Drums as a career

Fritz Frigursson

Fritz Frigursson

Senior Member
Hey guys, first post in a long time.

I am reaching the point where I have to make my mind about what I am going to do with myself in the future because university is very close and I like many others my age have no idea about what I'm going to do. I fear drums and music in general are not a very good career choice and will lead to a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle even with a uni degree. The rational part of me tells me to pursue a major that has many applications and a larger job market than the music industry as it provides a bigger "safety net" if you will, compared to the music industry where if you can't find a job you are sh*t out of luck and have to major in another field which means time and resources wasted. The other part tells me to do what I really want to do, which is music and more specifically drums/bass guitar, but I can't make this choice on emotions alone as it is a big decision.

Competences and experience: I've been playing for the past 6/7 years and I feel quite confident in my abilities. Played classical piano for 5 years before that and currently learn bass and guitar as a hobby. Know minimum of music theory but happy to learn.

Here are my current thoughts:
Is it even worth going to music school? Does it offer jobs right out of school? Would a major in drums be useful in the music industry or should I be looking at "wider" and more practical majors like sound engineering? Is it worth going abroad to study instruments even if the music industry seems to be progressing towards an all digital future?
Being located in Italy there are no notable music schools around me not counting the Milan Conservatory, but that school isn't exactly known for contemporary music, more for classical and opera. Berkley seems like the most known option, but I'm not sure if going there will promise me a well paid job. I wouldn't spend college money and living expenses abroad in an expensive city just for me to be jobless and 100/200k down with a degree that won't even grant me a position in the industry.

The stress is real. I would not be happy doing anything else but if it means living comfortably I don't think I have a choice.
 
Fritz, I'm not going to pretend to know you or your situation. What I will do is tell you what I wish someone had told me 30-40 years ago. Take it with a grain of salt, it's just an idea.

I gather you are younger. If you can still live at home, do it. Forgo school for now, work for 10 years and save everything. The job doesnt matter either. If you make 20k a year, that's 200k after 10. You can then basically buy yourself a home and do whatever you want for the rest of your life. Work will probably still have to happen, but that saved money will eliminate a mortgage, car payment, etc. You will be king of your own castle before 30 (that's a guess). After that, it doesnt matter what you do. Lifes major expenses will be covered without major stress or a lifetime of payments. And you can still play music. Tons of folks have a full time job and play music.

Again, this is something I wish someone had told me. The only real obstacle is having a family that supports this.
 
C. Dave Run said:
Fritz, I'm not going to pretend to know you or your situation. What I will do is tell you what I wish someone had told me 30-40 years ago. Take it with a grain of salt, it's just an idea.

I gather you are younger. If you can still live at home, do it. Forgo school for now, work for 10 years and save everything. The job doesnt matter either. If you make 20k a year, that's 200k after 10. You can then basically buy yourself a home and do whatever you want for the rest of your life. Work will probably still have to happen, but that saved money will eliminate a mortgage, car payment, etc. You will be king of your own castle before 30 (that's a guess). After that, it doesnt matter what you do. Lifes major expenses will be covered without major stress or a lifetime of payments. And you can still play music. Tons of folks have a full time job and play music.

Again, this is something I wish someone had told me. The only real obstacle is having a family that supports this.
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That’s a big dang obstacle!
 
Not sure what the situation is like in Italy (I love it there though), but if you were in the US I’d drop university altogether and go to a trade school. I told a high school kid about trade schools back a few years and he actually went to learn about HVAC systems for 18 months, then he got a job that paid him $80,000 a year by the time he was 21. You don’t have to learn music in school, you can always study what you want privately with any professional willing to take your money (and really, which one wouldn’t?). I no longer believe university is the way to go, especially if your goal is to be able to live comfortably on your own. The two ideas are at odds more and more as the years go by.
 
Bo Eder said:
Not sure what the situation is like in Italy (I love it there though), but if you were in the US I’d drop university altogether and go to a trade school. I told a high school kid about trade schools back a few years and he actually went to learn about HVAC systems for 18 months, then he got a job that paid him $80,000 a year by the time he was 21. You don’t have to learn music in school, you can always study what you want privately with any professional willing to take your money (and really, which one wouldn’t?). I no longer believe university is the way to go, especially if your goal is to be able to live comfortably on your own. The two ideas are at odds more and more as the years go by.
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I think that certain vocational choices people make require University degrees.

Sorry Bo, I just realised that you were referring to university for music.

My mistake.......I'll just get back in my box.
 
Benthedrummer said:
I think that certain vocational choices people make require University degrees.

Sorry Bo, I just realised that you were referring to university for music.

My mistake.......I'll just get back in my box.
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No worries. But I’m very much in the mindset of “if you can avoid university, I would”. But electrical technicians, plumbers, HVAC, welders, I don’t think require university degrees. It’s just so tiring to hear about all of these kids with degrees and they can’t get a job in their degree. So who sold them on the idea that they’re gonna starve right outta college? And why did they buy it? There’s something seriously wrong with society when it advocates having “a degree” but no plan for you to be able to live comfortably on your own.

Can you imagine what would happen if all the music majors with performance degrees banned together and filed a class action lawsuit against their universities to get their money back? I’d so advocate that!
 
JimmyM said:
That’s a big dang obstacle!
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It is, but multigenerational homes are much more common in Europe.

If parents truly wanted to support their kid, and the kid followed through, it would be fantastic.

I feel like the current thinking is wrong:
Graduate high school
Go to college (incur big debt)
Get a job
Buy a car (more debt)
Buy a house (more debt)
Get married, start a family (more debt)

Then we must endure massive amounts of stress to be able to pay for all the debt plus support ourselves and family.

I feel like this is an old idea that somehow needs to die.
 
Learn an in-demand trade, as mentioned and go to work. Play and study music as a sideline for now, make some money, and eventually, when the time is right, you may be able to make a living playing music, but it is very difficult. Stuff happens, like wives, kids, mortgages, etc. It may be easier in Italia, but it's not easy anywhere as far as I know, perhaps with the exception of countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where artists are subsidized by the government. That's a sweet situation. It doesn't happen here in Amerika.

Buona Fortuna, Amici.
 
Get a day job and join a covers band for weekend gigs, after some time you will know whether you want to do it as a career. You don't need a degree in music. You can always go to uni when you have a better idea of what you want to do.

I got railroaded into studying commerce, I think I probably wasted 10 years of my life studying and then working in a field I didn't like when I could have just gotten a simple job and gotten into the housing market before it became unaffordable.
 
My kid went to a trade fair when she was 17 and she had people at every booth practically falling all over themselves, trying to get her attention. "Learn how to be an electrician!" "No, no! Come over here and see how great learning to be a plumber would be!" "Don't you want to learn how to install windows in skyscrapers?!" "We build sets for all the plays that come to town!" They all paid well from the start, with outstanding benefits soon thereafter. It made me regret not going that route 30 years ago.
 
Going to University to study music performance is an extremely expensive route. No guarantee at all that you will find work and if you do it's probably of the type that doesn't require a degree.
 
There are some great answers here. Let me provide a bit of perspective.

I'm from the UK, where the music scene is a little different, I think. Outside of London, we've never had massive studio cities or "music hubs" like New Orleans, New York, LA etc. We have London, and then everywhere else, which is mainly small, local, insular music scenes.

The problem is, London is prohibitively expensive to live in and work in when you're not originally from there, and there is no money in the external small local scenes.

I've been working as a drummer for about 12 years, and I have never made a penny doing anything else. However, I have had to diversify to survive. I have done the freelancing (what the yanks call "sideman" gigs), the session work, the touring, the function shows, theatre shows, remote recording, tuition... I've done it all, and there simply is not enough work in any of these areas to make it financially viable. I am 35 years old, with a young daughter and a mortgage. I can't be out every weekend playing half way across the country for £75. It's not practical, it's not right, and it's not something I want to do.

These days, I spend most of my time (and make most of my money) on the educational side, and with specific project grants from the Arts Council and the like. My tuition and educational media (books, YouTube videos etc.) all contribute the vast majority of my income, with gigs, that I pick and choose, the act as a nice little extra when I want them. I simply don't want to couch surf, spend half the year away, scrounge for tidbit jobs, just to pay my mortgage. It's not why I do what I do.

For any professional gig, regardless of how low the pay is (and the pay is always low), there will be 50 local drummers willing to do it, and 50 more who are so desperate they'll travel. This means the low-paying venue or band leader can keep the prices low because they don't care how good you are, they care how cheaply they can get you. It's not just drummers either; I once put a call out for a cellist to do some remote recording for some work I was producing, and I was inundated by cellists, some of whom were very high profile. They'd worked with the BBC on tv shows, played and toured with orchestras, everything, and yet they were sending me their applications like I was some high profile institution, and not a micro-publisher working on a small project.

I don't know where you live, and what the local economy is like, but from somebody who has spent the last 12 years working in this industry, and has never made a penny outside of it, it's really, really hard to simply find enough work. In my mid 30s, the work that is available simply isn't desirable. I don't WANT to play crappy local pubs with crappy local bands, but there simply isn't much else going. I have my own studio in my garden, completely soundproofed, and kitted out with professional studio gear. I offer remote recording sessions to anybody anywhere in the world, and even that is slim pickings. There's too much competition, and too few clients willing to spend the money.

If you don't teach, if you don't diversify and offer more "products", and you're looking solely to play to live, I will be amazed if you manage to find enough sustainable and high paying work.

That said, there IS a career to be made if you're willing to operate in areas that you might not have imagined. I have skills like notation engraving, mixing and EQing, educational production and filming, book publication (on musical topics), all sorts of things that supplement my income, which mean I'm not reliant on the crappy gigs. Instead, I pick and choose which gigs I want to do, and don't worry about the ones I don't; I did my fair share of those in my youth.

EDIT: I should add, I hold two Bachelor's and one Master's degree in non-musical subjects. My only formal music qualification is a Grade 8 in drum kit performance from Trinity College London.
 
Bo Eder said:
No worries. But I’m very much in the mindset of “if you can avoid university, I would”. But electrical technicians, plumbers, HVAC, welders, I don’t think require university degrees. It’s just so tiring to hear about all of these kids with degrees and they can’t get a job in their degree. So who sold them on the idea that they’re gonna starve right outta college? And why did they buy it? There’s something seriously wrong with society when it advocates having “a degree” but no plan for you to be able to live comfortably on your own.

Can you imagine what would happen if all the music majors with performance degrees banned together and filed a class action lawsuit against their universities to get their money back? I’d so advocate that!
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Sorry.....this is a bit off topic.

Yeah Bo, I think in the climate here in Australia, University is not necessarily the first choice anymore.

Career types have diversified hugely over the years.

University fees are now astronomical.

To be a Registered Nurse here it's a four year bachelor's degree in science.

It was once a degree which guaranteed 100% employment.

Not anymore......kids come out with debts of $30,000 AUD and more and no career opportunities.

The covid-19 situation created chaos for new contracts.......it's only now that things are improving for job opportunities, albeit slowly.

The music scene here is a foregone conclusion.....it's just non existent.

So music degrees here could get you a job teaching music degrees.

I think I'd be in some real strife if I was basing all my income on the drums in this day and age.

My semi professional career as a drummer in a cover band was quite lucrative, but my degree really allowed me to indulge in my drumming as opposed to the other way around.

My degree has given me the security through the pandemic for a very good pay with generous fringe benefits while many, many others simply crashed and burned financially.

So a degree has SOME relevance today..... especially for the medical profession.

But yeah, it's not the be all to end all anymore.
 
Unless you plan to be a teacher don't bother.

I studied music and came out with nowhere near as much debt as kids nowadays and it was the same then. You leave with no career prospects other than teaching and music in schools is dead in the water in the UK. There's no investment. On a personal level I had an absolute scream though and came out an infinitely better player than I went in, but that's my story and everyone's is different.

A career in music has far too many uncontrollable variables for me to make it a full time career. I'm not ashamed to admit that and fair play to anyone who makes it work.

Playing wise, you're looking at corporate work for the well paid gig and I'm amazed at how many music graduates end up here, myself included.

Ultimately the choice is your own and knowing where you wanna be in life at 18 is nigh on impossible. Sadly the price to better yourself at University outweighs the desire to do it because you're good enough and see where it takes you.

EDIT: @Jonathan Curtis absolutely nails it!
 
Find a way to make great money now and use music as fun and personal development. Not a career path.

Yes I'm very sour on the state of the music business today. I feel it's at it's worst point it's ever been. EVER. But I have to remain true to my principles. No matter how much I love something, I won't let myself be blinded by the fact when it's not working as a business anymore.
 
Have you talked with local musicians how they feel about having/not having a degree? E.g. is it required to teach at public schools in Italy, did the environment of a university lead to lots of practicing and a network of people or was it a waste?
How about other European universities with free tuition?
Have you talked to the people in Milan's Jazz departement? Auditioning could be a good experience, even if you decline the place (or don't get it).
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I just wrote a huge response, and then erased it so I could post this. Best of luck.

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This is a great video. What GE says reminds me of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Whatever path we choose, we need to have our own reasons for getting up everyday and moving forward.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I just wrote a huge response, and then erased it so I could post this. Best of luck.

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That's a good clip. It's worth stating, though, that he's talking about showbusiness, and that side of the music industry. I have never been involved with that, and I'm glad. I have never been involved with television, big commercial shows designed to make money and draw a crowd, yet I have still made a living for over a decade. It comes back to what I said though, and offering a diverse array of services and building a genuinely decent portfolio of work. It's a very different thing than the showbusiness side of things that we may think of when we hear professional drummer.
 
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