It's the end of the semester...finals are done, sleep has been lost (never to be recovered), concerts played, and grades not yet posted. Nonetheless, my day feels a little incomplete now that I have nowhere to be until 10am (I know some of you are green with envy at that!). I have learned so much about my major and myself this last year that I feel the need to elaborate a little...I am a music major (technically music education but close enough). It's always interesting when someone finds out I am in college and they ask me what my major is. They seem very excited and interested, expecting me to say that I'm going to be a doctor or some big wig business mogul, then when I say that I am a music major, it's like, oh...well that's nice, so how's the weather...Now, I'm not saying that everybody is like that, but, I would just like to know why it is that being a medical student or business major is so intriguing yet majoring in the arts is "no big deal" Let me just for a moment give you a brief glance into the day of a typical undergrad music major:
6am: alarm goes off, press snooze
610am: repeat previous step
620am: repeat previous step
630am: repeat previous step
635am: use right leg to kick own butt out of bed
640am: finally wake up all the way to realize your feet are on the floor and it's go time
645-700am: brush teeth, comb hair (sometimes), get dressed (or stay in pajamas), locate car keys, find books, grab instrument, head to school
730am: get to school, realize your practice room has been commandeered by some lowly freshman that didn't even get an assigned practice room
735am: convince freshman to leave, assemble instrument, get some warm air moving, and begin practice session
855am: finish practice session, quickly clean and put instrument in case, grab books & instrument, head to first class (usually music theory or ear training--depending on the day this occurs at 755am instead)
900-950am: bombard brain with facts about genius composers and the amazing things they did, take massive amounts of notes, learn about the intricate workings of all kinds of music
10-1050am: next class (music history or general ed class) more learning and note taking
11-1150am: instrument studies--depending on the semester, could be strings, brass, percussion, or woodwinds
12-1250pm: Large ensemble rehearsal--reassemble instrument, get warm air moving, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
1-150pm: small ensemble rehearsal--repeat previous step
2-250pm: possible ensemble rehearsal or additional general ed required class
3-350pm: repeat previous step
4-450pm: repeat previous step
500pm: realize it's been nearly 24 hours since eating and search for nearest vending machine, or make a beeline for the campus cafeteria
515pm: kick freshman out of practice room again, assemble instrument, rinse mouth, practice
600pm: take break from practicing
605-730pm: continue practicing
730-800pm: finish practice session, clean and put away instrument, grab books, go home...on some days at this time--play a concert
800pm-????am: digest the days events and what was learned, do homework, do more homework, and if you are really lucky, eat again, possibly get a shower, and finally lay your head somewhere to get some sleep (hopefully not on your books as drool tends to ruin the pages)...
Of course this schedule varies for each of us, for me, you have to add take care of 3 year-old and work full time somewhere in the day, but you get the jist...Now, to anyone out there that thinks being a music major is just some fun, sit-on-your-butt-all-day-playing-music, easy shmeezy gig, you are sorely mistaken. Music majors are required to put in more time outside of the classroom than any other major, more classes are required and are generally worth less credits (while requiring a lot more additional work/practice outside the classroom), and we have to constantly work on our skills or we lose them. We basically have to combine our math, english (and other languages), psychology, writing, and history skills together and use them every single day...and we have to combine all of those things with sound and make it make sense. It's like calculus + science + sound...that equals music.
So, you may ask why would anyone WANT to major in music if so much is required? A professor of mine asked our class that question a couple of months ago (his question was "why are you in music?"). He asked each of us individually that same question...at first we thought he was just casually asking but he was serious. The room fell silent as he asked each of us why we are in music and what our dream is. He repeated the question for each person as he came to them...many had a difficult time answering. As I sat in my seat, listening to my classmates' answers, I realized something. I realized that we aren't in music just because we like it, or we like to perform, or we are good at it...we are in music because music is in us. Why else would we subject ourselves to such torcherous schedules? Why else would we willingly put ourselves through the stress of dealing with broken reeds, bent mechanisms, loose valves, broken strings...(this list goes on and on and on)... Because music is in us...it IS us. Any of you that are musicians, music teachers, majors, or students will completely understand what I mean by that. I'm definitely not saying that being a med student, business major, law student, etc. is easy, but the next time that someone says they are a music major, congratulate them on choosing such a challenging subject, encourage them to keep going and see it through--it's very difficult to be a music major without support.
Why all the ranting you ask? Well, I have been told a couple of stories by fellow music majors about how their families think it's sooooo awesome that their brother is in med school or their sister is graduating from law school but their family just blows off the fact that they are a music major--that's annoying. It's simply that people don't understand what it means and requires to do it. Like so many other things in life, you don't know what it's like unless you have gone through it...
I was in a pretty crappy mood all day today...could be for the reason stated above or could be that I have slept only about 22 of the last 120 or so hours--maybe both... Anyway about an hour ago I realized I hadn't listened to anything decent all day, haven't played my instrument in 3 days, and had no intriguing musical discussion today (i've spent the last year doing some or all of those things for at least 3 hours a day, 4-6 days per week). So, I turned on a little Mozart and then a little Rossini...and Voila! Good mood! Too bad I didn't think of that 15 hours ago :) If you made it this far in this post, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and the next time you hear a great piece of music or go to a great concert, I hope you will have a little better understanding of the proverbial "blood, sweat, & tears" that goes into preparing and presenting it!!
