I have a talented student on BG at a local college who is thinking of dropping out. He doesn't feel that his music courses are teaching what he wants to learn. I can't totally disagree.I had no formal training myself and have had a successful career as a professional player but I don't want to have him necessarily follow my example. We had a frank discussion of what assets he has as well as ones he needs IMO but doesn't have yet and if he would get them in school if he doesn't want to be there. So far we're talking full-time pro and not part timer. I'd appreciate opinions considering what music school can and can't offer to a student in this situation.
One of the biggest assets in going to bachelor's level university for music is the
other students.
From my undergrad experience, the most successful after college were the ones who were most involved & engaged with other students in the music school. They were just making college friends & music friends at the time. But what they were actually doing was building a strong network of (soon-to-be) music professionals.
These were not necessarily the
most skilled musicians/composers/producers/engineers in the music school. But most of being a music professional isn't your musical skills. Being the most skilled [fill-in-the-blank] is only a small part of making a living in music.
Even for me personally, i got my current job making in music technology in a weird network of people-connections i made starting at a friend in my Sound Design Masters program, who introduced me to someone, who introduced me to someone, who knew someone who was looking to hire/contract exactly what i was looking to do. Yes i learned a ton in my masters program, and yes i needed to have the tech & music skills & experience to seal the deal of getting that job. But, it was my network of people in the field that got me most of the way there. That network i built by making friends in the program, and helping them with their projects, and being genuinely interested in what creative things they were doing, and then continuing to occasionally message and see how they were doing and what they were working on after the program was over.
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There is also something to be said about learning what you need to learn, not just what you want to learn. Yes, learning what you want to learn is extremely important too. But if you only learn what you want to learn, there's a whole world of information that you didn't even know you needed to know. Any good music program should have educators with industry experience that can curate what information from the textbook is needed, good to know, not needed, and also what you need to know that's not in the textbook.
Also, most good music programs offer lessons as part of the course, but outside of the course curriculum. Lessons where you can direct your own education and have your instructor work with you to teach you the things you want to learn. My Masters is in Sound Design, but i was able to work with my advisor/head of program to make it very technology focused. I did this by taking classes that focused on that, as well as putting that focus into my assignments regardless of the assignment, while still doing the assignment requirements. But i had to take that initiative myself.
Also also, the student should have an advisor. The student should be able to tell their advisor what it is they want to get out of their music degree, and the advisor should be able to cater their class-load and lessons to help them achieve that. That's their whole job.
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- All that said, do you need to go to college/university for music to become a music professional? No.
- Is there value to going to college/university for music? Absolutely. But you also have to put in the effort to extract the value beyond textbooks and homework.
And in the end, maybe the school this student is attending isn't that great, and they could look into transferring to another school. If the school won't teach them what they want to learn, or what they need to learn, if their advisor isn't helping them achieve their goals, and if they're not building a network of friends-to-be-professional-network, it might be the wrong school for them. They can start contacting people in the music departments at other universities, explain their situation, and want to know if transferring is a good fit.
