Req 6 — Choose Your Next Step
6.
Do ONE of the following:
You must choose exactly one option here. Both choices ask you to think beyond the badge and imagine how music could stay part of your life after this merit badge is done.
Your Options
- Req 6a — Research a Music Career: Study one real career connected to music, including education, cost, job duties, advancement, and salary. This option helps you understand what professional life in music can actually look like.
- Req 6b — Turn Music into a Hobby: Explore how music knowledge and skills could grow into a long-term hobby, including goals, costs, training, and organizations. This option helps you build a realistic personal plan.
How to Choose
Choosing Between Career and Hobby
Pick the option that answers the question you are most curious about
- Choose 6a if: you want to know how people earn a living in music and what preparation that path requires.
- Choose 6b if: you want to keep music in your life for enjoyment, service, creativity, or community without making it your job.
- Time and research: both options require real research, but 6a usually asks for more career-specific facts like salary and advancement.
- What you will gain: 6a builds career awareness and realistic expectations. 6b builds self-direction and a practical plan for continued involvement.
Some Scouts discover that music is something they love but do not want as a career. Others discover the opposite. Either result is useful. The purpose is to think carefully and honestly.
Req 3c and Req 4 can help you here. The experiences you enjoyed most in those sections often point toward the future path that fits you best.
National Association for Music Education A useful starting point for understanding music learning, careers, and ways to stay involved in music over time. Link: National Association for Music Education — https://nafme.org/To begin, look at the career option first and see how a music-related profession is researched in a practical way.