Posted by Doug on September 03, 2003 at 22:13:02:
In Reply to: Becoming a professional posted by Curious Parent on September 03, 2003 at 18:04:33:
Parent,
How old is your kid? How dedicated? Does he/she have any other interests? As folks below have made clear, "professional tubist" can mean a lot of different things.
If it's your kid's one love in life, by all means encourage it, but if they're like I was (am) and have other interests that they'll realize are either a)more fun b)more social c)more profitable, maybe you should encourage those, along with tuba, knowing that it won't be the primary bread winner.
A lot of colleges offer music minors and heck even dual majors, and Science, Engineering, Business, and management degrees open up so many opportunities.
To go straight music, as "real answers" as put it (i think) requires exclusive commitment to be truly successful, at least to begin with.
I hope this has helped in some way,
Doug