Hi I can't decide whether to have a career in music or in science(medcine)
Any help would be helpful.

Thanks
Music Man

Well, I know where you'd make more money! And not necessarily with less work! (Now, go easy on me, any doctors out there!) But money isn't eveything. If you really want to be a professional musician, and make a good living out of it - unless you're aiming to be a top concert performer - there's money to made as the official accompanist for instrumental exams and music festivals, but it's still irregular. As a private teacher, there's a limit to how many pupils you can have if you want to do justice to them all. What about teaching in a school as a class music teacher? A head of department in a grammar school must earn a reasonable salary (still not as good as a doctor's, though) - or what about university teaching?

You need to decide whether to follow your heart or your head. Are you likely to be a materialistic person - ie. like to own all the latest and most expensive gadgets, plus a big house, flashy car etc.? If so, then I don't think a music career is likely to bring you enough money to do those things, unless you became a world-renowned solo concert performer. Becoming a doctor or perhaps even a surgeon is likely to offer a high salary and allow you to fill your life with all those gadgets you want to own.

However, money isn't everything in life and it doesn't buy happiness either.

Musicians can work some odd and downright unsociable hours, but doctors are often "on call" 24 hours a day, so think about what sort of a life you want to lead - how much spare time you would like to have.

Have you thought about the cost in training - both time and financial! It takes about 6 or 7 years to train as a doctor, but it's likely to take more than a decade to make you into a professional musician. In monetary terms neither profession is cheap on the cost of training. You won't however, have to put in six hours a day of private practice, on top of your training, to become a doctor, but you'll need to do that to stand a chance of pursuing a music performing career.

Write a list out of the pros and cons of both and then do some serious thinking. Depending on your committment, there is nothing to stop you doing something of both though.....
Tim Hugh, co-principal cello with the London Symphony Orchestra qualified first as a musician and then went on to achieve an MA in Medicine at Cambridge.

I went through this same problem in 1964 !! I had just got ALCM on piano and a good Grade 8 on the Organ.
But I was always fascinated by Chemistry, and was good at it.
Many neighbours and friends were surprised when I went off to Nottingham Uni to study Chemistry. Whilst at Uni, I enjoyed lots of music, I was able to continue piano practice (at first at the music dept, then my Hall of Res bought a Baby Grand. See the thread on concert disasters) . I formed a Duo with a violinist, and we played in concerts.
As it happened, he had made the same decision - to do a physics degree (indeed got a PhD) and has worked for Phillips for many years on loudspeakers/ headphones.
Both he and I are still in touch, and have had great fun from music without the pressure of really serious practice.
History repeated itself in 1995, when my daughter (Grade 8 on piano and violin) went off to study Maths and ended up with an MSc in statistics . She has an excellent career in statistics, but enjoys lots of musical activity still.

So what I would say is that if you feel you are good enough to make it as a professional performer, then give it a go. However the three of us above have had very successful careers, and still have had good fun out of music as a hobby.

I hope you come to the right decision.

Similar problem with myself - do I go for a career in music, which I love and am very good at (recently attained A* at GCSE), or do I go for computing, which I am also very good at, but acheived the lesser grade of B? I don't know.

I also have the same dilemma. Do I continue as a musician, or try my luck elsewhere? luckily I have a few years to decide, but you need to know what you want out of life, then decide which career will get you there.

Don't take GCSE results as indicative of how you will do at higher levels. No 2 son only got a B at Physics GCSE (despite getting an A* in the mock), but has just got an A at A level (with no resits).

Neither is a soft option.
Both have horribly unsociable hours and a long training - medicine's main degree may take five or six years to complete, but nobody can now continue for any length of time without getting a postgraduate qualification, which can take as many years again to complete, and there is much less security in the job than there used to be. Sure, the pay is good, but you have just about the biggest responsibility there can be - for the lives of other human beings. You also have large financial commitments in the form of indemnity insurance, contributions to the various specialist colleges, etc. Music is insecure for many, and may mean you have to do a lot of work which doesn't suit your tastes - some wannabe concert players have to teach to make ends meet, for instance. The pay is not great, and if you are freelance, then cash flow is a big problem, as is pension provision and sick pay.

Both of these careers are vocational, in the true sense of the word - anyone who does not feel driven to follow them should not be doing so. You need to find out what is really involved in medicine and music to help you decide. Both bring tremendous rewards to those who really want to follow them, whether it is the storm of applause after a concert or thank-you card from a pupil in music, or the warm feeling of having made a difference to someone's life...or thank-you card from a patient in medicine.

You don't have to decide yet. I'm only now beginning to get a vague sense of direction in my mid-20s.

I'd be inclined to say follow your heart at this stage, it's less likely to lead you astray than your head is...

I got my first ever pay check today! I made more per hour teaching piano

Seriously, don't decide yet. I have a friend who dropped out of medicine in 3rd year to become a musician. I have many doctor-friends who play both for fun and for money.

Whichever you lean towards, make sure you really want to follow that path - as anacrusis mentioned, neither are easy. Both have their rubbish bits as well as amazing highs, and the work is hard!

If you want insight into the first month as a newly qualified house officer (or F1 as they call us this year), PM me. Promise I won't *only* tell you the bad bits

I can't really decide between science and music either!!
I thihnk if I take one or the other I'll get bored too easily. I love studying music but there aren't that many careers to gain afterwards. I wanted to be a vet but I've gone off that in the last 6 months so I've found a different course that sounds good.
There's an option at Liverpool to combine music and biological science but I don't know if I'll go for it yet.

I forget who it was on here but someone said "become a professional musician only if you cannot envisage any other sort of life". I suspect the same adage could be applied to medicine.


I still don't have one and I turn 28 in a couple of weeks...

It's a very lucky person who knows where they're going. Sarah - I thought you were older than that 'cos you always show so much maturity. I'm 41 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I've found happiness and fullfillment in teaching music. I've spent a long time bringing up four children, and I think music is something that transcends life's usual blacks and whites - am I making sense? Music is a passion that you can't let go of, and if you can make money out if it, then life's wonderful.

I was going to say, can you not do dual honours degrees? Or do only certain Universities offer this option ??

Ben

Hey thanks




I suspect I may still be saying that when I am 41 too


Definitely. Though I do very much see the logic of keeping it as a hobby, too - it would be terrible to be in a position where music became the daily grind and lost the joy.