<p>Hello everyone, I'm new to CC and am a college freshman struggling with deciding what I want to major in/ do with my life. I'll be attending OSU Main Campus next Fall and want to be prepared to excel in a major I decide upon. </p>
<p>My passion is music, playing guitar, listening to, and studying. My question for you is what potential majors/careers could I embark upon/study in music without having a background in band or other academic music scenarios? Working in the record industry would even be awesome, but I'm not sure how one goes about breaking into that. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Free-lance gigging - playing bars, clubs, hotel lounges, and if you make it big enough, your own shows. </p>
<p>Private teaching - virtually every musician at some point has taught music lessons to beginners. For many, this remains a main source of income.</p>
<p>Music industry related - this ranges from office based administrative work to being stage technicians, audio engineers, etc etc. If you want to work for a record label - unless you have specific qualifications - you would probably have to start in some sort of an entry level temp position where your duties would included making coffee and answering calls, etc etc. You may then work up the ladder from there.</p>
<p>There are a lot of alternatives to finding a place in music, if that is what you really want. There are academic programs at some schools in the music business, others have programs that allow a performer to tailor a program that combines academics or perhaps recording engineering with musical performance of varying sorts.</p>
<p>Or you may take the route of finding a good teacher and boning up on your chops as a performer, finding gigs, playing on campus, etc, maybe even finding other like minded people to perform with, form a group, etc…you don’t have to major in music to get into the music business, it really depends on what your heart is telling you…if you go into the business side of music, as a recording engineer, working for a record company, tour company, whatever, having that background in playing would be a plus…in any event, you need to decide what it is you want to do in music, from there the path will appear.</p>