To Uni, Or Not To Uni?
Kids are starting/going back to uni around this time of year, aren’t they? Shall we do an actually very relevant blog post this week? Go on then!
Getting an education in Popular Music is a tricky old thing, isn’t it? Especially for singers. As much as the snobbery encapsulated in the ‘if you don’t know what you’re doing technically, you can’t be doing it right’ way of thinking exists, there’s a bit of snobbery from the other side, as well. Think of all your favourite singers. Do they have a degree? Probably not (mainly because education in Pop Vocals wasn’t really a widely available thing until this century). If you’ve had to work for it and study it, are you really singing in an authentic way? Authenticity is very. important. Not so much now, but when I was growing up, I heard so many interviews with so many artists, bragging about how they wouldn’t even have a singing lesson for fear that they might change their voice (as if that’s necessarily a bad thing?). People either want to believe that singing is a God-given gift that comes from some magical place within, or that it is a craft that must be studied, or else you’re doing it wrong (i.e. classist codswallop that’s all intertwined with access to education and poverty etc etc this isn’t a sociology or politics blog but like, everything is sociology and politics anyway so … there).
Does this happen with other industries? Was there anyone else at my secondary school, with a different life goal in mind, who had to sit in the office with the career councillor, being referred to someone else to “see how realistic” (please read that in the judge-iest, SNARKIEST tone because that is absolutely how it was said to me) their aspirations were? When it seemed like everyone around me was happily filling out their UCAS form, or looking up apprenticeships, I was just sat in the computer room for the majority of sixth form, very confused about how I was supposed to go about this.
THREEEE. YEEEEARRRRSSS. LAAAAATTERRRRRR. I decided to go get a degree in Pop Singing! (Obviously not the name of the course, by the way.) It was the only thing I liked to do; I wanted to learn more about it; I wasn’t progressing in my hometown. It made sense for me. I would not be aware of the world around me if I insisted that everyone needs to go to university to pursue a career in music – many people (most people?) are super duper successful without that experience. However, I’m sure 17yr old me would have appreciated some sort of list from someone who had had that experience about what they had learned and how university can be beneficial for vocalists, if they have the opportunity. Here we go!
1. Your Unique Selling Point.
If you’ve not had much gigging experience before, University is a great opportunity to see yourself in a working environment and find out what your USP is. Assumedly, everyone pursuing a career in music will be great at what they do, so it’s really useful to use this time to find out what qualities, other than ‘I sing really well’ make you employable and a good person to play music with. You might find out your ‘thing’ is that you’re super reliable; you might not be that organised, but a great improviser; there’s value in everything and uni gives you the chance to discover what makes you valuable and learn how to utilise it.
2. Getting Out Of That Comfort Zone.
You will definitely have to play with people you’ve never met (and potentially don’t like) and you will definitely have to play music that’s not your favourite. There are two great sides to this – as much as you’re learning to ‘suck it up’ and just do what needs to be done, you also get better at spotting what really works for you. When it comes to creating your own projects, you’ll be far better at streamlining what kind of music you want to perform/make and what kind of people you want to work with. As well as this, there’s always the possibility of your musical world opening up. You might have spent your whole life singing RnB, never considering anything else and a new module suddenly makes you realise you love Metal. You never know!
3. Practical Skills.
What percentage of musicians are completely self-motivated, self-taught sight-readers? I’m not sure it’s a huge number, and I’m certain the number is much smaller when it comes to vocalists. Sight-reading and theory aren’t the funnest parts of a music course, and some might argue they’re not necessary; but they can only help and it’s great to put yourself in a position where you’re forced to practice these skills regularly.
4. Dedication Station.
Chances are, this will be the only time in your life you can dedicate so much time to learning and practicing your instrument in such a well-rounded way. Whether you go on to work in the industry or you have to find something else in the meantime to support yourself, you won’t have as much time to be experimenting with all the ways in which you can express yourself with music. It’s simply a time where there’s less opportunity for life to ‘get in the way’ (assuming you don’t have to exhaust yourself by working to put yourself through university, which I understand many people do).
5. Variety Is The Spice Of Life!
There are so many singing teachers that teach singing in such different ways. I think that’s so exciting and going to university is the only way to open yourself up to that experience in the least biased way. When you’re looking to have private lessons or go to a workshop, there’s going to be something that influences your decision on which teacher or whose workshop you choose to go to. With university, it’s a complete pot-luck, you just don’t know who you’re gonna get! More importantly, you don’t know what they’re going to teach you. Every tutor is going to have a totally different approach and your mind will be so much more open as a result. It’s so easy, when you have one teacher, to take in everything they say as gospel and put all your trust in them, especially as we’re all so scared of damaging our voices. Unfortunately, not one person knows everything and anything we do know (as history has shown), could change at the drop of a hat. I think going to university and getting the chance to take in different information from different sources is the best way to develop autonomy and figure out what works best for you.
6. Networking.
Sorry, but music is just one of those industries where you have to know people. University gives you a leg-up. I’m not sure I need to elaborate.
Ultimately, that’s all I’m saying. It gives you a leg-up. None of these benefits are exclusively attained through going to university, but there are so many difficult aspects that come with pursuing a career in music that it’s nice to have your hand held through working those difficult bits out (if you have the opportunity). I feel like that gives you more brain space for the fun stuff, which is probably the stuff that makes you want to do it in the first place.