well, i've finally done it. I've quit my job and finished school. I'm headed to Edinburgh with my band. This brings up an interesting question. At what point should you dedicate all your time to music? If your at university and it's going straight shite because you cannot focus on school for always being stuck in music mode, should you continue? I've decided to bartend in Scotland near my family to pay the bills meanwhile pushing our band harder than ever before to gig at least twice a month and get our demos out to record labels. Thoughts?

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That's exactly what I want to do. First I'd procure a good job after/during college and have some source of income available, especially if you play music that isn't going to make you rich.

At what point should you dedicate all your time to music? Whenever you're ready. I have to finish my education but that's not stopping me from practicing rigoriously and searching for bandmates.

I was fucking up a lot in college last semester but this semester I got my act together and I'm kicking ass so far in terms of grades. I just want to have my career so I can get a job that deals with it so I can eat and sleep under a roof, but I would throw away a good job for music, not a lot of people are willing to make that sacrifice. But that's the difference between a serious band and a band that never moves forward...

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I wanna get a good education and a pretty well paid job but I will be playing the guitar all the time.

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I agree with that too. Thats what I can see myself doing once Im done with school.

When should you focus on music and nothing else? I say always, Thats partly why Im doing so bad in school but I dont really care. I like Music and thats what I want to do, if people don't like it they can shove it!

Congrats man, I hope your band does well!

I think I'm going to move this to chit chat.

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Im going to take sound recording at school in september, a friend went there for it, said it was a great thing. They always wanted you to record something for each project, and 90% of the time you can play your guitar for it. WIN FUCKING WIN!

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I always wanted to do SAE but i dont think my folks can pay for all that shit.
So i have decided to do Comp Eng and then do SAE with my own cash.


Also i would be going to university next year and i hope there are some good metalheads there who would be willing to form a band (just for jamming and shit).

And if everything goes well i would love to be in a fulltime band (which is very hard in India)

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probably a safe idea to get some schooling before being a full time musician. im going to college for a degree in audio engineering technology next fall so during/after that ill try to be in a band full time. if band stuff doesnt happen ill work in a studio.

this year, after my A levels, i'm going to try and get a job at a record label, hopefully Supernalmusic (fingers crossed) and basically learn what it takes to set up a label. i'm then gonna try and start a label in a few years time.
i'm also going to put everything into my bands. as much time as possible.

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i think you have a fairly good chance man ,living in europe makes it much easier to play in many differnet countries. you probably have a fan base (at least a few) in finland anyways, and scotland isnt too far from metal fests and stuff like that

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Everyone is different. Just don't end up like Axl.

Some people go to school after high school for one thing and end up doing something different, having a family, Have one music partner die on stage, and then find another unforeseen partner to write music and perform with, and they go all over the world touring, and start designing their own recording studio and label.
Do what's right for you.

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I'm joining the Army after I get out of school, they will pay for college.

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Why are you asking us when you have already made up your mind?

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Maybe he wants someones opinion on what hes doing?

opinion*

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Almost all arts call for finacial sacrificies for happiness.

Shred_head: There is an "edit" button to correct posts.

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There is, and we can use it too.

It's a good idea to get an education under your belt. If you're lucky it can be in music. If your music is distracting you from it, either your situation is:

a. You're and unfocused cunt who practices guitar obsessively and doesn't develop his mind in other ways
or
b. Your career is taking off and making huge demands on your time, giving you an opportunity to do well.

In case a, exercise some goddamn discipline and finish school. In case b, try and weigh how much time you can devote to school, and if it's not enough, and if you can get a job to support yourself as your career is taking off, you might be best off doing that. You can always go back to college. Universities won't disappear just because students are getting dumber. The only real concern is if the world ends in 2012. Then it won't matter what you do, so do what feels right.

when does it say the world will end in 2012?

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Look it up, monkey. It would take less effort than responding to my post to type '2012 world end' into a search engine and you would have received a real answer.

hiiii
lam of satan
nice to c u
plzzzzz keep in touch

Dedicate all of you time to music if there is nothing else that interests you.
The oppertunity of a musical career may not arise very frequently, whereas the oppertunity to go to university will come up every year. If you have a real chance to make a break with your music, I would be inclined to go for it.

Don't go to university unless you do a course that you are absolutely fascinated by, otherwise you are wasting your time and money, as well as your tutors' time.

If you are already at university, and cannot focus on your subject, think about how much time and money you have invested in your university education so far. Is it worth giving up and wasting that time and money? On the other hand, is it worth investing more time and money if you don't enjoy it?
You have to wiegh up your answers to those two questions, and decide on what you want to do.

The way I look at it :

Everyone who lives in America ( well, pretty much everyone ) has the oppurtunity for college. Not everyone has the oppurtunity to play in a band, playing the music they love, especially being smitten with the want to do so ( count how many of your friends want to, and if you are doing it, you'll see just how special it is ). If I fulfill with my music what I want to, before I die I'll think much less of 'what could have been' than if I had gone to college, and become a pharmacist or something ... I would CONSTANTLY think of 'what if I had actually pursued my dreams of music? I'm just another pharmacist!' if I went the white house/picket fence route. Do what you know you'll regret the least.

You'll regret some aspect of whatever you do, anyone who says otherwise is probably lying. At the very least, you'll regret eating nothing but stale Taco Bell for two months straight on tour instead of pre-made sandwhiches, the bathrooms at the places you play at will regret it too. The main thing that you'll regret is a lack of stable income, for musicians that's the only drawback. The trick is to find what you'll regret the very least. In a perfect world I'd get paid 50 dollars an hour to to practice my music, then I'd have no problems whatsoever. In my current plan of actions that's the only thing I see wrong with it, as opposed to going to college/getting married/MAYBE tooling around on my Schecter once every weekend in my bedroom, which I cringe at the thought of that. If I had to pick my dayjob, it would be guitarist/vocalist in death metal band. If I just have to watch my spending very closely as opposed to having more than enough money, but being bored the fuck out of my head with TiVo being the highlight of the day, then I'll take music.

Now its off to band practice.

that actually does sound very nice. what could be better than being taught how to record in the most effective way, and get to improve at guitar the whole time.

Music school is also a great fucking option ... just depends on what exactly you want to do with music. There are countless guitarists who go to Berklee to do what Satriani is doing now, yet Satriani never went to any music college. I think it just all comes down to plain work ... If you go to a music college like Berklee or M.I.T., you either become an extremely badass musician or you flunk out. So as long as you keep in the curriculum, it is win fucking win. But also, its that way everywhere else in music : Become extremely badass or take a back seat. The bottom line is if you put in the hours, you will reap that much back and more in the satisfaction from your work. Just don't end up vicing your head in half like Danny Gatton if you don't sell 10,000,000 records, and if you do carpentry/construction work to pay the bills, do not slice your fucking fingers off.

I wouldn't suggest Berklee unless you're interested in learning jazz theory, otherwise save your money

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A - Don't waste your time at Uni.
B - Get a trade or traineeship.
C - Party and play until your hearts content.

As for my useless opinion, I think that school can be extremely important for some people, but not really needed to others. There are alot of people who need an education to make a decent living in society. But there are always exceptions, and some just don't need school to do with what they plan for in life. But no young person should ever give up on school just because they don't like it or it's difficult. They should give it up because it has nothing to do with their personal future.
As far as music-related college goes, I think it depends on the individual. Personally, I feel that too broad of knowledge of music would put a cramp in the whole artistic aspect of it. If I know too much about what I'm doing -- if I can put a name to what just flowed through my fingers and explain away my musical emotion with a few fancy terms and dots on a paper -- then it ruins the "magic", so to speak. If I knew too much about it, every time I came up with something new, I would observe it from a technical point of view and thus taking away from the inner inspiration that drove me to play it and will drive me to complete the song in a free way. If I can put a name to what I'm doing, it could mess with the whole feeling of it all. Kills the mystery, you know? Still, that's just me. My playing is very natural, but some people are different and might find it helpful rather than a setback.

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Heh, I just noticed I've never posted in this thread.

If you're going to be a rockstar, it's always good to have something to fall back on. My bandmate will be getting a music education major and become a high school band director--as back up though. If our band works out, there's no reason for him to work, but he's got the option if we fail. I, on the other hand, am almost done with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Music. If our band never works and doesn't get a major label, I'll fall back to ameteur orchestra giging, private lesson teaching, and some kind of bar job.

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