<p>Are there that many hours in a day? When I read "Chances" posts on some of the regular college websites, I wonder that too. For some of these kids, the organizational skills must be off the charts. </p>
<p>I guess what I really am learning from all these posts is that I have to do what's right for my kid--he's passionate about cello, not so much about academics. We'll see where that leads him--</p>
<p>Pointegirl and classicaldad,</p>
<p>Your posts make me feel like D's schedule is relaxed by comparison! Only one instrument to practice, and orchestra rehearses 10 minutes from our home. (But her lesson makes up for that: I drive her 2-1/2 hours each way, twice a month for a 2 hour lesson.)</p>
<p>She gets in about 12 hrs practice a week; about 3 hrs/day on the weekends, and usually 90 minutes a day during the week, except Tuesday, when she has a 3-1/2 hour youth orchestra rehearsal that ends at 10pm. Her orchestra's concert schedule is pretty full as well: four fall concerts, a week in mid-December with two rehearsals and six holiday concerts for six evenings straight (right in the middle of term finals at school of course, and an hour drive each way for mom), a March concert, and two more in late spring. She does the odd pick up gig as well, plays pit orchestra for the school's musical, etc.</p>
<p>Scheduling and balancing practice time and homework time is the biggest challenge. Right now, she is equally committed to both music and academics and working at a high level, but it's stressful. She's gotten much better at using her limited free time at school for homework and sometimes stays at school a little late to do schoolwork there rather than bring it home (not carrying so many heavy books was a big part of that incentive). She tries to pace herself and likes to give herself a break for an hour or so when she gets home from school, then practice session #1 before dinner, and another after dinner. She's usually getting her "second wind" around 10:30, and often she and my H, another nightowl, will sit up into the wee hours together, she studying, he reading. (makes 6:30am wakeup call a little challenging).</p>
<p>I am glad she is using this year to sort out some of the decision-making she'll need to do by senior year about academics vs music, and if/whether she wants or can "have it all". Not sure which way she'll decide, but I am preparing for an interesting adventure!</p>
<p>Speaking from the perspective of a mom whose kid is finally a high school graduate and now a deliriously happy freshman performance major at a conservatory: Parents know their kids the best, and you just have to make academic vs. music decisions on an individual basis. Some kids can do it all, do it all extremely well, and enjoy themselves while they're doing it all. If that's the case, then certainly don't discourage the rigorous academics. Excellent grades in advanced courses along with an excellent audition will give your child the most educational options, including places like Rice and Northwestern, where academic admissions standards must be met, even for music majors.</p>
<p>My son definitely was not the do it all type - he's not a good time manager and clearly prioritized music over academics. Although he started his freshman year in high school with all advanced and honors courses, it became very clear during the course of the year that he was not enjoying the academic challenges. I actually talked him into scaling back to a combination of honors and college prep level courses, with the exception of AP Music Theory which was a breeze for him. I guess we were lucky in that his talent and interest in pursuing a career in music were so clearly apparent early in high school, so our decisions to lighten the academic load made perfect sense to us.</p>
<p>pointgirl to say I am amazed and impressed would be serious understatment.</p>
<p>To some degree my daughter is fortunate her academic accomplishments are less fantastic or she would not be headed toward a performance degree. She would be continuing in an academic area probably at an Ivy league school where she could play in the band as an EC.</p>
<p>As they say only pursue music if there is nothing else you can see yourself doing. And anyone that puts the kind of time in on languages and math in oreder to achieve so much, they can clearly head in one of those directions.</p>
<p>The problem is that as a junior or senior in high school you might think music performance is all you can see yourself doing, but there are many things you have not yet been exposed to or considered. Some kids do stick with it, but there is a lot of attrition OUT of music performance programs. That is why it is nice to wind up at a school where there are opportunities to explore other areas of education and social groups. (in my opinion)</p>
<p>MomofWildChild -- That is a such a wise observation! There's a wide, wide world out there, and lots of life/work paths that don't fit neatly into "majors" or obvious careers at first glance. I think that's where my D's head is at right now: she loves music, cannot imagine her life without it, and knows she wants to integrate it into whatever she winds up doing, but she's not interested -- at least at this point -- in closing off other options before she at least has a chance to explore them.</p>
<p>I don't disagree with all of you about students wanting to keep options open. My own son was an exceptionally strong student and liked to be challenged academically. I applaud those students who find a way to "have it all". But I also feel very confident in saying that my son would not have been admitted to a major conservatory program if he had not put most of his energy into his music in high school. In fact, all of the students from our area who get admitted to highly competitive conservatory programs put their music above all else. (I know I am looking at a small sample, but the same is true for my son's friends at the conservatory.)</p>
<p>That doesn't mean that students shouldn't place equal emphasis on academics and music, but if the highly competitive conservatory is the primary goal, students have a difficult enough time being admitted without the added time commitments of high level academics. Just something to think about.</p>
<p>More good commentary. It really does boil down to knowing our children and paying attention to what they are really saying and revealing by their actions.
I personally like the notion of balance. It just seems to make the most sense...at least here with us. For others, a different recipe perhaps. Who is to know for sure? It is ultimately a question of faith, and from there putting in the time and effort, and finding the enjoyment. It appears at this point that our D is formulating ideas of larger universities with diverse departmental offerings, and with smaller but serious music departments. We shall see. Back to practice routines for a moment; one source of never ending surprise and enjoyment is the pattern of the longer 2-3 hour practice sessions, where at times we hear or are told that nothing seems to be working or sound just quite right; only to be followed by an impromptu 30-45 minute burst of pure magic two weeks later. Is that familiar to others? I would imagine like most worthy endeavors, that the magic is the reward for perservering and putting in the time and putting up with some of the drudgery?</p>
<p>That "magic" is a very familiar phenomenon. At that stage, you mostly hope that someone is around to hear it when it happens. Sometimes I think the whole point of an education in musical performance is to train the individual to produce such magic on demand. As Mozart says in the play Amadeus, "The rest is just scribbling."</p>
<p>I've noticed that many of the posters on not only this thread, but also this subforum are parents - so here's the two cents of a high school junior (with designs on a music major). :)</p>
<p>Just to give a bit of background, I'm a clarinetist. I don't know yet whether I want to lean towards performance or education, but I'm pretty definite on some form of undergrad music degree. It took me years to get to this decision though, so basically what happened was that (being one of those multi-interest-type students with decent grades, and never having been positive on what I wanted to major in) I took each academic subject as far as I could possibly take it in that grade level. By sophomore year I was into the AP jungle, and when I chose my classes for this current (junior) year, I ended up with very difficult classes (including four AP's - French, Physics, Calculus and English). I know that my academics are not designed for a three-hour-a-day practice schedule, but that's because when I chose them I did not know yet what I wanted to do. Another side to my reasoning is that I do love academics, and I think that being in classes where I am severely bored and unchallenged and presented with loads of busywork is not really a good thing to do, even if it does mean "x" more minutes of clarinet a day. I do get more practice time on the weekends, and I have lots of music-related EC things to keep me busy (private lessons, youth orchestra, and marching band).</p>
<p>In response to classicaldad's observation: "at times we hear or are told that nothing seems to be working or sound just quite right"
-Yes, that happens quite often to me too.</p>
<p>"only to be followed by an impromptu 30-45 minute burst of pure magic two weeks later."
-Definitely. If things get frustrating, so long as the frustration doesn't provoke bad habits, and your practicing technique is still good, you'll still benefit from it. Also, occasionally you'll have some sort of sudden epiphany (technical or musical) on how to fix some passage that's been driving you crazy, therefore making things sound tons better very quickly.</p>
<p>Personally, I like to intersperse things. I'll sit down with my instrument, warm up, work on an individual solo piece. Then do some math (or whatever else). Then sit back down and practice something different, like scales or etudes. Then do some english. Then practice orchestral excerpts, or music from ensembles I'm in. And so on and so forth, 'till all my homework is done.
I find that with this approach all the practice time really adds up (usually it's half an hour between each bout of homework, and there's typically a lot of homework), and also I get all my school work done. And I don't get fidgety or distracted, because I'm not focusing on one single thing for hours.</p>
<p>Anyway, everyone's different. But that's my approach, and I'm coping pretty well so far. I've resolved to take a less demanding courseload senior year so I can really focus more and have time for applications and that sort of thing, and I'm going to try and plan something productive for this summer.</p>
<p>My son is a junior with 4 APs and it has definitely cut into his practice time(!) He's a relaxed kind of kid and takes everything in stride, so he didn't stress about the reduced hours during September. He did manage to put in a concerto and a difficult etude, so he fortunately learns quickly. Now he breaks it down similarly to Ten...practice...study...practice...study...He gets in an hour of practice at school and at least one more at home (if he has tests) or two if he doesn't. I taught him to practice efficiently...concentrated effort rather than inefficient doodling). He doesn't always do it, but he can if he has to...</p>
<p>My two cents, if you have a son or daughter who excels at music but is also interested in exploring other academic fields, it is better to enroll in schools that have it all and not pure conservatories. This has been said before. I just concur.</p>
<p>More good insight. I like your observation BassDad about training in order to be able to produce the magic on demand. In context, Mozart probably had it right as well...about the rest is scribbling part. I personally do not have a strong musical background, and so watching our D begin to try to craft a more serious musical life for herself seems like such a daunting task; but why not? I also guess that for most [ but not all ] students there will be the constant dilemma in terms of finding the right mix and pitch between the academic and the music pursuits. I liked the description of Teniralc's daily routine. It makes good sense to me, and as far as practice is concerned, if any can be done while at school, all the better.</p>
<p>My son is actually playing music a good many hours a day, between wind ensemble, orchestra, jazz band, pit band, lessons, as well as his Saturday program. In terms of actual "practicing", I see him doing a lot of "flitting", fifteen minutes of this piece, then some practice for the musical, then some practice on the drums, then some homework, then later another half hour to hour of classical practice, then perhaps more drumming. </p>
<p>He plays a ton of music, basically all day long, but I don't see the hours and hours of focused, devoted practice that some of you describe.</p>
<p>I knew this girl who is really amazing at the cello - all these awards, solos, competitions, and such- and she's studying history at harvard. any elite or top LA college/university will most likely have a good orchestra. i'd suggest colleges that offer lots of musical oppurtunities and good faculty. (i really would suggest not to major in it though because of your academic background)</p>