Help with school

[etechstan]

I am doing a university statistics class research report and would like to do it on trained vs self taught musicians and which actually work in the industry more. Does anyone know where I can find any numbers?

[Crazyeelboy]

You will need to establish some objective criteria to determine what is "self taught" vis a vis "trained". You will find that a lot of players are a bit of both - there are some with no training, but even those with training are to some degree self taught.

[VroomVroom]

This will be a tough one - all the best with the project. Just a guess, but assuming that, by "work in the industry," you mean, "get paid for performing music," my guess is that the sheer numbers of those working in orchestras (chamber, pit, ballet, musical theatre, etc.) and in the recording industry (labels, soundtracks, jingles, etc.) will skew the numbers toward 'trained.'

Finding numbers will likely not be easy, but you may want to start with academic data warehouses. The University of Michigan is a great resource, for example:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu

Good luck!

[gottawalk]

Besides looking up numbers, set up your own criteria here and have at it! You've got a load of bass players here that are a wonderful resource to draw from.

Me, for example;
No formal training on bass; self-taught playing with records, etc.
Formal training in music, though; piano, sax, bassoon, studied music
at U of Idaho. The bass, though, I learned to read notes for on my own after picking it up by ear after piano training in my younger years.

I am now in three different groups in my area; playing occasionally, but not professionally. To my credit, the three different groups are also three different genres of music and I excel in all three. Jazz, blues, and rock.

Work out your own survey here and see what you come up with.

Good luck!