Ever so often I get emails from fans having a hard time deciding to go for music, or not. I want to post a fans email, and my response to possibly help those of you who may be in the same boat. Hello Kyle, I am at a fork in my road, such as was Mr Frost when he wrote he poem. I really want to go to school for music. I am very well versed in the Saxophone - Ive auditioned for honors bands throughout Pennsylvania and have gotten selected usually in the top tier of those who make it. (Im not trying to toot my own horn, just giving perspective). I also play the piano. Right now Im learning your arr. of Can you feel the love tonight. I just got to the last page. With school its taken me about a month to almost finish. With the curve of music changing from a realm of instrumentation to computer generated music, I would think it would be hard to get into the music business. Personally, Id love to major at Duquesne or IUP in Saxophone and Piano performance but I dont think that I could make a living off of it. I also have a love for computers and have been looking at majoring in Computer Science at Duquesne and doing some undergrad jazz bands. All that being said, my brain is telling me computer science but it doesnt feel right.. I feel like I should go for music but I dont think that I could make a living.. What do you think? I know youre a great pianist who has his own two feet planted well on the earth. I am trying to seek advice from successful musicians. Thanks for your time good sir! ~Jonathan Jonathan! Thanks for messaging me, this is such a huge decision, and you should definitely be careful! Although its not right for me to tell you what -I- think you should do, I can at least give you an idea why I chose music school, and what may be the possible outcomes of each decision. Music school is known to be one of those very risky fields, just like every field in the arts. If you have the skills, the business aspirations, and people skills, well, you can make it work! However, even with all of those skills, some people still may not make it. The reason I went should be pretty clear: My YouTube. I saw that I had something going, and I went with it. Even if it was only about 20,000 subscribers at the time of my entrance to college in 2008, I still went with the gut feeling that my YouTube channel would turn into something big. Now Im traveling the country and the world, performing concerts and weddings, and composing music for a video game! Its possible, just very risky. You did say you love computers, so that would certainly be a great fall back, and Im sure its a great field to be in. Its much safer, even if the job market is still very competitive. Just like music, it still takes good people skills, and talent, BUT, there is less luck involved I think, and the odds are better. Will you be happy? Im not sure, we will never know until you try. I will tell you, music will make you happy, but you also may be living on the street! Option 1) Go to music school, somehow become successful, or fall into a huge amount of debt and live in an apartment your whole life. (college debt is a real problem that people your age dont think about.... dont ever forget that). Perhaps you go back to school for computers afterwards and eventually make it, you just had a lot more debt, preventing you from getting a house as quick as your colleagues did, and forcing you to go back to school and put your life on hold yet again. Option 2) Go to computer school, become successful, impress your family, but perhaps not be so fond of the 5-day a week haul-ass never-ending work week for the next 40-50 years of your life. Say you get sick of the work, it doesnt make you happy. You have been keeping up with your practicing all this time, free of charge, no teachers, no over-priced music schools. You manage to land quite a lot of side-jobs as a musician for extra cash. It helped keep your mood stable enough to go on with life smoothly. Do you see? It can go either way, and you nor I will ever know what will happen. Hopefully this helps you make a decision. Just remember, do not go to a school that will put you in debt over 40 grand or so. I have friends who have 100,000 worth of debt. They pay a monthly bill of $1600 to pay off their loans. Yeah... theyll be doing that for 20 or 30 years. ITS THE SAME AS A MORTGAGE. Music or not, dont put yourself in a bad situation. People get AMAZING jobs, and become successful going to state schools, and paying less than 40 grand total for college. Be smart.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:45:23 +0000