 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Sarah
Date: 1999-01-23 17:30
Hi, I have done some soul seaching in the past few weeks and have realized that I am not in the right major. I am majoring in bio/pre med. I have realized that it is not something I really want to do. Instead, I would like to persue a career in music! I would like to conduct (not high school level) I will go into this knowing I will need more than a bacholer's degree in music. What do you all think? Have any of you battled, or are battling, the same problem? thanks
Sarah
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Brandon
Date: 1999-01-23 17:57
I have battled this problem myself. I am however, on the other side of the boat. I am considering a change from music to sports management. The reason is simple. I hate marching band. If I can get out of it, good. If not, I'll change. I do enjoy the real music classes such as theory and music literature. I would also like to conduct, but if marching band is in the job description, forget it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Stephanie aka Benny
Date: 1999-01-23 22:10
I have often thought if going into the Clarinet Performance degree field is right decision for me. Am i talented enough to compete with all of those wonderfully talented clarinetists out there? Can i really make and devote myself to that kind of study? I am only a Jr. in high school and i have decided that this is the right choice for me...best of luck to you. I know that in your heart you will make the right decision. Good Luck in anything you do.
~Keep Swinging~
Benny 
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-01-23 22:32
Brandon wrote:
-------------------------------
I hate marching band. If I can get out of it, good. If not, I'll change. I do enjoy the real music classes such as theory and music literature. I would also like to conduct, but if marching band is in the job description, forget it.
---------
Brandon,
there's very few opportunities to make a career out of marching band anyway!
Work on the real repertoire, and make a decision later.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-01-24 01:11
None of you will enjoy my post. I did major in music, did make a living at it for a span of time (not on clarinet, this is my new fad.)
I leave you with these thoughts: If people do something for free, for fun, how many will make a living? "many are called, few are choosen." Like pro sports, you can love to play, but few make it to the big time.
The pro life means travel, which is an adventure for a while. But, in fact you may travel to far off Fresno... or some other motel 6 ridden burg. When you fall in love and perhaps have a family, your mom and dad maybe willing to step in and care for the family, while you will leave you spouse and kids for long periods. You don't see your kids. You work when school is out...Unless you have a BIG following, recordings, a university post, a steady orchestra gig and can call the shots, you will miss life. Don't quit you day job.
Ginny
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sarah
Date: 1999-01-24 01:27
Ginny,
Did you play professionally for a time? Did you major in ______ performance? I know that it can be tough, considering that players in some of the top orchestras have been there for decades. What are you doing now? I am thinking of majoring in music education so I can conduct. I bet that is very hard too. Thanks for your imput!
Sarah
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-01-24 03:07
Ginny wrote:
-------------------------------
The pro life means travel, which is an adventure for a while. But, in fact you may travel to far off Fresno... or some other motel 6 ridden burg. When you fall in love and perhaps have a family, your mom and dad maybe willing to step in and care for the family, while you will leave you spouse and kids for long periods. You don't see your kids.
----------------
Sounds exactly like the day job I had with a major computer services company. Travelled about 20 days a month, commuted from Seattle to Detroit for 7 months (2 weeks Detroit, 3 days Seattle - and my family & a newborn at the time were in Seattle).
Every job has the good & bad points. Don't let that put you off - you never know where you'll end up & what you'll be doing in the future.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Justice
Date: 1999-01-25 15:19
You must ask yourself one simple question: Do you want to be happy, or rich?
Justice
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: steve
Date: 1999-01-25 19:54
this decision has colored my whole life....I truly wanted to make a living as a musician,,,hs band director, freelancer, college teacher, marcellus' replacement...anything....I was strongly discouraged by everyone except my clarinet instructors. I ended up listening to parents, authority figures, well meaning friends...everyone except myself. I went to Northwestern, and still kept up playing in Jerry Stowell's studio. I finally couldn't take the fear any more, stopped listening to myself, and ended up getting a PhD in chemistry. I've hated every minute of it , hated myself for not even giving music a shot, and finally had to stop playing because of neurological problems. Sometimes I'm sorry I learned to play the clarinet. I'm angry and bitter, but I have a good job money-wise and a wonderful wife.
You have to listen to yourself. Becoming successful in any profession is hard and risky, and gets harder and riskier as more and more and more and more people compete for fewer spots. Concepts such as rich, happy, safe, not safe are a load of crap. The real questions you should be asking yourself are: who am I...who do I love....what do I love....why...I have no answers, and no one else does. only you.
steve
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-01-25 23:59
Sarah wrote:
-------------------------------
Ginny,
Did you play professionally for a time? Did you major in ______ performance?
----------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I made a living playing and teaching. The first music degree I took was not specified, my masters was performance w/pedagogy for a paper. Classical guitar.
I know that it can be tough, considering that players in some of the top orchestras have been there for decades.
---------------------------------------------------------
There are many many more talented than I am. My friend who got a teaching post is more pleased with his choice than I am with mine. We're talking about the very best player in the program. Other people (musicians, I've played with or went to school with) I know continue to make a marginal living in music, usually living in shared housing, with their parents...with their spouses making the real living if they married. Some friends went into another field for their masters (MBA, econ) Music education no doubt has better possibilties in terms of employment.
What are you doing now?
I am working for an actuary part time, being an excellent mom, playing the clarinet for pure pleasure, without having to worry about recitals, mistakes and stuff like that. I'm working on a math degree, too.
I am thinking of majoring in music education so I can conduct. I bet that is very hard too.
-------------------------------------------------------
I think this is a better bet. Unless you are absolutely top of the heap, like my classmate who went on to take second in a big international competition and teach at the SF Conservatory. He's such a nice guy, he used to practice 4 to 6 hours a day. I'm glad he did it, but even with his wife working he can only afford a house in a real bad neighborhood. He's brillant too.
I actually agree with the other posters, in that you need to follow your heart, but your heart seems to ask some pretty good questions. Living on the edge, economically is fine when your quite young, but after you have a family (if this is something you might do, it happens to the best of us) it just doesn't make it.
Ginny
Ginny
Sarah
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alec Thigpen
Date: 1999-01-30 04:06
I was a music major at a local university many years ago, and sat next to the best clarinet player I had heard up to that time. I felt he was better then than I would ever be, (youth perspective) and asked why he wasn't pursuing a career in music. He was a senior in the engineering dept, and his reply was "A good engineer can make a great living but an excellent musician will likely only scrape by. I can always play music". I changed my goals within a couple of months. I am now a Professional Photographer which is most rewarding, as well as an artistic outlet, and I play in two area community bands, and serve on the board of the student symphony here. This is not the answer for others, but it works for me.
I am still eternally grateful for all the dedicated educators who inspired me and tempted me to at least give it a try. Without them I would have been deprived of the rewards of music performance.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-01-30 04:34
Don't measure your friend with the SF conservatory's having to live in a terrible neighborhood put a bad slant on the whole music thing. San Francisco Bay Area is a VERY expensive place to live for anyone. You see studio apartments going for over $1200 per month. You want to have a bigger place, it can get very ugly watching your money get sucked into somebody else's retirement fund by paying for the profits on their mortgage. I'm an masters degreed engineer with a semiconductor company in the top ten worldwide in sales. I make far more than most musicians, and more than all but the most prestigeous symphony players. I am still many many many years away from buying a house out here. To get into a good neighborhood you have to pay damn near half a million dollars for a tiny three bedroom house with no yard. You can easily pay far more than that for what you would pay 85,000 for in a place like Kansas City or Milwaukee. It really isn't a fair assessment to tell people that a guy teaching at the SF conservatory can't afford to live. Nobody can afford to live in San Francisco. It's his own choice that he is living out here. If the guy was teaching at Tennessee-Knoxville, he'd probably own a house. That's why I hate it out here and I want to move anyplace else.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-01-30 22:26
Rick2 wrote:
-------------------------------
Don't measure your friend with the SF conservatory's having to live in a terrible neighborhood put a bad slant on the whole music thing. San Francisco Bay Area is a VERY expensive place to live for anyone.
Actually, I don't wish to speak for my friend, but I did talk with him at length about this. He was not too happy with the money aspect of his life. He knows that if he was at the top of his field in another field he would be well to do. His wife went to school with us also, and now has the family's day job to make ends meet.
BTW I live in Silicon Valley, near you relatively speaking. I wish I could go back home to were the air was clean, the drivers weren't nuts and the housing was affordable. But I can't, you see I'm from Santa Clara Valley...and it's been remodeled by greed, it's gone.
Ginny
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
