<p>I am an engineer who probably spent almost as much time in the music building during my college years as many performance majors. I never had any interest in teaching, but I have been singing and playing gigs since getting out of school. If you feel that music is still a part of who you are, then you have no alternative but to give it a shot. Before doing so, you will want to get very specific about your goals. </p>
<p>As far as gigs are concerned, the main things that formal schooling can offer you at this point are connections and exposure. If you have the talent and discipline, you can pick up the technique any number of ways but you will never get gigs unless people with the ability to hire you know about you. </p>
<p>As a percussionist, solo gigs will be pretty rare. There are a few possibilities to consider when going about getting group gigs.</p>
<p>1) You could start your own group. This takes a lot of work but gives you the most control over the situation. You need to have someone who is good at promoting and publicising the group. A music school would give you lots of opportunities to meet others interested in forming a new group. </p>
<p>2) You could look to join an existing group. This is less work, but you have to convince the others in the group that you are the right one for them. You also have to convince yourself that they are the right ones for you. This can be a very hit or miss proposition (unintended percussion pun) and the degree of the group's success will depend on a lot of factors that you may not be able to control.</p>
<p>3) You could work your way into the ranks of freelancers, playing for events that hire pickup groups put together by a contractor. It takes a bit of luck and a lot of persistence to break into this scene and you have to establish a reputation for being extremely reliable and very good at performing with a minimum of rehearsal time.</p>
<p>Number 3 and, to some extent, number 2 require that you be a known quantity in your chosen field. In order to do that, you have to start somewhere and work your way up. Look for opportunities to play with others, even if it does not generate much income at the start. Look for chances to substitute for others. Once you have built up your chops to a pretty good level, take some lessons from someone nearby who is known to have good connections. Find out where other people play in your area and work hard to build your own connections.</p>
<p>As far as the teaching is concerned, formal schooling may or may not be necessary. In a public school environment, you will need a lot of formal classwork and certification in the state where you want to teach. In a private school, the certification may not be necessary but they will probably still want to see at least a bachelor's degree with intent to work toward a master's. If you just want to teach privately, you can simply let it be known that you are giving lessons and see if anyone responds. The better you are known in your geographical area, the better the response you are likely to get.</p>
<p>Some words of warning: a lot of people who think they want to be musicians burn out after trying it for a couple of years. You have to teach a LOT of students and play a fair number of gigs to make a living wage. The two often interfere with each other when your teaching schedule gets in the way of accepting a well-paying gig or when you start to lose students because you reschedule them too frequntly so that you can accept more gigs. You may find yourself working mostly evenings and weekends and having free time only when your friends are at work. This makes it difficult to have a life of any sort outside of music. If you are not prepared to accept music as a source of stress in addition to a source of pleasure, then you might want to reconsider and simply play with an amateur group or two while keeping your day job. Your standard of living as a single unmarried person in a reasonably well-paying field is very likely to go down, perhaps considerably.</p>
<p>If all of that has not turned you off completely and you feel that you have no alternative but to try, then I wish you the best of luck. I know a few people in the business who make a good living, love what they do and would be miserable doing anything else.</p>