Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.Mojo workin' wrote:Don't get another piece of paper that says that you can play. If you've got serious aspirations to teach at the college level someday, continue on your path. If not, move to Chicago or New York or somewhere else to get yourself around a worldclass player and teacher, and study with and listen to him/her. Good schools are too damned expensive these days to get a degree from that will not give you secure marketable skills. I wish someone had said this to me about 15 years ago.
Phil Taylor
If I could give anyone advice as to the wisdom of pursuing an increasing supply, decreasing demand career such as tuba playing/teaching, I would say to forget the idea and choose one of these jobs-
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag ... /index.htm
When you are forty, have student loan and credit card debt and are trying to find a solid path financially as you will have to, your choices will be so much more abundant and clear if you have not chosen the tuba performance route. The world becomes more and more concerned with the accumulation of material wealth everyday, less and less concerned with preserving tradition or fine arts, etc. Well funded arts organizations are on the decline and will cease to exist in many ways by the time a present college student will hit senior citizen status. This may sound bleak, but I have watched the trend begin in my 15 or so years out of college.
Watch how your local professional sports team is supported as opposed to your local orchestra or opera company in the next few years, or review how they have been in the past five years. I would be surprised if the arts organizations are not reporting less and less ticket sales every year, and the football or baseball team not reporting record profits and ticket sales.
