Members y1p33y0 Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Sorry if wall, or wrong location. Im new. I am at a crossroads in my life. I am 18, and have to go off to college. Problem is, I dont know what I want to do. I have been playing guitar for about 3 years or so now. All self-taught, so I dont know much about scales or music theory. However thats something I think I really want to learn, just to know and to improve my playing. The school im looking at there are only 2 degrees that interest me. Computer Science, and guitar/music theory (idk the proper title of degree yet). I believe they are both bachelors. The cs degree is cool, because I do like computers and have an interest in learning how to develope software, and/or 3d modeling. Problem with that, I am terrible at math. So I was really thinking about buying a classical guitar and starting myself down a long road. Because whatever I go for im gonna give it my best shot. I will want to know as much music theory as possible. Mostly though, I would like to start a music career if I am getting a degree. My influences are mostly thrash metal. Megadeth,Metallica,Slayer,Anthrax,Pantera,Annihilator,Testament,Municipal Waste, and Evile are my favorite thrash bands. But I still do listen to some underground hiphop, Bob Marley, Rush, Sublime, chill stuff. I understand that everyone has their own "style", but not everyone is a rockstar, right? I mean. If I get my degree in music, is there still a chance that I will go no where? I dont want to make millions. Hardly thousands. I just want to make a living. If I learn all this music stuff, and still cant get anywhere im gonna feel like a douchebag. And im not doing it "just" to make money. But I dont want to have to be sleeping in a random bathroom stall somewhere in a smelly city for the rest of my life. Topic questions-1. What is the job outlook for people with a degree in music?2. Is it worth trying to make a career of music? or hobby?3. What are various ways for musicians to make income? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff1979 Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Do Computer science, keep music as the hobby, your'll be thankful in 10 years time.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Surrealistic Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Three facts for your consideration: 1. I'd much rather be working in the field of music than IT 2. (I think) my aptitude for music is at least as good as it is for IT3. I work in IT That's not to say music is a hobby for me; it's much more than a hobby and I do make the ocassional penny or two but my IT work pays the bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Topic questions-1. What is the job outlook for people with a degree in music? Crappy. Even for teachers - schools are cutting back on music, arts, and eventually sports right now. 5 years from now the picture might be better for music education. Getting a gig as an actual full time musician is possible, if you've got mad talent and go to a great music school. And of course some people do get lucky. There are other ways to make a living with computers aside from Computer Science. It's a difficult stage of life and I sympathize. I like Steven Levy's advice: Find something to do that not a lot of other people want to do, but that is of value to society. Hard to do, though. Do some more research on all the different ways to make a living by being good with computers and technology and choose something interesting. 2. Is it worth trying to make a career of music? or hobby? No and yes. It's a fantastic hobby, as long as you don't take yourself too seriously. 3. What are various ways for musicians to make income? Give lessons, sell instruments, repair instruments, tune pianos, play in cover bands, play solo, write and sell music, write about music, do live sound, do recording for other people, teach other people how to use their computers to record music, and there are no doubt other ways I'm forgetting. You can make a living in the music biz doing all this stuff, if you are really good at hustling work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Surrealistic Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 . What are various ways for musicians to make income? Give lessons, sell instruments, repair instruments, tune pianos, play in cover bands, play solo, write and sell music, write about music, do live sound, do recording for other people, teach other people how to use their computers to record music, and there are no doubt other ways I'm forgetting. You can make a living in the music biz doing all this stuff, if you are really good at hustling work. Yep but it's still hard. A local guy I know is a fabulous guitarist - and I mean really fabulous (award winning etc - I won't go into details but trust me on this). He does session work for some pretty well known people, does the ocassional tour with those same people, plays in a number of local bands here AND has a side business building and selling boutique guitar amps. Does he survive on that? No - not without the additional income his wife makes going out to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dingoist Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Not to dismiss the "I suck at math", well CS is based in mathmatics, but you may not recognize it as such when you are up to your elbows. The rudiments of CS for programming has more in common with linguistics, linear algebra and matrices usually come to play when talking about 3D stuff and game programming. There is a lot of theory and practical stuff which won't seem at all like high school math. Know see this as a cross roads, can you take a minor in music along with a major in CS. After the first year you shouldn't be that many credits in the whole if you decide to swap the two and make music your major. At 18, there is time so don't put the pressure on yourself. Don't see this as a permanent decision, and don't stress. Heck, I was doing a double major B.A. at one point with English and Comp Sci, and the English side with a Shakespearean concentration In the end I dropped out, then transferred my creds to a different university after moving about and finished the Comp Sci, 13 years after I had started. I admit music in my life, isn't where I want it to be. Between kids and career, there is little time and I'm generally pretty exhausted. Though, I'm not sure I could afford house payments and kids if it wasn't for the stable full time income in the software industry when the household was down to a single income (mine). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 If you major in music, you' may as well get an ed degree too, because the fact is almost all music majors end up being music teachers in a school somewhere. If that's not what you had in mind, then get very good playing classical music, because that's the other place they find a career. It's good to learn theory, but you don't need a music degree to do that. A couple of semesters of theory will teach you a lot. But be warned, if you suck at math, that music theory pretty much IS math. If you don't have a math mind, it can be boring. It deals in polytones, time signatures, fractions, and basically learning to read and speak a foreign language with math as it's base. I dunno, you'll be a freshman, you'll be at college, and a whole world will open up to you that you never knew existed. That's why colleges don't ask you to declare major until junior year. You may go to school thinking about a music major or CS and end up coming out a marine biologist or a juvenile substance abuse counselor. At this point, I'd take the basic requirements and delve into some electives to see what they're about. You might discover that a career in music can be just as boring as a career in anything else. The one thing I always loved about music is that it was and is a fun release for me. It's fun because I choose to do it, not have to. But I gotta say, back when I played full time on the road, there were weeks I wanted to be doing something, anything, else. It's a whole different thing when it's your job. After I got off of three straight years playing 5-6 nights a week, I put my gear in the closet for a few years and concentrated on living a normal life. It took awhile before I even wanted to get out and play again. Maybe a full time music gig will work for you, maybe not. You just have to put your toe in the water and find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members formula428 Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 Get a good degree that way you can buy toys for your music interests. Engineering (bridge) was not my #1...probably not even my #7 or #8. But, the other "careers" ahead of it just don't pay, nor can they offer stability (important for many reasons including raising a family one day). And, every two weeks...I can sit back and say "what cool piece of gear can I buy with some of this pay?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 I've been bancrupt several times in my life, not a cent in my pocket, not a cent on my account, and sometimes hundreds of thousands $ in the minus, if you can live with that, then you are eventually made for a career in music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted March 30, 2011 Moderators Share Posted March 30, 2011 One more brick in the wall here...given the choice between the two, take the Computer Science degree. Worst case, it will give you something to fall back on when (not if, but when) you can't make enough money to survive playing music. Being a musician a does not require a degree. You can talke music classes as electives while you work on the CS stuff (this is basically what I did). Put a band together in college, or at least a duo (this is what I did, too), see if there are some 'simple' gigs you can get around the campus, like coffee house acoustic gigs (this, too, is what I did). Once you find out how much BS you need to put up with playing music, you will see the light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted March 30, 2011 Members Share Posted March 30, 2011 There's a lot of threads on here that talk about this. Dig em up and start reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Poker99 Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 You might discover that a career in music can be just as boring as a career in anything else. THIS is a great point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jerry_L Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 Most of us were at the same crossroads at some point. My father advised me that a music career was very risky, and to finish my college degree in something I could definitely make a living at, which was computers. He was right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Matximus Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 You sound like you're too sensibleto pursue a career in music. If these kinds of questions even occur to you, my sense is you probably aren't cut out for it. You have to pursue any kind of job that's any fun with a religious fervor - the people that to make it to the top or even middle of any creative fields had been doing it for years before it even occured to them that there may be any money in it. And hell, there's no money in classical guitaring - but the guys that will hold those jobs in five years have probably been more interested in mastering "Concierto de Aranjuez" than they have been in eating, sleeping, drinking or talking to girls... since they were 12. Takes two hours of practice a day for ten years to become an expert-level musician - as well as expert training. You could already be as much as five years behind the guys your age that will have the best shot at getting classical guitar work one day. The world - not to mention this country - really needs people with serious technical training on computers. It has almost no use for people highly skilled at plucking nylon strings attached to a piece of wood. And there is absolutely no use whatsoever for the ones that aren't highly skilled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 Made already more money with music when I was 16, then 30 year old people who worked in a bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DukeOfBoom Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 Made already more money with music when I was 16, then 30 year old people who worked in a bank. please give me more quotes. we need to make the definitive rudolk von hagenwil meme collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 please give me more quotes. we need to make the definitive rudolk von hagenwil meme collection. possibly a cultural genetic advantage, transmitting belief information. yes and for you still Dr. Prof. h.c. Rudolk von Hackenschnack !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DukeOfBoom Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 I can't work with that!!!!!!!!! MOAR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 I guess Lisa, the lady who writes Britney's song, would resign our friendship when I forward her this image, maybe the contrary... please give me more quotes. we need to make the definitive rudolk von hagenwil meme collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 I can't work with that!!!!!!!!!MOAR! When I was a young man, women had four tits, two in front and two on the back. Not very practical, but very nice for dancing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DukeOfBoom Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 I guess Lisa, the lady who writes Britney's song, would resign our friendship when I forward her this image, maybe the contrary... When it becomes framed and in the Louvre (or in liner notes of next Spears CD - more popular anyway), we will take 50/50 songwriter/producer credit for it. Quote: Rudolk. Concept: Duke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 You sound like you're too sensibleto pursue a career in music. He seems to own a high mimosic factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 When it becomes framed and in the Louvre (or in liner notes of next Spears CD - more popular anyway), we will take 50/50 songwriter/producer credit for it. Quote: Rudolk. Concept: Duke I am always impressed by people with a good sense for business. But unfortunately for my wallet and the shoe and bag collection of my latest wife, I have nothing to do with Britney's production. You may contact Lisa, she is the songwriter for Britney: http://www.myspace.com/lisagreenemusic ... but I kill you if you tell Lisa that I gave you her myspace adress !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DukeOfBoom Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 ... but I kill you if you tell Lisa that I gave you her myspace adress !!!! Does that mean I will get 100% of the royalties then? hmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 31, 2011 Members Share Posted March 31, 2011 Does that mean I will get 100% of the royalties then? hmmm I assume for getting 100% of the song royalties, you must marry Lisa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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