 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarinetlover5
Date: 2009-09-02 03:52
Hello, fellow clarinet bb boarders. I am a Junior in high school (wow not used to saying that, I feel old lol) and I am debating whether to go into the field of Music performance or Music education. I have been told that Music performance is a rather rigorous major and career, whereas Music Education has a lot more opportunities available. Apparently you have to be really really good to be a performance major. I have been in many honor bands and orchestras, and have been concert master of my band every year. I sometimes wonder if I have the chops to be a performance major, considering as I got rejected from all state this year with a 98 on my NYSSMA (new york solo competition/scoring system) solo. I try to practice at least an hour each day and my ultimate goal is to be accepted into all eastern honor band by senior year. I would appreciate some advise as to which field is a wiser choice. In addition, some schools I am considering are Crane School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Ithaca School of Music.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2009-09-02 04:55
You don't have to be really really good to be a performance major. You do have to be really really good and an order of magnitude luckier to perform as a career. I wouldn't say it's a "rigorous career" as much as it is a "rigorous life during which you hold out hope that it may some day become a career."
Only go into music education if you think you want to be a music teacher.
Any sort of music is a rigorous major, one that would make someone from just about any department other that the hard sciences weep.
I would consider one's all-state status to be a fairly poor indicator of musician potential. I've known good musicians who were in all-state multiple years, and good musicians who had never heard of all-state. I've also known bad musicians in both categories. Some good musicians start out as casual players, and come into their own later, sometimes part way through college. Others start out spectacular, then never make progress beyond a certain point.
My advice would be to keep your options open. WAY open. Go to a school with good departments not only in music but in other fields where you may currently have a passing interest.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: bcl1dso
Date: 2009-09-02 07:13
Definitely only pursue being a Music Education Major if you could see yourself being a music teacher. (as stated above) However, if you are serious about being a performance major, and a successful one, you should definitely consider practicing much more than an hour a day.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-09-02 09:41
The way I have seen things go is that an under grad performance degree is almost meaningless. If you want to be a performer, you will have to go to graduate school (at least) to get even close to good enough to have any chance. Thus, you should aim to get your Masters in Performance. I know of many people that did their masters in performance and did their undergrad in other things- many totally unrelated to music.
Sorry for the slight negativity- You might not be thinking that you want to be a teacher now, but suppose you find yourself one day unable to pay your rent as a performer, what will you do? You could try to get a job doing anything anyplace or you could have a job in music as a teacher.
Just my life advice...
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2009-09-02 14:18
Only consider a career in music (anything) if music won't let you quit. I tried to quit playing after my master's in performance and succeeded for only 3 years. I could not quit. I make very little money in the grand scheme of things and I do not have a professional orchestra job (nor do I want one). Only pursue it if it "calls" you.
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Author: OldClarinetGuy
Date: 2009-09-02 20:43
I think the advice to go into music education only if you want to be a teacher is sound.
A little story...
My son was a performance major and ended up in law school. However, when we were visiting one of the universities for his audition, a parent in one of the Q&A sessions asked the associate dean of the music school "how many performance majors get a job in their field after the graduate...the answer was that they did not keep track... and "how many music education majors get a job in their field after they graduate"..the answer was 95%.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-09-03 03:19
I thought I answered this before, or at least one with the same title. Because it is so difficult to get a good playing job in the USA my advise is to get your eduction degree and practice as much as possible during your college years. You can still take auditions with an ed. degree, they don't really care what degree you have, only how well you play. If you're good enough and motivated enough you can go for a master in performance to become more competitive and still have your ed. degree to fall back on. Music Performance is a very competitive field, one of the most of any profession, if not the most in the USA. I have some interesting articles on symphony jobs in the USA and auditions in my website if your interested in reading them. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: ClarinetPlayer_18
Date: 2009-09-03 04:09
What field is the wiser choice? Depends on what you mean by wiser and what your goals are
If you mean to have a chance at getting a job then definitely music education. As noted above many people who go for that make it. However, unless this is something you really want to do, I would discourage you from going after it because educators should love what they do and should want to shape the students they teach, not be working for the sake of having some job security.
On the other hand, you might not put much value on job security and decide you want to go for what you want, whatever it happens to be. If that is music performance I would encourage you to go for it. You always have the rest of your life to try other things so why not start with that if it's what you want?
The one bit of advice I would offer if you want to be a music performance major (with a career after) would be to practice more. Three hours seems like a good minimum. To help achieve that, setting a schedule helps greatly. For instance, try to wake up at a certain set time and then eat breakfast and then devote the next set amount of time to practicing. It also helps to love your instrument.
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