How should I tell my parents im quitting school to become a musician?

September 2, 2010
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Question by Hank: How should I tell my parents im quitting school to become a musician?
Ok so my grades suck and I hate school. I play bass guitar and am pretty good, but if I quit school then I’ll have more time to practice. I want to become a professional musician so I plan on quitting school, but im not sure how to tell them?

Best answer:

Answer by Adrianna
hey!..
you’re idea is good, and its with most musicians dream about (including me)
BUT I think you should finish school… (school is basic)

if you tell your parents, they might blew you off… or they might support you.. either way i think is good. (you wont loose anything by asking them)
the thing is that if you quit school without telling them, then the most probable thing is that they won’t give you money to keep on going with what you want, (with the idea that you come back and keep studying)…

in my opinion you should tell them by saying:
- “Mom, Dad …. you know how much i like music and you know im not very good at school. So i was thinking maybe i could practice more with the guitar and go and learn properly so that i can have a future in what i like….”

i don’t know how homeschooling is, but i think its a good option…. that way you’ll have more time at home

hope i helped!!!..
good luck perusing your dream

Give your answer to this question below!

  • SnowyOwl

    it depends of your talking about college or high school. you should always finish high school but college i think its 100% your choice

  • mamianka

    “Pretty good” is not nearly good enough. And you say you want to *become* a musician? If you told us that you were away at college studying something like statistics, and unknown to your parents, you were already working with a band, and you PERSONALLY were making into 6 figures a year – far more than you would make in Daddy’s Public Accounting office – then I would tell you to break it to them. But if you are a lazy and unmotivated high school kid, who thinks that smoking a joint and then trying to sound like James Jamerson or Bootsie Collins is the path to fame for you (and if you can only slow down that recording and play it a few more hundred times, you might catch that lick . . ) then you are seriously delusional. I have earned every single dollar I have ever made by working as a professional musician and music educator and judge, since 1971 (yeah, I’m old – call it seriously experienced) and I have MANY colleagues who, like me, have an armful of degrees and decades of legitimate experience – and right now – there is NO WORK – nothing like there was in the Eighties. People with all kinds of expertise – either learned from instruction, or from the famous School of Hard Knocks – are all finding work scarcer and scarcer. Do you still live at home with Mommy and Daddy? Can you support yourself – move out, pay for an apartment, get a car, pay for insurance and gas, buy all the equipment you need, pay for rehearsal space, wardrobe, etc? Or is this just teenage fantasy/I-resent-my-parents garbage? Have you had any serious and legitimate instruction, or mentoring, on bass – or is this a bedroom and garage-band thing? Who TOLD you that you were any good – your girlfriend,the guys in your band, or a LEGITIMATE assessment of your playing?

    I tried to learn more about by checking your profile, but it is private. However, you have a whopping ONE percent of BA – so if those questions were about bass guitar, etc. – what does THAT tell you?

    Added – I just checked your profile – it says that you are 39, and live in NY. You are 39 – and have to ask Mommy and Daddy about quitting school? You are still IN school? How about a little more of the truth here?

  • Tinpanallycat

    First of all YOU ARE NOT AS GREAT AS YOU THINK YOU ARE.. if you quit school to go professional.. you Willl quickly find out there are THOUSANDS of guitar players out there and ALL OF THEM have MORE EXPERIENCE and PLAY BETTER than YOU DO… It’s one thing to play your guitar in your mother’s basement to the applause of thousands that only you can hear and another thing to PLAY ON STAGE WITH A REAL BAND.

    Aside from the fact that your arrogance and self delusion wil make life very hard for you.. is the fact that YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO PLAY IN BARS or ANY PLACE WHERE ALCOHOL IS SERVED.. so just HOW and WHERE do you plan to WORK?

    Stay in school.. just because you aren’t SMART ENOUGH to do the work, getting a high school education will at least MAKE YOU HIRABLE for some junk job at minimum wage rather than no job at all which is WHAT YOU WILL HAVE…. NO JOB AT ALL.

  • CJ Kateson

    is school REALLY getting in the way of your bass playing, or are you using it as an excuse to drop-out. i’m all about COMPLETELY going for your dreams, but just think about it :)

  • OU812

    I did the same thing and it was a huge mistake. I had more success than most, but it was still a bad decision. Your call though dude. Personally it sounds like you’re just looking for a reason to quit something that is hard for you. When you start trying to live on a musician’s pay you’ll fully understand what hard is. When you are 30 and still have no real future ahead of you it is a sobering feeling. I went back to college at 30 years old and got an engineering degree, that was tough as hell. I never want to discourage a dream, but as a musician you always need a backup plan. You would probably come as close to getting rich by buying a lottery ticket every week as you would by being a musician.

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