• Shoreline Homepage

Musically speaking

Greetings, my fellow Shoreline students and other readers of this fine publication. I am pleased to present my new, regular column, which you can enjoy every two weeks for the remainder of this quarter.

In each column, I will ramble on and on about whatever I wish, but you can be assured it will be somehow tied in with music (hence the title). What exactly do I mean by music? Ah ha! You must read each column to find out.

First, let me introduce myself. I am the layout and design editor at the Ebbtide this quarter, but primarily I am a music student. It was only recently that I decided to go back to school to study music, and I am pleased to be a part of the excellent music program here.

I am the daughter of a musician father and actress mother, and it was natural to rebel against them by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in a responsible major and, immediately thereafter, joining the corporate world. Let’s just say I explored quite a few career options over the course of not so many years. Now I am privileged to immerse myself in my passion and nurture my creativity. You see, I wasn’t successful in quelling that creative urge, which is undeniable and powerful and consuming. Fellow artists especially know what I am talking about.

I struggled for years before I was able to make the decision to go back to school to do what I love. It is not easy to give up an income and benefits, stability and security, to go back to school with no guarantee of a valuable degree that will improve my job prospects. It is even tougher in the economy of today when the tendency is to cling to what you’ve got and consider yourself lucky that you’ve got it.

But you know what I learned in my years of working? There is no paycheck, no job title, no prestige, and no benefit that is worth denying my heart and my passion. Not for me. Am I lucky because I don’t have a family to support and so I have the option of going back to school? Yes, I am. I am very lucky that the only consequence of this choice is more school loan debt and lost income and benefits. But I am really lucky that the rewards for this course of action are so great that they outweigh the disadvantages.

Some may not believe this, but I am nothing if not realistic. (I know you are thinking, yeah, right, going back to school for music of all things.) No, I am very, very realistic. So how on earth can I possibly make a living from music?

For a long time I believed I would be holding down a waitress job while singing in dark bars to three drunk patrons while I try to “make it.” That was a hard belief to overcome. Laugh, but it is true that in this society artists are not respected and art is not as valued as much as doctors, lawyers and executives are respected and their advanced degrees are valued. How many parents have counseled their children to go to college and get a degree for better job prospects? I am not denying that this is good advice, but it may not be the best course of action for everyone. All I know is what my course of action needed to be, but it took years to admit it to myself.

Here’s the thing. I finally realized that the career options in the music industry are endless. There are many ways to make a living in music, aside from being a rock star, which all musicians secretly want to be. (Yes, you know you would love it.) Other options that aren’t out of the realm of possibility are session musician, background vocalist, musical instrument designer/builder, choir director, music journalist, music therapist, music shop manager, music librarian, audio technician and, of course, music teacher.

So what is my point? I am a songwriter and a vocalist. Technically, I don’t need to be in school to write songs or sing. I can do it in my bedroom after I get home from my “real” job. But I am in school because I want to work in the medium of music, and here I learn skills that help me to understand it better and to work with it better.

I already know I will become a better singer and songwriter. But this experience is also giving me important musical knowledge — a foundation — that I can use to build on in a number of ways. This is opening a door to a whole new world. This is the only world in which I want to be.