<p>Hello all,
I wish at least some amount of people would help out this helpless soul :(
So, here I am at GT, being rising third year, and taking my summer courses. I have always wondered around to pick my major and decided to be a bio in business at a tech school to become a vet. However, I always had enormous amount of interest in music for such a long time, and finally decided to give it a shot. I've been playing flute for 8, 7 years? and have been accepted to several orchestras, ensembles, and have won in competitions. But, that's not what I would like to do. </p>
<p>long story short, I'm looking at transferring to Berklee as a vocal/voice major (contemporary-style). I'm never motivated to "study" unless it's music or art related; I actually enjoy practicing. But, I never had any hardcore private lessons for voice nor auditioned. I only have sang at talent shows and small social events. I haven't told my parents yet, since they have always said I was only swayed and never determined; they also think 'music' is for ppl who are innately talented and for geniuses AND getting a profession/job in music is the hardest of all (which...is true). I really want to get into Berklee to get them to understand how desperate and really set to throw my life into music.</p>
<p>I think I have an idea where to start, but I don't know whether if it's worth a try or whether if I even have a talent to try. Will someone throw me some kind of advice? suggestions? comments?</p>
<p>This is probably just be being clueless, but what is “GT”?</p>
<p>Georgia Tech 
im a techie</p>
<p>Snowflakevts D transferred into Berklee from a non music program–you might want to contact her.
My take is that you might want to invest in at least a years worth of voice lessons before auditioning.</p>
<p>Berklee offers a number of classes on-line. You might want to look at a few of those to see if this is really what you want to do.</p>
<p>"they also think ‘music’ is for ppl who are innately talented and for geniuses AND getting a profession/job in music is the hardest of all (which…is true). "</p>
<p>I want to address this. First my son is not a genius. And I suspect that many of the musicians he knows and respects are not geniuses either. They all have some amount of talent, but as one teacher told me when I was asking about our son, hard work trumps talent every time. This teacher told me about how his conservatory once admitted one of the most talented 18 year olds he had ever seen, but the boy was not motivated to work at it and quickly plateaued while other students who were less talented passed him in their ability. Innate talent? Well maybe you have to have some. Nobody ever succeeded in teaching me how to carry a tune, so being a musician probably would not be a good career choice for me, but then again music doesn’t get me excited the way it gets my son excited. </p>
<p>BTW, my son’s teachers, many who have affiliations with Berklee all say that Berklee is one of the best vocational schools in the world for music. If you want to have a career that somehow involves music then Berklee is the place. Their graduates do well when it comes to getting jobs. But NOTE: not everyone who attends Berklee does well, graduates do well. Berklee admits broadly but graduates a small percentage. That has always been their approach. Some leave because they realize they don’t want to just do music. Others leave because they realize they just can’t cut it or didn’t think it would be as much work as it was. And then some leave because they are so talented they realize they don’t need to be in music school anymore (Esperanza Spalding for example) and go off to have successful careers. Making it at Berklee can be challenging. And you need to be prepared for the hard work that is in front of you if you choose this path.</p>
<p>Making a profession in the music business is difficult. But right now it is difficult to find any career path that is not potentially challenging or difficult. Being a scientist is difficult. Getting a job as a lawyer is incredibly hard right now. If you are a techie maybe you think that life will be easy if you can program computers, or do molecular biology. But I know plenty of miserable or struggling tech people whose careers have plateaued or jobs have been outsourced or burnt out. Avoiding a career path because it is hard is silly because life is hard, but if you enjoy what you do then at least you will be motivated and excited about working toward overcoming the challenges. And there are plenty of music educators, professors, sound engineers, composers, and more who are getting paid to do what they love.</p>
<p>Hi, Snowflake here. Yes, my D transferred to Berklee from Boston U. She was on a pre-med track but kept getting drawn into everything music-related and realized that she just couldn’t get enough music without being a music major. Her base before college was that she was a strong academic student with many EC’s associated with music (a cappella student director/arranger, jazz musician, pianist, a few paid gigs). She did take vocal lessons on and off throughout high school and eventually merged her voice lessons with her piano and that’s what she does when she performs. She also applied and was accepted to Berklee when she was in HS, so she always knew the goods were there; she just didn’t believe in herself enough at the time.</p>
<p>If you have never taken a voice lesson, you may struggle in any audition, as the audition is based on not only what piece you sing, but also on call and response, rhythm, and other things they look for to understand how you learn and how you work with other musicians. If you are performing already but don’t have formal training, then getting professional feedback on your voice and technique via voice lessons can help you have a stronger audition.</p>
<p>You should know that music may not make you as much money as your current path, so make sure that you are willing to be poor and musically trained before you leave your current situation. Getting into Georgia Tech is no small feat, so you clearly have the academics in your current area. My D was so sure that she needed to transfer; there was no doubt in her mind that she was willing to sacrifice a comfortable living (as a potential doctor) because music was that important to her well-being. </p>
<p>Let me know if I can answer any other questions. Good luck to you on this journey!</p>
<p>StacJip, Esperanza Spalding did graduate from Berklee in '04 or '05. She was also the youngest faculty member there as an instructor.</p>