Currently, I’m a freshman majoring in Computer Science. I chose that major because math seemed to be the only subject I was ahead in, but mostly because it’s what my parents pressured me into majoring in.
I’m a very avid musician and I’ve loved playing ever since I was a kid. I’ve played the violin for 10 years, piano for 8 years, and guitar+ukulele for 5 years, not to mention I’ve also taught myself how to play the piano and guitar. My family is aware that I’m musically gifted, and they’re very happy for me. Although the problem was that when I began applying for colleges my senior year of high school, I was completely clueless on what I wanted to major in other than the fact that I wanted to pursue a career of being a music teacher. I asked my parents if I should major in music and they were against it. They told me that musicians don’t make a lot of money and that I should just focus on a major with math since that’s what I was good at. Being the naive teenager I was, I applied under computer science. Although I found the major pretty interesting, I still had the strong urge for music. I hear people majoring in music all the time and it just makes me a bit jealous because it’s what I really wanted to do. I am very passionate about music, I practice almost 2-3 hours every day and it makes me eager thinking about learning about it. But I’ve decided to let computer science have a chance and I’ll stick with it for my first semester to see if it’s worth changing or not. Is changing my major to music education a good idea? Will I be able to easily find a job as a music teacher? College has always been confusing for me, and I need a clarification. Also, if I do happen to change majors, will I be behind on the required courses in the music education major?
To sum up, you are a week or so into school and want to change majors. Wait on changing until you actually know what CS is about.
No. I have MANY friends who were music/music ed majors. It’s hard.
You need to find your own balance between career prospects & personal interests.
Can you see yourself doing CS for 2000+ hrs/year, for the next 30+ years of your life?
My D graduated a year ago in Vocal Performance. Many of her friends were music ed majors and ALL have jobs teaching. However they did come out of a top, selective school for music ed. I know quite a few kids from another school in our area that have also gotten teaching jobs. Again it is a school with a good reputation for music ed.
My suggestion is that you have a conversation with the music dept at your school. You’re an adult now. Go to the music dept and ask them about a music ed degree. You could even ask about a minor in music and/or opportunities to continue in computer science with participation in music. And be sure to ask them about their placement statistics for teachers. In this way, you can get some concrete information with which to make an informed decision going forward. You may find that computer science is just fine if you have an outlet to music.
Note that many people have negative opinions about music degrees. That’s unfortunate as many people are successful and happy working in music…or transitioning to another area after getting a degree in music. You definitely want to approach it with your eyes wide open…and knowing your own strengths and weaknesses in approaching a non-linear career (meaning A + B = C). Some careers do require a specific type of degree. However there are many good jobs available that only require a bachelor’s degree. In order to get a comfort level with this, I would also advise you to visit the career counseling office at your school. Knowledge is power.
Music Ed leads to certification to teach. Do you want to teach? Or just play? You can look into auditions to be in an ensemble, take music classes or lessons, or even minor in music. You might be able to tie computer science and music together for future jobs.
I always feel sad that kids are pressured so early to think about career. You really can still major in whatever you love as an undergraduate. I know your parents don’t believe this, so that makes it hard. Did your parents go to college? If they are paying or if there are loans, there is financial pressure, indeed, but the thing is, focusing on career choice when you have barely started college is not always necessary.
A bachelor’s in music, whether BM (conservatory) or BA (college) gives you access to jobs requiring a bachelor’s, just like any other bachelors. and it also gains you access to law, medical, business, nursing and grad schools. Music degrees are, in my opinion, very well respected for the discipline and work ethic involved. Music majors have a high admittance rate at medical school, I have read.
You have several options:
1)double major 2) double degree 3) minor in music and major in CS 4) minor in CS and major in music 5) major in CS only and do music lessons privately, continue practice, play in extracurriculars or off campus (this can still get you into grad school for music) 6) major in music and continue to take classes in CS (some music courses now involve quite a bit of technology by the way). Oh and you can major in CS and continue music after the BS. You can also major in music and take a postgrad course in CS (look at Tufts for example. My son works in Silicon Valley and not all of his colleagues majored in CS and at least one got a master’s in music after doing CS as an undergrad)
Both music and CS have fairly intense, sequential curricula so it can be hard to do both at once for a double major. A double degree is 5 years and offers more room in the schedule.
If you love playing music, you don’t have to try to get into music education. Also you can do that at the grad level. Music ed means teaching in public schools. You don’t need it to teach privately and for college teaching you need grad school.
You can do a general music major with theory, aural skills, music history, composition, ethnomusicology and technology, with or without performance, for example, which usually means 1/4 to 1/3 of your classes in music, so then you do gen eds and some CS classes.
Or you can do a BM (does this mean transfer?) which would mean 2/3-3/4 classes in music and a focus on performance most likely. This usually involves audition.
The best advice right now, as someone said, is to do CS but try to do some music classes too, and continue to practice, find a teacher for private lessons, and try to find performance opportunities on or off campus.
Many very talented musicians major in something else and still do well musically.
However, if you don’t like CS and want to study music, you can start looking at changing majors or transferring or whatever is needed.
Your life will be fine if you major in music. There are so many threads on this but look on top of this music forum for the thread with “poor house” in it.
Here is a good essay to read: tell us which student you thing you match best:
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html
It is very early in your college career, and because you are majoring in cs doesn’t mean you can’t do music, most schools have music programs for non majors, and you potentially also may be able to get a BA in music on an instrument with your BS degree. You could study privately, and in a masters program get an MM in an instrument…
A more fundamental question is, do you want to teach, or do you want to perform? A music ed degree is generally for someone who wants to become a public school music teacher (K-12), and the education there is about teaching kids in public schools, it includes things like general music classes, or instrumental music, and it requires knowing a number of different instruments to be able to teach them, it usually (I believe)involves learning band directing (ie marchign band), conducting, as well as teaching courses. Note that if you think you might want to teach privately (let’s say on violin and piano), you don’t need a music ed degree to do that, music ed against is primarily public school (some private schools ask for it, but many don’t IME). Please don’t go into music ed because you see it as a compromise between doing performance and having a job that has a steady income, do it because you want to teach. There are a lot of school music teachers out there who went that route because they wanted the steady job, and more than a few of them are bad teachers, frustrated performers 'forced to settle", and so forth (and that isn’t a knock on music teachers, there are dedicated, wonderful ones as well, and they are wonderful because they want to do it).
There are a lot of paths with music as others point out, and don’t ‘settle’ for music ed…do it because you want to. Music Ed is a discipline, it is different that music performance but still requires a lot of learning and effort, and you won’t do yourself or the students any favors if you don’t want to do that kind of teaching. Like I said, you can teach without an Ed degree if you want to teach privately or at a music school or whatnot…
The last couple posts have good info (although a BM isn’t exclusive to a conservatory). One other factor is that subjects like music theory and history have a very specific track and you might be behind if you change majors in the spring. Not that it can’t be done, but discuss the implications with your school.
As mentioned above, you also need to decide between whether you want to teach in a school setting or privately. School requires music ed in most cases, but a performance degree is fine for teaching private lessons.
You also need to talk with your parents. You need to do what you want with your life. I’m sure they want the best for you, but it sounds like they are in the group that thinks money is most important. But that typically isn’t the primary driver for people who are artistically inclined. You will need their support in whatever you do, but you might want to get them on the same page with you.
Regarding jobs, people are mistaken when they think that business/science majors are more likely to get jobs than artistic majors. Studies tend to show otherwise. It is more about the person, skills, experience, etc., regardless of degree.
And for the record I speak from experience. I was a music major and my father was always wanting me to take other courses, especially business. But I taught for a while. Got out of teaching later and my bachelor was just as good as others in the work force.
I usually write conservatory/music school but I really don’t think there is much difference. Just to clarify, the differentiation is between a general music major at a college or university without a BM program and a conservatory or music school, whether freestanding, or part of a college or university, that is a BM program.
The only difference between a conservatory (a stand alone music school) and a music school within a university is going to be in the admissions process (with a music school within a university, you generally have to get admitted academically and musically, ie USC, U Mich, Northwestern, I believe Indiana, Rice, etc) and in the general ed courses a university requires (conservatories offer liberal arts courses as part of their required curricula, but it is a lot more limited than a university would have). The BM program itself is likely going to be pretty consistent, individual lessons, ensembles/chamber, music theory, ear training, music history classes, electives.
Not to derail the thread, but those definitions don’t hold across the spectrum. Bard, Oberlin and Lawrence all have “conservatories” not music schools, and you have to get into the college as well as the conservatory, and they offer excellent academics outside of music for conservatory students 
It does seem that “music schools” can often be in larger universities but even that isn’t absolute across the board.