Music Colleges w/ Electric Bass Programs?

[CopiusX]

Hey everybody.

I'm a senior in highschool, and as a senior in highschool, now is the time when I'm starting to look at colleges.

I went to the 5 week program at Berklee this summer and fell in love with it. Berklee is most definitely my number one pick for schools, and I've been practicing my ass off in preparation for he audition.

However, I've never been a fan of putting all my eggs in one basket, so I'd like to know if there are any other good contemporary music schools which have programs for electric bass. I've done a little bit of googling, but all I can find is **** like Musicians Institute and McNally-Smith, neither of which have gotten very good reviews from graduates.

Any suggestions?

[Merchant]

Sorry to leech from your thread, but I could do with the same for Scotland/Britain

[pasta4lnch]

Berklee SUCKS!! Nah, did my time there. While I have a bad taste in my mouth about the school, there really is no other that even comes close to it. If for no other reason you are surrounded by dozens and dozens of musicians. FWIW that was worth far more to me than the education I got there. It has also helped my career infinitely more than the school itself has!!

My advice - go to Berklee, worry about your classes as little as you can and play/hang w/ as many people as you can!! Unfortunately you'll have to discover how to make a living on your own, DON'T wait until you graduate to do that!!

Good luck! (not too late to go to medical school)

[Snarf]

I looked at your influences. Don't go to Berklee. Simple as that. It has nothing to offer you in terms of networking with players who will ever be in a position to recommend you for a real gig.

Sorry to be really judgemental, but with influences like those, I will predict that you live in the dorms the first semester, get straight 1's or 2's, move out your second year to Allston (Boston neighborhood if you didn't already know) where dreams go to die a slow, lingering, agonizing death, play in a mid-range talent metal/rock band that will be together for 3 years never playing any gigs outside of All Asia and house parties in the basement. (side note: a band can have all the talent in the world, but will never go anywhere because establishing a fanbase in Boston is an impossibility.)

I've seen this scenario play out many times. It's a demonstration of the Berklee scam. I got a lot out of Berklee, but a lot of it was stuff that I should have known when I got there. I sucked when I got there. I was playing in some top ensembles by the time I was done. But at Berklee, you don't want to be the guy that's invisible (or worse, has a bad rep) for 2 years, then get really good. The competition is just too hard for that. You have to come out guns (chops) blazing. And I don't mean "I'm the best player in my high school" chops. I mean "I have the chops of Janek, Tony Grey, and any of the NBC show players, and have all the musical knowledge to back it up."

This is why I'm going to NY next year for a masters in jazz performance. I know I can hang with the best and play jazz, funk, rnb, pop, country, whatever. But if you're mostly into metal right now and haven't spent years shedding advanced harmonic and technical concepts, you're in some real self-loathing at Berklee.

(And if you have to practice your ass off for the audition, that's a big sign that you're not ready.)

[onlyclave]

True that what Snarf said. I'd also like to know what your level of reading is. If you can't read standard notation, either with your bass or not, then Berklee is a LOT of money to spend to find out that you have too much catching up to do.

I suggest finding your local community college and taking music classes there. Usually CC's don't care so much if you're an electric bass major(?) and you can take your courses in music theory, ear training, piano skills and private lessons and spend much less money deciding if that's what you want to do. Besides, Writing 121, 122, 123, Math 111, 112, 113 and all of that other stuff transfers to any other college.

[JimmyM]

I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on a music education that I've seen do absolutely nothing for the vast majority of people who do it. Playing music as a profession is a career path that's 99% based on luck and who you know, and as of this point, "What music school did you attend?" has not been a question asked at any audition I ever went to.

So if you do it, I would say do it for the love of music and accept that you are probably peeing your money away, because making a career out of it, even a crappy plodding-along career not making much money, is next to impossible. For every rich musician you see, there are 1000 others making a decent living at it. And for every musician making a decent living, there are 1000 others just barely making any money at all. At least at a regular college you can get a teaching degree and actually make some money with your education.

[pasta4lnch]

Just out of curiosity what did you want to major in at Berklee? Lotta school bashing here (including me) but remember the music biz is filled w/ all kinds. and this is THE worst time to go into it so there will be a lot of negative stuff floating around.

true your chances are one in a million you'll make a living. true it'll be a huge expense. but fwiw I'm 35. I can no longer make a decent living in the music industry. I just got married and will probably have kids soon. I will most likely go back to school and start all over. I will probably be stuck in a job I always dreaded my whole life, for the rest of my life. do I regret one minute that for the past 10 years I got to live my dream. ABSOLUTELY not! would I have changed my path . . . well I cant sustain my dream so I must have done something wrong along the way. try to learn from others - this biz is a really hard place to survive! and for the love of christmas learn to network (probably my worst downfall)

now go to medical school, make you money. retire early and gig till you die! (I actually met a retired doc at berklee who planned to do just that. soo inspiring!)

[rosstanium]

Belmont has a good program too.

[fr35h]

BUMP! Just cause I'm in the process of looking for some real/traditional universities as possible alternatives to Berklee, and it's overly hard to find the ones with electric bass programs.

[Bassman8416]

City College New York City....its affordable and has a great faculty including
John Pattitucci !!

[MalcolmAmos]

Coming from an old guy that spent his life making a living in the business World and is now comfortably retired. If you ever want/need to "fall back" and get a day job a four year degree is necessary to just get the interview for one of the "good jobs". With out that piece of paper it's retail sales, construction trades or the loading dock. Bubba jobs.

Anyone for State College? Which ever music school you decide on a masters degree in something should be your goal. Yep, these days it takes a masters.

[JoZac21]

Originally Posted by pasta4lnch

Berklee SUCKS!! Nah, did my time there. While I have a bad taste in my mouth about the school, there really is no other that even comes close to it. If for no other reason you are surrounded by dozens and dozens of musicians. FWIW that was worth far more to me than the education I got there. It has also helped my career infinitely more than the school itself has!!

My advice - go to Berklee, worry about your classes as little as you can and play/hang w/ as many people as you can!! Unfortunately you'll have to discover how to make a living on your own, DON'T wait until you graduate to do that!!

Good luck! (not too late to go to medical school)

+1000
Couldn't have said it better.

[Lexicon]

Originally Posted by fr35h

BUMP! Just cause I'm in the process of looking for some real/traditional universities as possible alternatives to Berklee, and it's overly hard to find the ones with electric bass programs.

I went to Loyola University New Orleans and there is a great music program there, although that was not what I was there for. I know a bunch of people who got a good overall education while still being involved with music. Being almost fifteen years removed from school, I'm not sure where a lot of them went with their music careers but I'll bet a lot of them are teaching music or double majored in something completely unrelated to fall back on.

One guy I graduated with has done really well for himself:

http://stantonmoore.com

[So Low Bass]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

Coming from an old guy that spent his life making a living in the business World and is now comfortably retired. If you ever want/need to "fall back" and get a day job a four year degree is necessary to just get the interview for one of the "good jobs". With out that piece of paper it's retail sales, construction trades or the loading dock. Bubba jobs.

Anyone for State College? Which ever music school you decide on a masters degree in something should be your goal. Yep, these days it takes a masters.

This is a serious, well put response.

Number one: drop "the boweles of hell" routine if you want to be taken seriously. Sure your 18, but there are plenty of serious... or at least know-when-to-be serious 18 yr olds studying music, art, math, etc. Perhaps you're not ready or able for serious music study.

Getting a degree, with certification, is an excellent idea for many people. A State school is a fine option for many people, including me and my oldest son (so far), but your flip self-label gives me no idea what state you live in.

Do you read music, do you take lessons, have you studied theory, can you play piano well enough to pass a keyboard class, are you healthy enough to live without medical insurence until you're perhaps 30. Are you in your school music program? If not, why not? If so, what do your music teachers advice. Do you have a high school counsilor???

You shoudn't even try to make a decision by youself, but I getting the idea that exactly what you're doing.

[Calebmundy]

Music school is great IF you can afford it. Belmont has a great program-which I have a degree from, although it's very laid back, so there isn't a lot of pressure to motivate you; you have to kick your own ass. There are lots of other good programs around as well. University of Miami is very famously great, but there are more and more schools offering electric bass programs.

If you want to be a pro bass player, no one cares what school you went to when you audition, they only care if you're a good player and a good hang. You can get great instruction all over the place, the "big name" schools are better places to meet people, which is really more important if you're putting the time into playing. Belmont does have the great advantage of being in Nashville, and it's relatively easy to start getting work while you're still in school.

There are a few big points I would like to emphazise about my experience:

1. Music school is a great place to find out if you really want to play for a living. Belmont had about 450 music undergrads when I was there, and a lot of them ended up realizing they didn't want to play music for a living, but they love to play. They got their music degree and got jobs in all kinds of places-one vocal major I know loves his job as an event coordinator. They all still play around for this and that, but they have a degree from a liberal arts school that can apply to a lot of different things (can't say the same for a conservatory type "music-only" school, but they have their advantages-no one likes thinking about the big college algebra test when they need to be practicing).

2. If you're 1000% sure you want to be a pro musician, music school can still be really really great, but make 1,000,000% sure you can afford it-I definitely couldn't and went anyway. Here is the most important thing I can ever say on this board, and something no one ever went over with me:

I got every kind of financial aid (except academic, which I would have received, but wasn't available for transfer students), and still had to borrow an insane amount of money personally to go to school-how much? My loan repayment after interest started at $98,000 two years ago. No freakin' joke, I owe enough on school debt to own a pretty great house. $98,000 in my case translates to $780 a month in student loan payments, the average guy with my skill set and experience level in Nashville who is "making it" full time in music seems to be pulling in an average of about $1500-$2000 a month, which after a $780 student loan payment wouldn't leave me with enough to pay rent and eat etc. The bottom line-my student loan debt is why I am typing this reply on a computer at my day job in an insurance office-there's some hard numbers.

If you or your parents can afford it, that whole paragraph doesn't really matter much to you.

3. Lots of other ways to get a "college" level music education.
A. Move to a major city, find a high-level working pro, and start taking lessons. Add to that a good piano teacher, and a theory teacher (if neither of those is good enough in the theory department), and go to town. You can also find qualified vocal coaches, classical and jazz composition teachers around who will give lessons outside of a college. You can read about that all over major historical figures biographies-I remember one story about Mingus taking comp lessons from someone who had him transcribing Stravinsky-that is serious **** right there. Bonus: If you become a high-level pro's high level student, you will almost always by default become that high level pro's sub when that high level pro can't take a gig (note to self: 2 points for being gender-neutral).
B. Go to school for a while and drop out. Personally the path I wish I had taken. If I had gone to Belmont for 2-3 years and bailed out, I would have had most of the knowlede, made all of the contacts who I have gotten jobs from, and owed $25-40k less, which would really help, plus I would have been working more sooner and paying on those loans sooner.

It's great to finish a degree, but when your goal is something as non-traditional as a music degree, you have to take evertything in context. It IS pretty easy to go back to school later.

That's about all I think I have for now-better get back to work.

[thepeopleperson]

To the guy that wants UK based music colleges...

The two best that I'm aware of are the Academy of Contemporary Music (Guilford, London)

&

Brighton Institute of Modern Music (at which I'm currently studying)

Obviously I'd recommend BIMM, but it depends what you wanna do. The ethos there is all about live performance and becoming a well rounded player, not just concentrating on any particular genre (but later on you can choose certain modules).