Get Your 4 Year Degree in Bluegrass

[Patrick Hull]

But you really need to know the school's discount rate. The posted tuition is the 'sticker price.' It is not what most students actually pay. In fact, some of the higher-priced colleges can turn out to be a good deal compared to seemingly lower-priced colleges, once the financial aid packages are presented.

Good news everyone! A friend's daughter tells me that in Tennessee you can qualify for in-state tuition (about half the cost of out-of-state) if the public colleges in your home state do not offer a major that you wish to pursue. So, this likely means that most students would qualify for in-state tuition, I would think.

And then , of course there are various scholarships and Tennessee residents can qualify for a Hope scholarship, which I understand can pay $ 3500-4500 per year. So, I'm guessing not many people pay the full price.

[jaycat]

College is your last chance before you have to go out there into the big, bad, real world. I say, jump all over those 4 years and "do what you like" ... I think Ginger Baker said that....

(... still looking to cash in on that English degree...)

[darylcrisp]

I live about an hour from ETSU. Solid school, has a medical school also and turns out some fine doctors. I may be wrong, but I'm thinking Adam Steffey may have attended ETSU in his early years(not sure if the BG program was going then or not), I heard a few years back that Alison Krauss had a daughter attending the BG program(not sure if this is true).
I have watched thru the years the ETSU BG and Celtic bands perform at different venues, and they always pleased and were proficient.
They usually attend Rhythm & Roots Bristol, and thru different Saturdays of the year they can be found at Carter Fold.

We had a local young fellow that went thru the program a few years ago, I saw his parents a few weeks ago, they said he is travelling around the world performing with his band. I can't recall his name.

I think its a solid program.

d

[HappyPickin]

I know several people that are in the Bluegrass program at ETSU. Many are pursuing double majors. Becky Buller was a public relations major at ETSU. Most students in the program are already accomplished musicans before they arrive. The guy I have been playing bass with is in the program (also majoring in Education) and his guitar instructor is Wyatt Rice. These kids really love the music and not just because there are tens of dollars to be made in Bluegrass.

[Sterling]

My local community collage and I believe Syracuse University offers courses free to audit if you are over 60. I’d be taking those in a heartbeat!

[stevedenver]

well steve, our banjo player didn't show up for our last gig, but fortunately there was a lawyer in the audience and he was able to fill in by reciting passages from the 5th edition of Babcock, Massaro, and Spaulding's Civil Procedure whenever it was time for a banjo break. It worked great!

Seriously though, I know just what you mean! There are so few lawyers around these days ....

Didnt show...so was that an improvement?

Banjo, recitation, banjo, recitation.....a tough choice.

Indeed a shortage of lawyers.

Wish i could say the same about banjo playerslol

[stevedenver]

ixPants;1609449]Let me offer a solution rather than a criticism... take the $41k a year and live/work in an area with lots of working musicians. Network. Play out - all the time. Fail miserably. Succeed periodically. Be certain you really REALLY want it... all the suffering and uncertainty and late nights.
...then find a rich spouse and live the dream! (okay, that's a bad solution. I'll work on it)......

........

You know, i get the " go and fly " thing, but, its a long road to the top of any field, and, it takes focus, hard work, mileage.
I know many start later on the road to a career, but im old school when it comes to earning and getting on with it.

Times a wastin......

Young and cute and full of promise vanishes quickly. A cv with a list of acheivements, beyond barista, banjo, and waitress at age 30 is of great value for the vast majority of would be musicians. Lets face it, playing music wont feed and pay rent for most.

[Joel Glassman]

I suspect more people actually listen to bluegrass.

What do you base that on?
The audience for Jazz seems to be larger than for Bluegrass according to this:
https://www.arts.gov/publications/20...icipation-arts
Especially considering both "Jazz" and "Big Band" are actually Jazz, and somewhat
different audiences.

[allenhopkins]

Is the East Tennessee State bluegrass major a scam, with unqualified faculty, questionable curriculum, and no demonstrable benefits to its students -- taking their money in exchange for very little?

No.

Is majoring in bluegrass -- or, probably, any music field -- a pretty unreliable choice in terms of future job prospects and income?

Yes.

Two separate questions, two different answers.

[Mandoplumb]

I know very few people who really make a million in their "chosen" major. One of the advantages of majoring in anything is to learn how much there is to learn about any subject, if you really dig into it. Why not take something you like any really learn it. Yes you can learn in the school of hard knocks or experience, but how many authorities do you know that learned that way. Ignorance in history and mechanics in BG is rampant my self included. There is something to be said of knowledge for knowledge sake even if you can't make a living from that knowledge.

[Tobin]

There is something to be said of knowledge for knowledge sake even if you can't make a living from that knowledge.

Absolutely!

But who can afford 4 years of that, at $41,000 per year? Unless you're wealthy already, that education needs to pay for itself.

[Charlieshafer]

Absolutely!

But who can afford 4 years of that, at $41,000 per year? Unless you're wealthy already, that education needs to pay for itself.

Well, that's up to the individual. Education means opportunity. Take advantage of it or not, that's your problem, not the fault of a university. What you study in college is only the start of an education in a chosen field. You may not need to go to college, for sure, especially if you enter the trades. Hey, being a plumber can be very lucrative. But if you're looking for more, and a way to open doors, it's hard to find a better way.

That's especially true in music. Yeah, you can move to Nashville and hang with some singer-songwriters and jam a way, but you won;t get the introduction to as many different musicians, cultures, and styles as you'll get at a music school, especially one like Berklee or ETSU. And, the new normal in music is cross-pollination.

[pops1]

If I remember out of state tuition is 41k, in state was 12k. 12k a year is cheap for such education.

[Billy Packard]

After a lot of Blather what's the BFD??

College is where y'all experiment and try weird, odd ball things that may or may not work out.
Let the mind go loose,
Think the impossible could be possible,

The point is, it is a proving ground, a lab, a place where young minds can stretch out.

Ideally,

In a perfect society,

Where what I'd like to see happens.

I don't play or listen to BG but I'll stand up and defend its right to be on the curriculum.

[Posterboy]

Like many of the music colleges, the contacts you make last a lifetime, and can give you a career.

It's not what you know, it's not who you know, it's who knows you!

[dang]

Go to college for the knowledge, not the degree.

The degree is just a piece of paper, in any major.

[Louise NM]

If this is a BA and not a BFA program, the kids will leave school with a well-rounded liberal arts education. Nothing wrong with that.

[Timbofood]

There are a handful of working musicians that have passed through the program which is all well and good. I just think that if it was a determining factor in my musical existence, I would never have learned to pick.
That’s a big stretch I know but, you get the idea.
I’m not grousing about any of it, it may bring some people a better understanding of the subject, and better understanding is never a bad thing.
Most of the musicians I know went to HKU to learn how a band works and understanding when to shut up and when to make a noise.
(Hard Knocks University)

[allenhopkins]

Hell, I went to Harvard in the '60's, and majored in "Club 47," the Harvard Square folk music hangout. I remember a lot more of Mike Seeger's performances there, than of Prof. Henry Kissinger's lectures.

However, I was never quite delusional enough to think that folk music was a viable career for someone of my talents. If a "folk music" or ethnomusicology major had been offered, I might have been tempted, but in retrospect keeping my musical interests as a life-long avocation, and a "second career" in retirement, made all the sense in the world.

My youngest brother left college to take a semester at Berklee; he's an amazing electric guitarist, still is as he turned 60 this year. A short stint of touring Holiday Inns with a band that broke up and left him on Omaha with no way to get home, other than calling parents for plane fare, convinced him that a "day job" and playing on the side was the way to go.

Regrets? I've had a few -- but then again, too few to mention (as somebody sang somewhere).

[Willie Poole]

I am with Tim on this one...I have seen a few performances with some of the kids from ETSU and they are like a machine playing music, no feeling at all in their picking, much like a robot playing an instrument...I am glad I learned by going to HKU myself, and I have met some very well known people in bluegrass music and none of it did me a bit of good as far as going places or getting closer to the top of the ladder...IT TAKES MONEY, not so much talent this day and age, look at some of the singers coming out of Nashville now who can`t sing a lick but money can buy them appearances and sell their CD`s....Having a degree in bluegrass just don`t show me much....But we all walk to a different drummer...

Willie

[Timbofood]

So Willie, do you start on one with your left foot or right? I have to know so I start right!

[Charlieshafer]

Well, once again, a degree guarantees nothing. And a lot of people who aren't bluegrass fans say that all bluegrass sounds alike anyway. The college experience exposes you to much more. For every person who doesn't make it past one tour, there's another that sticks with it and gets to travel quite a bit. I know many a band who knew there was no pot at the end of the rainbow, and knew their touring lifespan was quite limited, but for 3-4 years, they got to travel he world, meet thousands of new friends, see things they'd never get a chance to see, all because they could play a bit. When I hear about someone who thinks that picking locally is all the education you need and that touring doesn't work out, I pull out 20 years of photos of thousands of musicians that few have ever heard of, mostly young kids, who had a great time touring the world, and many we still stay in touch with, long after they've gone back to teaching, working as fishermen, or whatever. The experiences they gained are irreplaceable, and they stay involved by sending newbies our way, and helping to launch their careers. Those will probably be short, too, but who cares? The minute you worry about making music a full-time, life-long career, you make it something it was never intended to be, until the record companies came along, anyway.

[jdchapman]

At the risk of harping on this point, ETSU’s in state tuition is remarkably low in this day and age. 41 k is roughly the tuition and books cost for all four years. Unless there’s some additional cost for the music programs, that’s as low as you’re likely to get.

There are merit scholarships widely available on top of that. And if I remember correctly, they offer virtually the same deal out of state for kids within 250 miles of campus, which means most of Appalachia.



As for the “robotic” thing—They’re kids.

[BrianWilliam]

The interwebs is made for harping

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/...l?schoolId=915

Not sure how accurate this is but the link says in state is $23k/year.

[John Lloyd]

What do you base that on?

Short answer: pure anecdote from a set of samples narrow enough to be of questionable applicability.

More specifically, having listened recently to a half-dozen or so jazz musicians complaining that nobody listens to them because [varied but mostly derogatory trains of speculation re the cognitive traits of the general public]. Nothing solid enough to support a definitive statement, that's for sure. The fact that I could well be wrong is why I phrased it as a suspicion. If the link you posted still applies today, it seems that suspicion was indeed ill-founded.

The audience for Jazz seems to be larger than for Bluegrass according to this:
https://www.arts.gov/publications/20...icipation-arts
Especially considering both "Jazz" and "Big Band" are actually Jazz, and somewhat
different audiences.

I wanted to take time and check out that link rather than just tossing off a drive-by one-liner. I'm still reading it. Thank you; it's truly interesting.