Students pursuing music careers discuss unique challenges

While most people aim to find work related to their majors, students who harbor dreams of becoming professional musicians navigate a different path.

To better understand the challenges they face, we spoke with some student musicians whose majors encompass myriad courses of study with one exception – music. They explain how difficult it can be to find time to practice while managing course work, have a social life and make enough money to support a career in music.

Noise ordinances and practice times

Zach Santarsiero is in his senior year at the University of Vermont. After graduation he plans to continue playing drums for Doctor Rick, a band comprised of UVM students that frequently play shows in Burlington on the weekends.

"(Doctor Rick is) a band that blends all of our passions for music into one sound,” he says. “Our influences range from Bob Marley all the way to Frank Zappa, so things tend to get a little weird.”

The New Jersey native explains he's studying community entrepreneurship because of the broad range of possibilities within the field, and that the entrepreneurial aspect of the major can be geared toward music.

The band members have conflicting schedules, which means finding time to practice can be difficult. Santarsiero spends the majority of his days studying and interning at Green State Gardner, where he does social media marketing for the organic gardening company.

But still, Doctor Rick manages to practice four to five times a week, typically beginning around 6:30 p.m. Which raises yet another challenge: Practice time is limited due to a local noise ordinance. The city of Burlington enforces a restricts “unreasonable noise” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. First time offenders receive a $200 ticket.

“Cops would come knock on our door,” Santarsiero notes. “No matter how quiet we try to be, it’s going to be loud — neighbors are going to hear it either way.”

The band, however, he says, has learned to “adapt."

“We haven’t had any more stops from the police,” the drummer explains. “With that said, we never risk practicing after 10 p.m. because we just can’t afford the consequences.”

Fitting in a social life

Kyle Fischer plays guitar for a psychedelic rock band called Entropy. A sophomore at West Chester University in Landenberg, Pa., his future plans include touring, writing and building a business team to support the band's projects.

Although he agrees it's difficult finding time to practice while balancing course work, Fischer says balancing a social life, while a challenge for all college students, is even more difficult for a musician who “religiously” practices three to four hours a day, and is aggressively pursuing a career in music.

Being a musician he says, is a “full-blown lifestyle.

“You have to balance your social life with an entrepreneurial pursuit of your craft, schoolwork and likely a job. It’s almost like you’re starting a company, going to school, cultivating an art form and working to make ends meet.”

After initially studying marketing, the guitarist switched his major to computer science. But his “heart and soul,” he says, belongs to music.

Fischer acknowledges his courses are not applicable in the “real world of music,” but hopes his education will help him secure a job after his music career transpires. He's unsure where the future will take him, but the sophomore is confident he'll be playing music for the rest of his life.

Financial limitations

Rohan Mathur’s passion for the guitar started nine years ago, when his mother brought home a beginner kit from Target, he says. For the past four years, the senior -- who studies computer science at the University of Maryland -- has been playing guitar for a metal band called Hydra Kyll. On average, he spends several hours a day practicing his craft, he says -- and that excludes band practices.

The Maryland native says that on top of the usual money challenges, there are added expenses to being a musician.

The guitarist cites studio time, gear, merchandises and touring costs as a few of the expenses that are essential for any aspiring musician.

“Being a student makes it very difficult to work full time and make enough money to support all the needs of a person trying to make a career in music,” Mathur says.

He's majoring in computer science, he says, because his music has helped him understand that having a way to make money is important -- whether he's playing music or not.

“If for some reason music doesn’t work out, or Hydra Kyll calls it quits, it's important to me to have something to fall back on,” Mathur explains. “Having that degree and that experience will allow me to get back on my feet quicker.”

Which doesn't mean he's quitting music anytime soon.

“Once I complete my degree," Mathur says, "I plan on putting myself full-force into music."

Stuart Laperle at the University of Vermont and a USA TODAY College correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.