spot on mate ! excellent tipssetspeed wrote:all of this.Hurtdeer wrote:futures, terekete, nitz and all are absolutely right. If you want to guarantee a job in the music industry, then, yeah, don't study music.
If, however, you're like me, want to throw security to the wind and simply study music for the sake of learning about it, then do a music course. 4 years and 2 degrees later, I have no secure job or future I can speak of at the moment. What I have gotten out of it is exposure to understanding and forms of music I would have probably otherwise ignored, a chance to explore various composition methods and play different styles of music in different bands until I found what I liked, and some great contacts and friends.
So yeah, I don't regret it at all. It wasn't a sensible move like studying something like business would have been. But I'm not a sensible person so I couldn't have done that
also, you really need to think about what it is you want to be doing in the industry, and act accordingly.
i wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing to do a music tech degree - although I did one and basically wasted my time - but if I was going into it now here is what i would do.
1. don't just do your assignments and think that will do.
2. remember that you have free access to some really nice gear. get in the studios and cane it, every minute you can; figure out how things work, get the studio manager guy to come down and show you how to use this desk or that microphone. when you finish the course, all this will disappear so use it while you can.
3. don't spend 3 years drinking and taking recreational drugs. there will be plenty of time for that later. you might feel like a nerd going in the studio on a saturday while all your mates are still drinking from the night before, but it's very hard to get into the industry and only 1 or 2 people out of the 50-odd on your course will manage it. i can tell you now, they will be the ones who worked hardest, became the best engineers and know the equipment better than anyone else. me? i went straight into a call centre.
4. record and produce everything you can. if some band are playing a gig, ask if you can record them live or engineer them, or see if you can record people's demos, whatever. it doesn't matter if you hate the music - if you get a job working in a studio you'll spend half your time working on music you don't like so get used to it. you need the experience - no one will give you a job if you can write a great dubstep tune but can't mic up a drumkit.
5. get making moves on other stuff while you're there. start a club night with a couple of mates, start a little record label, get a music blog going, write tunes, you never know where things will end up.
if you do all that, it'll probably be worth it doing a music tech degree. if you just want to write tunes and get them released, i'm not sure if i would bother...
i could not agree more with getting use to all the gear in the studio, and talking to teacher about things you need help with this could be mixing or mastering or learning how to play the piano what ever it is but they do know the answers to help you on your way. I know that when i was like 15/16 i wanted to dj so i got my self some vinly decks but i wanted to use the CDJ 1000 because everyone was using them and saying they are the best cd decks in the market, so when i did the music tech course i got to use them
i was very scared when i saw them at first i was like huh 
how do you use these beast, but after a few sessions in the dj room i learned how to use them, and now i can use the cdj to quite a good extend . so as can see the course will help you but if you have the right work rate and the right mind set
btw Freak & Genius your getting some really valuable information here by many people
