Musical careers

Sound guy? Roady?

What would wrong with beign a studio player, or being in a band?

 

I'm a little confused ... If you want a career in which you play your instuments, won't you have to be relying on your playing ability for a living?

Is college in your future? If so, you can always study music (and pick up a lot about recording and engineering) there ... or not. I guess it's a personal thing that everyone needs to come to grips with.

Some advice by way of a personal narrative: Be careful about letting your love of music draw you into the music business. I have always loved music but never felt I had the skills/desire/wherewithal to be a pro musician. During my undergrad years, I dabbled in college radio a lot, which was a great experience that opened me up to all sorts of new music and ideas. My love of music also led me into music management after an internship and graduation. I had to give it up pretty quickly once it took me to Los Angeles, though. The business side of things there left a bad enough taste in my mouth that I felt I had no choice but to quit in order to save my love of music.

I would just keep on playing and see what happens. Sometimes these things take care of themselves and, as a junior in high school, you've got PLENTY of time (even though it probably doesn't seem like it to you right now)...

 

if you're college bound, and not into struggling w/ a performance/composition degree, look into music therapy. i believe florida state has a good program. www.fsu.edu

 

Hey Paint, i'm in a similar boat as you. The main things that i have been researching are Music Performance, Music Business/Enterprise, and Music Education. My sister is a Music Ed. major @ Butler University in Indianapolis. I have learned that teaching isn't my favorite thing in the world enough to pursue it as my main form of a job and am looking at Music Performance as a major. I talked to my dad about the degrees-i got really confused with them. He told me that just having a degree looks good to most employers depending on what they are looking for. The career end of things that i am looking at are: music store employee, trying to apprentice/learn under a DB luthier or a BG luthier, Instrument repair [hince why i'd want to learn from a pro], studio musician, studio teacher, and Music Department specialist. As for schools-check out your instate schools. The ones in Indiana that i am looking at are: Valpo, Butler, St.Joe's, and DePauw. That's all have fun and relax.

edit: saw that you are from Indiana. If you want any info about the schools i've researched feel free to ask.

 

Great suggestion. Also, if you're college bound, another intriguing music-related field is musicology or ethnomusicology. It's sort of a multidisciplinary field -- music, history, anthropology, etc. -- and can admittedly be very academic at times. However, the field recording work that's involved could be a career in and of itself and has the potential to lead to all sorts of adventure and travel...