Make Your Passion a Career

[MarkC]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

[bernie_VKpit]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

Huh?

[rayfallon]

Huh? :blink:/>

I know, right? I thought it was going to be a job ad for some minimum wage admin for Cadets or someone...

Instead? "If you want your life to be truly wonderful, be like ME!!!"

[drilltech1]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

Nice theory but where are the jobs available?

There are very few education positions available nationwide because of cutbacks, shifting demographics, the woeful economy forcing those presently in these positions to postpone retirement, and/or the various perspectives of what makes a good scholastic music program (eg. vertical teaching, comprehensive ensemble offerings, etc.) not just band.

Music ed/music performance majors without additional licensing in ancillary subjects, particularly foundational subjects such as math. languages, special ed, and the sciences are not even being given the ed. interviews anymore in today's job market. "Because we want a good marching band!" no longer drives the hiring office or school boards. Only in a few "sunshine" states are there many open job positions usually given to those who graduate from local state university programs.

Add to this the staggering long time statistic that almost HALF of all music ed/music performance majors who take teaching jobs leave education for other employment within five years. (cf. studies done by professional educational journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education et al. for better citations for these statistics.)

Usually the reason given includes one of these: need for fundraising when I just want to be a teacher, hassles with school board, hassles with dealing with the parents, I didn't want to get involved in budgets, school politics, and/or the fact that the students didn't have the same passion for the same importance for music education and skills as did the young educator. Fault sometimes lies with the college degree programs only sending student teachers to preferred, but not always realistic, experiences and failing to give realistic experiences in dealing with school administration hierarchy and priorities, budget restraints, and advanced skills in psychology and counselling to deal with the myriad personnel and family situations.

Idealism is wonderful but it doesn't pay the college loans so many will have face upon getting the sheepskin.

I've had to pick up too many fractured dreams from too many corps alumni and former students to support this without further planning and networking. I hope your experience is better.

Edited August 29, 2013 by drilltech1

[Barifonium]

I started to get burnt out just while marching drum corps. While I found a way past it, burnt-outness is something I want to avoid at all costs.

I also read about the existential crises people who make their passions their careers experience if/when they start to get burnt out. Never want that to happen to me.

[kcbari]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

Freudian slip?

[BRASSO]

Nice theory but where are the jobs available?

There are very few education positions available nationwide because of cutbacks, shifting demographics, the woeful economy forcing those presently in these positions to postpone retirement, and/or the various perspectives of what makes a good scholastic music program (eg. vertical teaching, comprehensive ensemble offerings, etc.) not just band.

Music ed/music performance majors without additional licensing in ancillary subjects, particularly foundational subjects such as math. languages, special ed, and the sciences are not even being given the ed. interviews anymore in today's job market. "Because we want a good marching band!" no longer drives the hiring office or school boards. Only in a few "sunshine" states are there many open job positions usually given to those who graduate from local state university programs.

Add to this the staggering long time statistic that almost HALF of all music ed/music performance majors who take teaching jobs leave education for other employment within five years. (cf. studies done by professional educational journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education et al. for better citations for these statistics.)

Usually the reason given includes one of these: need for fundraising when I just want to be a teacher, hassles with school board, hassles with dealing with the parents, I didn't want to get involved in budgets, school politics, and/or the fact that the students didn't have the same passion for the same importance for music education and skills as did the young educator. Fault sometimes lies with the college degree programs only sending student teachers to preferred, but not always realistic, experiences and failing to give realistic experiences in dealing with school administration hierarchy and priorities, budget restraints, and advanced skills in psychology and counselling to deal with the myriad personnel and family situations.

Idealism is wonderful but it doesn't pay the college loans so many will have face upon getting the sheepskin.

I've had to pick up too many fractured dreams from too many corps alumni and former students to support this without further planning and networking. I hope your experience is better.

All of this will have future consequences on the Drum Corps activity that in the future will be dependent for fund raising on recent ageouts.

Some stats on the College grad :

The US Dept. of Labor states that approx. 30% of the US Population has a College Degree, but states that only 20% of jobs require a College Degree.... the same Dept. of Labor study points out that there are currently 115,520 janitors in the US with a Bachelor's Degree...... in 11 states, Welfare pays more than the average pretax 1st year wage for a first year teacher in those states.... in 39 states today, welfare pays more than the starting wage for a secretary.... in the 3 most generous states for welfare, a person on welfare can take home more money than an entry level computer programmer..... finally, the 2012 college debt by graduates has now topped a staggering 1 trillion dollars ( and the Gov't's debt is about to top 17 trillion dollars in debt by... this Labor Day.)

Sources :

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324619504579029282438522674.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/08/19/work-or-welfare-what-pays-more/

Edited August 29, 2013 by BRASSO

[mingusmonk]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

Am I the only one that was waiting for a link to a spammy/scammy website on how to pursue the life of your dreams while making $2000 week ... WORKING FROM HOME IN YOUR SPARE TIME!!

Maybe some kind of IPB spam-blocker filter the link.

[troon8]

For any high school / college students who love drum corps / band but because you view it as a hobby, wouldn't consider being a band director or a professional musician as a career, follow your passion and get paid for what you love to do. It makes life a lot simpler.

It'll make life a whole lot of things, some good, some not, but..........simpler??? Really?!

[rayfallon]

Nice theory but where are the jobs available?

There are very few education positions available nationwide because of cutbacks, shifting demographics, the woeful economy forcing those presently in these positions to postpone retirement, and/or the various perspectives of what makes a good scholastic music program (eg. vertical teaching, comprehensive ensemble offerings, etc.) not just band.

Music ed/music performance majors without additional licensing in ancillary subjects, particularly foundational subjects such as math. languages, special ed, and the sciences are not even being given the ed. interviews anymore in today's job market. "Because we want a good marching band!" no longer drives the hiring office or school boards. Only in a few "sunshine" states are there many open job positions usually given to those who graduate from local state university programs.

Add to this the staggering long time statistic that almost HALF of all music ed/music performance majors who take teaching jobs leave education for other employment within five years. (cf. studies done by professional educational journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education et al. for better citations for these statistics.)

Usually the reason given includes one of these: need for fundraising when I just want to be a teacher, hassles with school board, hassles with dealing with the parents, I didn't want to get involved in budgets, school politics, and/or the fact that the students didn't have the same passion for the same importance for music education and skills as did the young educator. Fault sometimes lies with the college degree programs only sending student teachers to preferred, but not always realistic, experiences and failing to give realistic experiences in dealing with school administration hierarchy and priorities, budget restraints, and advanced skills in psychology and counselling to deal with the myriad personnel and family situations.

Idealism is wonderful but it doesn't pay the college loans so many will have face upon getting the sheepskin.

I've had to pick up too many fractured dreams from too many corps alumni and former students to support this without further planning and networking. I hope your experience is better.

I'll be 62 in 2 weeks and I just want to reply to your basically sound remarks with this observation: You're going to work your entire life. You are going to be underpaid and underchallenged a good portion of that worklife. If you're doing a job you don't have some level of passion for you will burn out in a short time. I believe this to be a fact. Teaching isn't for everyone. Music as a career isn't for everyone. But if you have that sense that it is what you were born to do and you don't follow that sense, you will be more unhappy than a mountain of student loans will make you. If it's what you burn to do, you get the credentials you need, you build your resume' and you follow through on your dream. Living your life in a dream is a bad prescription, but living without a dream is far worse.

And as soon as you start to feel bitter about the whole thing, start retooling, because you can't count on dying young like James Dean or Kurt Cobain. One could stay bitter for more than 5 decades. That is a long friggin' time.