's not easy, but it's not as bleak as what has been presented to you above.

[robcat2075]

Finally, don't buy into everything you hear about there not being enough orchestra or teaching positions for all the musicians graduating. The vast majority of musicians I know and work with...

Am I the only one who sees the problem? Two problems, really.

[Posaunus]

Think about flipping the priorities. Select a college career path that leads to financial security. Use the trombone as the supplemental income.
Full disclosure: This is not my wisdom. It is the advice I was given by a professional trombonist (and followed) when I was exactly in your position, in 1962. I'm very glad that I listened.

This is precisely the advice that I was given by my trombone teacher at about the same time (when I was a hotshot high school trombonist and already playing professionally). I loved music and was good at it, but also had a wide range of other interests. I ended up with a couple of engineering degrees from an excellent university, partially funded with performing income, and had several interesting careers (which I could not have predicted while I was in school!) before I retired. Playing the trombone was part of my life on and off during these careers. Now I play as often as I can in any group that will have me, still playing at a pretty high level and receiving great pleasure from it all. I'm glad that I accepted that advice so many years ago.

On the other had, don't ignore what Gabe Rice just wrote. ["I never discourage somebody who loves making music from majoring in it in college."] He chose the professional musician path, and has made it work. But that's a difficult steep path to navigate.

[harrisonreed]

Rob, you're underestimating how many trombone music performance majors graduate each year, I think. 100 sounds too small.

[LeTromboniste]

I never discourage somebody who loves making music from majoring in it in college.

I resist the "accepted wisdom" that college is where you learn the thing that will make you money. College is where you learn how to learn and how to work towards your goals, and there are very few fields that demand as wide a range of problem-solving and interpersonal skills as music.

That said, unless you are clearly in the very top echelon of teenage musicians who can get into one of the top conservatories with big scholarship (or tuition-free, like Curtis), you are likely much better off majoring in music at a university or college with a great music school AND a broad range of other offerings. You may very well find another field you love just as much or more...and you might find yourself doing both professionally.

Finally, don't buy into everything you hear about there not being enough orchestra or teaching positions for all the musicians graduating. The vast majority of musicians I know and work with have many employers, not just one. It is simply not the same kind of profession as being a lawyer or engineer or auto mechanic. My freelance colleagues and I own houses and cars and have families and save for retirement. It's not easy, but it's not as bleak as what has been presented to you above.

This, exactly this. I know many people who completed a music degree and ended up doing other things than music. That's the majority of the people I studied with when I was in North America. I don't remember ever hearing a single one say they wish they hadn't, or that their music training didn't serve them. On the contrary, I've heard often from people that they wish they had chosen to do it instead of taking the safer path, people who did do it and put a high value on what they had learned and how it helped in their later non-music career, or others who did it, went to do something else and then wished they'd given themselves more time before making that move. Some of the latter manage to get back in (in Canada, the military is a good way to do that), but that's often a tough move to make. Is there risk involved in even getting started in that project (Matt K aptly underlined that)? Might it delay other life events? Of course. That's the risk you take.

I'm going to conservatively estimate that US music schools graduate more than 100 trombone performance majors every year. Are there 100 pay-the-rent-money openings for trombone players every year? No, not even it you totaled up all the classical and non-classical possibilities. So, every year there is a growing glut of people who can play trombone competing for the not-growing set of places to play trombone.

That is true to some extent, and I do think music departments, in particular in the US, should accept fewer students and/or there should be fewer schools. That said, if you're just hoping to win an orchestra job, and otherwise it's a failure? Yeah, the chances are very small. If you're willing to expand your definition of what it is to be successful as a musician to include what the majority of working musicians actually do (i.e. not have just one full-time well-paid orchestra job), then it's far from being as bleak. And if you go out of the US, even more so.

(the US has fewer professional orchestras of significance than Germany, but has, and this is not a typo, 73 times more degree-granting music colleges)

You don't have to be a performance major in college to take college trombone lessons and play in college ensembles. You don't have to even be a music major to do those things. If you are teachable they will teach you and if you can play they will place you in ensembles.

Getting trombone lessons and playing in a brass ensemble or wind band is but a small fraction of the education and training you get from a music degree and of what is required to be a good musician, and that's highly unlikely to prepare you for a music career.

Besides, that is really not always true. Many schools will have a priority for music majors for at least some of their ensembles, and the reality is that in good schools, you'll typically have way more students than there are spots in the top ensemble (and sometimes than there are spots in all the large ensembles). As the teaching model moves more and more towards adjuncts and lecturers paid by-the-hour, it is also less and less possible to take lessons as a non-major, at least officially.

[ghmerrill]

Am I the only one who sees the problem?

No.

[GabrielRice]

Finally, don't buy into everything you hear about there not being enough orchestra or teaching positions for all the musicians graduating. The vast majority of musicians I know and work with...

Am I the only one who sees the problem? Two problems, really.

I suppose you've already done it, but spell it out for me.

I don't want to go into details of my personal finances here, but I make a pretty good living as performing musician and teacher without a single employer who pays me more than about 25K/year.

I'll grant you that the only real full-time employer of performing musicians in New England (outside of military bands) is the Boston Symphony, and there are about 100 members of that orchestra. But the Boston local of the AFM has over 1700 members, and there are hundreds more who are members of other New England locals. They wouldn't pay dues if some significant part of their income wasn't from union performing gigs, and they all have incomes from a lot of different sources: performing, teaching, and very often something administrative or some other field.

Colleagues of mine I perform with regularly also sell real estate, do graphic and/or web design, work flexible part-time administrative jobs, etc., etc. That doesn't make them any less professional; it doesn't make them "less than 100%" musicians. I had an additional job for the first 15 years of my career, first in arts administration and then in the brass instrument manufacturing industry. I learned a lot, made great friends, and value those experiences highly.

So, please do spell out for me how my choices and those of countless professional musician colleagues of mine all over the US and the world are problematic.

Incidentally, I did a double degree in college in English Literature and Trombone Performance. Writing ability helped me get and keep my additional jobs early in my career, but I didn't get both degrees as some sort of Plan A and Plan B; I got both degrees because I genuinely loved both pursuits.

[ithinknot]

Finally, don't buy into everything you hear about there not being enough orchestra or teaching positions for all the musicians graduating. The vast majority of musicians I know and work with...

Am I the only one who sees the problem? Two problems, really.

[...]

So, please do spell out for me how my choices and those of countless professional musician colleagues of mine all over the US and the world are problematic.

I don't think you were being attacked here; the more-or-less facile point being made is that the musicians you "know and work with" by definition don't represent the unemployed...

[Matt K]

"Survivorship bias" Of those working, they are, in fact, still working. I don't think that interpretation is what Gabe meant though, although I can see how it comes across that way. I sounds like what he's saying is that he hasn't personally observed many people exiting the industry due to economic considerations over the course of their career, albeit with income typically coming from several smaller streams.

I do disagree with the notion that college should not be vocational in nature. However, the idea that it should be a place where you "learn how to learn" does go towards that aim, in my opinion, at least to some degree. The problem though, in my estimation, with idealizing the platonic ideal of education as a sort of self-epistemology is that it is bias towards those who are privileged enough to be able to afford the time to do this. I think if the aim of preliminary advanced degrees were vocational, it would be a huge boon to the underprivileged.

[GabrielRice]

The problem though, in my estimation, with idealizing the platonic ideal of education as a sort of self-epistemology is that it is bias towards those who are privileged enough to be able to afford the time to do this. I think if the aim of preliminary advanced degrees were vocational, it would be a huge boon to the underprivileged.

I get that, I really do, and I'm grateful for the opportunities I had. However, we are flooded with media about which schools represent the "best return on investment," which is measured entirely in salary numbers at some arbitrary point after graduating.

There are a lot of lucrative professions that don't require college at all if the high school vocational system operates as it's supposed to. College offers a wider array of choices to those who go there to learn meta-skills of learning, comprehension, analysis, problem-solving, etc. It shouldn't be available only to the privileged in my opinion. I stand by my assertion that music is a great way to learn those meta-skills.

[GabrielRice]

I don't think you were being attacked here; the more-or-less facile point being made is that the musicians you "know and work with" by definition don't represent the unemployed...

It's not a matter of me being attacked personally; it's a matter of people who chose paths other than professional music telling a high school student what it's like to be a professional musician. I take serious issue with that.

[Burgerbob]

It's not a matter of me being attacked personally; it's a matter of people who chose paths other than professional music telling a high school student what it's like to be a professional musician. I take serious issue with that.

[GGJazz]

Hi everyone .

I think that the overabundance of graduates is not just about Music .
Nowadays , I believe that there are not so many degrees , in any fields , that guarantee immediate employment upon graduation ( and all life long !) .
In any areas of study , Universities " produce" thousands more graduated students than are needed in the work ' market.

To me , the OP main problem is precisely the fact that he feels the need to ask such a question . To me , one have to be super-self-determined in choices like these ; others ' opinion matters little .

Obviously , you have to be good at playing , and willing to continuously improve , studying with great teachers , etc .

In my opinion , no one can guarantee a musician that he will have a happy career outcome ...

I started on trbn at 13 ; at 15 I decided that I would become a professional musician .
So I started studying very seriously , going to increasingly expert teachers .
At 17 I had my first professional job , starting from the bottom (playing dance hall , every night in a different club) ; at 18 I was playing in a live TV Show ; from 20 to 26 I played 6 to 8 monthts every year in Opera Theatres and Symphony Orchestras ; at 22 I graduated from the Conservatory ; at 26 I won a scholarship for the Berklee College of Boston , were I studied for two semester ; then I moved to a Jazz career ; etc , etc .

Of course , I am playing the horn , I am teaching , I am writing charts , etc .

I think that if you are really determined , and moved as if by an "inner fire" , you can make a good living , playing trombone .

Regards
Giancarlo

[harrisonreed]

To play devil's advocate, Gabe has a point -- he's surrounded by people who are successful in music. If someone were to do the same....

[ithinknot]

I don't think you were being attacked here; the more-or-less facile point being made is that the musicians you "know and work with" by definition don't represent the unemployed...

It's not a matter of me being attacked personally; it's a matter of people who chose paths other than professional music telling a high school student what it's like to be a professional musician. I take serious issue with that.

Fair!

The problem though, in my estimation, with idealizing the platonic ideal of education as a sort of self-epistemology is that it is bias towards those who are privileged enough to be able to afford the time to do this. I think if the aim of preliminary advanced degrees were vocational, it would be a huge boon to the underprivileged.

I'd say a far hugerer boon to the underprivileged might be educational and economic structures that made time and education of any sort more affordable. The student-as-consumer model cynically misrepresents the purpose of education, only to saddle individuals with mandatory debt.

That said, unless you are clearly in the very top echelon of teenage musicians who can get into one of the top conservatories with big scholarship (or tuition-free, like Curtis), you are likely much better off majoring in music at a university or college with a great music school AND a broad range of other offerings. You may very well find another field you love just as much or more...and you might find yourself doing both professionally.

I'd very strongly echo this. Unless you're very much in the infant phenomenon category, a broader perspective, curriculum and social group have no real disadvantages. Then the specialist schools (and the scholarship) are the goal for graduate study. My professional colleagues are split more-or-less half-and-half between humanities graduates from top tier universities who subsequently went to conservatory for a Master's, and those who were stuck in the hothouse from 18 onwards. Let's just say that the university-first group aren't inferior players.

[pipperz]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the replies and advice! I’m i credibly thankful I have access to a community of people that were once in the same position as me and have an extremely extensive music background, it’s truly a blessing. That being said, I have alot to consider and think about. Music making is definitely a career that can result in many different outcomes, as shown with the people in this forum and how they approached playing music in their lives. However, I do notice that the majority of people here agree that having a job that gives a steady income is a mich better option, and will give me more opportunities to make music in the future. The replies on this forum have made me self reflect quite a bit, and I realize that, while I do love music, I dont love it that much to the point I would sacrifice my quality of life and risking my chance of putting food on the table. I want to be able to raise a family, I want to be able to have a house, and I want to be able to make a steady income without having to scramble money from doing dozens of gigs a week. And while working in another field doesn’t necessarily guarantee a comfortable life, it certainly will give me more opportunities than to just sticking with music. In case some of you were wondering what my plans were for college, I am indeed going to community college as its much more cheaper and also gives me more time to think about what I want to do for a career. And to be completely honest, I’ve always been interested in psychology and the career paths that are opened from that field. And I can even apply music to that field, like with practicing music therapy. But I digress. All in all, the replies I’ve gotten have been a ton of help and have given me much needed insight on the world of music making. I dont think I’m gonna throw out the idea of becoming a music major just yet, but I am gonna keep my options open. Thank you to everyone who replied! Hope you all have a good night/day!

[Burgerbob]

Sounds like you're thinking about this a lot, which is really all that matters.

[ghmerrill]

In case some of you were wondering what my plans were for college, I am indeed going to community college as its much more cheaper and also gives me more time to think about what I want to do for a career.

Not a bad choice -- particularly in the current education environment. It will give you the opportunity to explore things a bit in a somewhat less intense and inexpensive (and sometimes disorienting) environment and provide you with some basis for evaluating colleges/universities and fields of study you might then want to move on to. My daughter did this over ten years ago, got an associate's degree, and then went into a four-year program to a B.A. in math education in a nearby state university, and zipped through that with ease. Generally you can also work part-time to some degree (if want or need to) without too much strain -- and likely have time for pursuing your interests and possibilities in music.

[tbdana]

Going to community college while you think things over can work. I had a less conventional path. I was in L.A. studying with Roy Main, and I mentioned to him that I was thinking of moving back east and going to a music school like Juilliard, Berklee, etc. He basically called me a fool. He said, "You're in Los Angeles, playing with the best musicians in the world. This is your music education. This is where you will learn the most. Study something else in college locally if you want, but you've jumped into the deepest music pool in the ocean, and you will learn more in six months playing with the all-time greats than you will studying in school."

So that's what I did. I studied literature in college, and went to the "school of hard knocks" for music. My take from that experience is that you don't have to go to a music conservatory to have a great music career. But you do have to do five things:

1. Move to New York or L.A., where there is the most work and you can be immersed in music. Someone here said something that stuck with me for its bleak truth, which is that there are more people in San Francisco making a living pitching for the Giants than playing the trombone. First and foremost, you have to be where the work is, even if your dream is to win a major audition and spend your career with one orchestra.

2. Play your butt off. If you will work hard enough to become one of the best trombone players in the country, you can have a career. But you can't be mediocre. There are a bazillion mediocre players, and they don't work. You have to be good enough to play anything they put in front of you perfectly the first time through, and be able to play it exactly the same every time. That kind of reliability gets you a very long way. (See, e.g., Alan Kaplan. The most reliable player I ever played with. I don't think I ever heard him make a mistake. An absolute machine and it gave him a tremendous career.)

3. Play everywhere and anywhere you can, whether there's money in it or not. This does two things: it gives you breadth and depth of experience, and it gets you known.

4. Always be on time. Never, ever, ever be late. And on-time is late. Always be early. I'm usually an hour early to gigs, even if I sit in my car for 30 mins before going in. I worked for a guy for years on movies, TV shows, albums, live gigs, and tons of jingles. Always did a great job for him. I was late to a session one time. Never worked for him again after that.

5. Be someone people want to work with. Always have a great attitude and be good at making friends and getting along with people. This is still a business of who you know. If working musicians find you to be someone they want to work with, you will have a career. This was the hardest part for me, at first. I was painfully shy, and that came off as aloof. It was hard for me to make friends. I kept people at a distance. I had to learn to get over that. Occasionally things will fall right for a very shy player (Andy Martin comes to mind), but mostly it is those who are accessible and are easy with others who do better.

You can major in any subject in college and still have a music career. What you can't do is have a full-time job in another field and also have a full-time career in music. Right or wrong, the perception is that (1) your availability is in doubt, and (2) other players need the work more than you do.

Two cents from someone who didn't go to conservatory but had a career in a major market.

[ghmerrill]

Two cents from someone who didn't go to conservatory but had a career in a major market.

I recall several years ago reading similar advice on Tubenet from one of the major commercial tuba players on the west coast. Going the "commercial music" route is quite different in various respects from going either the academic or large orchestral route -- although it's sometimes surprising to discover now many "commercial" players have also spent time as students in music schools or conservatories. Shaye Cohn of Tuba Skinny is an excellent example, along with the various Marsalis's, Chick Corea, et al.)

There are many paths ... (well, at least a few).

[bassclef]

I'll share my story because it sounds like I was in an identical situation to your when I was finishing up high school.

I was getting the same pressure from my family when choosing a major. I gave in and chose my second favorite thing at the time which was computers. I chose a small liberal arts college where at the time the board of trustees were throwing A LOT of money around to build a band program to go with their nationally known football program. I got an incredibly generous music scholarship to be a computer science major. The requirements were that I had to take lessons and play in all of the ensembles which used my instrument. Something I would have done for free!

After college, I can assure you that music is not just a hobby for me. I still work hard on my playing and take it as seriously as I possibly can given that it's not my chosen career. I have been able to work my way up to getting calls for some of the highest-level playing opportunities which exist in my corner of the world. I am lucky to have an IT job where I rarely, if ever, have to turn down a gig where some part of it happens between 8am and 5pm M-F.

As I have been on the scene and meeting people on gigs who did choose to dedicate themselves making a living in music, I have noticed some of the things described above. Aside from a very small number of people, everyone does more than just play. Many have at least a part-time teaching job, most write & arrange and yes - most are married to someone who makes good money and carries insurance. Some others make part of their income in something unrelated to music. Don't let anyone ever ascribe shame to that, especially not on this forum.

I have tremendous respect for people who choose music as their career and therefore dedicated a significant part of their lives to their instrument(s) starting at a young age. It's not easy in any way, even if you live somewhere where there are a higher number of opportunities. I was pretty salty about not going that route for quite a while, but have come to appreciate how my life has turned out so far. On a base human life level, I think there something to be said for having a lot less worry about being able to support yourself.

Given my "day gig", some advice I give to others (old and young) is to learn a database language. It's not hard. You can do this via a minor in IS/IT in college or even on your own time on YouTube. If you learn enough to pass an audition, um...I mean proficiency test, this could open up opportunities for temporary IT gig/contract work and will definitely get your foot in the door for an entry level IT job at any company who has tables with data in them. Spoiler alert: that's literally ALL OF THEM.

Good luck to you. Whatever you choose to do, keep an open mind and practice hard and I'll bet you land somewhere where you can build a fulfilling life for yourself.

[harrisonreed]

I also got a music scholarship at my college, and did not pursue a music degree. A significant amount of my college was paid for by being in the marching band and concert band. In addition to those ensembles, I played in a lot of chamber groups and often subbed in the neighboring schools' orchestras when the student musicians went on strike, which was almost every year, and that was also for pay.

It was not required, but I took lessons and was in the trombone studio and trombone choir for three of my for years in college. I got to take lessons with Dave Sporny and Norman Bolter. I even "won" a full recital with the program around the same time that I did the David Concerto with a local orchestra, but it disappeared from the schedule after it was found that I was not a music major. I was bummed but what can you do. Anyways, I say that because I knew for a fact that I could not make it as a full time pro, I was convinced of it. But I didn't want to just give up playing. Years later and I am still getting paid to play the trombone. My career is on the edge of what most people would be aiming for going to college as a performance major, as I'm in a regular active duty army band, but I'm very happy to be playing trombone for people, and it's taken me all over the world as a musician.

You don't have to put all your eggs into one basket.

[ScaryTerry]

I’m in college right now as a performance major. Many of my peers are double majoring, which in today’s economy for musicians is quite a wise idea. There are a few different options, I’ll try and list them as best I can:

Music BM+Business Degree- This is a super busy degree and will likely take 5+ years to complete but has the benefits of getting a business degree (connections, access to business orgs and scholarships) as well as a music degree.

Music BA+Business Degree- this is similar to the above. The music BA allows students to participate in major ensembles and receive scholarship funding from the music major pool. The course load is much lighter and can realistically be completed in 4 years, but the music BA will not qualify you for a masters in music.

Business Degree+Music Minor- this would be a much smaller commitment to music, but you’d still be able to spend some time in ensembles and might get the chance to take lessons with the professor.

Music BM and Business Minor- this is what I am doing. I’m taking extra finance courses on top of the minor, so I am essentially almost double-majoring, but when I graduate I’m planning to get my masters in music. If I don’t have full-time income by the time I’m done with my DMA, then I’m really only 5-6 classes away from completing my finance degree.

The business degree could be interchanged with any other type of degree, but I chose to use it as a placeholder because I don’t know of anyone currently double-majoring in another field.

As was said above, it’s good that you are thinking about it a lot. College is an important time where you learn a lot about yourself and set up habits (good and bad) that can last the rest of your life. I’m glad you are making an informed decision!

[VJOFan]

My path: I went full steam, blindly into a performance major undergrad then a performance masters program. My plan was to stay in school until I got an orchestra gig. I got lucky and it happened after a year of my masters. Six years after that and a few major life events I moved with my new wife, by that time ex musician, to go to teachers college. Music was a blast while it lasted, but I had hit my ceiling for orchestra work and couldn’t stomach freelancing.

Absolutely would live the same life over and over again. I’m now a few years out from retirement and have never asked myself what if? After “quitting” music I still played a lot for the next ten years in what was some of the more fun playing I had ever done. I eventually moved out of music teaching into English language instruction. A Canadian teacher has a very good quality of life so I’ve been blessed.

A few other random thoughts: Forrest Gump is right, you never know what you’re going to get out of life. Any degree is worth having. A small number of grads work in their field of study regardless of what it is. (Just read a review of a study that stated it’s about 25%) I don’t believe in pursuing happiness because happiness is very temporary, but pursuing that which gives you a sense of inner peace and purpose is worthwhile.

[jph]

Bruce Guttman’s answer is complete, fair and spot-on.
Major in “supporting yourself.” Minor is music, if you wish.

[kbryson]

When I was ending high school I had a music teacher and mentor recommend that I get a business degree and minor in music. I found his suggestion to be revolting, and it was very effective at determining my course. I ended up getting a music degree as a double major in performance and music technology. After school I went into a full time music tech job for a few years, and could not stand it. I felt incredibly depressed throughout those years because it felt like I was contributing to something that ultimately didn't matter in the world (at least not in the same way music does). I have been freelancing ever since as a performer, educator, with the occasional tech gig on the side.

For as much as everyone told me to beware the financial stress of being a musician it has never actually been my chief source of worry. This is for a few reasons: 1) I paid for school with scholarships/student jobs on campus so I don't have student loan debt, 2) During those few years I was working in tech I set aside most of my salary so that I have always had 1-2 years of living expenses saved away if work every got slow, and 3) I have gotten used to living a pretty simple existence with cheap housing/food/little to no vacationing.

In terms of regrets? It really took suffering seven years of that technology job to make the leap to being a full time musician. Although it set me up to be in great shape financially, I still wish I had gotten out earlier and trusted myself/my skills to be able to make it as a freelancer. The idea of contributing to some sort of global good through music is really what motivates me and compels me to continue in this line of work. If you haven't yet, it might be worth sitting down to think about what motivates you to do anything in life (music or otherwise).

[jph]

Knock yourself out.
Bud Herseth, Chicago reknown trumpeter, majored in “Math” at Luther College.
There is no values- centered value in walking away from the realties of the employment market.
When Bud got some traction in music, he did pursue his Master’s in Music at the New England Conservatory.
He might have become an actuary as a math major, who knows.
We make choices. And, we live with them. Play the odds.
I turned down a chair in Denver….which went bankrupt (eventually coming out of bankruptcy and renamed the Colorado Symohony) for a career in business.
It worked out. And….there were sacrifices in that career, too. We all tend to make them over time.

[LeTromboniste]

Knock yourself out.
Bud Herseth, Chicago reknown trumpeter, majored in “Math” at Luther College.
There is no values- centered value in walking away from the realties of the employment market.
When Bud got some traction in music, he did pursue his Master’s in Music at the New England Conservatory.
He might have become an actuary as a math major, who knows.
We make choices. And, we live with them. Play the odds.
I turned down a chair in Denver….which went bankrupt (eventually coming out of bankruptcy and renamed the Colorado Symohony) for a career in business.
It worked out. And….there were sacrifices in that career, too. We all tend to make them over time.

Bud Herseth's story is nice but happened 75 years ago. That's closer in time to Wagner writing Parsifal than it is to us. It's got very little relevance with regards to the current state of the music world.

[harrisonreed]

Well, it is different too, if you are in Europe, vs Asia, vs the USA.

I have a hunch it is, even if only by a small amount, easier to make a living in acoustic music in Europe and Asia than in the USA. It might be more sensible to "go for it" outside of the USA.

Japan even has full time police bands you can get a salary to play in. To say nothing of the hundreds and hundreds of musicians employed by their military, and of course many top level, full time orchestras. There are at least 5 in Tokyo alone. Oh, and one of the only full time, full salary civilian wind orchestras in the world.

[LeTromboniste]

Well, it is different too, if you are in Europe, vs Asia, vs the USA.

I have a hunch it is, even if only by a small amount, easier to make a living in acoustic music in Europe and Asia than in the USA. It might be more sensible to "go for it" outside of the USA.

Japan even has full time police bands you can get a salary to play in. To say nothing of the hundreds and hundreds of musicians employed by their military, and of course many top level, full time orchestras. There are at least 5 in Tokyo alone. Oh, and one of the only full time, full salary civilian wind orchestras in the world.

Yup, it certainly is!

[Jimkinkella]

Not going to suggest one way or the other, but if you (OP) end up doing a double major make sure that you take enough time.
I pushed through trombone and recording in 4 years and it kicked my ass.....

[comebackplayer]

It's not bad to major in music, but just be prepared that it's not the final step. Some more thoughts:
1. A music degree can be a great launching pad to grad school in another field, if you've done some coursework related to that field (law, medicine, business, education, etc.).
2. Sometimes the music performance major with really interesting experiences gets more attention than the 200th business econ or communications grad.
3. Giving it a couple years will give you a pretty good idea of how you measure up, and at many schools you could still switch to another major and graduate in time.
4. Finances matter. What does the degree cost? How flexible/inflexible is the degree?

Good luck!

[calcbone]

You have gotten lots of good advice on here, from many accomplished musicians.

What I have to add, and you seem to have a decent handle on this, is to make sure that you know what your goals/prospects are coming out of school, and how to make them happen. Get some mentors on your side--teachers, college professors, and other adults who are in the field you want to be in. Their advice will be invaluable, as will the fact that you have a connection with someone who may be able to put in a recommendation for you/let you know about important opportunities. Be proactive in this... it's my biggest regret about my life as a student.

Here's a little synopsis of how I got where I am today--note my username and signature

I went into college not completely sure of a major, but I took lessons, was in the marching band, and hung out with mainly the music majors. My friends and my trombone professor convinced me, so I became a music education major starting in my second semester. By the end of my undergrad, I was fairly convinced that I would teach older students (high school or college), but I didn't feel like I was ready to jump into a classroom just yet... so on to grad. school I went.

As I worked on my M.M.Ed., I started to become more interested in college teaching...having a trombone studio of my own, being a mentor and sharing my love of trombone & music with more young students. I thought, surely if I go through and get my DMA, there would be a job for me somewhere at the end. My father, after all, was a college professor for 30 years (philosophy), so it seemed like a viable career path. My own professors & many of the other applied professors at the universities I had gone to were more focused on teaching, and hadn't been super active performers for a while. It would be nice to get some professional playing opportunities, but I didn't see it as the main goal.

It wasn't until I was well into my DMA program that I started to realize how tough it really was to get one of those jobs. I started seeing others finish their degrees and teach adjunct or part-time, or on a series of one-year temporary positions. I had a couple of those of my own while I was still in school, but it sort of took me by surprise that so many people who had their DMA's in hand were still scraping by on these sorts of jobs. Meanwhile, I had gotten married during my master's program, and we were starting to think about when we could have kids.

By the time I finished my DMA, I knew that I couldn't bet on finding stability anytime soon in the way that I had wanted... a couple of colleagues got good, tenure-track jobs immediately, but they were the exception. So here is my regret, as I mentioned above--when I finished my degree, I felt kind of bitter... "if only someone had sat me down somewhere along the way and told me 'look, this is how it is...'" It took me a little while to realize that I should have taken the responsibility myself... gotten good at networking and getting to know people, made my intentions clear, and asked for honest advice and feedback.

Now, I'm fairly satisfied with my life as it stands. I've been teaching high school mathematics for 12 years...it took me a little while to really get comfortable, but I do enjoy it most of the time now. I have 2 great kids, and I do get to play trombone somewhat regularly. I even have a couple of private trombone students here at the school where I work. I'm okay with that, but it would be nice to play more. Maybe when my kids are a little older. I still am certified to teach music as well, but there's no way I would trade what I have for the much higher time commitment of being a band director right now. Maybe sometime when my kids are out of the house...but probably middle school. I'm pretty much over marching band

[schuedoc]

Hi,

I was in your exact same spot when I was a senior in high school in 1996. I was leaning toward a career in music, and I did not have a half-bad resume with the trombone already. However, my dad--who was a struggling musician in the late 60's and early 70's until he had to give it up to find more stable employment--gave me some great advice. He told me to reflect deeply on what my musical goals were and whether I had the tools and talent to reach those goals. My main goal was to win a job with a major orchestra. A brutally honest self-reflection led me to understand that the answer to that question was, "no." After I told my dad my decision not to pursue music, he encouraged me by saying, "son, you can always find an outlet for your musical talent, and you can support you (and future family) by doing something else."

He was right. I studied engineering as an undergraduate; went to medical school; completed internal medicine residency and a hematology/oncology fellowship; and I am now a medical subspecialist practicing happily in my community.

As for musical outlets, I've found several over the years and am currently playing in a community band along with several brass ensemble offshoots.

So my advice is to you is to understand what your goals would be with a music education. If you can see yourself in 5-10 years perfectly happy in the performing/teaching/composing, etc., market, then by all means go for it. If you don't, though, doing something else does not shut the door on music for the rest of your life.

Another added benefit of being a medical professional who does music on the side is that the price tag of top end instruments is not a deterrent.

Best wishes,

[chouston3]

I started off majoring in trombone performance. I developed TMJ syndrome and stopped. I then changed my major away from music but started taking voice lessons. I didn't wind up with a career related to my major and instead had a career as a vocalist. While doing that, I had absolutely no money and scraped by. It was very stressful and hard on my marriage. But I had a lot of fun doing what I loved.

Now, I am an elementary school teacher and do music for fun. Trombone has always been more fun for me than singing. So now, I am getting back into trombone.

If I could do it again, I would not have completely switched my major away from music. I might have switched over to music education so that I could continue to get music academic classes and be in that environment. There were times that I really wished that I had a better academic background when I had my career in vocal music but I figured it out because I had to.

There is a lot to music other than just performance. I would absolutely explore around once you get into a good school.

As a side note, it might be worth it to initially choose a less competitive degree so that you can get access to a good teacher and then change to something different within music later on.