Degrees are useful tools, but they lack guarantees
by Paige M. Travis
Answers to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" are easy to come by when your fascination tends towards fire trucks, airplanes and Legos. But when you've got a dozen or more years of school behind you, and the adult world of jobs and careers looms large and immediate, that question—if not already answered—can prove difficult. Particularly if what you really want to do is bang on the drums all day, strum your guitar, write catchy pop songs, fiddle with your violin or write lengthy academic papers on obscure blues musicians from the '20s. Now you're in music major territory, where the learning opportunities are endless but the financial payoff is more elusive.
Do music majors suffer the same long-running joke made about English majors? (The punch line is usually about waiting tables.) And will getting your Bachelor of Music degree increase your chances of becoming a famous musician?
Getting a degree in music is the first stepping stone toward a wide array of career possibilities. Doug Brown has been a music major since day one at the University of Tennessee; most of his friends are music majors as well. From the way he talks about it, the heavy regimen of rehearsals, practice and study doesn't leave much time for extra-disciplinary friendships. This semester, Brown is student teaching at Dobbins Bennett High School in Kingsport. He'll be assisting the school's band director and possibly take over some music classes.
After graduation, Brown anticipates going to graduate school; he's applied at the University of Miami and the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, both known for their programs in the music industry. "Ultimately, I want to run my own record label," he says.
The education-to-career path was less clear for Ashley Waller. She started at UT as a microbiology major. "I wanted to do disease research to be a virus hunter, but then I worked a micro-lab for three weeks." Something went wrong, and her experiment fell through. She realized she's "not the kind of person who can sit behind a microscope all day." As she reevaluated her skills and attributes, she found another direction. Having spent numerous summers working with kids at a camp, and with 10 years playing the trumpet, Waller found the ingredients for a career in music education.
"My band director in high school was like my second dad," she says. To support teenagers at a difficult time of life and encourage their love of music makes Waller feel like she's accomplishing something important. "At the end of the day it makes me confident that I'm going to do something for someone someday."
In order for music ed majors to figure out whether they're cut out for the classroom, the School of Music puts its education majors in contact with kids early in the program, says Dr. David Royse, coordinator of music education. In several classes in the music curriculum, students get "field-based experiences" mostly in Knox County classrooms.
To be accepted into the School of Music, either as an incoming freshman or from another college, students must meet minimum GPA and ACT test requirements and pass a voice or instrument audition. Music ed majors, starting during their sophomore year, must go through an interview process to determine whether they really are suited to be teachers.
"We ask them about their goals and see how well they can express themselves. We ask them, 'Do you want to be a teacher?'" Royse says. People who don't really want to be teachers shouldn't be; it only hurts children's experiences of music classes and the reputation of the School of Music. In very rare instances, Royse says, record checks of students or interviews that reveal substance abuse problems will result in the removal of students from the music-ed program. Each state has a "barrier process" that screens for inappropriate teachers due to state accreditation of teachers.
So, nix the theory that those who can't make money making music teach it instead. Greg Horne, a local guitar teacher and performer who earned a bachelor's in music from Wooster College on Ohio, says people who teach just to make money won't last long. "Teaching is the easiest thing to do for people who actually like it," he says.
There are other non-teaching opportunities—for majors and non-majors. The School of Music is divided into three divisions: bachelor of music programs for music education or performance (in voice or instrument) and a bachelor of arts degree with a more liberal arts basis with an emphasis in music. Each program is heavy with history and theory classes, with class loads that challenge even the most dedicated students.
Royse says students can finish in four years but many end up pushing it to four-and-a-half (which isn't rare in many college programs these days). Majors take 16 to 18 course-hours each semester, which is comparable to pre-med majors. Plus, each hour of credit for skill-level classes (as compared to lecture classes) means at least twice, if not three times, that amount in actual time spent practicing or playing.
"It's a very intense degree," says Barbara Murphy, associate director for undergraduate studies in the School of Music. She works with students on the way in, the way out, and in between, earning undergraduate degrees. She counsels entering students who might not be sure which direction to head within the school.
"I usually ask them what kind of music they're interested in or what they think they might want to do," she says. Depending on their answers (or vague notions), she points them in a direction. Voice students with an interest in opera have a great opportunity to study at UT. But if a student doesn't like opera, she guides him to a teacher with another emphasis. Guitarists enter the studio music and jazz program; bassists, taught by local jazz scenester Rusty Holloway, get tutored in classical and jazz bass, his theory being that a flexible musician is an easily employed musician.
In an interview for About.com, professional drummer Russ Miller backed up this theory. "Eventually, certain gigs that you do and certain people and circles that you're in are going to dictate what you do well and specialize in. But if you're trying to make a living, get convincing in as many styles as possible," he says.
Murphy is realistic with students about their post-grad job opportunities. "If they want to be a tuba performance major, I have to say, 'Look, there aren't that many tuba performance jobs out there.'" She points out that a lot of students find ways to combine music majors or minors with other programs, like business, marketing or psychology, in order to combine their interests and increase their employability. Ben Altom, trumpet player in local ska band Perfect Orange, is concocting his own music industry degree with music theory, performance and business classes.
But music school isn't for everyone who loves music. Brown says he's seen his share of music majors leave the program or find other ways to work their love of music into their non-academic life. Murphy has seen the same, but she adds that by the time students get to UT, they have already been playing their instrument or singing for enough time that "it's something they can't get out of their system.
"Most of the kids are so driven they want to do this," she says. "It's their passion. They find out within the first semester whether it's for them or not. They find out really quickly."
Students can choose to minor in music, decreasing the number of required hours, but they can still play in the ensembles and take lessons.
UT's collection of performance groups allows students to find their niche and experiment with different styles. Plus, the bulk of musicians-in-training at the university increases the live music options for Knoxvillians. With between 150 and 175 recitals within the School of Music per year, plus guest artists and special performances, it's a rare night that the UT Music Hall or the newly remodeled Alumni Memorial Auditorium (which is getting rave reviews from performers and listeners) isn't filled with the sounds of live music that's free and open to the public.
One perk of being a part of the School of Music is the opportunity to perform within the vast variety of orchestras, bands and ensembles. The 350-member Pride of the Southland Marching Band, for instance, is made up of many non-majors. "A good portion of marching band is non-majors," Royse says. "We depend on them."
For performance majors dreaming of playing in orchestras, the job slots available are limited and highly competitive. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has had very few full-time openings in recent years, says Mark Tucker, head librarian and orchestra personnel manager. Auditions for the rare openings bring candidates from across the country, though the number of applicants vary on the instrument being auditioned. One opening for a principal flutist drew 30 candidates, because there are only three flutes per orchestra. Violin positions, however, are more available (there are 30 violins in an orchestra).
About six of the principals in KSO are UT professors; the rest of the orchestra contains five or six UT graduates. Most of KSO's players have masters degrees, Tucker says, although they aren't a requirement. "When you've got your undergraduate [degree], your career is really just starting," he says. "You're just learning how to audition, warm up, deal with your nerves." He emphasizes that auditioning regularly is part of learning to play, especially if a player plans to advance to bigger cities and more prestigious orchestras. Although it's difficult to move from a medium-sized city's orchestra such as KSO to Atlanta or Chicago, he says Knoxville is a good place to learn the basic orchestra repertoire.
Because orchestra seasons run roughly from September to May, classical players are in the position to supplement their income through teaching or performing with other groups in the summer months. Several summer festival orchestras give players off-season chances to play.
Of course, plenty of musicians don't go the music school route. They hone their skills on their own time, take private lessons or continue to develop their own style with bandmates and contemporaries. Their passion for playing can't be measured as less than their fellow musicians who choose the academic path. And in many professional circumstances, no number of degrees will guarantee a player a job.
Vance Thompson, trumpeter, UT instructor and director of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, says academic degrees aren't an issue in the KJO. While most of its players do have music degrees, their qualifications for the lauded large jazz ensemble are based on experience and skill; most have had careers blending teaching with performing. In the competitive world of pop music, talent can speak louder than a diploma.
An Internet search for "famous music majors" doesn't come up with many hits, perhaps because once you're famous, it doesn't matter where you went to school or got your degree. Prestigious music schools like Berkelee in Boston—which has graduated several notable popular musicians including Susan Tedeschi, Quincy Jones, Steve Vai, Bill Frisell, Melissa Etheridge, Paula Cole, Diana Krall, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks and John Mayer—are impressive on a musician's resume. But ultimately a music major's reputation is made by performance, be it in the classroom, on the stage or in the setting of the world at large.
January 15, 2003 * Vol. 14, No. 3
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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