Raise your hand if there is at least someone in your life who is not okay with your decision to spend thousands of dollars to go to school for something you basically already know how to do.
We all depend on music. Every single one of us. Whether you're a geography major or a math major we pretty much need it to get through the day. A lot of artists and CEO's of labels come from going to school for music. But they don't get there without difficulty. Here are some struggles that most other majors don't realize we face at least once if not everyday.
1. Job opportunities can either be endless or completely non-existent.
Depending on our concentration, the path we take after we graduate seems to be a little fuzzy. Unless you're a Music Ed major it's not like we can just hop onto indeed.com and go searching. A majority of us music majors don't even know what we want to do! Our future seems almost hopeless and money-less. But we chose to do music because we would literally fail at anything else.
2. Taking classes outside of our major is a literal nightmare.
Depending on the state you're going to school in, a lot of B.A's require you to take credits outside of your major. For some, it may be a walk in the park, but for music majors it's the only thing keeping us from making the Dean's List every semester. Sitting in a biology class when we could be practicing is like sitting in traffic for two and a half hours. All you can think about is your destination but it's only being impeded by pointless classes.
3. We don't have the "easy major."
No seriously. There's no such thing as an "easy major" and every field of study has it's challenges. There are music classes that we take that we struggle in and some that we make strides in. We crumble under pressure because we didn't have time to practice before our lesson and we're forced to be creative everyday. There are standards and requirements we have to reach and experiences we have to go through in order to make it to the next step. If you're not confident or good under pressure, the music major can be a tantalizing one.
4. Juries... *shutters*
Accounting majors have final exams. Music majors have final exams AND juries. Imagine yourself standing on a stage in front of four pairs of judgmental eyes staring back at you while they watch you perform two or three pieces you've been working day and night on for four months. Your final grade basically depends on that score. It's kind of like your professor calling you in one by one and asking questions from the final exam and expecting you to answer them orally. Yeah, don't think you could that? Who's got the easy major now, huh?
5. When we say we're stressed, we're really okay, but we also aren't okay.
We made a choice. We chose this life and we wouldn't have it any other way. At the end of the day, no matter how stressed we are, we're happy we're doing what we love. The anxiety we undergo is really just the pressure we put on ourselves from wanting to be successful. Musicians are some of the most hard working and have the most drive when it comes to academics and achievement. We want to be the best that we can be and we can only get there by literally driving ourselves deeper and deeper into stress, anxiety and insomnia because we can't stop thinking about that Clarinet solo we f*cked up or the music theory homework that only took us three hours to do. We thrive on challenge. Music is our lives and we love nothing more than to be completely consumed by it's demanding and back-breaking lifestyle. Because in the end, it's more than a just a degree. You end up forming bonds and friendships that you hold onto forever and you're more than just classmates. You're family.
Authors note: I just want to make a statement in which this article is in no way attempting to belittle or lessen other majors. Every field of study has its hills to climb and difficulties.
