Forget engineering, forget MBBS! The latest, most fashionable career trend amongst youngsters seems to be getting a diploma in music. While a few may have already gotten a “back-up degree” in business studies, commerce or engineering, others are headed to music institutions right after school, to pursue a career and turn into full time musicians. So if you’re a mother of a musically inclined child, or if you’re passionate about music, worry not, because you have lots of people sailing in the same boat with you!
Avinash Srinivas, who aspires to study at Musicians Institute in California, now plays for three bands and teaches at Taaqademy. “I worked at Amazon for a while after doing BBM, but found that my interests lay in music. I couldn’t practice enough because I worked in night shifts, so I quit altogether. I also find a lot of my students want to pursue music immediately after school,” says the drums instructor.
But of course, if you’re a musician, passion has to come first. Aditya Ramesh, who is about to complete engineering, is all set to go to Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM), in Chennai, having received a guitar scholarship. “I have been practicing for eight years now and I still don’t think that I have reached a good enough standard. I plan to get that One year Diploma in Music Performance and push my guitar skills to the limit,” he says.
But what will they do after getting certificates in music? “It’s not about the tag of a degree or a diploma,” says Rahul Ramnath, who has finished one semester of guitar training at SAM. “It’s about learning as much as you can, in how many ever genres possible, and becoming a better musician. I plan to come back to Bengaluru, form a band and teach guitar once my course is over,” he says, hoping that his previous BBM education may help him set-up a music school here.
And it looks like teaching music is how musicians manage to live something close to a luxurious life. Legsang Tenzing Sherpa, who teaches western classical guitar at Bangalore School of Music and music composition at Nathaniel School of Music, says, ‘It’s difficult to make a living by depending on selling your albums. The best thing to do is sell your album at gigs, because no one goes into music stores,” he tips young musicians. Like Aditya says, “The potential music has, is equal to the destructive capacity of a nuclear bomb, but if you don’t go at it wisely then the bomb just might fuse.”
