To not understand why parents encourage music

[angryeumigrant]

when classical musicians earn so little.

The real money in music is in music production, composing, DJing, club nights, breakthrough bands, etc. Even that is not what it was in say the 1980s. There is next to no money in classical music performance.

I'll all for children learning to play an instrument for pleasure, read music, music theory, etc. However, I do wonder why parents would not actively discourage their children from spending too much time playing an instrument during GCSE / A-Levels. I think it's one of those things that is considered a "good thing" without it ever getting looked at objectively.

I would much rather my child was composing electronic music or sounding a computer game than reaching a top level playing the violin, because frankly the former is not only more creative but also more career-enhancing.

"Surely it can only ra good thing to encourage exposure to as many different things as possible? Music, sport, whatever."

Whois - only if it doesn't take the child away from more important/useful subjects in my opinion. In my time at least we had our options at 14 and you could drop important subjects that really should have been compulsory. People couldn't believe it when I went to other countries in Europe and told them I dropped geography at 14 and that some of my friends dropped history at that age.
I took music instead of Business Studies and nobody at school or at home told me how useful Business Studies would have been. (As I posted above, I was no good at music anyway).

It's not about money. It's about them having a hobby to focus on.
Plus music is.... Inspirational. Therapeutic. Picks you up when you're down. What's not to love

I'm quite envious of really musical friends, because they can lose themselves in a piece of music they are playing, sometimes for hours on end. I really enjoy playing music when I can, but for me it takes a lot of hard work and practice to learn a piece. I still enjoy doing it, however.

My friend's offspring must be an exception, they teach music at an extremely posh school and he's not skint, not by a long shot.

Why does anyone have a hobby?????
Time out from the daily grudge is a good start.
If one concentrates only on one thing, they will have a narrow view on life.
'Variety is the spice of life'
Yes, sometimes it might get in the way of more important things, you just have to scale it down for a while.
To keep something up when it's hard/time consuming/ your tired, is good practice for a child's adult life to come, as long as it's not futile.
Tiger mums don't let their children have any fun/down time/ hobbies!!
Life is to be lived, not endured xxxxx

Music can provide an instant social life later in life; I play in an amateur orchestra in a town that has a lot of people moving in and out for jobs, and so many people who have just moved here come and join as a way of starting to meet people and get involved. There are many orchestras and choirs of all different levels, so that even people who haven't played much since school can have the chance to play again and experience some of the fun and social aspects of it.

Also loads of people try out instruments to find out whether they are going to take to it - they might love it, they might want to become a soloist or have a career in an orchestra, and you don't know those things until you really work at it for a while. I love it now, but even so, there were times when I had to be encouraged to practise and didn't particularly want to do it. Very glad I continued, though. So parents do need to keep up with the encouragement, as interest, love, talent etc are not always immediately apparent.

It does seem to be more of a middle class thing, but I don't think it's because it's seen as 'you have to do it because you're middle class or want to be seen as such', but more that it costs money; it needs parents who are involved and quite often have had musical background themselves, so somewhat self-perpetuating; it needs parents who find out about and encourage into all the other opportunities such as local orchestras, summer courses, festivals, etc; it needs parents who have the time to support practice and driving all over the place for lessons and concerts; it is seen as a bit elitist by some and people will actively choose other types of music because of a sort of reverse snobbery, etc. So it does end up being more common in middle classes. I don't think it's much to do with whether the parents think they ought to do it even though it might be useless in terms of making money. I think they just see it as a chance to involve the child in something that can be fun, good for their brains, satisfying, beautiful, creative, etc., and to see if children show an aptitude for it. I'm sure they also try out dance, and sport, and other hobbies, for similar reasons.

Gwen you just didn't make the right choices FOR YOU whereas other former students may have made the same choices and not regretted them.

I was always hopeless at school, and it's only really now that I'm going relatively OK. I didn't take business studies yet I'm setting up an engineering business along with my OH. What you are interested in at 14 isn't necessarily what you are interested in at 40.

I can only talk for myself, I have played flute since before I can remember. It soothes my soul. I play for no one but me and the music flows through me and it gives me peace.

That's why I want my dc to play to have an opportunity to create sound that flows through their souls.

Can I just correct the "it will ward of dementia thing". That's not true. My dad sang in choirs and played in groups all his life and got dementia at 68. Music can be beneficial for the brain but won't "ward off" dementia.

OP I started a thread a month or so ago along the same lines - saying that I wasn't convinced art/music/drama should be compulsory at secondary stage because my 12 year old has not got a musical bone in his body and is forced through 2 x 50 minutes a week of practical music which he loathes.

Music is very important to some people. Fair enough. But it's not important to lots of other people who would rather have Radio4 on than Classic FM, don't listen to music in the house, don't go to concerts and just aren't interested in music.

I completely agree that there are lots of other ways to use your imagination, be creative and develop new skills. Coding is a great example of that.

It just seems that for some people music is this "thing" which must be respected and held in great esteem rather than just another subject or interest which you might choose and might not.

Sukey,

Sorry to hear about your dad but it is possible her would have got dementia even earlier without music. Here is a link to show that it may well help delay (not forever!) dementia:

edition.cnn.com/2013/08/31/health/music-dementia-link/

OP your original premise is wrong. It is based on the false notion that parents encourage music in order to facilitate a career in music. They don't, and the fact that you think that says a lot about you...

I agree with all the posts above about the huge stress-busting, social and other benefits of extra-curricular music. I also just wanted to add that I have a degree in music after playing an instrument since I was young. I now work on the business side of classical music and earn plenty, thanks! I couldn't do my job without my particular degree.

Oh dear, OP, you come across as someone who was forced to do activities you were neither any good at nor had any interest in. Don't take that out on those of us who were good at them, took pleasure out of them, got to travel around the world with them and then got well paid careers unrelated to them. If you want to force your neurotic, perfectionist children to do computer coding instead, then go ahead - nobody is stopping you.

Because wherever they end up in the world, whatever they end up doing for a day job, they will find a ready-made group of friends who can work as a team together to create something they can all understand, even if they don't speak the same languages.
Because it aids other types of learning
because it takes discipline and practise, which are good groundings for any career
Because it's fun

There's only one thing to be said. Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Anyone who can make music like that, whether by composing, conducting or even contributing a little tinkly bit somewhere in the middle of the 2nd movement, has my profound respect, admiration and envy. Who cares if they're paid a lot or a pittance? It's beautiful. If you don't "get it" you're missing out. Excuse me, I need to grab another tissue...

ps The William Tell Overture and the Blue Danube waltz are nearly music too.

Annie, Beethoven's 6th - oh yes. Divine. I was extremely tolerant to repeated watches of "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" with DD because it was the background music

OP are you my mum by any chance? I was forced to give up a place on the county music course and in the youth orchestra to focus on my academic A levels. Even then the school had to call her in to tell her that universities would be equally happy with Latin and Greek as politics and economics...
First thing I did at college was join the choir: first choir practice met my DH - a post grad chemist so not someone I'd have had much to do with if I hadn't been musical. A highly paid and intensely boring City career later led to major PND because I had suppressed my creative side. Now I teach and research music and am much happier. However, I still hanker after the missed opportunity to be a musician. Losing that practice and performance time at the point in my life when I would have really been able to absorb repertoire and technique means that it is no longer an option for me.

My dds both play. Dd1 (13) has SEN issues but is taking her Grade 8 piano on Wednesday. She is obsessed with music and there is no way I am going to step in and tell her to choose another career. DD2 enjoys the kudos of being one of only 2 girls in year 7 playing in the senior chamber ensemble and the only girl in the school to play the harp. It means she has a range of friends across the year groups. Both also sing in a cathedral choir and are off on tour next week - the programme has a range of concerts and services in amazing places plus several highly educational sightseeing trips. IMO they are far better educated by singing in the choir - Latin, public speaking, RE and Shakespeare are not difficult for them. They also both know that sometimes you have to graft at something and will do so. That has to be a highly useful skill in the workplace.

There is a condition called amusica

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4655352.stm

Which makes hard to enjoy music. I wonder if the op is afflicted.

I know plenty of adults who play instruments as adults, in various bands and orchestras, some classical, some not. They all learnt as children. None of them do it professionally, though one does do paid gigs some weekends (or did, till he became a father.) Most of the others do charity things, where their band or orchestra plays and monies raised are for the charity (sometimes after costs.) Some just play by themselves. They do it because it's fun, absorbing, social, relaxing (or at least stressful in a different way from work!)

And they all do work, mostly in academic and tech roles - including programming.

I don't make music, but I do swim and knit and garden, none of which is going to make me money, but I think it does make me a more rounded person than just doing work and housework would. Music helps people be more rounded, able to see other perspectives. Life isn't just about economic utility.

Surely quite a few of the people who are involved in all sorts of other music activities, electronic, composing, gigs, etc. will have had classical training anyway, which will have given them the skills they can then transfer to other areas.
I'm pretty sure that Freddie Mercury, among many others, had had classical piano training.

I did jury service recently and on the panel was a bloke of maybe late 20s, who worked for a small, specialist record company, and spent most of his evenings playing the keyboard at gigs in clubs,
I asked whether he'd always played, and he said yes, he'd taken his post grade 8 diplomas in both classical piano and violin at 14.
He also said it would take him just 15 minutes to learn a new piece for his (very non classical) gigs.
Given that he evidently really enjoyed his jobs, I can't think that his musical education was wasted.

Whois - only if it doesn't take the child away from more important/useful subjects in my opinion.

Ah, I think I disagree.

I get a lot of enjoyment as an adult from my sport and music, both of which I doubt I would do now if I hadn't done as a child.

Giving up sport and music wouldn't have made available enough time to have studdied an extra A level.

No-one seems to have made the point that coding and music are not mutually exclusive. All the really truly good coders I know are also pretty musical, including one that was previously a professional opera singer.
They are also people who have put in an incredible amount of work by themselves, learning programming languages, coming up with algorithms, testing things over and over again.

The big difference I think though is working in a group. The musicians I know all find bands, choirs, orchestras etc incredibly rewarding, whereas coding in a team is in the main soul destroying, where you're constantly stymied by idiots that cannot do what they say they can, whose code is riddled with errors, bug, completely undocumented, who have no concept of teamwork, play politics, anything other than actually doing some hard work!

Anniegetyourgun - 6th???? It's all about the 3rd!

What Eroica said! I can both code and play music, though I get paid more for the former...

Another person here who had classical music training as a kid/teenager and am still playing non-classical music today - playing/singing in a group or choir is one of the most rewarding, satisfying things I've done, and I don't think I'd be able to do it as much if I hadn't got the basic grounding in music I got from lessons. I'm not an amazing musician, but I have the skills/muscle memory to make the sounds I want (mostly).