Who am I?
First of all, thanks for visiting my site. I’m flattered that you stopped by and stayed long enough to visit the about page. My name is Bryan. I’m a 24 year-old musician (percussion/drums mainly) who loves to teach and write. I have played and toured with a couple of different rock bands, had some of my music on MTV, and co-wrote a song for a radio shack that never aired (you can decide if that’s a good thing or not). I love music production and music technology, and I like to teach, but my favorite thing to do is learn new skills and try new things.
I can’t tell you what I do for a living, because my employer is pretty strict about that (REALLY!), but I can tell you that I have a job that lets me teach, learn, and play with technology every day.
Since this is a blog about music school, I think you should know two things:
- Yes, I did go to music school
- No, I did not graduate
So what gives me the right to share advice about how to make it through music school? Read on…
My Music School Career
I’ll keep this short and simple. I attended the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York–SUNY Potsdam, for short. I finished high school in 2003, and then took a two-year break before beginning at Potsdam in 2005. I studied music education, and just “knew” I’d one day be a classroom music teacher. But, as I made my way through the program, I began to feel like maybe I wasn’t quite in the right place. I couldn’t tell if it was my major, the school, or something else all together, but I knew I needed to make a change.
Around that time, a friend approached me about turning his solo project into a duet–he wanted me to play drums for him. He had a lot of great things going on, and I liked the music, so I decided to take a year away from Crane to play with him. That experience proved to be just what I needed. I realized that while I still really wanted to be involved in education, I was more interested in “paving my own way” than what most schools would allow me to do as a classroom teacher. I landed a pretty non-traditional teaching job (the one I can’t name on here), and my band mate and I parted ways so that I could pursue that job full time.
From time to time, I still have friends and family who ask whether I’ll return to school and finish my degree. I still might return to school at some point, but If I do, it probably won’t be for music education. However, I have no regrets about the time I spent at Crane. I think that going to music school was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.
My “right” to offer advice
Although I didn’t finish music school, I gained a ton of experience along the way. I talked to professors and got study tips from them, spent hours in the music library, read productivity blogs, poured through fitness magazines and learned to play racquetball, attended as many special events and guest lectures as I could, took a ballet class, and did just about anything else I could think of to grow as a musician and improve myself as a person.
In my second year, I became an RA in one of the dorms, and then I REALLY got to put these skills into practice. I had to get even better with time management, and I shared many of these tips with friends and hall mates who struggled with the same things I did. I don’t know what kind of lasting impact I made, but I think I helped quite a few people in some way or another.
Since I left Crane and started working a “real job”, I’ve gained even more great experience. Boy could I have used it when I was in school.
Now I’ve decided to share this advice on the internet, because I know that my music school friends and I were not the only people with these challenges. I’ve already done the work of digesting hundreds of hours worth of reading and research into tidbits that are both applicable to music students, and easy to act on. I hope that I can offer a quick, easy resource to an incredibly talented, but very overworked group of students.
Once again, if you ever have questions or suggestions, please reach out to me at contact (aaat) bryanwegman (dawt) com .
