Posted by Jay Bertolet on December 31, 2002 at 09:17:23:
In Reply to: Re: Tis the Season to Audition posted by Eric Fritz on December 31, 2002 at 05:00:47:
Great post!!!!!!!!
I couldn't agree more, getting an education degree to assure employability is like getting a degree in anything you aren't really interested in, just in case you can't get a job doing what you really love. What kind of personal fulfillment is that?
The example I always fall back on is my own personal experiences at the University of Michigan. I'm a Michigan native, so I knew a large number of the music education majors that were in school at the same time I was. Many of them were perennial all-state players who I saw all the time at those types of events. All of them went in being really solid players. Some of them decided to take a music education degree because they felt it was their calling. Many of them took the education degree specifically as a fall back position. They had no real desire to teach, only to avoid unemployment should a performance career not work out for them. Without exception, every single one of those people became music education graduates and went on to teaching careers. Not one of them (to my knowledge) ended up in a performing career. Not one.
What folks sometimes fail to realize is that an education degree is not a simple thing. Nor is it necessarily the same skills and focus as a typical performance degree. My roommate in college, a really fine euphonium player, decided to take an education degree because he had no desire to be in the military as a player. He really felt being a teacher was his calling. This guy was always at or near the top of the euphonium section while I was at school. In his third year of college, the degree curriculum called for him to take the third year of Music Education, the main course of that degree and taught by the famous music education pioneer James Froseth(sp?). My roommate couldn't pass the final exam for that class. He tried three times and still couldn't get it. Part of his problem was that he still loved playing and was spending too much time playing and not enough time working on the skills necessary to pass the exam. Even when he ditched his horn nearly completely, he still was unable to pass that exam. To this day he still hasn't graduated and he's currently running a pizza parlor.
This is a familiar story to me. Many of my friends who were music education majors had similar experiences during that time. They either washed out of the education program because they weren't really committed to it, or they abandoned their horn completely (at least for a while) to get through the course work. None of them (to my knowledge) ever came back to the level of playing they had prior to going into the education program, let alone improved to a point where they could realistically compete for a performance job.
Now, before anyone starts citing a bunch of examples of professional players who were able to get performance jobs after taking an education degree, please save your typing strokes. I know it is possible. All I'm talking about is my own personal experiences and what I know is that it never happened to anyone I know. The real issue is knowing what you want to do with your life. So few of my students ever spend much time thinking about this. I know because when I ask them at lessons (and I do ask) what they want to do with their lives, they invariably shrug their shoulders. Playing at a level to compete for a playing job takes such a level of commitment that a shrug just won't cut it. It has to be a part of you. It has to hurt when you think about not doing it. The very last thing someone who wants to be a performer needs is the added distraction of having a bunch of music education courses to work on that distract you from the horn. To be successful as a player, you need to have FOCUS.
That's why I always advise my students to either go whole-hog and do a performance degree, or to make a conscious decision that some other career is the primary choice. I never discourage students from keeping options open but I do let them know the reality of the situation. My thinking is that being successful at any profession requires a very high level of dedication and work. If folks can still get music education jobs without that level of commitment, I think it is a sad testiment to the state of music education. For me, the best of all worlds is being really good at something, something that you really love doing, something that gives you personal fulfillment, that also pays you a living wage. From that point, everything else is gravy.
Just like Eric said, I encourage everybody to follow their dreams. Give yourself every chance to achieve your dreams. You'll never know until you try.
My opinion for what it's worth...