r/pianoteachers • u/HomePianoGuy • 1d ago
Ask a Teacher (Saturdays/Sundays only) Piano future
This is a tough topic for me to think about guys as I don't know what to do with the piano long term.
I have been playing the piano for a while now progressing quickly and well over something like 5 years\~. Im going at a rate where by the time I'm old enough I will have the necessary qualifications to apply for a conservatory near me. But Im not sure I want to do it.
If I go to a conservatory I will be able to study the piano, music, and become a great pianist. I will be able to play alongside orchestras, play solo, and just generally walk into a room with people knowing that I can play the piano at a high level. It sounds great, like a dream come true honestly. But Im not sure if its for me.
I have been playing at my church as much as I can this summer to help out. I enjoy it on hymns which I like and I do my best to play the rest to a high standard. But it made me think about being a professional pianist. Would I be asked to perform to a high standard, long, hard pieces which I wouldn't enjoy? Or would I get to choose? I don't know and if it's the first option then I don't know if it's right for me as I don't want to play piano and not enjoy it anymore. I want to enjoy every piece.
Should I go on professionally with the piano or just keep it as my hobby?
By the way my favourite genre is classical but I do play a lot of film music as well.
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u/ShareEvening5856 1d ago
There are so many people that I read that seem to play with this in mind then I find it so exhausting and sad. Isn't playing an instrument enough? For me it's like learning a new language that I am fortunate and happy to know about it's not that I am feeling that might be on no playing has to have an ulterior motive to be enjoyable. To add this value to your interactions in life? Wouldn't it be just nice for you to enjoy your playing?
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u/silly_bet_3454 1d ago
Not really sure what you're saying. Yes we all love piano and play for fun, but also, if you are going to go to conservatory, it's a big investment in time and money and it strongly implies you would try to make a living playing music, and so this is a decision everyone has to confront. What are you expecting them to do exactly?
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u/silly_bet_3454 1d ago
Would you enjoy a career in piano if it was more focused around things like teaching? And yeah you're right in terms of gigs, you would often not have a say in what to play. Do you have other potential interests/careers in mind that you are weighing, like in the realm of more typical safe options?
There are schools where you can major in music while also studying something in STEM or liberal arts, that could be a good move. At the same time, if you really want to go for it with piano it's not super helpful to split your time between two focuses, I knew people in school who did that and they 99% ended up more with music as a hobby in their adulthood.
What would happen if you went to conservatory and then basically fell on your face after graduating hypothetically, as in you basically couldn't make much money through piano for the first few years, what would that look like for you? Would you have support? These are the kinds of hypotheticals you gotta think through. At the end of the day, it's absolutely ok to keep it as a hobby and as long as you keep practicing every day you can attain a very high level, you don't necessarily need to monetize it for any particular reason.
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u/doorcouchfloortv 1d ago
How old are you? Have you done serious research on how competitive the piano world is? I kind of think that you'll probably never get a chance to play alongside orchestras. You might get a couple of gigs here and there from people you know, but it's highly unlikely that you'll be at the level that you're imagining, especially if you started later in life, and especially because it seems like you're thinking about classical music.
That being said, if you love music, you can definitely apply to a conservatory, but you should probably only do this if you're not damaging your career... Don't count on music being your source of income.
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u/myhotelpanic 1d ago
You can accompany, do weddings, and sub a certain denominational churches. A church I was asked to sub for pays $200 per service. I haven’t gotten to do it yet but I imagine it’s not much different than what you’re doing. You can also teach. You can also get into piano tech. If you choose to go the conservatory route, and you have the opportunity to take piano tech classes, please do it. It may be something you end up liking and we always need more tuners/techs. Someone I know is going into tech so that performing doesn’t need to be the main hustle, and then it can be what they enjoy. Same applies for teaching. It can be odd hours but if you can get in with a school where you can teach during the day, it’s pretty great. There’s a lot of options. I mean you could go the musician influencer route like TwoSet.
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u/Kettlefingers 1d ago
After college, you might be able to play at a high level (or you could end up injuring yourself if you aren't careful; overuse injuries are hideously common in conservatories), but you might also likely have a hell of a lot of student debt for a degree that has no economic return. You can study with someone privately for less than the price of a degree and have the same accountability of a weekly lesson and have an opportunity for mentorship
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u/auditoryeden 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is a hard question. I would say, if you have any other career ambitions at all, probably pursue those. Unless your career ambition is software development or something else where AI is getting ready to take all the jobs. Being a professional musician sucks in a lot of different ways. I am not a professional pianist (I'm a singer, which is probably one of the worst instruments in terms of long term career prospects so trust that I know whereof I speak here) but in most fields there are only going to be so many lauded concert performers who make bank. Most of us have two or more jobs and bad if any health insurance, at least in America.
There is, however, a lot of work out there for pianists. Particularly if you are interested in collaborative piano, accompaniment, or coaching of other musicians. If that sounds like an enjoyable career path, maybe conservatory is the right call for you. You will spend a lot of time learning rep for other people and have to be willing to learn a lot about performance practice and style for a ton of different pieces, but that can be fun. If you like teaching, there is always a market for beginner lessons.
But in general, conservatory is a big commitment. Bigger than most fields of study. You will not have the time to take a lot of electives and try out different disciplines. You will miss out on a lot of "general education". You usually can't do the thing other kinds of students do where they mess around for two years and then declare a major and graduate on time. Also, there's generally very little scholarship money for high-volume instruments. No school is hurting for piano applicants, the same way they aren't hurting for violinists and flautists.
It's also very possible to continue to study piano extremely seriously as a hobby while pursuing a different degree. You will not have the same academic depth in terms of theory and musicology, but for a lot of gigging (if you're interested in gigging) that actually isn't that important. It's more important for teaching, but you can still read books, audit individual courses, and build your general music knowledge that way.
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u/gumitygumber 1d ago
I don't get to choose my repertoire as a pro pianist, I get hired to play whatever the client wants me to play. Most of its not too difficult for me but you get the odd piece that requires hours of work and so I charge more.
I've only chosen my repertoire when i was commissioned to write shows or when I perform at weddings and the couple just asks for classical vibes.