Music Education Is Where Our Industry Begins

Eric Ebel Senior Program Manager, NAMM

Long before I ever heard phrases like “workforce development,” “career readiness” or “durable skills,” music was teaching me how to prepare, listen, collaborate, recover from mistakes, take responsibility for my part and contribute to something larger than myself.

As a neurodivergent middle school student in the mid-’70s, I was struggling in school. I believed I was dumb and was growing increasingly frustrated, ashamed and angry, acting out and getting sent to the principal’s office. That began to change when I met my first professional music educator in sixth grade. Within days of joining the beginning percussion section, I knew I had found my community. My grades and behavior quickly improved, and the skills I began practicing in middle school band followed me everywhere—for the rest of my life.

That experience is why I believe music education is not separate from the business of music. Music education is where our industry begins.

Music led me from being a young drummer to becoming a Marine Corps bandsman, a professional musician, a music teacher, a music-products professional and eventually a longtime member of the NAMM team. Along the way, I discovered that a life in music can take many forms.

Like many young musicians, I initially understood a career in music through the people I could see: performers, teachers, songwriters and recording artists. After spending nearly a decade as a freelance musician and sideman in Los Angeles, I was married, had children and wanted a career that looked different. A friend recommended that I consider working in the music industry, I found a job with an international percussion company and began discovering the enormous ecosystem behind the music itself.

What I found were music people just like me. People designing instruments, building them, repairing them, selling them and distributing them. Engineers, product developers, marketers, logistics professionals, salespeople and artist-relations teams. Professionals in pro audio, software, live production and event technology. The person onstage was only the most visible part of a much larger story.

After nearly three decades with NAMM, I have seen firsthand the depth of the organization’s commitment to music education. NAMM and The NAMM Foundation advocate for access to quality music learning; recognize communities that sustain strong programs through initiatives such as Best Communities for Music Education; invest in access and partnerships; and support educators through resources, research and professional learning.

At The NAMM Show, educators participate in professional learning, discover new tools, meet industry experts and bring practical ideas back to their classrooms. The Music Education Leaders Summit brings education and industry leaders together around larger questions of access, advocacy, leadership, career pathways and the changing world of work.

These efforts matter because every musician, teacher, instrument buyer, technician, engineer, designer, retailer and industry professional starts somewhere. Very often, that somewhere is a school music program, a private lesson studio, a community organization or another early music-learning experience where someone places an instrument in a young person’s hands and says, “Let’s see what you can do.”

For decades, the music-education community has worked tirelessly to ensure that students have access to music. That work remains essential. But we must also become more intentional about helping students understand where the skills and experiences they gain through music can take them.

NAMM's Consider a Career in Music Initiative: Making the invisible visible

That is the thinking behind NAMM’s Consider a Career in Music initiative. When a student says, “I want a career in music,” too many adults still picture only a handful of possibilities: performing, composing, recording or teaching. Those are important and rewarding careers, but they represent only a small portion of the opportunities available across the music, sound and live-event industries.

Our industry also needs people in manufacturing, instrument repair, retail, distribution, product development, engineering, software, audio, marketing, logistics, live-event production and many other creative, technical, business and skilled-trade roles. Students cannot pursue careers they do not know exist.

Making those pathways more visible can help strengthen our future workforce. It can also help change the way people think about the value of music education itself.

Most people value music. They understand that students enjoy it and recognize the belonging, expression and community that music programs can provide. Yet music is still too often viewed as enrichment—important, perhaps, but separate from the serious work of preparing young people for adulthood and employment.

I believe that distinction is wrong.

As artificial intelligence transforms the nature of work, employers are placing even greater value on deeply human capacities: creativity, collaboration, communication, adaptability, judgment, empathy and problem solving. Music students do not simply learn about these skills. They practice them constantly.

An ensemble teaches accountability because other people depend on you being prepared. Rehearsal teaches persistence because improvement requires revision. Performance teaches composure because mistakes happen in real time and the music keeps moving. Improvisation teaches listening, responsiveness and decision-making. Music production teaches technology, iteration and creative problem solving. Leading an ensemble teaches communication and trust. Following a conductor teaches attention, discipline and the ability to contribute to a shared outcome.

Music educators have been developing these capacities for generations. We simply have not always described them in the language of workforce development.

My own career is evidence of that. The skills I learned in school band followed me from a drum set to the Marine Corps, from the classroom to the music-products industry and eventually into my work at NAMM. Music taught me to prepare, to listen and to work with people whose ideas, personalities and approaches differed from mine. It taught me that talent does not excuse unreliability, and that my job was not simply to play my part, but to help the whole thing work better.

Those lessons translate remarkably well beyond the stage.

We need more young people making music. We need qualified music educators. We need schools and communities that understand the total value of music learning. And we need students to see that the skills they are developing through music can lead to meaningful opportunities—both within our industry and far beyond it.

Somewhere today, a student is sitting in a band, orchestra, choir, music-production class, private lesson or garage rehearsal learning to listen, prepare, collaborate, solve problems, recover from mistakes and contribute something valuable to a group.

That student may become a professional musician. They may become an engineer, teacher, entrepreneur, designer, technician, executive or small-business owner. They may someday work for one of the thousands of companies that make up the global music industry.

They probably do not know yet. Our responsibility—as educators, industry leaders and people who believe in the power of music—is to make sure they have the opportunity to find out.

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Eric Ebel is the Senior Program Manager for NAMM’s Member Services team, where he leads key national initiatives that support music education and promote career pathways in the music and creative industries. He oversees NAMM’s Music Educator and Music Student programming at The NAMM Show and manages the Consider a Career in Music, the organization’s flagship initiative aimed at expanding awareness of the broad spectrum of music-related careers beyond performance and teaching.

Since joining NAMM in 1997, Ebel has contributed in a variety of roles across the organization. He previously served as show manager for NAMM’s “Music and Sound Expo” and as a senior trade show sales representative, where he helped connect manufacturers with global buyers and educators through NAMM’s renowned international trade events.

With more than 40 years of diverse experience in the music industry, Ebel brings a deep, well-rounded perspective to his work. His background spans product development and sales leadership for a global percussion brand, faculty at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, and a performance career as a professional drummer. He also served with distinction as a percussion specialist in the United States Marine Corps Far East Band.

Ebel remains an active performer, playing 50–60 live dates annually with commercial music agencies and private projects throughout Southern California—further grounding his work at NAMM in the day-to-day realities of today’s music professionals.