Comments on: What you can do with a music degree

By: yo'

yo' — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:21:33 +0000

at least you know the truth

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:00:43 +0000

I make a decent living teaching privately and performing in a jazz quintet. I haven’t even finished my BA yet. Proof this graph is bull.

By: Phage0070

Phage0070 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:57:40 +0000

You cannot eat “good”, but Britney seems to be eating just fine.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:47:08 +0000

I forgot this bit:

How do you get a guitarist to stop playing?
Put sheet music in front of them.

Also, my years of bassoon playing have left me well-equipped with double reed jokes.

What do you call a bassoonist that can play three notes?
Gifted.

How many bassoonists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one, but they’ll insist on going through about five bulbs before they find one that suits the particular room and situation.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:21:15 +0000

Myself after the suggestion to double major:
“Haha! Good thing I thought ahead. If this music thing doesn’t work, I have a backup plan!”
The irony?
My second degree is in philosophy.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:24:34 +0000

I’m only good at two things: Drumming, gaming.

I’m hoping to get a bachelor of music. I’m going to start music school in July, and I’m going to be doing foundation music.

I suppose if you have an extensive knowledge on instruments, how they work and how to play them, and you have the papers to prove it, music retailers would be happy to employ you (then you can go to the NAMM shows!!!!).

Or perhaps one day I might become as famous as Virgil Donati or Dennis Chambers. Maybe.

DRUMMER JOKES!

Q. How do you know a drummer is outside your door?
A. The knocking speeds up!

Q. How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. None, they have a machine to do that now!

Oxymoron: Drum Music.

By: hooty mcboob

hooty mcboob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:40:01 +0000

Violins are so much sexier than viola’s. Viola’s can only wish they could be as good as the violin’s, but never are.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:28:29 +0000

Anyone who really wants to can have a great career in music. Hard work trumps talent every time.

By: Loob

Loob — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:16:38 +0000

Ugh… excuse me while I wash the elitism off.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:42:04 +0000

The red is definitely true for me at the moment =p

By: London

London — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:43:16 +0000

This is completely untrue. I know TONS of music majors who have been successful.

By: andy

andy — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:07:17 +0000

What’s the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a crushed viola in the road?
-There are skid marks before the skunk.

What’s the difference between a chain saw and a viola?
-If you absolutely had to, you could use a chain saw in a string quartet.

What is the difference between a violist and a prostitute?
1. A prostitute knows more than two positions.
2. Prostitutes have a better sense of rhythm.

By: Lara

Lara — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:29:39 +0000

I am a music therapist, which requires a music degree. I am not dying in poverty, am not a telemarketer or door-to-door salesman, nor do I work in a non-descript office job. Visit http://www.musictherapy.org

By: mary

mary — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:11:07 +0000

a-hole.

By: n8squared

n8squared — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:12:07 +0000

hence why I’m going tomajor in business and minor in music

By: nelson

nelson — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:09:10 +0000

The voila gets no respect, and in many ways, it is very much justified. As most of them are failed violinists who couldn’t master the violin, and had to either downgrade or quit outright. Their music parts are mostly support for the violin’s.

What’s the difference between a viola and a coffin?
The coffin has the dead person on the inside.

What’s the difference between a viola and an onion?
No one cries when you cut up a viola.

Why do violists leave their instrument cases on the dashboards of their cars?
If someone mistakes them for mafia, they might finally get some respect.

By: Juicepants

Juicepants — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:09:55 +0000

This is the first graph that made me laugh out loud in a long time.

By: dobo

dobo — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:53:53 +0000

switch to digital media and/or graphic design. You still get to be creative and artistic, but people will pay you for it rather than just saying “aww, that’s nice.”

By: dobo

dobo — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:51:55 +0000

I know a Michael J. Nelson. He is my brother in law. He started college as a music major. He said it was the biggest waste of 2 semesters ever. Then he switched his major to biochemistry, and now he has a Ph. D. in pharmacy. He makes lots of money.

By: sepehx

sepehx — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:16:35 +0000

Graph also applies to art majors
Waste of 4 years of your life and thousands of dollars. WIN?

By: varuna

varuna — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:06:02 +0000

but…it’s the only thing that makes me happy…
>_>’

By: stef

stef — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:19:32 +0000

I thought I wanted to teach, until my senior year when I actually student taught and found out the most of being a teacher has nothing to do with getting kids to learn, just B.S. paperwork.

I did two years of sales, quit that crappy job, the economy tanked, and been without a real job for months.

The moral of the story: following your passions is a dumb idea if you want to be able to pay your student loans. That is all.

By: Mnax

Mnax — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Maybe that holds water with a Music Performance degree. Otherwise you can do a lot.

By: RKeyz

RKeyz — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:59:53 +0000

I don’t agree that the Rolling Stones can elicit emotions as well as Beethoven, but their music isn’t the music I’m talking about (whileI do enjoy the Rolling Stones and other music of that genre). I’m talking about modern pop music, like Britney Spears and Avril Livigne and Hannah Montana and nonsense like that. This kind of pop music sucks. This is the kind of music that doesn’t need any training or experience to perform, that’s all I’m talking about.

Also just because their music is extraordinarily popular doesn’t make it good.

By: j_beam

j_beam — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:48:04 +0000

I have a music degree as well and enjoyed a great career teaching in Iowa and was going just fine. I left the business to work with limousines, but I did it on purpose and still perform in a local big band for fun.

By: yeahwhteva

yeahwhteva — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:41:35 +0000

Aww Crap

By: CAPM

CAPM — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:26:07 +0000

That should have been typed a pH, not PH. Chemistry reference FAIL.

By: Kittykins

Kittykins — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:03:08 +0000

Depends what you mean with computer graphics… 90% of the people I graduated with in graphics are doing well with a steady job and income, the other 10% decided to freelance…

By: Jefoid

Jefoid — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:54:36 +0000

“Pop music sucks…” Yes, that’s why no one listens to it and classical music dominates our culture.

Just because it’s more complicated doesn’t mean it’s better. The Rolling Stones can elicit emotions equal to Beethoven (or better) even without being his musical equal. (Two of my favorites)

By: papajon

papajon — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:46:58 +0000

Yeah, my art degree is sitting in a box gathering dust much like my art career. So I now have 2 IT degrees and a crummy job where I’m the necessary evil. But I had the most fun playing in the band those many years ago.

Looking back, I’d rather have been broke playing music.

By: edalicious

edalicious — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:43:01 +0000

ooh, you can have a lot of fun with psychoacoustics…

By: edalicious

edalicious — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:37:24 +0000

chemistry reference win

By: Ana

Ana — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:28:54 +0000

I decided to learn to play the violin a year ago, just for making one of my life aspirations come true. It’s very dificult, but with (almost) daily training and my classes on saturday, and of course with a lot of passion for it, I’m getting the hang of it! But of course, I could never hope to make a living out of it, I’d starve to death!

By: SickleYield

SickleYield — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:45:09 +0000

Make sure you get some lab experience as an undergrad. My advisor forgot to mention that part. I have a BS in Biology, BA in Chemistry and am currently a Barista.

By: ethana2

ethana2 — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:08:52 +0000

Your mom’s PH is higher than 10..

By: ethana2

ethana2 — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:06:31 +0000

Since GIMP came with my Dell and I can screw around with it for free, I have.
..and since that cost me nothing, why would I charge for basic edits? Minimum wage? Sounds great! That’s what I get at BK and I could use a calmer job.

I don’t recommend trying to out-compete me and raise a family at the same time.

By: mamarosa

mamarosa — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:28:13 +0000

The video is un-see-able.
Can anyone tell me if this is Ed Pais?

Friggin’ genius.

By: mamarosa

mamarosa — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:26:05 +0000

I’ve always wanted to see a puppet version of Gotterdammerung.

By: mamarosa

mamarosa — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:24:51 +0000

I’m sorry.

By: mamarosa

mamarosa — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:14:41 +0000

Actually the 3 car garage is devoted to storage of electronic gear. A car has never crossed it’s threshold.

The question is: Would I encourage young people into a music career and college degree?
Depends.
If college is free (via scholarships) then, Go for it.
For me, it was a necessary maturation process, but I do not believe I learned my craft (my skill set) in college. It only comes with time and experience.
You cannot beat doing what you love to do. But, it is not always glamorous. All across the nation there is a set of everyday working musicians, who are family men/women, and not drug abusers or alcoholics that are the backbone of the gigging musician scene who will never be famous. I’m happy with that.

By: Ziekette

Ziekette — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:53:49 +0000

I’ve got my GCSE in music (english system highschool degree).. It was great fun, super easy for me since I have super aural-processing and memory skills (I can remember almost everything I hear). I know that a musician’s life is hard, especially if you’re a good one and you care about music (not saying that I’m good.. just a general statement).. But it’s an excellent way to pass time, plus, if everything goes wrong you can always busk.

I aspire to do my own version of Wagner (god-complex creation of music and art) but on a smaller scale, probably with a shoe-box, some puppets and Sibelius 5… That would make an awesome (if probably underrated) video. [:

By: mel

mel — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:29:27 +0000

I find that to be more of an issue with celli.

By: mel

mel — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:28:57 +0000

You’re a lucky lucky person. Very few get that opportunity and still have the time to enjoy it. Now, did you buy your house just to have somewhere to store all the boxes of sheet music? Hmmm?

By: Bee

Bee — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:20:27 +0000

But chimpanzees cannot become conductors with the right training…

(because primates have no sense of rhythm)

By: Chatte noir

Chatte noir — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:10:54 +0000

I’m graduating next month with a degree in Music Performance. (voice)
I took out federal and private student loans to pay for the degree in addition to working.

What have I done?

By: bodo

bodo — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:09:07 +0000

I remember a rehearsal at Stanford (I don’t remember which show, but it was a G&S show back in the mid-to-late ’80s, I think) where I was talking to the (musical) director during a break. He was saying that when he graduated (I think from Stanford, in fact, but I don’t really know) with his music degree he went looking around and got that feeling of being in a vast desert wasteland job-wise (my words, not his). He asked around and someone told him (again, paraphrased) “Just tell them you’re a programmer and they’ll hire you.” And this worked for many people – most of the people I played with in the pit at Stanford (back when I was still playing) were from HP (which was a great company to work for back then, sigh). Some of them had PHDs in nuclear physics, and like that, and I still went for a Computer Science degree instead of music, but it’s nice to fantasize. Oh, and I don’t mean to give the impression that I went to Stanford (I didn’t), although I played there for shows while in school and after.
.
These days, they will only hire people who have a degree in Software Engineering or similar even if they can’t code their way out of a paper bag.
.
I’m not saying that everyone with a software engineering degree is
incompetent, but I keep hearing “We need to get more people trained in this stuff!”
.
Yah, because any chimpanzee can write code with the right training – just like any chimpanzee can be a manager with the right training.

By: ShamRockViolin

ShamRockViolin — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:01:45 +0000

erm, excuse me, but have you ever TRIED playing the violin? it’s not easy. at all. everyone i know who plays other instruments and then tries to play the violin is completely befuddled.
any competent musician should know when to come in without a conductor. you watch the first violinist for the downbeat, and then COUNT.
and you spelled cello wrong.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:54:02 +0000

I wonder if this will convince my boyfriend to turn his career path around before it’s too late!(he has a conditional acceptance right now- there’s still time!) lol.

By: violet

violet — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:34:39 +0000

Since raising a family requires good pay and a steady income, I would recommend against computer graphics.

By: angrythedeightdwarf

angrythedeightdwarf — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:22:55 +0000

I find this very funny and sad at the same time.
I have hardly any degree in music, but I perform as a guitarist and singer for local contests.
sucks for juliard!