BBC Home
Parents Music Room - Motivate Your Child With Music
Careers Guide Careers in music A practical guide for parents Music is such a broad field - there is the music industry and music itself. So there are lots and lots of choices for a career within music. It's not just about being a pop star - we have music lawyers, admin support staff, sound engineering. It is a valid choice to make as a career. Jacqui McDonnell, Life Coach
If your child is mad about music they may be thinking about further study or even a career in music. At this point many parents ask: is there really a future in music? Today music is a major industry with a wide range of opportunities, employing an estimated 130,000 full-time in the UK alone. Your child may want to study music for the love of it, or to pursue a career as a singer, instrumentalist, or composer, but the possibilities don't stop there. Whatever the level of skills your child has achieved, there are career paths open, whether they decide to leave school at sixteen or go on to university. Whatever their interest there are jobs in teaching or music therapy, production, promotion, management, as well as performance.
Jacqui McDonnell
Interview transcript
Music is such a broad field - there is the music industry and music itself. There are a lot of career choices. It's not just about being a pop star - we have music lawyers, administrative support staff right though to sound engineers. There is lots of scope and it is a valid choice to make as a career.
Dreams are valid We all have dreams, dreams and desires are valid. We may put them on a back boiler as being unrealistic but they always come back to us. So it is a good idea to help your child and support them in realising their dreams.
Don't hold your child back It is important to be realistic, obviously, but it is worth taking some time to think about what reality is and what your reality is. For Robbie Williams his reality is being a superstar - it is very real for him - and somebody's got to do it! It is worth looking at your version or limits on reality and seeing if that holds your child back or if it supports them. If something seems impossible just ask yourself 'why not?' Maybe you could make a list of the reasons it can't happen and add some solutions. Hopefully doing that will be a support for your child and help them on their chosen path.
Trust their career choice How do you know they have made the right career choice? Well basically that comes down to trust and knowing their character. People are passionate about the things they are good at. This is what they want to do - this is what they love. So if your daughter is shy and retiring it is highly unlikely that she is going to want to be the next Kylie Minogue. Allow them to dream and take their path and trust them.
It is all a learning experience So what happens if the dream doesn't happen? Was it a mistake to allow your child to try in the first place? Well basically there are no mistakes, it is all a learning experience. There is always another opportunity. If it doesn't work the first time it is just a case of trying again. If they choose not to work in music there are a lot of other arenas to work in and the skills that they have learnt will be just as valid there - being able to communicate effectively, working with teams of people and even time management will always be helpful for their future careers.
How you can help
TOP OF THE PAGE
CAREERS GUIDE Introduction Production & Studio Engineering Composing & Arranging Performance and Live Music Legal, Business and Management Record Labels Music Media: TV, Radio and Print Education and Music Therapy Parents' Music Room Links Parent-to-Parent Your Child: 11 - 14 Your Child: 14 - 16 Your Child: 16+ Do DJs play music? bbc.co.uk Links Onemusic Onelife Radio 1 Radio 2 Radio 3 6 Music Music Elsewhere on the web (External) British Phonographic Industry (External) Music Education Directory 2002 (External) The Brit Trust The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites Parent-To-Parent Do you work in music? How did you get started? What advice would you give? Printable version About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy Explore the BBC
Change Text Only Settings
Graphic version of this page