Should You Consider a Career in Music?

[DTChrisOriginalMusic]

I do what I can with what I got, and go from there. I don't like rules, don't care for formulas, I just keep chugging along trying to get better at my craft and come up with something interesting. I'm still working hard on it, while trying to feed myself.

There are no rules but one. Make noise.

[spacitydrummer4JC]

There's nothing you can learn at Berklee that A.I.M. or M.I. can't teach you. Save your parents and the government money - don't go to Berklee.

[d3reilly]

@spacitydrummer4JC M.I. is not accredited, they have a 90%+ acceptance rate, and you don't get a degree. To my knowledge, their only real successful alum is Paul Gilbert. Berklee has on average 25+ massive success stories for every department. And M.I. isn't too cheap either. Normally I wouldn't mind. People prefer different schools, but before you start dishing out advice you should present the whole story. Just sayin'.

[XxboVodxX]

If I won't be working as a performer, I'll try teaching guitar. If I won't be able to work as a guitar teacher, please, KILL ME.

[xXFatalAttemptsXx]

@XxboVodxX well said

[skapista92]

i am a software engineer student, and i have a 70% of my career finished, and i would leave everything just to study music, music is my life and it have always been since i was 8 years old.

[menkeely]

Im 12 years old and looking this up. Am I a nerd? I don't care if I am, it's for damn sure a good thing. I'll be rich. Now go look at my videos and tell me if I look like a nerd. I don't think so:)

[umbilicaltapeworm]

good salesman.

[slugworth63]

Don't waste time or money at Rock 'n Roll high school (Berklee). You don't need that shit to be a rock star. This fool goes on about "doing other things" in the music business..Who the fuck gets into music to "work"? There are millions of other careers that are easier and pay better because you're not up against a million fuckheads that will do it for free. When you have to rely on the music business to feed your family, it's WORK, like any other business, except worse!

[GallGael2]

Money...fuck....this should be about music, not money.

[Whatisthescore]

@giannisomagas no

[rautsumeru]

he says there are a 'million' career options and struggles to name four!lol!

[TheLwliang]

lucrative career for college presidents lol

[leopower7]

where do i send my cd to start my career? o.O

[Whatisthescore]

lol Berklee has more drug dealers posing as students than it does musicians..

[melissblissers]

hes pretty much saying "give me money give me money give me money give me money i want your mother fucking money give me your money" Berklee should write a song with those lyrics lol

[Whatisthescore]

This man feel so entitled to steal money from naive rock star wannabees.

[strauqq1]

im a musician and this guy sounds full of it.music sucks now.bottom line.

[sensational1982]

I think the fact they the teach contemporary music as well is what makes it a BIG TIME attraction for so many young people who want to make a career out of music and perhaps the tuition fee is too high on the other hand.

[JAustinMunn]

I love Boston, and I love the Campus. But the fact of the matter is that I don't have $200,000 to get a degree from Berklee. Besides, I think that the reason for going to a prestigious music college is not that they can teach you more, it's the prestige behind the school. Odds are, you will have a better chance of getting a job going to Berklee than if you got a guitar degree from UNM.

[TheMookieboo92]

@JAustinMunn do it really cost that much to get a degree from berklee

[panamanian911]

@JAustinMunn Have you JUST discovered this? Same goes for Ivy League Universities and such. A degree is a degree wherever you get it.

[cyanure7]

whoa.. which instrument did you play? did you play an original composition?

[Whatisthescore]

Roger Brown is a swindler. He steals millions from unsuspecting talentless hacks.

[camelius]

Dream Theater actually left Berklee......

As I said in another post, a musician is no only made by the school he/she went to, some of the people may be talented, some others not, some of them may have original ideas, some others not.

The same thing happens in any university for any kind of career.

I have a friend that studies in Berklee that is a drummer and he is good, however I've got other friends who had particular classes and then studied on their own and are better.

[jesemus33]

yes!!!! i meet a guy that has terrible skills of reading, i mean for me to be a real graduating student you need to read All clefs, C clef, treble, bass, even soprano or tenor cleff on the C cleff, i love jazz but you need to be prepared to anything in the world, from a Motet to a bebop tune, from a baroque to Broadway, and to do that you need a lot of dedication instead of watching Movies or....well i admit, YOU TUBE!!!!the internet is an horrible instrument that consume your practice hours!

[Whatisthescore]

AMEN!!

[STorpedo]

yeah thats true, all of a sudden there's this huge difference when you pick music as your career, because now you HAVE to play music/practice/etc, as opposed to before, when you just did it for yourself, whenever you wanted to. Unfortunately in some cases that can be a bad thing on people's practice schedules outside of classes.

[camelius]

Yep, that's true. The good thins about being in a music institution is that you are forced to practice, but if you really want to be a professional musician and you discipline yourself to learn you can obtain great results.

[STorpedo]

yeah, a lot of times ppl aren't expecting that cause all they had up to that point was fun fun fun, never thought that it might actually get boring or how they'd deal with it when it did.

[rends]

Berklee is a worthless school. They accept EVERYONE first of all, it doesnt matter how bad your grades are. It doesnt matter if you suck. They just want your money. All its students are drug addicts, the profs remain silent. The insurance companies take care of the health issues related to the students' drug abuse so everyone is happy and the owners, such as the idiot in the video, get rich.

How do I know this ? Insider's information.

PARENTS, KEEP YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM BERKLEE !!!

[dab0556]

really so...steve vai, John Mayer, all of Dream Theater, Howard Shore, Alan Silversti...

man you are right...those guys really suck

[agaffa2010]

Don't forget; Quincy Jones, Melissa Etheridge, Kevin Eubanks, Susan Tedeschi.

[viddelt]

the three of DT left. john mayer went only about half... why then use those as examples

[dab0556]

but steve vai did finish...and the only reason DT and John Mayer left is because they found a better oppurtunity....but John Prettucci said himself Berklee was incredible....so.....

[viddelt]

Yes i also think berklee looks incredible, and its a dream to go there for many students... But $250,000 isnt just gonna pop out of your wallet either :/

[dab0556]

you would be suprised about who gets scholorships...but you are right it isnt cheap

[StratPlayer17]

Yea, I think we all could get the same amount of education elsewhere. Its mostly name reconition, but not to take anything away from Berklee, there still a very very good music school.

[HxCDOOM]

They're one of the few schools that teach contemporary music, most schools teach jazz and classical music.

[JAustinMunn]

But in the music world, is not the name on the diploma extremely important?

When you're hiring a session guitarist, would you rather have somebody from UNM or from Berklee College of Music?

[KwameNewton]

Audition.

[KwameNewton]

It's not all about the coursework; a big component of Berklee is the culture and the musical interaction between students. . .

[HxCDOOM]

John Mayer dropped out in his second semester.

[RocknRollast]

It was like that in the past. But they've shaped up and now it's a great school

[agaffa2010]

Why are you so bitter?

[STorpedo]

sounds more like biased information to me.

[crpsbryd1108]

if berklee has a 30% acceptance rate, how do they accept everyone? lol.

[kcmasta911]

@crpsbryd1108 42% admittance rate

[eathenicus]

@crpsbryd1108 I doubt that's true I think the acceptance rate for this school is lower than 30%

[crpsbryd1108]

@eathenicus i'm just going by what berklee's site says! haha.

but their acceptance rate is certainly not 42%.

[SAXPLAYER128]

@crpsbryd1108 Eh...30% of people who audition get in probably...

[deffensh]

Berkee is the place for "better musical education and the rest is up to you. As far as i know 50~60% of graduates are maintaing their living at music. If you really didn't learn or do enough to be in that range that's your fault apparently.

Berklee is becoming exclusive about its admission as a lot of applicants are still applying. I assum that there won't be at least "not so great" in the near future.

[Whatisthescore]

Where did you get those percents? Bc I would bet money you just made that up. The percentage of graduates maintaining their living at music is far lower than 50-60%. It would have to be a legit music school to have those numbers.

[RobertGabrielPerry]

ok... i'm having problems - this is part 3

part 1 starts with "I went to Berklee"

anyway... Berklee is an amazing place, but one really really needs to be driven to succeed. My advice... go there for a year or a semester if you can. Open your mind and try to learn as much as you can. BUT... if you really want "to do music for a living"... sit down with yourself and really define what that really means. there clearer you can be, the better... then go to berklee to try to accomplish that.

[RobertGabrielPerry]

I went to Berklee College of Music in 1991. I went for 3 semesters. It's a strange beautiful and awful place all mixed together. It's a HARD place to be. The best of the best go there and a lot of the "not so great" attend too.

[Whatisthescore]

This guy is a con artist. Don't go to Berklee unless you want to be ripped off. Berklee tries to flirt with young kids fantasies of becoming famous, and accepts people who don't even know how to read music. Put two and two togeter!  It's a scam.

[catcherinred]

Sounds like someone ot rejected...don't hate

[Whatisthescore]

I didn't get rejected I graduated from there. Just trying to help don't go there it's an expensive scam run by con-artists.

[dizzyzack]

Then you're a fucking dumb-ass because it took you four years to realize it was just bullshit.

[Whatisthescore]

after you spent sixty grand for a year at school I think you'd want to finish

[SavageHenry421]

did it really add up to 60 grand after a year!! geeze

[SavageHenry421]

what degree did you get and what happened did they leave you high and dry i mean they really didnt connect you at all arfter graduation

[Whatisthescore]

They couldn't even get me a intenship! Yes they left me high and dry.

[Whatisthescore]

I take that back. They could have gotten me an internship but they wouldn't because they pretty much didn't care about my future after Berklee. And I was a performance major with straight 7's as ratings.

[SavageHenry421]

damn that sucks did you know anybody in the production or synthesis programs that had equally bad experiences

[Whatisthescore]

Everyone ends up having bad experiences

[SavageHenry421]

So what did you major in if I may ask and do you think you really put a lot of effort into your college experience because i here that what you put into Berklee is what you get out of it

[Whatisthescore]

I was a performance major. And that's a catch phrase a lot of people like to say because your sure not going to get any help from faculty so it's all up to you to learn on your own. Basically it's like not going to school at all, and just learning on your own plus 60000 a year.

[deffensh]

Let me tell you something. The fact that you are scammed from the school doesn't neccesarily mean that others are also likley to be scammed like you. Basically, OEL doesn't provide internship opportunities for students lower than GPA of 2.5 or maybe as long as they have nothing to write on the resume. You'd probably be involved in one of the cases.

[Whatisthescore]

shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. I had a 3.8 in my major and a 3.4 overall. There was a gigantic waiting list, as is with anything once you start at Berklee, and they only gave out something like 15 internships.

[deffensh]

If you expected to be a company worker on a fast track after graduation that's seriously a big misunderstanding. Even renowned music schools have the same situation. Have you evern seen any colleges 100% guaranteeing a bright future to their students? That's impossible even for Harvard! Stop complaining and find another job!

[Whatisthescore]

Wow, you really just made Berklee sound like a rip off.

[RobertGabrielPerry]

Apparently there is a limit to the number of chars one can write here with these comments...

...to continue...

I was very inexperienced on my instrument when I attended and I struggled, BUT I also learned a LOT while I was there too. It's a mixed bag.

There are some amazing players there and there are some amazing teachers, but there is NO guarantee whatsoever that you will succeed in a career in music just because you attended and/or graduated from Berklee.

[ricluvno304s]

I love video game music!!!! Would love to write some too.

[IwannaWright]

Yes, this was an awesome post! Definently made me feel even better about choosing a career in the music business!All is not lost at all!

[simoncowellscores]

Without Boomers and Gen X'rs buying albums along with the incredibly high price of living today its becoming more hopeless for people to become great artists and survive. Gen Y's and big corporations have killed music's near future and I have a feeling many future generations will look back on the years before 2010 and view it as a golden age in music never to be replicated again.

[ropiyas]

Interesting post. Good hope for us the dreamers!!!