<p>This will be required reading for my son. It's better to go in with eyes wide open. Depressing, but it's the way it is...
I won't go into a lamment about how much basketball players are paid.
Teaching is not a way to get rich. I pay my son's violin teacher $100 for FORTY FIVE minutes (I'm thinking of switching because I get annoyed if she so much as pauses to take a breath...and last lesson was spent on one measure, so I paid about $20 per note). Although she teaches six days a week around the clock, she, herself, will acknowledge that it's not the way to make money. And you have to have results with students before you can start charging the big bucks.
There is absolutely more to life than money, but I found it became more important when I had kids and they wanted to buy $10,000 violins.
My son is playing on a $3000 instrument and I'm dreading the time when we'll have to upgrade...which is probably now.</p>
<p>I was sort of saying "Curits grads are guaranteed" tongue-in-cheek. But really, they are in a very very elite league. Sorry for confusion.</p>
<p>Instrument expenses? Yikes, I can sympathize. You should try pricing a string instrument...a $3000 cello would barely get you started as a 4 year old in Suzuki. ;)</p>
<p>Symphonymom: I don't get the same sense of depression in the LA Times article. The reality is that few of our musical kids will make their living playing in a symphony. It does not take a lot of high level math to compute the odds. There are lots of other jobs in music that may not be exactly what our kids want, but they sure beat working in a cubicle. Even your example, of a music teacher who gets $100 for less than an hour and teaches six days a week around the clock, does not sound too bad. About 25% of our kids take music in HS with many also taking private lessons. Along with the college programs, that is a lot of teachers who are needed. There are additional jobs in more popular music areas which include performance, production and music technologies.</p>
<p>Maybe it is less common now, but when I grew up parents forced their kids to play musical instruments. If they took an interest and wanted to continue with a career in music, that was something to be discouraged. Again I think there is even less reason to be concerned about a degree in music performance than a degree in any of the humanities. Math and sciences are not safe bets either. I doubt many kids earn their living based on their undergraduate degrees in psychology. Maybe we should encourage them to go into computer sciences and engineering. Oops, I forgot. Industry has been real good at gaining approvals needed to bring in low paid foreign trained workers and if that does work they just outsource to India. At least our young musicians are dedicated, enthusiastic and striving to improve.</p>
<p>edad:</p>
<p>I think you comment has some unintended irony:</p>
<p>'Industry has been real good at gaining approvals needed to bring in low paid foreign trained workers ...'</p>
<p>You are aware that there is essentially NO orchestral recording going on in the US anymore? The LA film soundtrack industry is almost 100% dead, as producers can contract offshore world class orchestras at a small fraction of the AFM recording costs. Similarly, the NY jingle industry no longer exists, killed off by synthisizers and the same offshore orchestras.</p>
<p>I work in both the music and IT worlds. I've lost a lot more income from Hungarian orchestras than Indian programmers.</p>
<p>I am aware of this. It is aggravating to find essentially all of the classical recordings made in Budapest. I am not sure where our economy and jobs are going. Maybe we should just fiddle while Rome burns.</p>
<p>Soooo happy that brass instruments are (compartively) inexpensive!</p>
<p>The F tuba our son is craving is 'only' $6400.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Talk about sticker shock! My violin (which I got in high school and still have) was $700. My bow was included. My son's bow cost more than that. It's insane! I don't think the quality of the instruments has increased...but I guess violin makers have to make a living too.
I know what you mean about brass instruments...my son has a pic, a C and a Bb trumpet....all three were less than the violin will be.
My niece plays the cello...I won't even go there:)</p>
<p>Oh....well, for sticker shock, imagine purchasing the Steinway.....</p>
<p>It's not terribly portable though....</p>
<p>I know..our piano came with the house...for the moving fee of $500. We're looking to upgrade too...but no Steinway for us when there's a violin to be bought.</p>
<p>When my son bought his cello, there was someone in the studio (Reuning Bros in Boston ) "test driving" a $350,000 cello. How's that for a big mortage???</p>
<p>You win! Was it Yo Yo???</p>
<p>Reeds, reeds, and more reeds @ about $3 each. We really need an endorsement deal...</p>
<p>I'm stuck with my upright Yamaha piano, quite cheap and was discounted. Steinway would have been nice, but Yamaha is just fine. Practicing with a not perfect piano make me really appreciate great pianos, which is a good thing ;)</p>
<p>$3 for a reed must be for a clarinet. A quality bassoon reed is $15-30. Every student is expected to be able to make and adjust their own reeds. This can be done from prepared cane at $3-5, but ideally the student should use unprepared cane at $2-4 each. Working with unprepared cane requires about $4000 of equipment. Fortunately most music schools will have the major equipment and the students only need a few hundred dollars worth of tools. Making bassoon reeds is an art that requires considerable skill. For the novice, lots and lots of reeds end up in the garbage.</p>
<p>Maybe some of our musicians who like to work with their hands should consider instrument repair and maintenance. Annual service on a bassoon is about $400. As near as I can tell that involves oiling because everything else is extra. You don't want to know what it costs to replace pads or make even minor repairs and adjustments.</p>
<p>Our piano tuner/technician makes a very nice living as well...not that this would be the preferred route for a pianist, mind you.</p>
<p>I just bought my son a spare set of strings for his cello (he's going to Europe) and they cost $176. Fortunately in the 12 years he's played cello he's only ever had one broken string, but can't take the risk "on tour." Violin strings are also pricey, and they break more often...</p>
<p>Then there's the getting the bow re-haired...</p>
<p>And this is for a child who will not be a music major! </p>
<p>I wanted to know who that was playing the $350,000 cello too! All I could tell was that she had a very strong (Russian?) accent. (Ha - We were in a different room - not the one with the Oriental rug...) Yo-yo's cello is worth way more than that - according to reports of when he left it in a taxi accidently (!) it was $2.5 million.</p>
<p>Imagine you're a music teacher in a poor inner-city school. Now, how could you try to steer kids to one of these instruments?</p>
<p>Music major string needs: 1-3 sets a year (@c.$180)(changed when sound changes noticeably); bow rehairs 2-4 (@$55) a year; instrument adjustments (split seams, sound post issues); cracks because of weather issues (($1000's!); extra plane seat to auditions/festivals.........</p>
<p>When your child gets a standing ovation for a performance..... priceless</p>
<p>Reading about all the costs for string players, maybe the fact they may have far more opportunities and an easier path is tempered by all those costs. Heck 12K and you have a nice flute and 100-200 a year keeps it in shape. No bows, strings, reeds to buy. Probably one of reason the numbers are so much against flute players and in favor of string players.</p>
<p>I am also fortunate and surprised that lessons that I thought were expensive are not so bad compared to what most of you are paying.</p>
<p>My spouse is a special education teacher who is also a trombone player. If anything, he wishes that he would have spent more time and resources when he was younger preparing for trombone performance and music teaching even though it is not at all his primary occupation and he would not want it to be so. (And he spent considerable resource and time on this in college!) Currently, along with teaching special education, he performs in a number of regional organizations, gives lessons, attends concerts, takes lessons and practices his trombone as his primary recreation. Although he will probably never make enough $$ to cover the expense of his trombone-education, playing keeps him happy and sane and allows him to contribute to our communities in meaningful ways.</p>