Is it too late to study music professionaly?

[CallMeBlind]

Hey brothers bassplayers! Ok, first of all I'm tired of my full time job and waisting time in the office just for money. If I ask myself what I realy want to do in this life, the answer is to play music. So I started to think of entering some music uni/college, some place where I can study music professionaly. But the question is if it's not too late for me? I'm 24, almost 25 in fact. I was playing bass for some 9 years, playing different styles, bands, also cover bands, I've been doing wedding gigs, birthday gigs, playin in clubs, casinos e.t.c, making money that way for couple of years. Later I was tired of it, because this is not what I started to play bass for. So I switched for the office job. I'm wondering if someone has similar experience. Appreciate any advices. Thanks!

[BassChuck]

If your goal is to make a living by playing music, you don't have to go to a university... there's no guarantee with a degree. If you want to teach music in a school system you may need the degree (paperwork) to get that gig.

But if it playing... spend your time and money on private lessons and giging. If you spend half the time practicing that you would spend in a university class, you'll see how close you can get to your goals. The only thing a school will do for you is possibly connections, and for that you'll need to get into a big time school, like Berklee in Boston or a really large, major school.

[MAJOR METAL]

Its never too late, follow your dream !

[Deacon_Blues]

24 or 25 is not too late for studying music if that is what you want to and are determined to do. But I'll tell you "my story", just to add some other point of views worth thinking about.

I chose to keep music as my main interest, not my profession (I'm now 28). That was an easy choice to do when I was 18, since I pretty much sucked on guitar (that I played back then). It would be a tougher decision today ten years later.

The advantages with the profession and work I've chosen is that I never work in evenings or weekends except when traveling within the work, and I get an even and decent salary. I have an interesting job too. It's not a passion like music is to me, but I like it anyway. I'm not as good a musician today that I probably would have been if I had studied music, but instead I got a profession enabling me getting a well-paid and interesting job.

Having music as a hobby means I don't have to get gigs all the time to survive, and I can play gigs just for fun without having to get paid for them. But it also means I get much less gigs than the professional bassists I know, because they're more qualified than me and more well-known to other musicians. And they need the gigs to survive....


Life's a bunch of decisions and it's not easy to say how your life will be in ten years. If you think you won't get any better ordinary job than you have now, try something different like a music uni/college, and see if you like that better. But think a few times before making the choice to quit so you don't regret it afterwards.

Good luck with whatever decision you make!

[MakiSupaStar]

I just wanna... I just wanna DANCE!!!


j/k.

Go do what makes you happy.

[CallMeBlind]

Thanks for replies guys!
Main goal for me is to play music that I like. I would be really happy If I could play in some acid jazz band making just enough money for living (not talking about millions). There are two major issues that keep me apart from this.
My location, for instance there are only few good trumpet players or flute players and not so many good private teachers and so on. Level of music is pretty low, and few clubs to play (talking about music I like) and everyday on the radio, TV in public places you hear low quality pop music, what in my opinion is not very good for musician. If I'd go to some uni it would be in some other country, most likely UK. It would change a lot.
And a second issue is my job, I simply don't have enough time to practice as much as I want. And time goes by and nothing is happening, same office, same chair, same everything.
As some wise-man said, when you find a job that you enjoy you stop working. Music is that job for me I know that.