My son has recently decided music education will be his future major (he is a hs junior now). He has only been playing
guitar for 2 1/2 years but his hs music teacher feels he has a lot of potential. He would need to start a crash course though on classical guitar so it may be a long shot getting into a music program at a college.
It looks like prospective majors are not accepted by the music departments at the same time they are accepted at the colleges but need to audition later- is that correct?
If so, students can only audition once and if they don’t make it they then have to choose another major at the college. If that is the case, then it’s not the same as applying to a number of colleges and hoping you get into one of your top choices-instead, you have only one shot at an audition at a college you have already agreed to attend.
Do I have that right? My son might have a better shot if he could audition for a number of colleges, hoping that one may give
him a chance where another college music dept wouldn’t.
Your son will be able to audition at multiple colleges. Many kids end up auditioning at 4 - 8 different schools. However, I think it would be a good idea for you to investigate the audition requirements of the music education programs your son is interested in. For example, Hartt (Univ of Hartford) requires a band or orchestral instrument audition, which would not include classical guitar.
I think you may be confusing schools where one applies to enter as a Music Major - and auditions before acceptances - and those where one auditions into the program after one is already attending -sometimes not until sophomore year. Those are two very different paths. There are many Music Education programs where one auditions during the regular admission process.
For example, my son (jazz performance, not music ed) applied to 8 colleges. Most applications were due by Dec 1 and included transcripts, essays, activities/resume, recommendations, and usually a prescreen audition video. After “passing” the prescreen, he scheduled live auditions that took place in January and February. Some of his colleges are stand-alone conservatories (like Berklee), others are stand-alone conservatories associated with universities (like Eastman/Univ of Rochester) where he only needed to apply to the conservatory,and others were music departments within universities (like Frost/ Univ of Miami). That third category is where he must be admitted to both the university and the music department (and we discovered the decisions aren’t necessarily coordinated). Usually, kids don’t find out results until March and early April. There are some music programs that offer early decision/action and rolling decisions but I think it will benefit your son to have more time to prepare for auditions. Fall comes fast!
There are definitely colleges that offer a BM in Music Education which will accept a classical guitar audition. I looked really quickly and found Ithaca and Univ of North Texas, and I’m sure there’s lots more
He’ll need to focus on getting his classical guitar skills up to speed. Here’s an example of audition requirements for classical guitar (this one is from the Hartt website):
@stradmom that’s interesting and underscores how complex (confusing?) some of these music school requirements are! For example, Hartt didn’t clarify in one part of their website that classical guitar plus vocal audition would be acceptable for the BM music education
@artie1 you may want to consider looking at Belmont University in Nashville as an option if you are worried your son is not yet experienced enough on guitar to be accepted in the Music School. It seems a lot easier to get in to the Music Programs there and if you are accepted to the University itself but not the Music School, you are still able to attend and can then re-audition for entry to the Music School the next semester. Through my experiences on this website, I have found that is not true at a lot of Universities. It is hard to know your son’s level of musicianship…some just have a natural ability to play. Did he ever play an instrument before picking up the guitar 2 1/2 years ago? Also, why just classical guitar? Is that what he is passionate about? You do not need to play classical guitar to be accepted at some schools/conservatories…only those who have Classical programs. My son only applied to schools that have Jazz/Contemporary Music Programs.
Rockinmomab- S is looking to go into music education not the performance track- I believe that schools want teachers who are classically trained but if you can get a music education degree with jazz/contemporary he would be very interested!
FWIW, Eastman School of Music is NOT a stand-alone conservatory. It is a school of the University of Rochester, just as the Frost School of Music is a school of the University of Miami. An example of an undergraduate collaboration between independent schools would be NEC and Tufts (for those about to jump in with NEC and Harvard, it is not an undergraduate path… it is a BA/MM path).
Some schools with BM programs also have different audition requirements for students seeking a music ed path vs. a music performance path.