<p>For those of you who have been down the music major road yourself or with a son or daughter: How easy or difficult is it to hold a part-time job during the semester and still keep up with practice requirements and rehearsals? Also, if summer music programs have been in the picture, how have you managed getting summer employment, or has it been difficult or impossible to work in those programs and still earn any money during the summer?</p>
<p>My son has worked as a Resident Assistant this, his sophomore year, as a music performance major. However, he has found it difficult due to the major time commitment, as well as the occasional long nights. He does plan to work part time next year, but hopes to find young trumpet students to work with, instead of a regular part time job. However, he does say that several music students he knows work part time in the music library. They earn some money, but also have some time to study and can get music they need while there, so it works pretty well for them. I think it is possible to work part time without harming one's studies, but the student needs to work on time management skills.</p>
<p>As for summer, we haven't found a good way to manage a summer job. After his freshman year, my son did some trumpet teaching in the summer, but that earned a minimal amount, as he was gone for a couple of programs. This summer he probably will not even try that, as he is going to three programs. But he is applying to be student intern at one program, which would make a small amount, at least.</p>
<p>This seems to be another reason why music majors are so expensive!</p>
<p>Our son earned some workstudy $$$ on campus playing in the school's band for football and basketball games. Just pocket money.
I agree with susantm, music majors are so expensive!</p>
<p>Son does try to fit in some summer work hours......he's pumped gas, rung a cash register in the health food store, etc but it is difficult to fit around summer programs.
Quite impossible to work any real hours during school. Too many hours practicing, rehearsals. Well, maybe not impossible but counterproductive in our opinion. More important that he devote his energy to school (his work) than chasing some minimum wage $$$. HIs grades and musical progress are wonderful....that our goal.
That said, he does make whatever pocket money he earns go very far as we don't supply any allowances.</p>
<p>Our experience- throughout high school, S's job was school & practice. There was minimal time and often irregular schedules that would allow regular part-time scheduled employment. Between school & youth orchestras and three seperate string quartet groups, scheduling was a nightmare. And honestly, it made more financial sense not to be burdened with a low paying part-time job that got in the way of being able to accept the much more lucrative wedding and church gigs that came along with fair frequency.</p>
<p>Summers were not much better. Two to three 2 week highintensity camps spaced weeks apart made employment difficult. I am self-employed in the building trades, and as my needs and his schedule allowed, I gave him opportunities as our schedules permitted. His mother always insisted that nothing he do harm his hands.</p>
<p>Through 4 1/2 years of college, he was a double major, performance & music ed. Part of the ed requirement was participation in the university sponsored String Project at the on campus magnet school. While not a paid position per se, it did result in a $400 per semester tuition credit for two years; funding decreases elimintated the credit, but thankfully not the program. It became in effect an unpaid internship, but the experience was invaluable. </p>
<p>College performing organizations, particularly the smaller ensembles, tended to have fairly flexible and irregular practice schedules. His credit load was on average 18 for most semesters. Add in juries and a recital, and there's not much time for work. He actually declined a work-study grant when they could not guarantee employment within the confines of the music school, which made sense to me given the small dollar amounts involved.</p>
<p>Employment during semesters tend to involve a small number of gigs, some paying more than others, and some semesters have been fairly lean. He doesn't actively advertise, but relies solely on reputation and referrals.</p>
<p>Summers between college years were contingent upon festival applications, fellowship opportunities, and a two week high intensity local quartet camp. Again, needing widely spaced time-off blocks, few employers will commit to hiring. Again, I used him as needs allowed.</p>
<p>He did attend one chamber camp as a paid participant. They hired him immediately (and refunded his tuition) as a chamber coach, teaching pupils two & three times his age. This will be his third year, with substantial pay increases, and for him it is a two week paid vacation with room and board provided. The job is his as long as he wants it.</p>
<p>He has, since high school, been developing a small local studio and teaches privately.</p>
<p>Last summer he was able to drive part-time for a car rental company, shuttling vehicles between points. Their needs and staffing allowed him the blocks of time off need for 2 seperate summer opportunities and still maintain the job when he returned. He'll be doing that again this summer.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the individual, the specific program requirements, and the available opportunities. Specific instruments or pre-formed ensembles lend themselves to actively marketing yourself as a regular gigging entity in a college area or town. If you have the skills, you can check with local music schools... they often look for trained college students as summer help for beginning and intermediate students to cover for regular staff vacations.</p>
<p>Lastly, a family member or good friend with a business is often the best source of part-time employment. They tend to be the most understanding in the need of a flexible schedule to accomodate your other opportunities.</p>
<p>Now, with that being said, it you need the money to offset the tuition bills, then working a "normal", non-music job is difficult at best within the confines of a performance degree.</p>
<p>And one more thought... the better your performance skills become, the more sought after you become to perform in other student's recitals. This is often a quid pro quo scenario, but if you are a skilled performer who can't say "no", recital involvement with others can be a major time drain.</p>
<p>Daughter is a member of Oberlin's co-op system. She works for about 6 hours per week cooking and cleaning the dorm. In return, she gets room and board rates substantially below the prices in the school dorms and cafeterias. She reports that the food is much better in the co-ops but the dorms are a bit grungier. The savings divided by the number of hours worked comes out to a couple of dollars per hour better than the work-study jobs pay. She is also a member of an indie band that has played paid gigs over break periods at other colleges and at places like The Knitting Factory in NYC. The time spent doing these things has not seemed to hurt her playing, since she has held the principal chair on her instrument in the school Orchestra for both semesters this year.</p>
<p>Most of her income over the summer comes from occasional paid music gigs. A steady summer job would be pretty hard due to workshops, summer programs and practice schedule.</p>
<p>DS has a terrific job. He ushers for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There are a number of music students from the schools in Boston, and they all chip in to fill in when others have commitments (like auditions or concerts). He only works 9 hours a week maximum but he also gets to hear 1/2 of each concert from within the hall. We figure he has also saved on tickets to concerts. He has worked the full time he has been in school. Summer is another story. He has been VERY lucky to have a summer employer who would allow him to work from May when he got home to the end of June when he typically left for some summer program....and then let him work again for a couple of weeks at the end of August. Not many employers would be so flexible. He waits tables (actually he'll do ANYTHING they ask him to do...work in the kitchen, bus tables, prepare salads, work in the gardens outdoors....maybe that is why they have been so flexible with him). This summer, however, he'll be gone for nine weeks and hopefully he can pick up 2-3 hours of work at Aspen...not more. He's there to practice and play in the ensembles...not work.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming! I'm getting a few ideas....</p>
<p>D is still trying to decide which of her college options is best for her. Tuition is not an issue but total costs at one school would bring us parents up to the limit on what we have previously said we can responsibly fund. If she chooses that school, she may be on her own to fund summer programs. At the other school, a much lower cost due to merit scholarships will mean that we can easily consider summer program costs to be a part of her university education package. Would you encourage your S or D to take the admission to a school with the "lesser name" if it meant he/she was able to afford summer programs without getting stressed out over finances? </p>
<p>There are, of course, still other considerations that factor into the decision. However, since we don't have unlimited funds to just dole out (regardless of what the FAFSA folks say!) without jeopardizing our own financial situation money does, unfortunately, play a part.</p>
<p>We encouraged our son to go to the school where the instrument teacher was his top choice. The reality is that there are a variety of summer programs and many offer scholarships of some kind. We felt that the summer program issue and the college issue needed to be separate. We didn't want our kid to go to a college because summer options would be better. Also...remember too...there is no guarantee your musician will get accepted to a summer program (especially the more competitive ones) unless they are well prepared by their private teacher for the audition.</p>
<p>There are a few top-notch summer festivals that are tuition free: Kneisel Hall, for example. There are also programs where musicians work as counselors or residential advisors: Greenwood, and Aspen.</p>
<p>My kid has always held a work-study, and has also made good money with gigs. If that is a concern, you might want to ask the teachers at various schools what options there are for gigs. That was something that came up during S's search and we would never have thought about it otherwise. Apparently some schools end up being feeders for the sub list of local orchestras, or have a "hire a musician" website, etc. Others discourage outside gigs all together.</p>
<p>Do not choose a school based on whether you have money left over for summer programs. Every summer has brought surprises to us. S worked one summer in a pit for a summer theater - playing and earning money. This summer he is attending a program that is free to all participants. A good school, and a good teacher, are far more likely to end up paying for themselves via summer ops (and beyond.)</p>
<p>I agree. Choose a college for the teacher, not just the money. My son has had good luck in getting at least partial scholarships to summer programs (and he is far from the top trumpet player in the area). He worked as a counselor at one program last summer and has applied to be an intern this summer (haven't heard if he got it yet). He has also found that he can sometimes "bargain" with the programs to get a little more aid. (Not the top programs, but still some very good ones that he has learned a lot from)</p>
<p>At IU most trumpet players are able to get occasional gigs, if they want them. My son played in Cincinnati this morning for $250. O f course after you deduct gas money and the suit he had to buy because he didn't yet have a black suit... well, he didn't really make much, but still...</p>
<p>I agree with susantm. Our son has also been given at least partial scholarships to all the summer programs he has attended, or worked as a counselor, reducing his expense.</p>
<p>We missed having our son home on Easter but were happy he was hired again for his 'magic' church gig. A few hours playing for a wonderful congregation that pays it's musicians very well. Now if he only had a few of these gigs every week, he'd have no money worries at all.</p>
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Now if he only had a few of these gigs every week, he'd have no money worries at all.
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<p>Now wouldn't THAT be nice!!</p>
<p>Thanks! Your feedback is giving me some more things to think about & some new questions D can ask in this next week. Part of the challege with her decision making process is that she is, as a performer and as an academic, not focused as much on the Western classical tradition as she is on European/American folk, jazz, and Non-Western music traditions. As a fiddler and budding jazz violinist, she'll need to create her own path through the curriculum, within the confines of the degree requirements. The flexibility to create that path is something D needs to discern, and choose for that aspect as well as for the applied studies teacher. </p>
<p>I realize how much I've been stressing about getting a good match for my D's musical interests. Combine that with concerns about money- we just made the last tuition payment for our older D, and have one more coming behind this D. I guess I was allowing myself to be too anxious- deep breath, it will be ok.</p>
<p>D's teachers have always encouraged her to expand her repetoire (Mezzo-soprano) to include wedding favorites and Easter and Christmas church standards. She used to sing arias at an upscale Italian restaurant until it
conflicted with rehearsal. Now she finds the occasional wedding and church solo at about 250-300 a pop. She is currently working on a website promoting her wedding solo work.</p>
<p>My D also worked this year as an usher with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She has also picked up some gigs through her school's "gig office" and she gets paid to perform occasionally in a conducting class at her school. Her pay as an usher is not great, but she would be attending many of these concerts anyway (although with a cheaper student ticket). Even so, she is considering not returning to the usher job next year so she'll have the flexibility to do more gigs. We figured she would make the same amount of money if she had 3 gigs per semester. Being in a major city seems to provide more opportunities to perform, but then living expenses are higher. The money she earns is primarily just her discretionary spending money, and doesn't contribute directly to the cost of her education.</p>
<p>Motivated students seem to be able to fit in 8 to 10 hours of work per week, although it is difficult. One of D's friends has worked one day a week in a shoe store, another works 1 or 2 shifts a week as a waitress.</p>
<p>I had always assumed it might be possible for young musicians to earn some extra money by performing in public places and soliciting donations, but having just read that Joshua Bell wasn't even recognized by most of the D.C. Metro passengers when he played his strad at a subway stop, I guess that just isn't going to be a reliable way to earn extra pocket money!! The article is in this Sunday's Washington Post magazine: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html</a></p>
<p>Anyone who recognized Joshua Bell would also know that he did not need their pocket change. He probably made more money from the clueless.</p>
<p>Busking can be profitable but you have to know how to pick a good spot, how to work the crowd, how to recognize danger signs and when to leave.</p>
<p>I sing with a bunch of music students - they should consider looking for a church gig, choirs usually only rehearse 2 hours a week and it's not like a college student would be doing anything productive on a Sunday morning, right?</p>