Musical Instrument Making & Repair

Types of Degrees Musical Instrument Making & Repair Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many musical instrument fabrication & repair graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	117
Basic Certificate	57
Associate Degree	20

What Musical Instrument Making & Repair Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to musical instrument fabrication and repair and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Musical Instrument Fabrication and Repair Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for Musical Instrument Fabrication and Repair Majors

When studying musical instrument fabrication and repair, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Repairing - Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
• Troubleshooting - Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
• Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

Abilities for Musical Instrument Fabrication and Repair Majors

Musical Instrument Fabrication and Repair majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Hearing Sensitivity - The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
• Finger Dexterity - The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
• Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
• Auditory Attention - The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.

What Can You Do With a Musical Instrument Making & Repair Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with musical instrument fabrication and repair:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners	1.2%	$36,330

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Musical Instrument Making & Repair?

The major attracts more women than men. About 60% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of musical instrument fabrication and repair majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	16
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

How Much Do Musical Instrument Making & Repair Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

The median salary for someone in a career related to musical instrument fabrication and repair is $39,110. This median refers to all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Musical Instrument Making & Repair

Some careers associated with musical instrument fabrication and repair require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to musical instrument fabrication and repair have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	7.1%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	35.4%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	42.5%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	10.6%
Bachelor’s Degree	3.5%

Online Musical Instrument Making & Repair Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	5	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	4	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Musical Instrument Making & Repair Worth It?

The median salary for a musical instrument fabrication and repair grad is $39,110 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Musical Instrument Making & Repair

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to musical instrument fabrication and repair.

Major	Number of Grads
Gunsmithing/Gunsmith	1,820
Watchmaking & Jewelrymaking	74
Locksmithing & Safe Repair	72
Precision Systems Maintenance & Repair Technologies, Other	25

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Phasmatisnox under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.