<p>Oh that’s a nice program you have there! (don’t have to specialize yet)</p>
<p>Yes there are many who do BA in undergrad + dual degree something else, and still do music in grad. As long as you take lessons you will be fine (comp lessons to get into comp masters, piano/instrument lessons for performance etc.), there are many who do this path (though logically it’s probably slightly harder due to less focus on music classes, but don’t think it’s that much of a problem)</p>
<p>You may have to fulfill certain requirements for your masters. I’m sure your advisor at college can help. If you finish an undergrad and need some requirement for the masters usually you can just take it as part time credit (don’t have to do a full year, just pay per hour).</p>
<p>So yes if you want to do something else, like finance, or photography, feel free to do a BA in music + finance/photo/etc.! Then you can go from t here if you still want to do music by taking a masters in music. Remember you don’t have to take your masters ASAP. So if you’re not good enough yet to get in, you can always wait 
You may have to delay working with your ideal career for a while, but 1 or 2 years delay in the grand scheme of things probably isn’t that much, if you can do what you love for the rest of your life right?</p>
<p>And if you want to continue metal and stuff, usually they have specialized classes for particular styles (like metal). Usually it’s not that much, maybe just 1 kind of class for those specific styles, since (i’m no pro at music theory but i think this is along the right lines) studying classical music pretty much helps everything (classical music has a lot of basic fundamentals you should learn or something, that are used throughout many or all kinds of music).</p>
<p>So I would say this. If you’re not sure what to do, don’t worry! You can start with a BA first (especially if it’s non-audition, so you can start right away) instead of taking a gap year like others to try to cram in a good year’s worth (well, more like a half year, since auditions/application starts in the fall) of full time music practice (it’s like school, but instead of 7 hours of boring stuff you’ll forget, it’s like 7 hours of practicing :D) to get ready for whatever the audition requirement is! (whether they need to hear a portfolio of some compositions or if they just wanna see how good you are at performing)</p>
<p>By taking a BA first, you can avoid wasting a gap year if you somehow decide you don’t wanna do music again (there’s a chance, already you changed your mind about finance right?) and then you can try to get in to a BM sophmore or junior year, without having to take more than 4 years total (well maybe 5 would be a good idea anyways if your’e dual degreeing, but point is the music classes you take for BA usually can count as the BM credit, so that even if you’re not officially a BM, you won’t “waste” those first 1-2 years taking non-music classes that won’t even help your potential BM degree – just make sure though that the music classes you take as a BA count as credit for a BM, sometimes a class X might be named the same as what the BM students take but it may be slightly different and not count for credit for BM). If you don’t get in soph/junior year you can take a break from college 1-2 years usually without having to reapply or pay. Usually if you come back after 2 year gap they want you to fill out a form but usually readmit you if you left on good terms (extreme option in case if you want to do a BM in undergrad, for example maybe you change your mind and don’t want to take a masters degree).</p>
<p>If you don’t get into a BM, you can still study music and take lessons as a BA (be sure to check how many music classes you can take; I would say 50% music and 50% other, meaning 25% humanities and 25% math/science/english/language requirement is pretty good for a non-audition program, but if it’s only like 30% music, you may wanna reconsider) and go from there.</p>
<p>lots of text sorry but hope this helps</p>
<p>(in other words, don’t panic! ^^ there’s more leeway and freedom than you may think – music is competitive, many have to take creative paths to get where they want or have to do things such as take gap years or settle for a BA)</p>