degrees...

I’ve been thinking recently about degrees and such. At least in music, it seems somewhat easy to complete a degree (once you've been accepted into a program, that is, which isn't always so easy)…and so pointless. As a performer, a music degree is, essentially, useless…especially the higher the degree. There is no need for it. Anyone auditioning you for a legitimate performance job, could really care less what degree you've earned. Where you studied and who you studied with is a bit more relevant, as it often gives a pedigree of sorts, perhaps shedding a little more light on where you’re coming from, what you might know, and what your experiences have been. Even then, its still somewhat irrelevant. It comes down to how you play, and more importantly, how you play in that moment, or how you potentially could play. Musicians who wish to be performance majors obviously go through schooling to get experience, learn from their teachers, colleagues, make contacts, or for a number of other legitimate reasons. Pursuing further education is often done for the same reasons, or if anything, to avoid being thrown into the real world just yet. The doctoral degree, then, for a performance-geared musician is for all intents and purpose a completely useless degree. Sure, you’ll get more experience during your extended time in school, but the degree will do nothing for you. The only reason one would pursue this degree (other than reasons previously stated) would be if you wanted to teach music. And by this, I mean typically teach those at a university or such institution where students for the most part aren’t studying to be performers, but rather to be music teachers. Its funny to me that at a performance geared institution, students are typically studying with teachers who are actually performers, who never studied to be educators. Yet they are the ones who are most desirable as teachers. Why? Because they’re out in the real world performing professionally, which is what they studied to do, and thus are teaching what they are able to do. Even if they are not currently performing, they more than likely did professionally at one point. After all, every conservatory I can think of employs teachers of each instrument who are currently, or previously were high level performers…some may have accumulated a higher degree or such along the way, but didn't go the education route. No matter what the case, they weren’t employed because of a degree, but rather because of their performing abilities. So don’t you think its funny that many of those teaching music (other than at conservatories and select institutions or universities known for their music programs) aren’t full-time professional performers? Its possible that a lot of them may have never done, or are even able to do what they're teaching. More than likely they're also teaching students who don’t plan on being performers either, but rather teachers, yet who will in turn go out in the world and become “teaching authorities on performance” at some other institution. Almost all of the desired teachers I know of for performance on my instrument never studied to be teachers. They studied to be great musicians and masters of their instruments, and because of that, became great teachers. There are exceptions to ever rule, and I have studied with and known teachers who have PhD’s, were teachers at universities, institutions, even high schools and such, who are fantastic teachers. But they're usually teachers to produce and train other teachers, not necessarily to teach a performer, although they're in a position to do so. Isn’t that funny? Now the flip side is also true, in that great performers aren't always good teachers. This isn't my point, though, as I'm not trying to making a distinction between good and bad teachers, but rather who is teaching who what. Is a firefighter teaching someone to be a police officer? Its close, and I'm sure they could somewhat teach the job, or learn something even new, but its not the same. Perhaps this is often the disconnect between professors in academia and those who teach what they do professionally in the real world.

Lots of people work hard for their degrees, study a great deal, and know a lot about the field in which they’ve earned their degree. However…lets look at the large number of people who don’t, and cruise right through. So I then I thought, getting back to my original point on degrees…since it seems in some cases, or at least at some schools, fairly easy to achieve a doctorate in music and not necessarily have to do all that much for it (or even necessarily know that much), I started thinking...in how many other fields is it just as easy to achieve a degree, or at least breeze through one? And in those fields, its more than likely a bigger deal to have that degree, probably coupled with more influence and responsibilities. After all, a musician with a doctorate isn't necessarily making decisions affecting peoples' lives. And so, assuming this PhD means more in another field, what kind of numb-nuts are being handed high level degrees? Should they really have them? What sort of decisions are they making, or opinions are we getting, and trusting, from people whose only justification for voicing it was the degree they never deserved to get? Isn’t it funny? Or is it just plain scary?