Being a music major is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I have ever done. Music is a beautiful language, intricate and beautiful to study. That doesn’t mean, however, that majoring in music doesn’t have its fair (or unfair) amount of struggles to live with sometimes. So, here is an honest list of the struggles that the typical music major faces:
1. People think you’re taking the ‘easy’ route.
Clearly these people are not involved with music. Getting into a music program in college is often competitive and difficult, and it’s not easy to stay in either. You have to take lessons for your instrument, music history classes, education courses (if you’re a music education major), piano proficiency (also known as death), music theory (some equate it to rocket science), classes on learning to play all the instruments known to man, basic conducting classes, orchestra, band and/or choir ensembles… Have I also mentioned that you have to practice all your instruments outside of class, complete your university requirements, compete in solo competitions, juries, and graduate in four years? Yeah, we major in music because it’s easy.
2. If you’re a Music Education major, sometimes other education majors think you picked your subject because it was ‘easy’ too.
My academic coach told me that he firmly believes that Music Education is the most difficult major on campus, even in comparison to Nursing and Engineering. This makes sense in my mind. You’re basically double majoring in both Music, a busy major in itself, and Education, another busy major. Music courses are often offered in lower credits so then you can take more classes and not go over the 18-credit threshold, still managing to graduate in four years. Even once you leave the University, teaching music isn’t easy. Have you taught music theory to young people before? Have you taught a blossoming violinist how to hold his or her bow properly? Have you tried to explain what part of the upper body to sing in? I’m not saying that Music is vastly more challenging to teach than other subjects, but I think it has its own set of challenges that make it rival core subjects.
3. Locking yourself in a practice room.
When you’re not in class, you have to do this thing called practicing. Oftentimes it requires a lot of willpower to tear yourself away from your friends and social life because you have to practice. The phrase “I can’t, I have to practice” is far too real. Granted, once you’re in “the zone,” practicing for an hour and a half on your violin is rather relaxing and one of your favorite things. But when you realize you have to practice all your minor scales for piano proficiency and you need to work on your trumpet embouchure, it can all feel a little bit daunting. Sometimes, it's so overwhelming you end up deciding to take a nap in the practice room instead. Oops.
4. Piano Proficiency.
Many, if not most, music majors have either very limited to no experience with playing the piano upon entering college. So when you have to take a class that expects you to suddenly play reasonably well, it’s definitely overwhelming. Did I also mention that you cannot graduate until you pass all the sections of your piano proficiency test? It’s cute when you only miss one or two sections your freshman year, but once it’s the end of your sophomore year to your junior year, your life becomes all panic. Stories and urban legends circulate about previous students who took an extra 1-2 years to graduate because of piano proficiency keep you motivated and awake at night.
5. Juries.
I have learned to love performing in front of people, but this does not mean I'm not stressed about juries. Juries is when you perform a solo piece or two on your primary instrument in front of the music department faculty and they decide if you’ve made enough improvement for you to graduate on time. Much like piano proficiency, you can’t graduate until you pass all your juries. This can be nerve-wracking, and at my school, this lands on the first day of finals week, which always puts me in a full-on adrenaline rush.
6. Being a music major doesn’t leave a lot of room for taking other classes.
I have the problem where I want to take literally every humanities class offered on campus. I want to study languages, theology, philosophy, literature, history—you get the idea. Unfortunately, I cannot take all the classes I want because I am a music major. It probably won’t be until my senior year that I can take one or two of these extra classes. Even then, most other music majors don’t have the room to take any other classes they’re interested in, and that can be hard.
7. Job security is, um, questionable, for those in music careers.
When the recession hit in 2008, many Americans were clutching their wallets tightly, which resulted in music and arts programs being cut in public schools. Symphony orchestra concerts gained increasingly less revenue and music-related fields were first on the chopping block. These sorts of things greatly affected performers, music educators and composers alike. If another economic dip happens, well, our jobs will probably go with it. Even when the economy is doing well, the job prospects in the music field are limited to teaching in schools, private studio, a youth symphony or performing in a professional symphony orchestra or choir. It can sometimes feel uncertain or scary to think about the future, but you still hold onto that glimmer of hope that it will all work out.
8. It takes over your life…
When the majority of your class and life schedule is made up of music classes, you become one of those ‘music nerds.’ It doesn’t take long before you realize you can't think, speak or breathe anything that is not music related. You either have a song from orchestra rehearsal in your head, you’re thinking that you should be practicing, you plan your summers around interning with local youth symphonies or you air conduct the piece of music that’s stuck in your head. Soon your enthusiasm for music is apparent when you interact with your non-music major friends. It can be a little startling when they don’t share the same level of enthusiasm about serialism and atonality that you do, but that doesn’t keep you from being engrossed in it anyways.
9. …But you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Yes, being a music major can be the ultimate struggle. I won’t deny that it is. However, being a music major brings forth all these challenges that are so rewarding in the end. One of the best feelings is being able to compose a short piece your professor liked, nailing that difficult run on your concerto piece, passing your piano proficiency test or seeing one of your violin students playing her first piece perfectly. These things bring a joy that makes all the struggles worth it, and that’s part of the reason why we major in music in the first place. Music is a beautiful thing that unites people through a shared language despite cultural, racial, gender and socio-economic lines. The personal toll is ultimately worth the beauty it reaps, and I know I won't regret majoring in music in the end.
