<p>Plan D:</p>
<p>I just recently happend on to the fact that a state college in my hometown has a commercial music program. It’s probably not the fanciest or most well known of programs, but so what. Last summer I attended a battle of the bands type event, this group of kids from our local college performed (pop/rock) and I thought that they were awsome. Not just “good”, but truely professional quality, they flat out blew away all of the garage bands, hands down, no questions. </p>
<p>At the time I had no idea, but this group was essentially the “commercial music” studio of the college. It’s possible that if nothing else works out, one could start exploring the local non-music colleges and find a quality commercial music program. I had no idea that they offered any type of music degree at this college. The ironic part is that I GRADUATED from this college (nearly 25 years ago).</p>
<p>I looked up the curriculum for the local program, since it is at a branch campus of the same state university he attends, it’s easy to make a direct comparison. It is a BA degree, not quite as indebth as the BM program that my son is in (just 12 credit hours of theory and aural skills instead of 16 credit hours), but the focus is definately more on commercial music, with classes like “the history of rock music”, “jazz history”, “jazz improv”, “songwriting”, “music technology” and “music business classes”, and an “intermship in commercial music”.</p>
<p>The students at that college may have found more than just an education, they may have actually formed a viable professional music group - who knows? All of the members of “Hootie and the Blowfish” were classically trained music students from my son’s college, they just got together, discovered that they worked well as a team, and went on to become rich and famous. Same with “Midnite Star” 20 years earlier (although it was a different college that they went to).</p>
<p>It’s just a thought.</p>