It was searched what music is for young musicians in São João del Rei , a city in the region of Campo das Vertentes , Minas Gerais , that daily lives with brass bands and bicentennial orchestras and where the musical activities are a strong reference in peoples lives, specially among children and teenagers. Adopting the psycho-sociological theory and its notions of social imaginary, life project and group as a cultural, symbolic and imaginary system, 21 young people from musical corporations in the city were interviewed. The transcribed interviews were submitted to procedures derived from archeological discourse analysis. It was tried to make explicit the role of musical activity in the youth's life project building, that is, the modalities of social insertion of these subjects in their reality, their ways of projecting the future and of throwing themselves in the search of something to be realized.
Life project; adolescents; musicians