Piano Video Lesson: Which Takes Longer: Becoming a Pianist or a Doctor?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, Robert Estrin with a really interesting question from a viewer, which takes longer to become a concert pianist or a doctor? Well, both of these fields obviously take many, many years of study, so I'm going to break it down for you and kind of give you an idea of what each of these career paths entails. To become a doctor, first of all, undoubtedly there's a first, a four -year degree, undergraduate degree in some field, hopefully related to the medical field, perhaps biology or something, followed by four years of medical school. So there is a big chunk right there, but is that it? Far from it, because after that there's a residency which can be anywhere from three to seven years. Now, unless they're becoming a general practitioner, there's also a specialization with a fellowship that usually adds another one to three years. So you've got anywhere between 11 to 14 years of studying before becoming a doctor. Now, what about pianists? Well, typically pianists start at a younger age than doctors. In fact, most concert pianists on the scene today started as young children between the ages average of four to seven. There are some outliers outside of that range with the vast majority are going to be somewhere in there. And from the time they're very young children, they're practicing every day at least an hour, probably more as they're gaining more years, they're probably practicing three to five hours a day at least. Now, most of them probably go to a conservatory or a university program specializing in piano performance in order to study with the best teachers. And there if they're expanding their repertoire, it's likely that they're practicing at least three to five hours, more likely six to eight hours if they're entering competitions and things of that nature, because the repertoire requirements are so immense. So altogether, they're probably going to spend easily 15 to 20 years of private instruction.

That's even more than the 11 to 14 years typical for doctors. So it's a long haul. Now, what about after that, the continuing studies of each of these fields? Well, doctors are always learning from experience naturally and to keep abreast of the latest technologies and procedures, reading journals and possibly attending conventions. Now, pianists on the other hand are constantly learning new repertoire. They can't keep playing the same solo recitals again and again and again. They have to have new music so people keep wanting to hear them. If they're collaborating with other musicians in chamber music or accompanying, naturally have to learn the music that people want to collaborate with them on. So there's constantly learning new music, concertos, if they have an opportunity to perform concertos, they have to learn new concertos. A lot of pianists will also have works commissioned for them, original works, contemporary pieces. Of course, by the very nature, they have to learn them. For example, concert pianist Jeffrey Beagle, who is one of my father Morten Estrin's students, he's carved out a whole career getting works commissioned for him that he collaborates with orchestras all around the world and he does this, has been doing it for years. So naturally, this entails a tremendous amount of work and you don't even have the benefit of listening to recordings to hear what the pieces that you're going to be performing are like. And there are many, many pianists, my sister, for example, Cory Estrin Mino, does a lot of solo performing of works, new works here in the Cleveland area, helping out composers to have their works performed. So there are many different avenues for both doctors and concert pianists. But bottom line, it looks like concert pianists have a longer haul, starting younger and working longer in order to carve out a career as a concert pianist. What's more is even going through everything I outline for becoming a concert pianist is no guarantee that you'll be a touring artist because there are just so many people who are highly skilled at the instrument and a very limited number of people who ever get to do it. Whereas a doctor, if they go through all those different courses and degrees and residencies, the chances are they're going to find someplace they can practice their craft.

However, no matter how nerve -wracking performing the piano is, nobody dies. So we have a deep respect certainly for doctors as well as pianists for the rigorous training that's necessary in both of these fields.

Comment below here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano store again. I'm Robert Estrin. Thanks so much for joining me.

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