So, so true.
We are truly the freaks of the music world. Ask anyone, we truly do get weirder than any cat lady ever thought about being. One friend of mine called it competitive oboing, and I think he was right.
My daughter is here with me right now. First she wants to say to Contrary that she is stealing the phrase “competitive oboeing” (with or without the e) because it is so appropriate.
Now, back to the subject. My daughter is a student at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She chose this school because of the oboe professor and because of the schlarship opportunities offerred. She is now looking at graduate schools in Iowa to pursue a double masters in library science and music.
Here’s what she has to say:
Being a music major is hard and time consuming. There is no reason you have to major in music to continue playing and enjoying it. One of the better flute players here is a psych major who plans on having a flute studio (teaching) as a “hobby job.”
I have observed, and my teachers have confirmed, that many highly skilled skilled players begin their college careers and are initially able to compete for top orchestral positions. Even with minimal practice, they generally maintain their skill level. But they also tend not to improve significantly. Players with less skill but a determined practice ethic, passion for music, and willingness to listen to their teachers, frequently improve sufficiently within a year or two to move ahead and get the coveted first chair solos. Music performance majors who don’t have a passion for their instrument or the discipline to practice frequently drop out or change majors.
This, of course, would not really be a problem for your daughter, since she’s still exploring her options. It’s perfectly ok to be undeclared or undecided.
I like this suggestion. You get to participate and hang around yet aren’t subjected to the more strenuous requirements of music majors. This is the avenue I took and was perfect for me. I got to participate and expanded my knowledge of music, while not being forced to dedicate every waking moment to my course of study.
Is this the kind of remark she would take offense too or be motivated by, because in my experience music faculty are extremely critical in their opinions and notoriously blunt about expressing them. In fact I believe almost the exact same words came out of a professor’s mouth towards two horn players during one rehearsal.
You really do kind of have to be a little obsessed to make it your life. I know one music performance major got upset when our professor told her to not have a boyfriend because he distracted her from practice and study.
But yeah, I reiterate the “Music Minor” suggestion. You get the same cool classes and ensemble opportunities without the requirements and criticism.
Here was my progression of practicing as a music major.
1st Year: 2 hours a week
2nd year: 2 hours a day
3rd year: 3 hours a day
4th year: 3 hours a day
5th year: 3 hours a day + 1 hour of composition
University pushed me and it worked great. I miss the pushing I had there now that I’m in the real world. Remember that when she becomes surrounded by people who are working hard, it will rub off on her.
Went to see my eldest in a concert yesterday. She said there were kids in the various ensembles who were not music majors. My youngest’s high grades and test-taking ability might enhance her ability to score some cash.
She has a pretty major audition tomorrow eve. How well she does might tweak her feelings one way or the other. I don’t know that she has been practicing enough, but i’ve said that before…
I know my competitive oboeing side really kicked in once I did have that partial scholarship–I practiced enough to take principal chair from the performance majors in every ensemble I was in. Your daughter may be the same way, especially if she’s the big fish now with the little effort she’s putting in.
She is a competitive little cuss, so that is a distinct possibility!
Since I’ve got you music majors here, I’d like to ask another question: about (cue dramitic music) stage fright.
My youngest says she experiences considerable stage fright before every performance. I was wondering what approaches you have experienced as being successful in dealing with it - either your own or other musicians you have known.
Background - when she was in 7th grade, after playing bassoon for less than a year, she won the 1st winds competition she entered, regional for grade schoolers. It had a cash prize, subject to the winners of all the divisions (Sr and Jr winds, strings, and piano) performing at a concert. Long story short, she rested on her laurels, didn’t practice and bombed abyssmally at the concert. I mean, think of the worst performance you have ever experienced, and it was that bad.
Well, ever since then, she is really terrified of screwing up that badly again. (Apparently it is not enough to make her practice more!) 
She has been in many solo and group performances over the past 3 years, hasn’t screwed up any, but still dreads performances the day of.
Any thoughts?
Ah stage fright.
I got over stage fright in a couple of ways.
First, a good friend who started a pretty successful Dixieland band gave me excellent advice. He told me I needed to practice positive self-talk, which about made me hurl because it sounded so new-agey. But I knew he never got nervous so I heard him out.
He told me to tell myself only truthful positive statements that contained no negative words. For example, I could say “I can play this solo without error,” but I *couldn’t *say “I won’t make any mistakes.” I gave it a try (IIRC we were playing Saint Saens organ concerto which has some delightful oboe bits in it and I really did not want to screw up), and to my surprise, it worked.
The second part of overcoming stage fright was, honestly, just performing all.the.time.
It’s hard to get nervous when you perform constantly because it’s equally hard to sustain that level of nerves all the time. Prior to going to college, I was a musician in the US Army which meant a lot of marching—you can’t really march with an oboe, and since I’d originally started on flute, I played piccolo for marching gigs and for any marches.
So what’s the one piccolo solo EVERYONE knows? Yep, the Stars & Stripes Forever. The first dozen or so times I played that sucker, I about puked from nerves, and my vibrato was “enhanced” by the way my hands shook. But after playing it about a bazillion times, I just couldn’t get worked up about it any more.
This is very very true.
After a particular bad attack of nerves in one concert, I had a long talk with my teacher about it. One thing that stuck with me was her pointing out that it’s a very natural reaction (fight-or-flight adrenalin rush) to a very unnatural situation into which you’ve put yourself. To be able to cope with it reliably, far better to be able to play despite this reaction, then trying to find a way to prevent it happening (which may fail you sometimes).
Playing lots, performing lots, allows you to come to terms with how nerves affect you physically, what you can expect, and how to mentally and technically prepare yourself for what’s likely to happen.
Oh almost forgot–the other thing that helped me with stage fright was realizing after a concert where I’d played flawlessly was that the music was already over and done with.
I am sure that sounds really odd, but I realized as soon as I’d played the notes, they were gone forever, whether I’d played them perfectly or not.
It took a nearly flawless performance for me to get that and I’m sure it does sound really odd. But it helped me a ton WRT stage fright or getting all worked up over whether I’d played well or not.
re: stage fright… my motto is “feel the fear and do it anyway.”
Just knowing that nerves are a normal response to stress, that no one outside of me is aware of my nerves, and that the pressure of performing actually heightens many elements of what I do, helps me accept the pre-concert nerves and get zen with it.
If I just go out and do it, everything usually goes well if I’m prepared.
Going back to your OP, if I were in your shoes I would only try to answer two questions for myself.
-
Does my daughter have a passion for pursuing music as a vocation?
-
Is my daughter prepared to deal with the likely consequences of pursuing a degree program that offers few/no immediate opportunities for gainful employment after graduation?
If the answers were yes, I’d encourage her. After all, she could always study something else later if she decides the music world is not for her.
If not, I’d suggest rethinking things. I have 3 music degrees, and I teach music at the University level, and the only students I worry about are the ones who either don’t care enough/work hard enough to succeed, or who have unrealistic expectations about what the world will offer them when they finish.
Good luck!
~fig
I think professionals prefer the term “performance anxiety” though some never do get over it.
My sister has a Professor that admits to having some very severe anxiety issues when he preforms. My senior year one of the faculty decided to actually start studying performance anxiety, not sure if it ever got off the ground though.
Yeah. I was not even a music major yet every other week I still had to go and play a section of whatever I was working on in front of everyone else from the string department (other students, grad students, the faculty).
While this experience was dreaded every time until I graduated, it wasn’t until my senior year that it occurred to me…“Wow, I used to be so nervous doing this!” The fact was it wasn’t a “performance” anymore, it’s just what you do. You’re a musician, you play music for people.
Contrary, you are full of epic and win. 
Maybe you fumbled a tough passage but, “Hey look at the bright side, It’s over and you’re never going to have to play that damn thing again!”
Those I know certainly just refer to ‘nerves’, at least conversationally. Possibly just division by a common language. Either way, I’d agree that ‘stage fright’ suggests something else, an almost paralysing condition.