You've just started college, or possibly you've completed a year or two and are contemplating a change. Time for decisions. Or, time to pick that major! And you (or your student)want to go into music. But, the questions are many: Do I possibly want to go into performing? Do I REALLY want to teach? Is there any other choice besides performing and teaching? Before you decide, you need to explore all the possibilities in music:

• Teaching elementary (you can get certification in more than one field, too)
• Teaching secondary performance groups
• Teaching at the college level (this can be possible with just a performance degree, although the competition is stiff)
• Music historian
• Developing music software (great if you have a talent in computers and/or art)
• Making or repairing instruments
• Recording studios (in the booth itself)
• Managing performers (how are you at the art of persuasion?) Music therapy (a field getting more and more positive recognition)
• Music ministry (organist or choir director)
• Paid accompanist
• Music marketing (this could involve selling, merchandising, advertising,etc. Many other talents can be involved in this)
• Music publishing
• Background performer
• Medical specialty in musician's performance injuries
• Working with an arts council
• Performing solo or with an ensemble
• Composition
• Ethnomusicology (study of world music)

Make a list of your (honest!)strengths and weaknesses, plus your interests. If you're strong in math and biology, the medical field might be for you. If you hate bookkeeping and can't be persuasive, better avoid merchandising! If you love kids, with what age group are you the most comfortable? If you really want to perform, don't rule out any of the others. (More on that later).

But, for for your sake as well as the students', do NOT go into teaching if you do not like kids or have no patience with those who do not catch on quickly. It's really detrimental. (For ways to find out if teaching's for you, please check last month's article.)

If you'd like to teach, but have extremely high expectations, you'd do better to go into private instruction or college instruction, or perhaps a secondary school that concentrates on the arts. If you're an excellent player, but hate pressure and don't take criticism well, better work in another field of music and perform on the side where you can do it for enjoyment.

If you're a teacher who has a student interested in the music field, please make sure you go over these checklists with him or her, and don't automatically push either performing or teaching as it. Talk with the student about his/her strengths and weaknesses. Ask them what other classes they enjoy in school. Describe each of these fields to the best of your ability. Whenever possible, arrange for them to meet professionals in the fields in which they might do well.

Encourage the music teachers at the private and public schools (if you know them well enough) to do a short unit on music careers, or do bulletin board displays, preferably still at the elementary stage when the seed might just begin to be planted. If the seed is planted early, these students may make choices in either their high school courses or choices in part-time jobs that will help them in the long run.

Your heart is set on performance,but you're getting all this double advice:
1)get a double major so you have something else to fall back on,or
2)pursue your dream! If you major in something else, you can't concentrate on practice!
OK, tough choice here. Let's start off with the reality (this is based on advice from other professionals, because I have never considered going into performance):going into performance, no matter HOW good you are, is tough and extremely competitive. There will be at least 50 like you at every audition. The openings for the really good jobs are rare. You have to be on your toes all the time, because there's always somebody else in the background ready to take your place should you slip. If you want to perform, your training needs to start before college. You need to involve yourself in as many performances and competitions as possible, right down to playing in church and weddings frequently. Your name needs to be out there early, and you need to get used to playing in front of all kinds of audiences. You need to take in the real, honest criticisms, and let petty criticisms slide. Once you get that job, you might possibly have to travel frequently. If you want a family, you will probably be at so many rehearsals, you won't see them as much as you like. More reality: very few of the people I went to college with who got performance majors only ended up staying in the field of music. When I posted this topic with various music lists and asked for input, all who responded on this topic said this: have a backup plan or degree so you can eat!

Keith Pettway from Delta State University says he advises almost 100% of his students to get an undergraduate music ed. degree. He told me about advice one of his former students received from John Wion at Hartt. She became interested in the field of music acoustics. John's advice (paraphrased): You can get your BM degree in performance, then you can go on for an MM in performance, then you can wait tables til a break comes-or you can get your acoustics degree and get a good job right away. You can keep up on your performance and if you later get a break, you'll be ready.

You can still go into performing with an education or bachelor of science degree in something else. The practice time you have to spend on your instrument for an education degree is just as much as it is for performance. You can even start out teaching (or working in the store, or whatever), and still perform. Then, if you one of the lucky ones who get playing jobs right out of college, great! You'll be ready. Plus, the education experiences of student teaching and teacher observations is good training for you, because many, many performers (even symphony people!) either give private lessons or teach part-time at universities and colleges. For a good idea of just what's out there in the field of music, check out the employment page at ArtsEdge. This is a wonderful, very extensive web site on all the arts.

Thanks to the following people who contributed ideas to this month's topic:

• Natalie Pessin Bliss from Theodore Presser Company
• Margaret Leong
• Kathy Ferneau
• Keith "Papa Smurf" Pettway

Contributions for this section are greatly appreciated, as well as topic requests. Please send your ideas in! Future article topics will include: sources for scholarships, teacher/student personality conflict resolutions, struggling with the course workload, and more.