| Lara...
A conductor once told me that when students would say they didn't know if they should major in music or something he would always say, without a doubt, do the other thing. At the time, I thought he was a real jerk saying something like that! Aren't we supposed to be encouraging music! But after going though an undergraduate program, being away from school for a couple years and now back into a graduate program, I have to say I agree with what he said.
Music, in whatever capacity you do it (performing, teaching college, teaching public school, whatever) takes an unwavering dedication to do it properly. In my opinion, music education is far too important to do (forgive the expression) half-assed. I've seen way too many people who were not really dedicated to music in any way, but got education degrees and went out to teach. Most teach only a short time (which is actually good for education in general) and then find themselves with a degree they don't want to use and no specialized skill or knowledge to do something else.
I went through some tribulations in my trumpet playing that caused me to question if I really had the desire to persue it any further. It's a lengthy story, I'd be happy elaborate privately it you'd like, but it would be irrelevant to the public discussion. The gist of it was that I thought about going into pubic school teaching (I was always [and am currently] pursuing a performance/college level teaching career) but in the end, decided that I just couldn't dedicate enough of myself to it to really do it right. I was lucky to have two of the very best HS band directors there are and I know that thier level of dedication was beyond me. There were aspects that I knew I'd enjoy, but overall, I knew I'd always be holding something back, because my real passion is playing music and teaching trumpet, not conducting a school band.
I"ll continue in a moment (computer difficulty)
Jason.
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"The oboe's A is to make sure we still play it 1 and 2" - Bud Herseth
"One way or another, every patient stops bleeding." - Scrubs |