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Cool, you've got a long time to figure out what you want to do. The most important thing is to work hard on your academic courses in school and get good grades. No matter what you want to do, college is important, and grades mean the difference between community college and a top-tier school. If you plan on working in the music industry, you'll have to be able to get into a good college because that's where the good music schools are. You'll also want every scholarship you can get - either talent-based or academic. Work time during college will be limited, as music school requires A LOT of practice, so the more money available to help the better.
As far as music itself goes, right now you just need to have fun learning how to play. Take some lessons and see what comes of it. It's a whole lot of fun, and even if you don't end up making a career out of it, music will be a hobby that stays with you throughout life.
I definitely recommend piano lessons. First of all because everybody and their brother plays guitar. But mostly because it is the most versatile instrument. You'll learn to read fluently in both bass & treble clef. And as you say that you'd love to be able to sit and work with music, that sounds like composition and arrangement to me. A keyboard/sampler/workstation and some software in the hands of a competent pianist is how most great songs and arrangements happen these days.
In High School, you'll have band, orchestra & chorus classes available to you. If you can carry a tune, I'd recommend chorus. If you're interested in working in music, vocal experience can only help. Singers run the show more often than not in music. And having both vocal and instrumental training will only help with any job in the music industry. Your chorus teacher will also play piano most likely, so you may be able to get some piano instruction in school as well.
If a music theory class is available, definitely take it. That's something for Junior or Senior year, though. You need to learn to play before you'll understand the advanced concepts involved in a music theory course.
But again, just have fun learning music. Don't take it too seriously. Music is supposed to be fun for a 13-year-old. If you keep it fun, everything else will fall into place. You'll practice more, and you'll progress quicker. If things are meant to be, you'll develop into a great talent, and maybe one day you'll get a free ride through college followed by a career where you get paid to play all day. :)
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Original message from 2/10/2009
Are you a musician? h*************u? What work experience do you have? What kind of music do you like? What experience do you have with music - specifically? What do you mean by "love to be able to sit and work with music?"
I need more details of what your skills and interests are in order to recommend anything.
There are a lot of jobs that you could go into - education, performance, production, recording engineering, live sound, sales, talent scouting, talent management, etc...
It's a very competitive business, so it takes an incredible amount of dedication and desire to be deal with the low pay and a lot of rejection in the beginning. Unless you're a prodigy, of course, and get through Berklee on a free ride, leading to the fast track into fame.
If you're still in high school and you're not yet a musician, learn an instrument. I recommend piano lessons. It's the most versatile instrument.
If you're a musician, and you're young, I highly recommend going to college to study music. You can major in education, performance, composition, or on the production side in recording engineering, etc... You'll meet a lot of other strong musicians. And during college (and especially after graduation with a degree), you can easily find private students and develop a very comfortable living while working on a career in performance, production or any other music field.
For the average teacher, 20 hours of lessons a week pays between $35K - $70K per year, depending on where you live and whether you're teaching through a studio or on your own. Obviously, if you can get enough students to keep you busy for 30-40 hours a week, it's a GREAT living. And it's easy work. Teaching kids to play is absolutely stress free as far as I'm concerned. I teach drums in a fairly small market, so I've not been able to develop a large student base, but the piano & guitar teachers in the studio have 40-60 students and make $45K - $65K a year for 20-30 hours of work.
Answered By: VAK - 2/10/2009 |