"Ah, music! What a beautiful art! But what a wretched profession!"
So true! Unfortunately, one cannot fully comprehend how true this is until one becomes a professional musician.
I have had many students over the years tell me that they wish to major in music. My reaction is always a bit of fear, and a bit of pride. Fear—because I know that student is in for a ride. Pride—because I love music and my career so much, and I am so happy when there are other people in the world who discover they love it as much as I do.
The problem I have with many college music programs is that they teach music, but not how to make a living in music. It is a very hard, competitive business. To survive, one must be very talented, very determined, very confident, very disciplined, and willing to live with the idea that they may never be especially well-off financially. But on the positive side, you will often be able to make your own hours, you will always be challenged by a new piece or a new student, and you will always be doing something you love.
Many students decide they love music. But they have no idea what a career in music is like. Unless you become a public school music director, (and even then, maybe not) you will not have a typical 9 to 5 life. Professional full-time orchestra schedules typically require 4-5 rehearsals per week, and then 1 or more concerts every weekend. Smaller regional or community orchestra are similar, but on a smaller scale. Private teachers usually only teach after school hours—hours that may eat into your family time. And public high school orchestra directors often spend long hours in after-school rehearsals, spring musicals, and/or summer orchestras.
When deciding what career to enter into, students often do not consider what kind of life they will want outside of their professions. Is it important to you to have a family someday? How busy will you want to be? How flexible will you want your career to be? How much money will you honestly need to make in order to be happy and meet your life goals? Will you, in all likelihood, be the sole breadwinner, a co-breadwinner, or just a supplementary income? What kind of lifestyle will your profession entail? These are definitely things to consider before deciding what major to choose in college. I think no matter what profession you are considering, it is smart to contact professionals in that field and ask them about how their career meshes with all the points above.
I am not speaking from experience, since I have not had a job in a full time "major" orchestra, but I do know that getting into a professional full-time orchestra is very difficult. Hundreds of applicants—all of them extremely talented—typically apply for the same job. There are only 17 full-time orchestras in the United States, and openings are fairly infrequent. The process of being hired involves more than submitting a resume and interviewing for the job. A playing audition—basically a competition—is always required. The candidate who has the best day, has the least problem with nerves, and is the best prepared, gets the job. Often, you are happy just to get any job, and you will take whatever you get, even if that means moving 2000 miles across the country from the rest of your family. But once in the orchestra, most musicians I know are happy with their jobs. Usually, the actual working hours are equivalent to that of a part time job (of course, individual practice time is a big time commitment). Musicians in professional full-time orchestras are well paid (though they might not say so! ) And musicians, of course, get to play a great variety of beautiful music.
A career in music education can be extremely rewarding, in
my opinion. It takes a special kind of person to be a teacher, though. One
really must have two loves to
be truly successful: a love for music, and a love
for children. Teaching any subject is a tough job, and often teachers are not
appreciated for everything they do. But the rewards can also be great. The feeling of success when you
have taught a beginner class of violins to play Twinkle for the first time is
great! And boy, is it a “rush” to conduct a group of young high school
musicians, many of them from a tough, inner city life, as they play an
incredible performance of Rossini’s La Gaza Ladra. Teaching can also be family
friendly, depending on the individual job requirements. With some teaching
jobs, you never see your family. With others, you have a lot of flexibility.
The nice thing about teaching is that with a massive shortage of string teachers
in the U.S., you may have the luxury of choosing the right job for you.
Teaching privately and free-lance playing has become my great love. I have great flexibility, I get to play music quite often, I get to stay home with my children while still making a significant financial contribution to our family income, I can choose to increase my income practically at will by simply accepting more of the many teacher-less students in Indianapolis, and most of all, I truly enjoy teaching and playing. The downsides are: my income is very dependent on the size of my studio and on my students paying me dependably, the hours are not the most family-friendly, I have complicated self-employment tax forms and high self employment taxes, and because I am self employed, I have no employer benefits such as retirement, pension, or health insurance. Luckily, my husband’s employer provides health insurance for our family, and a retirement plan for him. But not everyone is so lucky. As a 18 year old college bound student, you may not be thinking about things like retirement or health insurance. When you are 28, believe me, you will!
Other areas of music careers may be: college level teaching in areas such as music theory, music education, music performance, music history, etc.; music recording/engineering; music technology; music and psychology; and music administration or management.
College programs often do not teach students how to manage a private music studio, or even how to teach privately at all. It is assumed that after having taken years of private lessons, one automatically knows how to teach them. This is not the case. College programs often concentrate on producing excellent artists—they do not teach these students how to get a job. For example, although the requirements of every major orchestra are to play excerpts from major orchestral works, many college music teachers do not require their students to learn these excerpts! Their main focus is to teach students how to play great works of art. But learning these works of art has very little to do with getting the student a job.
If you decide that you truly want to pursue a career in music, be sure to choose a college program where the professors are interested in helping you not only become a great musician, but learn how to support yourself as well.
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