What can you do with a music performance degree?

Music is a great hobby for some people. It’s a profession for others. Obviously…

I, for one, can not imagine life without all the elite, world-class hobbyists who are better at their hobby than most of us could dare to ever hope to be. That world would be a lesser place. Seeing 100 people practice their hobby together in a giant hobby room can stir emotions like nothing else in this life. Or watching three or four hobbyists in a smoky room practicing the one, true American hobby form.

But, getting back on topic, if you get a degree in hobby performance countless doors will open for you and you will have the opportunity to hone your skills so that you can spend the rest of your life bringing joy to others. Sounds pretty awesome.

But that’s just my 2/5 of a nickel.

I wish I had a hobby (like people in orchestras or opera companies) instead of a job…

Lol, DesignDad!

Just chiming in to reiterate what others said: GOOD THREAD, very apropos to this CC section

At my 25th reunion I heard Don Braden perform. My son was then in high school and starting to talk about applying to conservatory. He and his friends had arranged to attend Litchfield Jazz camp that summer. Later that weekend I stopped him to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance and asked if he played Jazz as a hobby and what he did for a living. He smiled and said he played as a hobby and it was his profession. He then (much to my embarrassment as my own son was attending that summer) told me he was director of the Litchfield Jazz camp and festival. He is one of the lucky ones, but also a great roll model as it is possible to have music be not just your hobby but your profession as well.

Hi Folks,
I have not been on this board in about a year. This topic is interesting to me on a number of levels. My son has a BM and an MM. He earned his MM at a school that is also well known for engineering and computer science. He is now earning an engineering degree at our state U. One may ask if the music degrees were a waste of time and money-absolutely not. Here’s why (sorry for the length):

  1. I doubt S will ever have a "what if I had..." about music. S pursued his music dream with full vigor. He attended festivals, played in regional orchestras, worked all manner of gigs and got to explore his music thoroughly. He's a better musician and will always play in orchestras, chamber groups and jazz combos. During this time, he learned a lot about his temperament and matured tremendously.
  2. He learned how to "work smart". S says learning the calculus series ( he took several semesters of while completing his MM performance degree) and physics courses relied on a skill set not unlike practicing his instrument and picking apart musical problem areas with his instrument.
  3. He got very good at dealing with rejection. Professional music auditions are grueling as many of you know. It is important to master managing self-talk and the anxiety this talk can produce. Auditions are expensive and you are often not treated very well. All employment involves competition and rejection but music is way up there in my opinion. Where else do you have 100 pre-screened applicants show up for the interview (audition) at their own expense? Engineering companies fold, transfer workers and have layoffs. S has no illusions about the permanence of jobs. Music helped S become more resilient and better able to roll with life.
  4. He learned how to live frugally. S's assistantship and playing gigs barely paid his expenses. He learned how to have fun in inexpensive ways.
  5. He has wonderful job skills that are transferable to many tasks. For example, he can play Bach Cello Suites at friend's weddings, recognize different keys of music and improvise on the spot, run a sectional and manage the varieties of personality, write in a style that is engaging (something many engineers cannot do well) and lecture on all manner of music history to a group. Music provided the opportunities.
  6. His degrees and work ethic made him an attractive candidate in his new field and he was given a nice scholarship, something he did not anticipate since he already had a couple of degrees. His summer work as an RA at festivals also gave him the opportunity to earn a small apartment and food allowance in exchange for being a college RA.

S has just turned 24. I doubt he would have earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree with honors in six years had he been pursuing something he did not enjoy. Why didn’t he major in engineering to begin with? Although a “lego kid” and “science lover” he was not interested in learning the necessary math and physics as a teen. He was interested in literature and music. He went with what interested him at the time. When he began the calculus series at age 22, he sailed trough it with high A’s-something had changed in his brain (which for young adults really doesn’t finish the organizational development until age 24-25).

One caveat- S did not go into debt with his MM or his BM. He turned down higher ranked music programs because they did not offer sufficient monies. I know folks have different thoughts on the debt issues. However, not having the debt gave him the choice of going to work versus more education. Would he have won an audition had he gone to one of these programs? He’ll never know. Frankly, I don’t think that is something her worries about.

Sorry for the length of the post. So many of you were wonderfully supportive of S’s dream over the years. I don’t think studying music is ever a mistake. Every time I hear S play now , it brings me to tears. His life is so much richer because of his music studies.

@hornet:
Nicely written, I wish we could pin this one someplace so everyone wandering into this forum can see it. It could be had your son never pursued music, he never would have found the inspiration to study engineering, perhaps if he had studied something else as a UG, he would have ended up doing something he doesn’t want to do. And the nice part is he will always have the music to enjoy, to feed him, especially at times when he is likely to be working some job, it goes through one of the crappy periods, stress, etc, and that is there for him:)

Yay, nice post hornet!

We sometimes say that employers and schools have great respect for the discipline and work ethic of music majors, and your son is an example.