I already had one Master's degree when I approached college-level music study. The school I attended said there was little point in getting an undergrad degree in music. They crafted a MA in education with majors in music ed, choral conducting, and organ. Whatever works best for you is what you should do. But, I would advise a broader base than just church music. It is always good to have something else to fall back on to earn a living when the church jobs are not available.

It is rare for anyone to submit himself to the rigors of study that a degree program will. We will almost surely slight those things that seem to us extraneous or unpleasant to pursue. Such courses as "Research and Bibliography" or a "Seminar in Analysis" will give invaluable background to a musician. They build the scholarly side of us. In addition, the advanced work in applied study is always worthwhile. Again, the requirements will take us where we might otherwise never go. If you can arrange to do graduate study, by all means do it. It is worth a good deal of effort to obtain it.

True story: When I was turned down by an MA program in liturgical music, which unbeknownst to me had a lefty musical/liturgical bent, almost immediately I was offered a job as a DM by a chant-oriented pastor. Best fit ever.

But the MA would have been very helpful.

All I can add, which is an echo of the above, is that there were definitely important things worked into me in my MM. You are no longer a kid student; they treat you as a competent adult, no matter how young you are, and expect you to level up as a result. There are matters of technique that I never would have learned (or even been exposed to) and problems that I would now be ill-equipped to solve had I not had the exposure that I received during grad school. I'm very glad I went. Sometimes I long to do continued graduate study (and I'm not far from ND now, so it's not out of the realm of possibility).

I also think that most jobs will lowball you if you don't at least have an MM now.

I can confirm this. I was once told outright that I was hired in at a higher level because of my MM. Oddly, this wasn't even for a music job, but I was still grateful for the degree. In that sense, it has literally paid for itself.

As a practical matter, I'm certain my MM has opened quite a few doors for me and allowed me to earn more money than I would have otherwise. On the other hand, I strongly suggest only pursuing an MM that is cheap or free (assistantship, fellowship, scholarship, whatever).

What was so odd about the DMA? I’m genuinely curious as I’ve not heard that before.

davido, is this to say that everything substantive can be learned at the MM level, and the DMA is mostly a matter of repertoire?

As are all non medical doctorates

The MM and DMA are certainly worthy it! I'm a survivor, and both of the degrees were very helpful with my knowledge of church music. Davido is accurate that the DMA is more academic, but there was still a lot to learn/relearn from the 5 years since I had gotten my MM. My MM focused more on church history, choir singing, and organ playing, and gave me a goal for what beautiful church music could sound like, but lacked some of the means to achieve it (it was only 2 years long). The DMA included much focus on conducting as well, including both conducting and organ recitals, but also filled the void for how to achieve that goal of beautiful church music. But I'm sure other MM programs are different and can address everything!

Improvisation was only taught to me at the DMA level (maybe other MM programs are different), and I found that very necessary for my career as a church musician. At the DMA level our organ requirements were certainly less than our organ performance colleagues, but you were still working towards being a talented organist that any church would want playing for them. But really every aspect of my church musicianship was more deeply enriched at the DMA level compared to the MM level.

The research document was actually a lot of fun once I found a topic I was passionate about (distant relative was also a church musician!). I'm still researching the topic outside of academia, and it's been a wonderful recording project during this joyful covid-tiiide.

By the time I was denied it was my final semester, so I ended up "learning how to use the library and write a paper" in my final semester of academia!)

One could make a reasonable argument that if a student needs to be told how to look up a book in a library by the time they are a graduate student, they are not suited for graduate studies at all...

depends... its totally subjective.

IMHO If you do any degree, you should do it for your personal growth as a musician, to give yourself the chance to challenge yourself and bring your abilities to the highest accomplishment. One can debate endlessly about what degrees are good for what employment etc.

Being rather cheap, I always look for the least costly option. There are a couple of very good two year state schools in my area that have excellent music programs. I took all of my basic courses, theory and such, at the two year school for half the cost of tuition at the four year colleges. Then transferred the credits.