Taking a Break

[pittbassdaddy]

I've already given up on engineering graduates being able to string a dozen words together to make an expressive, complete sentence.

i r engineer.

If it pays the bills, any job that you enjoy is a good thing!

[Donn]

The need to offer career advice for someone you don't know leads to quite a lot of hand-waving generalities, I see.

[Kevin_Iaquinto]

Chiming back in here. My parents have been talking to me about higher education and my mom is convinced that I need a college degree to get anywhere in life. I'm just enjoying my job and really enjoying not having to sit in a classroom all day long. I want to advance in life, but I really don't want to shackle myself with student loan debt and end up with a degree in something that I might not like/be able to use.

I've thought about going into a trade before, being an electrician has always sounded interesting to me. I have also thought about instrument repair too. Not sure where I'm headed, but I like where I am right now.

I enjoy reading the banter that goes on in this thread.
Thanks, Kevin.

[Three Valves]

Banter??

What you are reading is a metaphysical struggle for your soul!!

[Kevin_Iaquinto]

Your mother is basing her advise on what was true when she was growing up in America, and she only wants the best for you.
Things are changing very fast.
Just as another example (sure...elecrician, but...) welding is one of the highest-paying blue collar jobs there is, and there is a tremendous shortage of them in America.
If you are good with your hands and good with attention to detail...and good with not cutting corners...and good with following procedural and safety rules, I'd bet you could become a very highly in-demand welder...who (unlike many professional tuba players and band directors) could afford most any tuba you would like to own.

I'm sure you've read enough to know that there are many boards of education (as well as orchestra boards of directors) who think very little of their teachers/musicians.

https://www.google.com/search?q=welder+ ... 8&oe=utf-8

Many welding jobs only pay about what teachers are paid, but - with very talented welders, six figures is not terribly uncommon...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-140-000 ... 1420659586

As for college teaching jobs, the operative words today are "string-along-for-three-years-and-don't-award-tenure" and "adjunct"...this while (again) tuition continues to skyrocket, as "tuition loan money" is low-hanging fruit (for suckers). When you investigate top university administrators' salaries and check out the luxurious new facilities (student unions that rival the most upscale malls), stadiums, and arenas, you know where all that Pell money is going (not to faculty).

My spanish teacher, a really "old fashioned" guy, spoke a lot about welding and about how certain people weren't right for a college education, I didn't think much of it back then, but it makes a lot of sense. He wasn't too keen on me going into music anyways. I think one of his sons was an underwater welder. Spoke very highly about him.

[deholder]

Kevin,
As a college professor and a nobody on this forum, I applaud you making a tough, and existential call. Yes do what makes you happy, but don't forget to build empire too

My classroom is filled with folk returning to college, or career switchers, most are happy and are just furthering themselves to what life is bringing them right now. Some degrees you need to start as soon as you are able (getting into med school only gets harder as you get older). But many degrees are designed to grow and provide as you build and mature in your career. Continue making smart choices, have a plan both short term and long term. Learn stuff and enjoy building your life and independence. Stay out of debt and be happy.

One last thing, don't forget that happiness is a choice.

David

[southtubist]

OP, you seem to be taking a similar path I took. I had good training as a tuba player, and I practiced a lot. People were telling me I was going to be successful as a player, etc.

Anyway, I got burned out, and then I realized that even if I won a tuba job, I'd (at best) be making a lower middle class income in a large city. I don't even like large cities! So, I switched to a different college and career field. I only kept going to college because it was almost free- I should be able to pay off my loans in under 6 months with the median starting salary in my field.

If I wasn't lucky with college being affordable, I would have either gone to trade school or joined the military. I thought about being a merchant marine, pilot, welder, machinist, etc. My college degree (forestry) is more like trade school than most degrees in that it is designed to prepare me for a job. I got in thinking I'd be out in the woods every day, but I'm finding that I also have to be on the cutting edge of computer technology if I want to be competitive. It's a fun mix of everything!

You know what the best part is? You can put your horn down for a while and your skills will come right back. I put my horn down for 6-8 months once, and I sounded better when I picked it back up again! Don't worry about taking a break to figure things out; too few people stop to think about life, and they never end up satisfied in the end.

[bigtubby]

Coincidentally I heard a story on the radio this afternoon on my way home today. Made me think of some of the "no work" complaints I've read here.

“I don't think I really understood how much income I would probably be making and what I would be doing, getting music degrees,”

... and ...

Now you might be wondering, why didn't someone pull that 18-year-old aside and say, “are you sure you want to take on this much debt for degrees in trombone performance?”

There are likely more gigs available to T-Bone players than to Tubists but same idea.
https://www.marketplace.org/2016/11/02/ ... oan-burden

[EDIT] And of course I have a friend with a masters in oboe performance who has been making a very decent living for the last seven years - as a nude art model.

[Three Valves]

[EDIT] And of course I have a friend with a masters in oboe performance who has been making a very decent living for the last seven years - as a nude art model.

This is the internet, Pal.

Pics, or it didn't happen.

[Three Valves]

saw this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpE1Pa ... HXAZXDFnJB

[Kevin_Iaquinto]

Update on the break, I've started taking guitar lessons and I'm loving it, I'm able to play chord changes pretty well and I can play rhythm guitar to a couple metallica songs.

[Three Valves]

Guitar is good.

My left hand doesn't like it so much.

So I'm back on the bass!!

[Slamson]

Trying guitar, too? Leon Redbone would love it.

As another tuba professor (and another nobody, I suppose...), I realize that I see someone in your shoes a lot - and I see you all from a much different perspective than I did when I first started teaching. My advice to doubting tubists USED to be "if you have to ask yourself why you're doing this, then you shouldn't be doing this!" That all changed when I was playing one of the worst gigs I've ever played (anybody know "Slim Goodbody"? I'm not making this up...). I was so dejected about sitting there playing crap and wondering where the Mahler was that I really asked myself "why am I doing this?" In addition to the shame of violating my own advice, the next day I saw a picture in the paper that was shot from the side of the stage, showing me and my trombonist pals all sitting there, looking like we were hating every minute of it (we were!)
That's when I took stock of things and realized that everybody's going to have those days, weeks, months, or even years where they just need to back up and take a breath about what they're doing, including playing the tuba. Now when one of my students starts to act indifferent about practicing, playing, performing in general, I don't necessarily reject them as not being dedicated enough to play the instrument. I hope that you'll find your passion for the horn again, and more importantly that you'll always have a passion for the music it makes.

[Three Valves]

Anything can be a bummer when it is your job.

You should hear Catholic nuns talk shop.

Do I look like I'm having fun playing??

Well, I play FOR fun exclusively,

and I was LOADED!!