Comments on: Music School Enrollment Spikes as Economy Tanks

By: cornerstone university grand rapids

cornerstone university grand rapids — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:46:43 +0000

I guess any means of educating oneself and expanding ones self expression is a welcome note.Music expands critical thinking and has hundreds of additional benefits as well.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:02:40 +0000

Thank you so much for your perspective on this, Elaine! It’s great to hear your thoughts on conservatories, especially since you had that sort of education at Juilliard.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:16:23 +0000

Thanks, Dave! Good to hear from you, and good to hear that you’re teaching bass. Thanks for recommending my Road Warrior series.

By: Elaine Fine

Elaine Fine — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:41:13 +0000

Studying music is a great thing. Majoring in it at a university means that you tend to spend your valuable (and expensive) credit hours in rehearsals which are sometimes led by professors who have their best interests in mind rather than your best interests in mind.

Majoring in any field of study in the humanities is just about as useful in the “real” world as majoring in music, but majoring in music tends to take away time from even finding something out about “everything else” and becoming accomplished at something besides music. The musicians who I have found to be the most well-rounded are the people who study other things and take private lessons from teachers they choose on their own. The cost for private lessons is not as much as the cost that you might have to pay for a whole ‘nother year (or even another semester) of tuition just to get enough credit hours to graduate.

Conservatory students don’t have to worry about this.

The only reasons I would give to go to a conservatory are:

1. You absolutely MUST study with a specific person who doesn’t teach outside of his or her job with the institution, and you have no other skills or interests in life besides music.

2. You already have excellent communication and math skills (and exceptionally high grades from high school), and have the money to go to graduate school in something else after you graduate from your conservatory.

3. You are completely and blindly single-minded about having a solo career, and have the financial resources to pay for everything you need to get it–after graduating.

The best advice I got about Juilliard, where I spent four years wishing that I could get an education, was that a degree from Juilliard and 75 cents can get you on the subway. During the intervening years they have raised the subway fair, as well as the cost of the degree.

By: Dippity

Dippity — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:42:14 +0000

Great article, Jason. I have recommended your “Road Warrior…” series to a few parents who, bizarrely, seem to be encouraging their children to pursue music degrees. One of the contributing factors here, I think, is that for a certain subset of parents out there, having a child who pursues a career in the arts is a status symbol. Musically talented children, especially, are often propped up as reflections of successful parenting. Children who are great at, say, chemistry, are not as easy to show off to one’s peers. (“Look! See how he makes the volcano with baking soda and vinegar!”) I call this Family von Trapp Syndrome. Sending your child off to pursue his/her career in music suggests that A) you’ve been an awesome parent, and B) you can afford to fund the venture. In my case, A may have been true–jury’s still out I suppose–but B empirically wasn’t.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:12:10 +0000

Ha! I like that.

By: G Sarchet

G Sarchet — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:59:30 +0000

No Note Left Behind

By: Blair Tinall

Blair Tinall — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:50:21 +0000

Hey Jason, very interesting article. One of my speaking presentations is called “It’s a Jungle Out There: Your Creative Life in the Real World,” which is about developing communication and tech skills in order to be an entrepreneurial musician. I think high tech has completely changed the landscape of the performing arts since I wrote my book — you no longer have to rely on anyone else. (Although it does seem the byline might have picked up a couple of books I can think of for reference!) Still, for someone who plays oboe, horn, or bassoon, I think the possibilities are lots more limited than for an instrumentalist who plays something more versatile — strings, keyboards, trumpet, trombone. But maybe I’m not thinking broadly enough…

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:48:36 +0000

Music School enrollments are up at my institution, as well. I think the rise in music school enrollments in the face of dire economic uncertainties has less to do with music school training and more to do with the lack of guarantees with other types of training. Very few degree programs can guarantee employment after graduation, and those that do often have high turnover. In the end, being demonstrably good at the skill required for the field you want to work in gets you the gig no matter what you major in. That applies if you are a computer science major or a theremin major. Many incoming students state that if there are no guarantees with any degree in hand, and if competency and not degrees gets you the gig, then why not study music and enjoy the four-year hiatus from to life to develop self? And just so you know, “Road Warrior Without and Expense Account” is required reading for anyone that wants to major in bass performance at my University.