The Community College Alternative

At The Business of Music, Rose French makes a strong argument for instrumentalists to consider a music education degree over a performance degree.

What most aspiring musicians don’t realize is that teaching will always be a part of your profession. There are a lot of terrible teachers that are amazing musicians, and I am sure that you can think of several on any instrument. The unfortunate thing is that these amazing talents would be able to share their skills with just a bit of training.

This is an excellent point.

While a great deal of time and energy must be spent in order to land a job as a performer, pursuing the music education degree in no way shape or form detracts from that pursuit. It may in fact enhance a performer’s career.

The intend on whether or not to pursue a public teaching job is irrelevant. What is relevant at the base level is learning how to be a more effective teacher and all-round musician.

The community college track

My current private students are all music education majors at a local community college. Their program of study is based on a 2-year plan that gets them on track towards transferring all their credits to a state school, where ultimately they will graduate.

The community college to state university track is advantageous in several ways:

• A big money saver – the per-credit cost at the community college is much less

• A less intimidating campus – the student can learn the ins and outs of academia in a smaller, more intimate environment

• Live at home, work part-time – the student can pocket savings for the university transfer

• Get the general studies classes done first in order to focus on the music last

If I were to go back in time and do things differently, I would give very strong consideration to a community college. While my degree at Eastman has had some advantages, the cost kept me in debt for a long 20 years after graduation.

As it turns out too, some lessons from my “school of hard knocks” education may have been learned years earlier in a music education or music business program.