berklee
 

been a while since i've posted here, but here goes: Graduated high-school last year, and have decided that I want to study bass.... I've been looking into berklee and I wanna know: Is it a good idea to go? what should I know for auditions? Any students or hopefulls advice is greatly appreciated! :thumb:

lol

Do you have $100,000? Probably cost you about that.

Next, axe Adam, Josh, or Phil. Bass forum guys who go there.

Plenty of great schools in the Toronto area. Save your money.

[QUOTE]Is it a good idea to go?[/QUOTE]
it depends
first off i'd have to ask what you want to do with studying bass.

if you're going to go school for 'Bass' i'd say don't do it. now if you're going to study 'Music'. then i'd say thats cool. but i'd first have to ask what do you want to do with your career as far as being involved in the music industry. do you want to Produce and Record, do you want to work in film or video games, do you want to be a songwriter, do you want to perform, what is it that you're looking to accomplish and are interested in?

what style of music do you enjoy playing? do you play upright aswell?

[QUOTE]what should I know for auditions?[/QUOTE]
as much as you can. now that they have auditions, good players are getting turned away. what do you have that makes you diffrent from everyone else?

Honestly, I'd discourage anyone from going to school for music if the ultimate goal is to make a living and support a family. Go to school for music if you're set in life and are interested in music for its own sake, or if you don't want to start a family and are okay with living a not so luxurious lifestyle. Music gigs are hard to come by and when you do, the pay is usually not ideal. And you'll find that the best paying gigs are on cruise ships, which may be cool when you're younger but as you grow older you'll find the travel a lot more stressful for you and your family. Musicians don't get benefits either.

And besides, most people who hire musicians aren't interested in whether or not you have a piece of paper that says you know how to play an instrument. They just want to know if you can do what the job requires. The only reason a music degree is gonna actually help you is if you are trying to become a college music professor. In that case, good luck because that's one of the hardest jobs to get.

[QUOTE=EADGC;16815079]Plenty of great schools in the Toronto area. Save your money.[/QUOTE]

I'm inclined to agree here, even though I go to Berklee. Berklee is expensive as hell (even on scholarship), and it WILL drown you if you aren't up to the challenge. Like any music school, bass will be a secondary concern and music (theory, ear-training, practice) will be the focus. Berklee isn't any different from any other school in terms of musical instruction and quality of the cirriculum and teacher - what you're paying for is the variety of options the school has available to you that aren't available anywhere else, and the shear number of CONTACTS and people to interact and play with music with on and outside of campus. If you're willing to have a mind**** of an experience doing things that include staying up all night several nights in a row writing that arranging project and formatting parts, taking the T every other day out to Allston to band practice and then practicing several hours a week for your .5 credit lab, spending four hours doing a few dinky ear training dictations for homework, then Berklee/music school is for you. But you have to be committed and you have to be willing to work. In order to get your money's worth, you can't do it half-assed.

with the way the economy is - a degree in music pretty much means absolutely nothing. if you are going to spend the time and capital to get a college education, do your homework and pick a major that has some sort of demand. performance and music = no demand. absolutely none professionally and that trend will maintain itself for the next decade no doubt.

i had to change my major mid-semester because there was NO placement rate for students certified in english and political science. nothing. so i changed to mathematics.

but lol who carez i lyke to play bas gunna go to musix schoolz

[QUOTE=gardenofsound;16815206]Honestly, I'd discourage anyone from going to school for music if the ultimate goal is to make a living and support a family. Go to school for music if you're set in life and are interested in music for its own sake, or if you don't want to start a family and are okay with living a not so luxurious lifestyle. Music gigs are hard to come by and when you do, the pay is usually not ideal. And you'll find that the best paying gigs are on cruise ships, which may be cool when you're younger but as you grow older you'll find the travel a lot more stressful for you and your family. Musicians don't get benefits either.

And besides, most people who hire musicians aren't interested in whether or not you have a piece of paper that says you know how to play an instrument. They just want to know if you can do what the job requires. The only reason a music degree is gonna actually help you is if you are trying to become a college music professor. In that case, good luck because that's one of the hardest jobs to get.[/QUOTE]

Well, a Bachelor's degree is a bachelor's degree. You can fall back on any career path you choose, because you're a college graduate. That's why there are history majors, english majors, philosophy majors, etc, etc. Unless its a specifically technical field, you'll be set in whatever you do. Might as well make it something you love.

math and science. get a degree in math and science. placement rate for people certified in any area of what is called the "applied sciences" is 90%+ even in this crappy economic downturn.

gg

[QUOTE=Raayl;16815219]with the way the economy is - a degree in music pretty much means absolutely nothing. if you are going to spend the time and capital to get a college education, do your homework and pick a major that has some sort of demand. performance and music = no demand. absolutely none professionally and that trend will maintain itself for the next decade no doubt.

i had to change my major mid-semester because there was NO placement rate for students certified in english and political science. nothing. so i changed to mathematics.

but lol who carez i lyke to play bas gunna go to musix schoolz[/QUOTE]

With the economy as it is, there's no market for most majors, and yet people are graduating and getting jobs anyway. I think there's way too much value placed on what you major in and it's ability to affect your career.

Granted math and science will get you jobs. Not going to lie there. But I couldn't stand a job in applied sciences. I'd rather enjoy my struggling career in music than be a miserable asshole with money.

[QUOTE=HaVIC5;16815228]With the economy as it is, there's no market for most majors, and yet people are graduating and getting jobs anyway. I think there's way too much value placed on what you major in and it's ability to affect your career.[/QUOTE]

a four year degree means nothing. HaVIC, you're a smart guy and now a steely-eyed realist, lets keep it in context here

my girlfriend's sister has her bach degree in education, with certifications in english and history.

she recently applied to starbucks for a manager position and was turned down.

there exists a fantasy world where your investments in education are returned to you in the form of a secure career

and then there's the real world.

[QUOTE=HaVIC5;16815231]Granted math and science will get you jobs. Not going to lie there. But I couldn't stand a job in applied sciences. I'd rather enjoy my struggling career in music than be a miserable spatula with money.[/QUOTE]

lol that's a mantra change coming from the guy who was all uppity about how much money music gives him

but professional jobs in music such as audio engineers, producers, soundtrack designers, blah blah blah these jobs are high profile fantasy careers. you'll spend 200,000 dollars to get a degree you probably won't even list on your resume. i mean it's just retarded.

sometimes you have to grow up, bite the bullet and realize maybe music is a shitty way to make money and life isn't john mccain's version of the american dream where hard work = success

actually you're better off looking for a job as a forensic sound analyst. i was considering applied sciences in audio and image analysis for a career in forensics but i was already too far along in my transfer program

I have to agree with Sade on this one. Although, you could probably be a bass guitar teacher and make a decent amount of money. Bass teachers who give private lessons charge about $25 per half an hour. Marketing yourself is the hard part, however. This is the most realistic goal IMO as far as making a career that has to do with music. For me it's the field of Information Technology. I doubt I'll ever make satisfactory amount of money in music.

I have to agree with all of this... I have graduated highschool 2 years ago and was saving up for MI when I reallized an AA in performance guitar wasn't going to cut it for my career. So than I decided im just going to do it for myself because I love music.... well by that time the economy was dropping by the day and I couldn't pick up the 60,000 dollars in loans it takes for the year and a half program. So now im going to a community college just doing general education haha

yeah the federal loans have really dried up due to this crisis and because of that a lot of people i know are being forced out of college. so believe me when i say if you are going to go to college in america...talk to an advisor/etc and make sure it counts. the last thing you want in this world is a 100,000 dollar debt to annihilate your credit for a degree you don't even put on your resume.

[QUOTE=DaveMustaine12;16815351]I have to agree with Sade on this one. Although, you could probably be a bass guitar teacher and make a decent amount of money. Bass teachers who give private lessons charge about $25 per half an hour. Marketing yourself is the hard part, however. This is the most realistic goal IMO as far as making a career that has to do with music. For me it's the field of Information Technology. I doubt I'll ever make satisfactory amount of money in music.[/QUOTE]

i gave guitar lessons for 20 dollars an hour, but it was sooo hard to market and i only had a few students. i did however list it as part of my student teaching credentials and it helped out - but in terms of cash flow there is no way in hell you could live off of it.

i think it's childish - to try to justify not having a "real" job by sucking every last penny you can out of music. sometime in our lives we have to, pardon the pun, face the music and admit to ourselves that the jobs and careers we want in art are really just childish fantasy and that we need to get serious about a career that can provide for both ourselves and our families.

i know it's way off topic from the original thread but music school = [B]total wast of time, money and sweat[/B] if you ask me.

berklee is ****ing expensive.

i went to five towns, its in long island. it kinda sucks, and they didnt really teach me anything i couldnt learn on my own through diligence. its hard to explain. anyway, i can afford to go to school anymore. but if i was you, id major in something else at a decent school, and take music classes if they offer them.

berklee is ****ing expensive. MI is ****ing expensive too, and its cheaper than berklee. but at least at MI you are in hollywood.

[quote=Omega Red;16815099]it depends
first off i'd have to ask what you want to do with studying bass.

if you're going to go school for 'Bass' i'd say don't do it. now if you're going to study 'Music'. then i'd say thats cool. but i'd first have to ask what do you want to do with your career as far as being involved in the music industry. do you want to Produce and Record, do you want to work in film or video games, do you want to be a songwriter, do you want to perform, what is it that you're looking to accomplish and are interested in?[/quote]

Well this is the case. The harsh reality is that studying bass isn't really going to get you anywhere unless you want to a) be totally proficient on both electric and upright (and singing, theory, and piano of course help) and b) woodshed 8+ hours a day. And there are people I know who practice that much. Worth it? In my opinion, not a chance.

And as mentioned, there's a great chance that you either a) will end up getting a gig that didn't require a degree at all thus wasting a ton of money, or worse b) you won't make it at all and end up working a 9-5 and thus... wasting a ton of money.

So let's see, maybe you want to rethink that and switch into producing, recording, film, video games, composing... think again. These are all fields that once again, require no piece of paper and are notoriously difficult to get into.

This is why I'm focusing on education. As much as I love songwriting, producing, recording, scoring, etc, I'm not naive enough to think I'm going to score a comfortable job with them. It's not worth the risk when I can fill up my electives with those, still learn a ton, and do them in my spare time all I want.

So in summary think this through.. just because you get the audition doesn't really mean much. You've got to make your time there actually worth something and that means studying hard (and there will be lots to study), making contacts, and being qualified for a field in which there actually might be work for you (and there aren't many). Music school is not what people seem to think and if you go, you'll figure this out pretty quick. People think I'm "studying bass" and yet I sing at [B]least[/B] 10x as much as I play in classes.

learn a real instrument maybe

I recommend oboe or alto trombone.

Triangle can be tough.... I've been practicing 8+ hours a day going to berklee and I finally got my Piano and Forte levels down to a tee

Just to summarize..... triangle = life

Can you play pelog on it though

lets face it there arent any bass guitarists who are good at music none that i know of except for maybe cliff RIP

what

cant u read

Lol I Go To Berklee

[QUOTE=Left Shoe;16815843]Lol I Go To Berklee[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry.


Are you Related to Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet? Do you happen to have them paying your way through?

Srsly. Why on earth would you want to go to school for music? I think it would sap all of the fun and enjoyment out of it. Playing because you now Have to, instead of because you want to, would drive me crazy.

scholarship motha ****aaaaaaa.
i dont have to do anything, i could fail out of my classes if i didnt feel like doing the work, but i enjoy doing the work, and i enjoy what i get to of it, i also enjoy being able to jam with some of the best musicians in my age group when i feel like it.