How do I tell my parents I want to pursue music for a living?

I'll be graduating high school very soon. I'm a good student and they expect me to go to college. How do I tell them I want to be a musician?





PS


I've practiced a very good amount over the last couple years.How do I tell my parents I want to pursue music for a living?
You want to BE a musician? Well, ARE you a musician? Have you played any jobs? Parents don't tend to argue with success. How do you compare to other players of your instrument in your peer group? Have you had the experience to really evaluate how good you are?





Sometimes music school will help straighten people out on this. But the BM degree itself is pretty much worthless. If you do music ed, you can do public school teaching. If you do a performance degree, getting it will make you a well-rounded performer, but the degree won't get you jobs; only your reputation for quality playing will do that.





Remember that your parents love you, and want the best for you. And to be frank, being a professional musician is not the best for most people. One thing that might make it easier is to look at a school that caters to double majors. I'd say that most of the music majors at Case Western are double majors with the other being in a technical field (engineering, law, medicine etc.). they have access to the great musicians that Cleveland has, yet they have a safety net.





I'm not trying to rain on your parade; I'm advising you to get a weather report.How do I tell my parents I want to pursue music for a living?
Honestly the best way to tell them is to just be honest. Tell them that you would like to persue a career in music. Reason with them even, about going to school for musical arts or whatever you play or if you sing. That way its a happy median. you will be in school meeting people with like minds and furthering your education of music, which is never a bad thing. You will meet people with the same goals who maybe knoow people that can get you ahead in the ';music game'; and you will have a wider opportunity for gigs on weekends so you can get your name out there. Also, in the long run you will have a degree in what you love and can do many things with a degree in music.





If you dont want to go to school make sure you are able to go to your parents with a plan of your goals and a plan of action. If you show them that you are serious about it and have mapped it out giving it a lot of thought they might respect your decision not to go to school more. Most parents dont want their children to become artists because of the inconsistancy the music business brings. You never know when you will have a job and it can get really hard i.e the whole starving artist thing. they just dont want that for their children.





It will be hard and you HAVE to be a brave ,determined, driven, hardworking person because it is not an easy thing to do by any means. Unless you just luck out and know all of the right people. None the less if it is in your heart and what you really want to do then GO FOR IT. I did and i will be going on tour in Germany this summer, then going to do Shows in South Africa for a year. Hope this helped
Well let me say firstly that its not an easy road to travel being a working musician. That said, I highly recommend going on to college, where while you are learning something to fall back on in case you don't make it in the biz, you will be meeting and networking with other musicians and can start gigging on the weekends. If you are serious about going for it, LEARN BUSINESS, cuz that's what this is. As a working musician you will be essentially a business owner, self employed. A talented performer who is also business savvy is bound to keep working. Now as for you parents, well you're on your own....if you 18 you are an adult and can choose your own life path. But don't be surprised if they are reluctant to applaud your decision. They will be worried about your future, which is normal. Good luck!
Since when did wanting to be a musician become a bad thing?





If you have a plan for the future, they will respect that. If you study music in college and don't just ';hit the road'; hoping to make it in hollywood, it will sound more reasonable. Tell them you're going to study music in college and take it from there. There are music business degrees, performance, education, music history, music therapy, music theory, ethnomusicology, organology, and lots of other options available.
well first try taking them out to eat then while you are there tell them that's what i did and i worked hope this helped you.
Do you mean to major in music in college? Because just *graduating and becoming a musician* is pretty naive. I just responded to the question about ';why do people have to stomp on other people's dream?'; Well, in this case, to make sure they do run run off with NO CLUE about how to get the future they want. Now - do you study privately? Have you applied to good music colleges? Have you won considerable awards and honors in music while in HS? OR - are you just thinking of ';Money for nothin' and chicks for free';? The music BUSINESS is very difficult - and unpredictable. I am about to do a 180 in my OWN life - I am retiring after teaching music for 37 years. I always have played professionally - now is my chance to take all I know, all th education I have, and all my CONTACTS and do some MORE with this. Of course, I have a GENEROUS income from my retirement benefits and other private teaching and gig employment to sustain me while I do this. It is UNTHINKABLE without this security.





Go to college. Take some serious music courses - and see if you have what tit take. If you do - keep going. If NOT - then you are already in college, and can study something that will employ you - and allow you to buy great instruments, and play the gigs you WANT, and not have to play crap. Yup - besides being a professional musician and teacher, I am a Mom- and my husband is in the same profession. Our son listened to us - and is now also in the business - and married to someone in the business. Get your head on straight, and get to WORK to chase your dream!