Anyone your offspring planning / doing music at uni ?

[Helenluvsrob]

Parents eve with dd2 last night. She's no idea re uni courses. She was anti music, but it's her easiest and best subject. I think she's under confident (her a level group has 2 NYO members for instance ) .

If she does I guess we'd have to push the grade 8 exams through etc for applications.

Music and history ( or even better music and history of music) might grab her better than single hons music I guess.

Or then again she might do something else entirely !

My DD is now seriously considering it, but as she is only 10 I expect she will change her mind a few more times yet. Sorry, that's probably not the helpful sort of response you were looking for, was it?

I wrote a reply earlier then deleted it because I didn't have a deal to contribute either. DS wants to study music, probably at university rather than conservatoire but as he's only in Y11 we're a long way from looking at it seriously.

Thinking about it you might get more response if you also post under secondary education, there are a few threads on there relating to sixth form so you've more chance of finding posters with older children.

Damn as I suspected! I suspected there might be interest but mostly too young here :) and the mums I remember who have recently moved on have been conservatoire applications I think. Ah well!

My son studied Music at university - best thing he could have done. He's now studying composing for film and tv - absolutely loves it.

My DS2 is also just in Y8, so I have nothing useful to contribute, but am watching with interest!

It must be hard when they don't have any idea yet of what they want to do with the rest of their lives, it's quite frustrating at the opposite end where they see the One True Way and won't even look at anything else.

I started off doing a music and modern languages degree in a highly rated uni. Quit music. I think other subjects have better career prospects tbh- our intake was full of wannabe pro musicians but pretty much everyone has ended up teaching, nothing wrong with that per se but if your daughter definitely doesn't want to teach she might want to think again.
I also think music departments are often quite cliquey, fine as long as you are part of the clique (I wasn't).
The mistake I made was doing music because music was my main hobby,
In fact I could have done almost all the amazing musical stuff I did do at uni (fab symphony orchestra etc) without studying it.

In most unis, starting off on a joint honours degree, as I did, is great for keeping options open.

Thank you all. I'll try resisting on secondary / higher. Though I find those place a bit scary - it's always implied you are overestimating your child's abilities in some way. You lot are always so lovely!

Just as an aside - I have a family member who earns their living as a classical musician (performer, composer, ensemble manager). Their degree was in a completely unrelated science subject... and similarly 'indirect' routes are common amongst their peers.

Music is one of those things where a degree in the subject is not a 'routine' route into a related career.

So if she wants to be a musician, but is interested in another academic subject, do that other subject because the music will always be there as an option. If she is interested in music as an academic subject but is not interested in it as a career,. then my understanding is that it is a perfectly respectable academic degree in its own right.

Frazzled... the older 2 have continued with " hobby" music at high level whilst doing other subjects - they have choral scholarships ( and I reckon dd2 will be looking for one ) ds does play with the uni symphony orchestra too but the clique ness is still clear I think. Ds especially finds the fact that the music students aren't necessarily good sight readers very frustrating too.

Teacher ....dh is a sort of career musician with a very unrelated degree lol

I think a gap year might help!

I could have written Frazzled's post. I loved music as a hobby, flew through GCSE and a level and all the grades easily. My main instrument teacher wanted me to go to music college but I wasn't sure. So I went to a good uni and did music with modern languages and dropped the music after a year. Everyone else on the course wanted to be a professional musician, they dedicated hours every night to practicing which I had never done and couldn't get into the habit of when all my friends were going out every night in first year. This didn't help with my confidence in my ability although before uni I had been very high achieving musically. Some of the people from that course are professional musicians now. Most are teachers. Who knows if things would have been different if I had gone to music college!
Your son might love music at university but from my experience he needs to be already dedicated before he starts, which is difficult if it has always been a hobby.

I wanted to reply because I have a music degree. Yes a lot of the students on my course are now teachers. Some are professional musicians. Some have moved in to other fields. Yes you need to be dedicated, particularly if performance is where your interest lies. But I personally went on a more general route. I gained skills in many areas I didn't expect to. Some things I hated some things I loved. It opened up doors I wouldn't have otherwise known about. I ended up training in technical theatre at a prestigious theatre school and now work professionally in Ballet. My music degree has helped me without a doubt. We were told at college to study a subject we were interested in not just what job it would lead to. Have a look at courses and see what they have to offer. The future isn't just teaching or performing.

DD has always said that she is not interested in music at uni, because she doesn't want to make her hobby into an obligation, but at one point she was quite interested in the idea of a music-related technology degree (acoustics, sound engineering, that sort of thing). She is an all-rounder which makes settling on a single subject more difficult (fortunately she is doing a baccalaureat, not A levels, because whittling her subjects down to four would be impossible!).

She has now set her heart on medicine which solves the problem.