guidance please

angeldaisy

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, also apologies because I have absolutely no clue about any of this:o

Anyway, my nephew (15yrs) has really started to get into mc'ing? and djing. He is currently doing a course in it at the weekends and would love to get into this as a career.
What I was wondering is what is the best route for him to take?? Are there courses that are recommended or should he do a degree in something related first??
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.

Executive Steve

Most of those weekend courses are pretty useless in my experience - he'd be better off investing in decent equipment and learning to figure it out himself.

However there's a pretty decent two year FETAC course out in Bray though that I've heard great things about.

Another useful thing for him would probably to consider something like the Multimedia Production degree (think that's what it's called) out in DCU - I've known a rake of heads who've been through there and they all seemed to get pretty cool skills and jobs out of it - one lad I know ended up flying to Washington to explain his doctoral thesis to Obama's ministry for health.

In terms of DJ-ing and MC-ing, there's really no substitute for knuckling down and doing it, making noise and pissing the neighbours and guards off.

Is mise le key

I dont want to be a pessimist here, but in reality at 15 the attraction of Dj'ing & MC'ing is very cool, my lad is just 15 & he wanted to be a DJ also about 6 months ago, as with any 15 year old, that changes like the wind & he wants to be in Science now as he was at the science ex in the RDS recently.

The only advice i am giving really is not to committ to something financially huge just yet, let him keep on with the weekend course, explore the depths of the music he is into over time & see where it takes him in a year or so, if he is still as avid he may have found his calling.

Or you may find he wants to be a doctor in a year.;)

angeldaisy

Is mise le key wrote: »

I dont want to be a pessimist here, but in reality at 15 the attraction of Dj'ing & MC'ing is very cool, my lad is just 15 & he wanted to be a DJ also about 6 months ago, as with any 15 year old, that changes like the wind & he wants to be in Science now as he was at the science ex in the RDS recently.

The only advice i am giving really is not to committ to something financially huge just yet, let him keep on with the weekend course, explore the depths of the music he is into over time & see where it takes him in a year or so, if he is still as avid he may have found his calling.

Or you may find he wants to be a doctor in a year.;)

I agree with you 100%, all we are trying to do is persuade him he needs to do well in his junior and leaving cert. He is of the opinion that he doesn't need to work hard at his exams in order to do well in life. Of course we all know those who succeed regardless but I would hate him to be limited in later life.
I'm trying to show him that by working hard he could do x,y or z instead of only being able to do x. if that makes any sense:D

Executive Steve

Well put it this way, even if he's really talented and even if he ends up doing three or four gigs a month he'll struggle to make enough money to pay for music and equipment.

If he's genuinely interested in electronic music and the technology of sound about the best thing he could possibly do is bury his head in his maths and physics text books, learn a few programming languages and learn to set up and dismantle all his equipment blindfolded and drunk in the dark.

Plenty of interesting careers in sound and sound technology out there, but the only guy making any significant money off DJ-ing (without being an international touring DJ) is the guy selling pills outside the venue. I can guarantee you that in the decade since I first starting playing out and doing gigs there's very very few occasions when I went home with more money than one of the bouncers or one of the barstaff, and many times I would have left with less than the girl in the cloakroom, and usually even the lad handing out towels in the bathroom would chuckle if he knew what i was getting paid...

Logical Fallacy

angeldaisy wrote: »

I agree with you 100%, all we are trying to do is persuade him he needs to do well in his junior and leaving cert. He is of the opinion that he doesn't need to work hard at his exams in order to do well in life. Of course we all know those who succeed regardless but I would hate him to be limited in later life.
I'm trying to show him that by working hard he could do x,y or z instead of only being able to do x. if that makes any sense:D

At the end of the day it's lovely to think that talent will carry a person...but talent needs to be developed and nurtured and in the mean time information is power.

If he works hard at his exams he can do a lot of courses that will lead him to jobs in the music industry, they might not be the job he wants to do for the rest of his life...but it could lead to something quite interesting.

There is also the simple fact that who you know is pretty damn important...if he is working as a Sound Engineer in a studio somewhere, or maybe at a mastering house he will be meeting a lot of people who can help him out with his artistic endeavors. The trick will be to show him how to play the game well and make him see the advantages to working hard now and in college and how he can parlay that into an interesting and fulfilling job while still doing what he wants to do musically.

As Exec Steve said...there is also the fact that a true interest in something leads to a terrible thirst for knowledge. I know guys that spend hours a day just reading, researching and studying everything from the physics of sound, to production techniques, classic rigs and equipment, the history of the music they love....it's endless.