Is a Music Degree worth having. What jobs could it lead too?

[Kola]

To start with has anyone here got a degree in music?
If so would you do it again if you had your time again?

What jobs could a BA (Hons) in Music lead you too?

[Syncratic]

Take cover!

[Mowens800]

Take cover!

he did say music, not music tech. But I'm bracing myself all the same.

[Kola]

??????????????

[Kola]

Either by the way. Music or music tech.

Music tech from the prospectus

Career Opportunities

the development of a wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding suitable for a range of careers such as recording studio engineer, live sound engineer, theatre technician, sound designer, stage management, studio management, music producer, audio system designer, acoustic engineer, sound installation designer, radio sound technician, TV sound technician and mastering engineer.

[Aural Reject]

??????????????

Search

[Kola]

Cant someone just give me a straight answer?

[D Watkins]

This is a very well covered topic, and I mean VERY well covered, just do a search for degree or job prospects and you will see why you'r getting these reactions.

Hope the former threads help.

Dan

[Kola]

Looked under degree, job prospects and even music degree and cant find anything but this thread??

[D Watkins]

Read this to start, just the first one I could find.

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showf ... art=1&vc=1

In direct answer to your original question though the answer is probably not. And the jobs it could lead to are few and far between.

Dan

[hifistud2]

To start with has anyone here got a degree in music?

A subsid, but not my main degree.

If so would you do it again if you had your time again?

No. Not knowing what I know now.

What jobs could a BA (Hons) in Music lead you too?

Probably one that includes the phrase "would you like to supersize that?" Or doing something in a grant-funded music-esque organisation where the bits of paper are valued. But not creating or performing the music - more likely arranging for folks to experience, ooh, I dunno, Apalachian nose flute based plainsong - that kind of thing...

[cfb4]

To start with has anyone here got a degree in music?
If so would you do it again if you had your time again?

What jobs could a BA (Hons) in Music lead you too?

Yes - I have a degree in music
Yes - I would do it again.

Where can it go? Well, my classmate LD became a successful investment banker in NYC. He now buys $40,000 instruments. He plays all the time.

It took me to a lectureship in music technology via an electronics tech business, a career in live sound, a stint with a moog-rock band, a music publishing job, and a junior AV technician post. I play all the time.

The post is a bit general - if you're interested in performing and/or teaching an instrument (and ready for the auditions) then apply for a conservatory or performance-oriented college/uni. If you are more interested in musicology, or composition, say - then apply for universities with a reputation for supporting such activities. Visit as many departments as possible (call advance - you can ask to sit in on lectures ) - that initial feeling you get when you walk into a place will guide you along the right path. Talk to the music students. Read "I Found My Horn" by Jasper Rees

[moo the magic cow]

What kind of jobs? Use your imagination. Composer for film, games, tv, ads, performer in an orchestra, teacher, school band director..

[Ed_J90]

Theres alot of "worth" posts recently, whatever happened to guys wanting to maybe do a music degree or music tech course just for self "worth" and knowledge for their own interest....everything seems to be about money and jobs

I NEVER got into music for money and jobs...."BUT" I have always earned 95% of my money from music....

I think natural ability, drive and a love for what you do will always win out and gain you success.. be it money, admiration or whatever someones looking for ?!?

"NO TEACHER IN A COLLEGE OR UNI IS GONNA TELL ME HOW I SHOULD PLAY MY 12 NOTES IN A SCALE"

its not directed at you "Kola" and good luck with whatever you do.... just do yourself a favour and think outside the box.... maybe you could get rich doing TV adverts in tahiti?? or somewhere else what do ya think of that.... O yeah thats right most people tend to never think that way, its too extreme they hope and think everythings gonna be in their back yard....

Laters

[IvanSC]

I think if YOU have a clear goal in mind and the degree course is genuinely a means to an end, there is a better than even chance you WILL find employment.

So many of th epeople we get on here discussing MT and Music degrees are wishy washy about what they actually want to do/be.
First and foremost the degree course if at a decent school and approached right can stand you in good stead for many jobs, not necessarily in the music business per se.
This is because you have at least demonstrated the stickatitiveness to go the course and successfully graduate - something not all undergrads do.
However, the determination and the purpose are what really count for more than anything else.
I keep raising a young friend of mine as an example.
He was initially self-taught on keys and drums & then decided he wanted to be an arranger and conductor.
He is now in his second year at a decent college and is already the "go to" source at his school for arranging and conducting.
He has also already been MD for a couple of provincial musical theatre groups.
He has achieved this by excelling in his chosen field of study but also because he networks like crazy (has doen since he was about 14) and can come up with the goods when required.

Even he is only cautiously optimistic of finding work once he graduates.

So.
By all means go for it but you`ll have to make your own opportunities nad you can`t start doing that soon enough.

My daughter (at Uni "doing" acting) won a national youth film script writing contest aged 11.
She still struggled to get a place this year.

[ConcertinaChap]

Theres alot of "worth" posts recently, whatever happened to guys wanting to maybe do a music degree or music tech course just for self "worth" and knowledge for their own interest....everything seems to be about money and jobs

I'll go with that. My partner started a music degree course at Bath Spa uni earlier this year at the age of 55. For her it's the start of the fulfillment of a life long dream, and she is finding it hard but massively rewarding. Obviously a career as such is not a huge issue for her, but she is being exposed to all sorts of musics, influences, approaches and technologies that are pushing her in new and unexpected directions.

Try thinking of it that way rather than the first step in a career structure. Personal development is the issue here, I think, rather than vocation, and we appear to have lucked out in that Bath Spa seems to be pretty strong on that.

Chris

[Kola]

Great!! Some replies at last - thanks you.

Ok, maybes I should say a bit more about myself here.

.....I decided on a career change a few years ago and things havent quite worked out the way I wanted them too but never mindn rather than be one on these people that gets stuck in a job just for money and be deperatly unhappy I had the balls to leave unlike most.

I am now back at uni. I have two passions in my life 1 Sport and 2 Music.
These are not fads, there life time passions.

Oh also, I am 35 years old so again havent really got much time for fads.

Why am I back at uni so late in life? Well a year ago I had me first child. Those of you with kids will know there is no greater motivation, you want the best you can for them and after quitting my career and things going not exactly where I wanted for the next couple of years I decided to get re qualified.

I am currently in year zero. It's the year before the first year of a dedicated four year Hons Degree designed for mature students like myself so you get to skip that A level bit etc due to your life experience by doing an extra year at the start.

I am currently on a sports degree course but the uni I am at offer an equally good music tech course and I have asked and been told that I can swap but i must make up my mind by this September or forever hold me piece.
Hence my question on a more mature board such as Sound on Sound as I havent got time to make yet another mistake or even the wrong decision.

Money, ok, who ever mentioned money above obviously has pots of it.
It really is amazing how easy it is to say you shouldn't think about the money when you raking it in.
Well me and my family are absolutely skint now. Im a student either way I go for this and the next 3 years and my wife who is fully qualified works for not much over the minimum wage for the seriously underpaid NHS.
By the time I leave uni we will owe 20 grand back!! Not to mention other debts we are getting our selves into to keep our head above water etc etc
....so yes Money to me is hugely important!
However I didnt ask life to be this way where money counts for everything but when you have a mortgage to pay and a family to provide for an there is only ONE thing in this money orientate world we live in that will provide those things then of course money is one of my (or anyother fathers) main priorities. Id advise anyone mentioning money to go and watch the excellent documentary Zeitgeist addendum.
However money aside my passion for either Sport or Music are vast.

I hope this post encourages more people to come forward with any advice on what I should do here.

Many thanks for the replies so far.

[jrbcm]

Kola-

This is just my personal opinion, but based on plenty of experience.

Don't do the Music Tech degree. You might get a teaching job if you're lucky, but the long-term outlook for that is doubtful too considering what a slating these courses get these days.

[Kola]

hi jrbcm

Personal opinions is what im after fella. Thanks for yours. Im interested in collating everyone's opinions. Especially those who have been there and done it.

[Ian Stewart]

I have not got a music degree and have been professional for thirty years. In that time not one person has asked me about qualifications.
If you want to be professional classical standard on an instrument and you go to a conservatoire you will almost certainly be on a degree course even though it would largely be a practical course.
My view is that, particularly with classical music, the same subject can be academic and non-academic. By that I mean I studied musical analysis to help my compositions but I did it as a practical subject. However you can study analysis academically and put it in an historical or musicological context.
It depends what you want to do when you leave college/university but I would say a music technology degree is a complete waste of time and money. However if you want to be a performer going to music college can really help and in classical music, probably essential.

Remember though, if you are into dance music there is nothing wrong in being a DJ/producer and then going to university in your late twenties/or thirties. The same with rock music.

[The Bunk]

Hi Kola,
What exactly is the nature of your sports degree?
Reason for asking is that, well, I guess I'm like you in that my two passions are music and sport but I've realised that good jobs in both those industries are few and far between; and I would even venture as far as to say that a degree in either doesn't necessarily help. There will be plenty written elsewhere on this forum about jobs in the music industry so I would recommend, as has been suggested above, setting an evening aside to crack open a bottle and search through the many threads on this subject.

As for the sports side, if you're talking sports science type degrees, I run a health club and all our gym instructors / personal trainers HAVE to have a basic minimum qualification, and a sports science degree will usually cover that. As regards jobs, well (at the moment) there are jobs around BUT that's invariably because gym instructors are paid so poorly and have to rely on personal training to earn a decent income.
If it's sport "general" - marketing / sponsorship / PR - I also looked into that when I was younger and, in a nutshell, of all the things that would have got me a job in those industries, a degree was pretty near the end of the list.
Good luck though and good on you for having the balls as you've said...

[Kola]

Hi Ian - thanks for the reply.

Its interesting how you havent been asked once re your quals.

I have been into dance music since the days of the 303 costing £20 second hand as it sounded nothing like a bass guitar haha.

The great thing about a sports coaching degree is the western world is getting fatter and fatter hence greater demand now than ever before for personal trainers, sports scientists, junior sports programs, PE teachers etc etc.

I have fully researched the sports employment side of things. Now doing the same for the music side. Since my main interest has always been synths etc I would go the music tech way over any other and im getting from this thread that this is a pretty pointless qualification.

[Kola]

Hello hand

I agree the commercialized gyms are not very lucrative but become a coach for a football team (even a poor one) or a tennis player or whatever and things start to get very lucrative.

As said with the obesity boom it is a rising industry where as with torrent files and mp3 downloads I am left wondering the damage done to the music industry but people seem to do superb still.

I think its like anything, there are good and bad jobs to be had I suppose. I just wonder how a degree makes a diffrence in either subject.

By the way, why would anyone with a degree in sport become a sports attendant? No disrespect to anyone that is but you can just walk into that job from the jobcentre.

[hollowsun]

I'm surprised it's not been mentioned before but what is your level of musical competence?

To do a BA (Hons) Music degree, you will (or should) need to be at least Associated Board Grade 7 (preferably Grade 8) in one or more instruments and theory. Some places may also require an audition, others may require you to submit a CD of you playing (and I don't mean something created on CuBase but a solo/accompanied piece at your highest grade level on one or other of your instruments!).

Having "been into dance music since the days of the 303" might not be enough ... and if it IS, I'd have to question the worth of the course!!!

[Ed_J90]

Hi Kola my post looked a bit harsh on a re-read it was 7am up all night again etc..etc..

I am grade 8 in practical on a few instruments that my parents wanted me to learn but only grade 5 theory as I got the excemption cert which allowed me to continue with practicals but not have to take any further theory....

It did help me in certain ways that I take for granted now I suppose....

I dont play the instruments that I got the grades on anymore as I dont look back in fondness at lessons....but the guitar I picked up at 3 because my dad played in a band and never took a lesson on this is my hammer / chisel / Work tool today which happened out of a love for it which I still maintain every night I play....

"People dont pay me to play in my eyes thats free, they pay me to travel and back the gear down"