<p>I'm looking to double major in music and creative writing/English. My parents are fine with me majoring in creative writing/English, but they are completely against my majoring in music and will not help pay for it.</p>
<p>This stems from their belief that I should "just do it," rather than actually study music at the college level. </p>
<p>How can I convince them otherwise?</p>
<p>Majoring in music is kind of like majoring in theatre or creative writing or even communication. Since your parents don’t seem to have a problem with other “creative” pursuits, why do you think they have an issue with music in particular?</p>
<p>My mom’s best friend majored in dance and is now a bartender, which makes her apprehensive about majors in theatre, music, and dance. She doesn’t really think music majors can get anywhere career-wise :/</p>
<p>ashleysong—what instrument? Or are you referring to music theory?</p>
<p>Musicamusica- voice</p>
<p>Have a look at [Peabody</a> Institute - Conservatory Admissions: What Can You Do With a Music Degree?](<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/789]Peabody”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/789) then show it to your parents.</p>
<p>Just a caveat—voice study in college takes up more time than you can imagine. As does creative writing. Make sure that the enormous amount of reading and writing you are required to do in creative writing does not conflict with hours of rehearsal, ensemble work, music theory, languages, keyboard etc etc. I’m not trying to discourage you, just trying to put a realistic spin on things. You may need to add on a year or two to your undergrad to do both. Perhaps your parents worry about the feasibility of doing both.
I have a daughter who works full time as a musician, it can be done…but the double degree in those two fields is a separate challenge.</p>
<p>There is also another path that works well for singers. Do the creative writing degree with a music minor to get the music theory and history classes you need. Take the necessary languages (Italian, German and French) and the musical diction classes. Some foreign language will likely be required in a liberal arts curriculum and the others can be electives. Study with a good voice teacher either through the school if you can, or privately. This can be expensive, especially for a good private teacher in a major city, so you need to pick your schools carefully. Some schools allow music minors to study with faculty members at no additional charge beyond tuition, others charge extra. There is one school of thought that says that this is actually better preparation for a young singer than a full-time music program.</p>
<p>You might consider a school like Oberlin, which has a fine creative writing program and where you could either do the five-year double degree program or audition for secondary voice lessons with a faculty member from a standard 4-year creative writing program within the College. Ensembles hold open auditions, so it is not absolutely necessary (although it is helpful) to be in the Conservatory to get into the best ensembles. Roles in the operas are a different story - those will just about always go to Con students. Sometimes, students who are non-music majors are even allowed to have primary lessons with faculty if they are really good. In fact, you could audition for the dual degree program even if your plan was not necessarily to matriculate at the Conservatory. If you happened to gain acceptance to both College and Conservatory, at the very least it would be a strong indication that you would be able to obtain lessons with a faculty member should you decide on the 4-year creative writing major/music minor path.</p>
<p>Bassdad stole my ever-so-clever recommendation.</p>
<p>Oberlin is a great call.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! My plan for if I can’t manage to convince my mom to help me pay to major in music is to minor in it instead. I really appreciate all the feedback :)</p>
<p>I like BassDad’s advice also.</p>
<p>Another option is to major in Music Ed. </p>
<p>That way even if you don’t make it as a professional singer, you are still licensed to teach in public school. Most public schools don’t hire dance teachers, but they most certainly hire music teachers. The way I see it, if you are good enough, you can perform music without a degree at all, but you can’t teach without a degree.</p>
<p>A Music Ed degree will get you the same core music skills that a music performance degree would, plus may make it more likely that you can take private lessons and be allowed to perform in all of the ensembles. </p>
<p>The Music Ed degree might actually make you more employable than Creative Writing, I guess it is something that you just have to ask yourself: “Could I put up with a classroom full of kids, most of who are just looking for an easy A.”</p>
<p>imagep, I would caution that if someone does not have a desire to teach children or HS students, then they should not go into music ed just to get a job. The difference between a teacher who loves to teach and a disappointed performer teaching as Plan B are just too great. We have had experience with both. It is not fair to the kids.</p>
<p>imagep, just because creative writing is not your cup of tea doesn’t mean that anyone goes into it looking for an easy A. Employabilty is another issue, which we probably agree about, but that’s no reason to put down people who choose to major in that field as somehow trying to game the system. (I know engineers who are really struggling in their required humanities classes, never mind creative writing, because they can’t handle the concept that there are multiple correct answers to, say, interpreting a poem.)</p>
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<p>The OP has expressed no interest in music education, and frankly, encouraging someone to teach if they “can’t make it” as a performer does both the individual and the many students they will encounter a disservice.</p>
<p>@ashleysong - take a look at Bard College (not the Conservatory). Great creative writing program, interesting theater, opportunities to participate in various vocal experiences (no voice major but a strong BA music major that could set you up for grad school in ways similar to Oberlin’s fine program).</p>
<p>One word of caution about Music Ed. Don’t even think about it unless you have a real desire to teach music in the K-12 grades. There are already too many music teachers out there who are bitter wannabe performers and give less than their best to their students. Music Education schools are very good these days at determining whether the Education part is your plan B and they are very reluctant to accept those for whom that is the case. </p>
<p>(Crossposted with the two above.)</p>
<p>Whooa, stradmom, I never suggested that creative writing was an easy A. Read what I wrote again. </p>
<p>Singersmom, sorry you had a bad experiance. While I am sure that your bad experiance is not unique, I am also sure that there are many people with music ed degrees who are perfectly happy doing whatever it is that they do, even if it is their second choice. Personally, I wanted to be the high paid CEO of a large corporation, that didn’t work out for me, but I love doing what I do do, even if it is a second choice. </p>
<p>The OP never actually indicated what type of job he/she was interested in, only what fields. For all any of you know, the OP might be very interested in teaching music, just like the OP might be interested in teaching English or Creative Writing. The OP NEVER said that he/she was interested in being a performer. We don’t know because the OP never said that he/she was or was not interested in teaching.</p>
<p>And just because someone gets a music ed degree doesn’t mean that they HAVE to teach. They can go to grad school, or they could become a performer, or they could do a zillion things with a BM in Music Ed. Music Ed majors do stuff other than to teach every day. Also, a music ed degree would be a much better background for a conductor than a performance degree. Heck, I have a degree in economics, but I run a sign making company.</p>
<p>Although teaching might not be my sons dream job, that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t like it or be good at it. Everyone should have a backup plan, and a backup plan that they would enjoy if plan A didn’t pan out. Few people actually get that ideal job. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t enough glamourous and high paying jobs to go around. He applied at 4 colleges as a music ed major, and was accepted at all four, so don’t pretend that being a music ed major in any way reduces ones chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>All I did was to suggest an additional option that the “rents” might find less objectionable than music performance.</p>
<p>imagep, sorry if I misinterpreted you. I assumed you meant that the “classroom full of kids, most of whom are just looking for an easy A” referred to creative writing majors as opposed to… K-12 students in a music class?</p>
<p>I’m still working on why parents would support creative writing as a major but think music is impractical (said the parent of an English major…).</p>
<p>There are indeed many paths for a Music Ed major that do not involve an elementary or high school classroom. I should know. My wife majored in Music Ed and now is a Project Manager in the IT department of a large insurance company.</p>
<p>My point was that there are some people who should not be teaching music to children if their only reason for wanting to do so is a paycheck. That may or may not apply to the OP, but either way it is something that should be considered. The Music Ed degree could be used as a stepping stone to a conducting job, but the vast majority of those are either within K-12 school systems or in youth orchestras. </p>
<p>I do not necessarily agree that the Music Ed degree is better preparation for a conductor than a performance degree. Granted, the music ed curriculum includes a few weeks exposure to learning each of many instruments and has a semester or two worth of conducting classes. However, in many schools, it also equates to less time performing with top ensembles and less exposure to top-notch conductors who are leading those ensembles because of the time demands involved in the Education curriculum.</p>
<p>stradmom, yes, I was suggesting that one should only become a teacher if one has their heart (at least partially) in teaching. the “classroom…looking for easy A’s” was indeed intended to indicate grade school music students, not college creative writing students. Like you, I am befuddled as to why creative writing is acceptable but music performance isn’t. In my mind, I would think the two majors would be equally likely to lead to a career as a bartender.</p>
<p>Bassdad, my son just attends a regular state college, nothing fancy. But I figure the two semesters of conducting that are required of ed majors, and being required learn a dozen or more different instruments to be be a fine trade off over just doing more of the same performance training. Anyhow, at my sons college, music ed majors work with the exact same professors and audition for the exact same ensembles as music performance majors do, and pretty much take the same classes. If you were to look at the core music requirments at his college, it’s the same regardless of the music specialty. </p>
<p>Maybe Music Ed at top music colleges or conservatories isn’t as good of a program as it is at a typical state university, I dunno.</p>
<p>In many cases, while not at your son’s school, the music ed majors do not have the same teachers or ensemble options as the performance majors. It could mean the difference between getting to play in the ensemble conducted by someone known throughout the industry who has lots of connections to grad schools and can write influential letters of recommendation vs getting to be in the ensemble conducted by a grad student. It very much depends on the individual school. It is not so much a case of conservatory vs college, rather one of the individual school policies.</p>
<p>Learning a little bit about dozens of instruments is undoubtedly useful in a school situation where the teacher is basically trying to stay a few lessons ahead of the students on the instruments that they do not themselves play well. When it comes to leading an orchestra of professionals, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.</p>
<p>If you think a little knowledge can be dangerous, try total ingorance.</p>