Sup Forums, redpill me on a music degree

i started playing guitar about 7 months ago and i still have some time before college. ive never had a passion or a productive hobby and im in love with it. i picked up bass just a couple days ago and a lot of the knowledge has transferred, i just need to get used to the physical aspect of it. i also intend to start playing piano since i have a keyboard laying around the house. should i go for a major in music? i dont know what else id do, im not good at anything else. if all else fails, what would be a good alternative to this?

most people that get music degrees just end up teaching at school. so just be prepared for that being your likely career if you do. not that there is anything wrong with that but maybe your main goal isn't teaching.

Trips of truth. Good advice user.

thank u user. im planning on having a band and gigging but id be content with teaching. it pays pretty well from what ive seen.

music degrees are fucking useless most of the time. The best one to go for is for live music production because then you can get hired running sound for cool venues which is a sweet fucking gig (drink beer on the job, listen to music, twiddle knobs). On the flipside I would avoid "Studio producing" I have a friend who dropped 20k on a producing school degree and I don't think he's produced one song or album after graduating. Similar times I've met ones who end up at guitar center. Also had one friend with like a masters in classical piano who worked with me making like 600 a month at a music school. LIVE SOUND IS THE WAY TO GO. Other than that pretty fucking useless

you don't need a music degree to teach music, you just have to know how to play and teach your instrument at a decent level
t. music teacher

I have been exactly where you at. I started guitar my first year of college and have been playing a year now. I've already become and intermediate since I play hours a day. I impressed one of the guitar professors at my uni and he told me to look into majoring in guitar.

But the truth is I don't have any interest in learning history of classical composers, how to play 900 different chords in 300 different positions, or how to sing and play trombone. I decided I'd rather make money with one of my hobbies (I'm double majoring in Math and Computer Science) and keep guitar to my spare time. Guitar may be one of my passions, and so is music, but not in the educational sense.

If you go with a guitar major be prepared to only play classical pieces on classical guitar.

i didnt even think of that user. ill look into that, i fell in love with this classic little venue in this college town i went to for a slowdive show and it looked like a sweet place to work.

>HE PLAY BASS

>HE WANTS TO MAJOR IN MUSIC

>HE DIDN'T START PIANO LESSONS AT 8 AND DOESN'T ALREADY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING ABOUT BASIC THEORY AND SHEET READING

i do understand basic theory user, but i do need to pick up the slack on sightreading

Maybe if you're a private teacher, but band teachers need an education degree and a music degree usually. At least they do in Canada

how would you go about getting into live production? is there a specific degree or it or could you find a job with a general music major?

You should major in something that will actually give you a return in investing your time and money in college. Major in a high paying career that is actually useful.

Learning music as a side hobby is just fine, you will probably learn more with lessons or material gathered from the internet than a whole year in musical college.

It's more about sheer amount of practice than anything. So much of music is training your brain and your muscles, a teacher can't do that for you.

just dont go to college idiot. i went to art school. staken seriously as the best artist there. doesnt ammount to anytihng afterwards. i work in food service full time and only occasionally get some kind of residency or work in shows. i also play in bands get a few shows a month release new music constantly but definitely dont make anything off of it.

college is fun if your parents are paying but if youre going into debt its absolutely retarded.

I started with the bass, bass is fucking easy. I am 5 years in and with an hour of practice everyday I can play all those fancy geddy lee lines and all that retarded slap bass shit I used to gob over as a teenager.

Learn guitar instead. A talented guitarist can move down to bass easily, while a bassist cannot do the same things as an experienced guitarist.

u make good points user but im not suitably equipped to major in the typically well paying careers.

lol user thats what i did. im no virtuoso but im much more experienced on the guitar than the bass

OP, I'd encourage you not to decide on whether a music degree is worthwhile based on what fucking Sup Forums thinks. Speaking as a music student, you can get away without a degree if you're a jazz/rock guy but if you're into classical, it's a must

If you aren't "equipped" to learn something like business or IT programming or something like that you definitely aren't "equipped" to be a musician/composer worth his salt in years of education. The type of classical and jazz shit they teach in college is not your 12 bar blues that any kid can learn in a week. There is SERIOUS depth in advanced musical theory and performance and only the ELITE make any money off learning it.

Don't go to college for music if you aren't a fucking autist with a case of monomania and don't care about things like a social life and money.

im past the A minor pentatonic and power chord phase user i like to think i have a pretty solid grasp on theory but programming is a safer bet and im good enough at that so thank u for reminding me.

Don't listen to this faggot.

The "Just B urSelf" mentality when it comes to deciding your future education and career leads to life decisions based on the fleeting emotions of a 18-20 year old that don't know nuthin bout shit. And then that leads to being a miserable drug addicted burnout with no job and no life because they picked some shitty art classes when they could have learned the tools and skills needed to actually make a living.

If you really have artistic dreams just go out and fucking DO IT. Stop posting on Sup Forums forever and work your fucking ass off on your craft like its a 8 hour a day job, every fucking day. College will just leave you in debt into your 50s and make you a suicidal fagget.

good advice user, i have a pretty good idea of what i want to do now, thank u all

>im past the A minor pentatonic and power chord phase user i like to think i have a pretty solid grasp on theory
you fuck with negative harmony yet? if not then shut the fuck up about knowing music theory and get an old textbook to study in the free time when you don't physically have an instrument in your hand

Just go ahead and do it man, fuck it. I'm 30 and never amounted to anything anyways, I should have gone to music college and at least pursued the one thing in life that I was good at.

I literally said nothing of the sort. My point is that the value of music school depends on your genre of you're a performer. I don't know a single orchestral musician without a degree

>lists an obscure fringe concept that has only just recently been even marginally popularized and discussed as a prerequisite to knowing music theory

user..my sides.. where are they

>sat around and basically just did logic puzzles and pattern extrapolation with music theory until i found some of that good shit on my own
>find out these things already have names and are starting to be studied by higher ups at better institutions
>only student to ask comfy questions to my phd music prof that they couldn't answer in class because it wouldn't benefit anyone in the class but me
good thing that part of my life is over but life truly is suffering, also autism can be fun sometimes