Miguel de Maria -> RE: Guitar Performance Major (Mar. 15 2014 21:27:41)
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Here in Arizona, there are at most a handful of good university positions for CG. If you add jazz, maybe a few more. Then you have some community-college type jobs which, while requiring a degree, pay poorly and would never get you tenure or even full-time employment. To my knowledge, there are no university flamenco guitar jobs here. There are some music-store teaching jobs--some are good, most are bad. There are some in-the-cracks type of jobs like teaching music to preschoolers in the public school system. Some of these might actually pay well and have good benefits, but would not have much to do with music and would probably be very hard to get. Some of the people who get gigs have degrees, but no one cares whether they have them or not; they just happen to be people who took their education that far. (Essentially "failed" concert performers IMHO). I get a lot of gigs and I did not study music in school. I know plenty of CGers with masters or doctorate gigs who rarely play out. Some of the flamenco players have degrees, some not, but none in flamenco--and the degree does not get them their gigs. As you have noticed, there are plenty of guys, probably a large majority, with degrees that are basically out of music (or never got in). To me, the degree is just not worth it financially. I do regret never having been able to immerse myself totally in classical music--the solfege, part-writing, transcription, ensemble work, steady weekly lessons--etc. I am sure it would have made me a much better classical player. But it wouldn't have helped me make any more money. By the same token, I regret not being able to hang in Spain for a couple of years and be able to catch on with some group and really immerse myself in flamenco. There is a fellow here who did that, just for a couple years after college, and it was a good education for him. I think that each generation here in America has less and less opportunities in the jobs they can expect to find. More and more, you have to make your own job! It's not good, it just is. You seem to get this and are already doing it. In this outside the box endeavor, the degree doesn't help nearly as much as your own energy, ideas, promotional abilities, people skills, and networking. One last caveat: Having a degree of any sort still is a sort of "socioeconomic marker" that might eventually effect how you are treated and perhaps how much money you can make. So if you can get one without too much expense, it might be worth it. Best of luck to you!
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