Hmmm...
This is a tricky question, but there are some points that I want to
make.
K, you seem to think that getting into a music school will solve all
of your problems. I would love to hear that it would, but really,
life isn't that easy. A few of the points that make me think this is:
a) Unless you are exceptionally lucky/talented, it takes 8-10 years
to train a voice for professional classical singing. A music degree
generally takes 3. It gives you a step up towards being a
professional, and gives you contacts, but it won't take you all the
way there.
b) One needs to live. Very few music schools have scholarships for
older singers. And scholarships are rarely what a person who has
been working full time needs to live.
Ask yourself WHY you want to study singing full time. To my mind
(and I admit never to having been to a con, but having had friends
who have), there are three distinct advantages to going to a con.
1) Time, and a location to practice. As someone who does in a
candlelit shed come music studio for two hours nightly, in constant
fear of complaining neighbours, this would be heaven.
2) Languages. They teach em and we need them
3) Stage experience.
Are any of these three things unavailable if you don't get into a
music school full time? No. You can achieve them just as well, you
just need to work rather harder towards it. If you are really
passionate about becomming a musician, you will make these things
happen, just perhaps not quite as quickly.
Also keep in mind that nearly all higher education facilities
nowadays are opening their doors to external students. Even if you
can't get into a con full time, ask them about external studies, or
evening classes, or any options they have. A friend of mine got her
masters of music, in singing performance, in the evenings, after
working all day. Ring up your local universities and ask for your
options. Musicians understand the need to make music, no matter what
your age.
Remember that if something is really worth having, it is worth
struggling for. I am now 31, and I have been working full time and
learning singing for 6 years now. I intend to keep on working full
time and learning singing until I am good enough to be a professional
singer. Sometimes, I want to give up, thinking it is all too hard.
Other times, I envy the people who get to study music fulltime, and
wonder if they realise how lucky they are. Mainly, however, I am
glad I have a talent and a passion to polish it.
I hope this doesn't come across as a "Why should you have it easy
when I haven't" post, because I don't mean it that way. In my
experience, if you want it strongly enough, you will be given
chances, but they may not be the ones that you are actually expecting.
Cheers
Di
|
