 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: RachelB4
Date: 2012-11-13 14:37
Hi all, I'm a senior in HS who has studied clarinet for almost 9 years now. I'm a little behind in the college thing, but that's mainly because I'm pretty sure I'll be staying home and doing community college 1 year for financial reasons.
Anyways, because I'm sure all of us have seen the lack of solid job opportunities in the musical arena, I have been considering very strongly doing a double major (if I were to actually pursue the clarinet through college). And this would be after my gap-ish year at community college.
So, I was wondering if any of you have had experience with this... know anyone who has done a double major with a music major and a non-music major.. have you done it yourself? Do you think it's a good idea, or unrealistic? Are there good results?
This idea is very preliminary so I haven't really pin-pointed where I want to go yet. I'm just trying to gain some insights and opinions from people who have done this thanks
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Author: clarinet60
Date: 2012-11-13 16:53
Double majoring is a very, very good idea, especially with the challenges in earning a living playing music in today's hyper competitive world. It will provide you with an opportunity to find a major that will allow you to earn a living and pay back your loans when you graduate as well as continue to play music on the side. I did this myself and continue to play free lance as well as with a variety of ensembles, yet have a nice career that pays the bills (most of them anyway). There are also jobs in the music industry with software companies, retail, distribution, etc.. that would combine well with music and business, or music and computer engineering/design. Teaching in public schools or college is also a solid career for many musicians (although there have been many layoffs since the 2008 recession). I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-11-13 17:22
I know a highly intelligent woman who used her scholarship in music performance to fund a double major in music and chemistry. She now makes an excellent living. If you're not afraid of hard work in more than one discipline over the course of four of five years, this is a very smart way to go.
Good luck!
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: Ed
Date: 2012-11-13 19:17
I did a double major in music ed and performance. I strongly agree that having a marketable skill is essential.
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Author: Ron Scholer
Date: 2012-11-13 23:17
What type of a music major? If it's a Music Ed degree, go for a double major in something else you are really into. I have 2 friends that were good musicians, one went to New England, the other to Curtis, but he dropped out. They are both lawyers now.
If you were heading for a Music Performance degree the market is tight. Plan on getting at least a Masters or even better, a PhD, to allow you to teach in colleges.
Playing the horn for 9 years is fantastic. You surely don't want to throw that experience away. In college you can specialize in theory or something like Music History to help make yourself more available. Also speaking 2 or more languages is a huge help for the singing majors.
BA, MA, MSE, MST
Post Edited (2012-11-14 04:45)
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Author: bethmhil
Date: 2012-11-14 01:52
Yes, double majoring is a really great idea. Understand though, with some schools, this adds extra semester(s). For example, Illinois State University requires 4.5 years + a semester of student teaching for the instrumental (band) music education degree. Double majoring in music & chemistry education (for example) will for certain add an extra year (possibly more), putting the time to get the bachelor's degree at 6 years. Extra semesters = extra money.
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
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Author: gsurosey
Date: 2012-11-14 03:50
I wasn't officially a double major, but a major + most of a 2nd. My primary major was Accounting, which was 72-75 credits just for that (120 credits needed to graduate, plus there were certain liberals arts classes I had to take). I took most of the required music major classes (though never declared it). That took me 4.5 years, but that's because I had to take my last major requirement 3 times (senior spring, 5th year spring, then summer school elsewhere; International Finance is something I hope to never touch ever again!). After starting (and eventually dropping out of) an MBA program at a different school, I took another year of undergrad to finish up the music degree (just had the 2 history classes and a couple of electives left, so I mixed in a couple fun classes, too).
Do you have any ideas of what else you'd like to pursue in college? I think part of why I find Music Theory fun (yes, I did just admit that), it that I like numbers and math, and theory is just like math to me (rules and numerical relationships and stuff like that).
As for whether or not it's a good idea, it depends. Once you figure out what your course load will look like, find out what adding a music major would do to it. My music degree is a general BA, so it was relatively small (40-50 credits maybe, I'm not sure). Depending on what the co-occurring majors are, there may be classes that will satisfy requirements for both of them. There were a couple humanities classes I took during the summer, but that's something I decided I would do almost immediately (they were loaded with reading and papers and I didn't feel like dealing with it and taking 4 other classes plus working nights).
Potentially double majoring will be harder if you haven't decided on a primary major, but not impossible. If I double majored from the start and didn't have to repeat that class at all, there's a possibility I could've finished in 5 years depending on course offerings. I went to a small school, so a lot of music major elective requirements were offered only at certain times (such as fall semester, odd years). A lot of the time, extra time is added to ones college stay when majors are added/changed later on because of when classes fall and how pre-requisites line up.
I hope this makes sense and isn't too disjointed, but hey, it's midnight after all. Hope this helps.
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Rachel
Clarinet Stash:
Bb/A: Buffet R13
Eb: Bundy
Bass: Royal Global Max
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Author: gwie
Date: 2012-11-14 05:18
I didn't officially double major either, but never stopped playing clarinet after high school and did enough coursework to earn admittance to a MFA Music program after I completed my undergraduate Computer Science degree and spent a few years as a software developer (and wanted to pursue a career change).
It's so important to cultivate a couple of your strongest talents so that you can continue to have options as you grow and assess what direction you want to take in your life.
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Author: clarinet60
Date: 2012-11-14 16:24
There's also a very good free resource on music programs that has a wealth of information for choosing a music school, auditions, careers, etc...:
http://issuu.com/sboschoolbandorchestra/docs/cscg_2013
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2012-11-14 17:49
I double majored in music comp and computer science. Now also have a masters in music.
I'm finding that I want to do neither for a career.
But my special case aside, it does open a LOT of doors.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2012-11-16 16:38
Here is what may be the most recent data point for symphony musicians:
The Spokane Symphony Orchestra's board has attempted to unilaterally impose salary, benefit and following year wreckage upon their musicians. That following year thing? The symphony management would have contractual authority to unilaterally set the player's compensation in the second year of the contract.
The result will/would be that the musician's income would drop below those of a (rare) full time employee at WalMart.
Every Spoke Symph member that I know has more than one "day job" that enables them to both live and practice their art.
The Spoke Symph already plays far, far above their pay grade, and the non-profit orchestra finished last season in the black. There's no need for this move by the orchestra board.
I learned last week that the Las Vegas Symphony is formally a "part time" organization and pays about $10,000/year --definitely, a day-job band.
It makes sense to me to have a double major and a day job, and as a Spokane Symphony player (and day-job professor) says, "I don't know why people give student loans to music majors when the know that they will never get paid back."
I think that this example adds fuel to the fire:
Bob Phillips
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2012-11-17 13:25
The original post says: "I have been considering very strongly doing a double major (if I were to actually pursue the clarinet through college)."
I would think that if you don't live and breathe to play the clarinet, it should not be your field of study. Those are the people you will be competing with for music jobs.
At this point you have learned a skill that you will not forget. I had 8 years of lessons by the time I graduated high school, played for fun in college (while studying engineering, which was not fun), and then did not touch an instrument for 15 years. I moved, heard a community band at a July 4 picnic, and have now been playing for 30+ years.
At college you may be exposed to subjects that you have never heard of now. Major in something you like and which might provide a return on your investment. When you get the time, the clarinet will be there for you.
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