Klarinet Archive - Posting 000745.txt from 1997/07

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Major decisions
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:04:59 -0400

On Wed, 23 Jul 1997, Sarah B. Horney wrote:

> I was just wondering
> if anyone had any suggestions.

Something to consider, depending on how focused and ambitious you
are as a person, is the double major: performance *and* education.
I was stunned to discover how many double majors there are at Meadows
School of the Arts of Southern Methodist University. Naturally,
many of the course requirements for the two majors overlap, with
the addition of extra coursework in pedagogy and instrumental
technique for the education component.

If you're not interested in running yourself into the ground by
getting two degrees at once, I would lean more strongly toward the
education degree. A stigma which often exists is that education
majors are somehow inferior performers by default, as if the only
reason to choose an education degree is because the person isn't
good enough to tackle the demands of a performance curriculum. This
is an absurd idea at best. The primary motivator for choosing an
education degree is for the greater promise of employment and financial
security. It hardly needs to be said that even the greatest performers
around do not always land successful or satisfying performance careers.
As we all know, a steady gig is the performing musician's ultimate brass
ring, and it's so mythical in its perception precisely because it is so
hard to attain. By contrast, there's nothing to obstruct an education
major from becoming a superb performer through the same methods of practice
and dedication as any other player, while also having the credentials to
teach at the primary school level (K-12) or beyond.

Your final decision will have to be a product of your personality
and your own sense of ambition and desire. There's nothing less
ambitious about aspiring to a career as a high school music director,
as opposed to trying to forge a career as a professional performer.
Performers create this aura of supernatural nobility to protect
their egos, because performance is such a judgemental field among
peers. Secretly, there is a tinge of jealousy in each struggling
performer, directed at the educator who leads a fulfilling and
financially stable life, knowing that the educator is supporting
themselves successfully in a musical career. That isn't to say
that education is for everybody, precisely as performance is not
for everybody either. If you grow dissatisfied with your education
degree and decide that you wish to go after a performance degree,
you have the same option that performance majors do after getting
your undergraduate degree. You can audition for graduate school
as a performance major, undergraduate education diploma proudly in
hand. If you play well enough, the opportunities which await all
other Master's performance majors will be yours as well when you
are accepted to the graduate performance program.

Best of luck,
Neil