Help - To Major In Music... Or Not

dragonfly26
Sun, 28 Jun 2015 02:14:25 +0000

A music school admissions counselor once told me that if you even question whether you should be a music major, you probably shouldn’t be. The field is very competitive, and the people in it are extremely passionate, so passionate that they see no other option than to do music. Many of them have been playing for ridiculous amounts of time. It’s one of the only field in which you are competing with people who have been learning the subject all their lives.

Your college will require you to audition for the program if you’re persuing a BM. (A BA is almost useless in my opinion.) This might be a stressful process. I have also been playing piano for ten years (and I’m a rising senior!), and I started to learn audition music before getting insanely stressed deciding the field just wasn’t for me. Piano performance is a very competitive major, so you’ll have to play some high level music. (Typically one Prelude & Fugue, a couple movements from a Beethoven sonata, and a romantic/contemporary piece.) Definitely something to keep in mind.

Double majoring in anything with a BM is impossible to do in four years. Every college has told me this. Music majors just have so many classes, including a lot of zero credit classes. (Yep, you read that right.)

If money is a concern for you I would generally steer clear of music performance majors unless you absolutely can’t see yourself doing anything else. Professional musicians typically don’t mind low wages because they are so passionate about what they do. If this doesn’t sound like you, I would seriously consider trying another career. Especially since your grades are so high that it sounds like you can do almost anything you set your mind to.

If, though, throughout all I just said, you still feel like “But I REALLY like music…”, music might actually be for you. It’s not a bad idea to at least start preparing audition pieces. You can always stop if you find another field you like, but it’s hard to make up for lost time if you decide you want to go into music later.

In the end, I think you should go with your gut. Facts are nice, but you know best if you will be happy in a field for the rest of your life or not.

Best of luck! We’re all in this together:)

PS - I think maybe pursuing music ed, music pedagogy, or music therapy might get you a more reliable income, if those are fields you are interested in. Nothing extravagant, but they should lead you into a job right out of college if you do well.