Congrats you decided to be a music major. You’ve known that you wanted to be one since you were five and did well in high school and now you’re about to actually start doing what you’ve had your mind set on for years but guess what? That calling isn’t going to mean anything if you don’t put work into it.

I have seen people fail and drop out, because they had a dream but not the drive to go for it. They thought the dream should just come to them, instead of them putting in the work and making themselves crawl to it.

It’s a lot of work to be a music major. You have to motivate yourself to practice every day and not only that, you have to have the patience to practice hard, not just practice. You have to live and breathe it. This is what you are going to be doing the rest of your life and the only person that can stop you from doing it is you. Nobody but yourself controls the amount of effort you put in your musicianship.

The question is, do you want to be a person who play an instrument or do you want to be a musician? Do you want to inspire others or do you just want to be in the background? It’s your choice! You will see others fail (including yourself) and you will see those people either give up and move on or they will get up and go in the ring for another round. Don’t feel sorry for those who can’t muster the grit to do what needs to be done because if they can’t then they don’t need to be in the program to begin with. When you’re a music major you can’t be a sheep and you can’t be a shepherd, you have to lie somewhere in the middle.

You have to be willing to follow others (i.e. in the band room/choir room when you are in a band or choir) but when needed you can lead a section or even a band. Through relying on others out the widow because you must simply know your part and if not then you have to figure it out fast by any means necessary because if you aren’t helping then you’re hurting.

Ask yourself, why whisper a sentence when you can scream a statement? Why be just a student when you can be a motivator? Why just dream a dream when you can fulfill one? No one can stop you except yourself.