I wil be study in community college and I am wondering If I can transfer to music school like NYC or CIM?I will be major in music I play piano for years but is it necessary to get a tutor to teach me how to prepare for the audition?And I have no clue is it possible to transfer credit from CC to Uni?I don’t consider myself as a talented person in this area but I do my best and practice is there still a chance to get into those university?Thank you for answering my questions I apologize If my grammar is bad and this is my first time posting.
The Schenectady Community College School of Music just signed an agreement with the Hartt School at the University of Hartford to transfer credits. Other than that, you should probably contact the admissions or music department at the schools that you are interested in eventually transferring to and ask them.
Hi Maggie, welcome to the Music Forum.
Truly, it’s impossible for anyone here to tell you if you “can transfer to music school” without having heard you play or knowing your background. Are you currently working with a teacher? This would be the person to advise you as to whether your level of playing approaches the level necessary for admission to a competitive music school.
Perhaps you are being modest in saying that you don’t consider yourself a “talented person”, but the school you’ve mentioned, CIM, is one of the most difficult for admittance. Piano is also one of the most competitive instruments at any music school. I think you can safely assume that other auditioners will have focused on audition repertoire with their teachers for a period of months, or sometimes years. I would not advise preparing an audition without a teacher. From your previous study, you may be able to play all the required repertoire, but a teacher can advise you as whether your playing is up to the standard required and if the literature you hope to use is at the expected level.
Transferring credits fro a CC to another school will depend on the institutions involved. Frequently, theory credits will not be directly accepted for transfer. You will probably have to take a theory placement exam and then be tracked into the theory sequence at the transfer school. You could probably explore and see if any of your state universities with fine music departments typically accept CC transfer credits. I think it would be hard to guess what a private conservatory might consider accepting - you could call the conservatories you are interested in and ask. They may be able to explain their policies in general terms to you.
Best of luck to you!
Hey @electricbassmom, I didn’t mean to co-opt your idea of contacting the schools. My fingers were still just typing my reply as yours posted.
Admissions departments are generally helpful. I think often we don’t think of going directly to the source for info!
@Momofadult @electricbassmom Thank you so much for replying it helps me a lot I will try contact the school, thank you!!
@MaggieShih most conservatory type schools will only accept liberal arts credits and not music credits.
@rockinmomab I got it, Thank you !!!
In answer to your question, at any conservatory or music school of any kind of level admission is determined by an audition. Piano is one of the most competitive instruments, along with other solo instruments, so the level of playing tends to be very high entering music schools of any kind of decent level.
Obviously, no one here can assess your abilities on piano. I do have some questions for you:
1)Are you currently working with a teacher? You said you played piano for years, but I couldn’t tell whether or not you were still taking lessons and practicing. To give you an idea, most kids entering music schools have been playing piano since they were pretty young (starting age varies, but I would guess the typical start time is around 6 or 7 yrs old), and have been having lessons and practicing the whole time.
2)If you are working with a teacher, have they ever had students go on to music schools at any level? Private teachers are not all the same, there are a lot of piano teachers out there, and a lot of them are there for parents who want kids to learn piano but where the kids aren’t that serious.
3)One of the most valuable things you can do is get an assessment. I don’t know what part of the country you live in, or even if you live in the US, but one thing you might consider is getting an assessment from someone like a teacher known for getting kids into music schools, or maybe a teacher at a school of music you can get to, preferably one that is relatively competitive, to get an assessment of your skills and where you are.
I apologize if you already know this, but when you audition for a music program on an instrument they have repertoire and such they expect you to be able to do. With Piano, that might include a piano concerto (more than likely contrasting movements), might include etudes like Chopin (piano folks can talk more about that, my S is not a pianist), and other required elements. When you audition, it generally is a 10-15 minute long affair, and they will ask you to play certain sections of certain pieces more than likely, and may not even ask for things (for example, they often list scales, both major and minor, but I have heard rarely them asking for those). Your admittance is based on how well you play what they ask for, then having a member of the faculty wanting to teach you.
Someone assessing you will want to see what you have played and will then ask you to play those pieces, and they’ll give you feedback on what is good, what is not so good. One way to judge whether you have a chance at getting into a music school is to look at the websites of various schools of music/conservatories, and see what they require in audition (and pre screen), if the pieces they mention don’t look familiar, it may be a sign you aren’t at that level.
If the asessment shows you have potential to audition and get in, then you should find yourself a teacher, one who has a record of getting kids into good programs. To be honest, I suspect that the teacher you would find in a community college music program may not have the skills or knowledge to get you into a decent program, so working with someone high level is a must if the assessment shows you have potential, along with committing to the kind of practicing this likely would take, especially if you are behind/need to fix a lot of things. I can tell you that by the time they hit high school, most serious piano students are practicing multiple hours a day most days, to give you an idea of the committment.
Our tour guide at one of the top conservatories had just transferred from a community college so yes, it is possible, depending on your audition.
You should probably be able to transfer general education/distribution requirement credits (social science, liberal arts) to conservatories. Some conservatories don’t have math or science, some music schools at universities do, so check with the schools to see requirements for admission and also what classes outside of music the conservatories/music schools require during attendance, and try to cover those at community college if the credits will be accepted.
Work with a good teacher, practice, and come on here for any advice you might need later. Good luck!
CIM does have gen ed requirements, including math and science, and you could cover those with classes from a CC, but if you were accepted there on the basis of audition, you’d still have to put in the full four years because of the sequence of music courses that are required. That is often the case with conservatories, so it’s well worth your time now to contact schools you are considering so that you can plan for the future.
Mezzo’s Mama, would it be possible to save money in the long run by taking gen ed at community college, do you think? If a student still needs to spend the four years at conservatory or music school, I wonder how much would be saved, in reality, though it could save on stress and maybe make it more possible to work during studies, if some gen eds were done.
Money would probably not be saved. In some scenarios, though, time would be saved, in that the student would need to take fewer GenEds and could concentrate more fully on music classes, maybe taking more performance ensemble classes, or having more time to practice. But it’s very difficult to plan for this contingency because each conservatory has its own system. And you don’t know in advance where you will end up. MM points out that CIM has GenEd requirements that can be fulfilled outside. Juilliard, another conservatory, for example, does not accept outside credits for its academic classes. You can get a 5 in all your APs but still have to take the literature sequence along with everyone else. They have few non-musical academic classes, so two years in a CC would gain you nothing (except an education, which is valuable, of course, in its own way.)
For the voice bm at Hartt it would not save time nor money because they have specialized core classes that can only be taken at the university of hartford.
One a side note, my d schedule is not that crazy as many mention. Maybe it’s the program, maybe its that my d had a “crazier” schedule during high school that makes college time requirements “appear” easier…or maybe she’s not doing something right.
Like everyone ALWAYS says, contact your schools of interest and see if and what they will accept.
I don’t think that it would be a savings in money or in time as it concerns course work because a B.M. degree has a built in set of constraints with the theory, music history, ensemble, lesson and performance requirements
Sorry, the editing tab “Froze” on my above post, so I am going to list the entire thing here:
I don’t think that it would be a savings in money or in time as it concerns course work because a B.M. degree has a built in set of constraints with the theory, music history, ensemble, lesson and performance requirements. Then schools have further requirements of academic classes or gen eds. Glassharmonica pointed out that Juilliard requires that their students take those while actually attending there and that makes sense because there are only a couple and they are specialized. CIM, on the other hand, requires a full compliment of classes: math, sciences and humanities, all of which are taken on the Case Western campus unless a student can show satisfactory completion of those elsewhere. My daughter was able to waive all of those, but chose to take additional, upper level language courses in two additional languages (she was fluent in French when she entered school) and also took some additional poli-sci classes because she really enjoys learning. There was no way to “shorten” the 4-yr requirement because of the reasons I cited in the beginning of this, but she was considered to be a year or so ahead at all times so she got to register for classes before her peers and thus got first pick of what she wanted and the times she wanted, which she considered a nice “perc”!
@compmom, Yes, it would cut down considerably on stress and allow more time for practicing and would just generally make life, especially that first year, a lot more pleasant.