<p>I’m not sure what would be an appropriate age to have started the cello, but my son has a friend who is an upright bass player and didn’t start playing until 9th grade. He played another instrument (not sure what it was) but switched to the bass upon acceptance at a magnet high school. He is now studying at Julliard and was accepted to many other prestigious programs. This kid is a very dedicated musician and took lessons and studied privately. I think it never hurts to try!!!</p>
<p>Grades and SAT may matter. This past year D applied to Peabody and two weeks later was sent a rejection letter stating that she did not pass the pre-screen portion. No biggie…wasn’t meant to be. Two weeks later she received a call from the music department stating that they needed an additional document in order to proceed with forwarding her in the pre-screen process. My D asked why would the music department need another document in order to move her forward in the pre-screen if she was already sent a rejection letter. After @ 10 minutes of intermittently being on hold, the bottom line was that she was academically disqualified from the process prior to having her pre-screen material evaluated. They apologized and hung up very quickly. Again, no biggie…wasn’t meant to be.</p>
<p>High end academic scores will not improve your chances of acceptance. However, they may impact your ability to get additional scholarships, which may be very important if you are not at the top of the instrument list. Please note that some schools do not allow academic and artistic scholarships to be awarded (i.e., The Hartt School). Additionally, last year NEC had a minimum non-weighted core academic GPA requirement.</p>
<p>In regards to whether or not you should pursue music, I will share my Ds experience. My D was in a similar situation as you. We are from Southern California and she wanted to go east. My D is a successful musical theatre performer (who has performed professionally in the region). Prior to her junior year she decided to switch to classical music–she is one of those ones who in junior year “decided she wanted to be an opera singer”. Good news is that she had multiple years of professional vocal training. As such she has good technique, but opera is a completely different beast. So she began singing classical voice a little over a year prior to her auditions. She made it through 70% of her pre-screens at conservatories including Oberlin, SUNY Purchase, BOCO, and Hartt (her prescreens to U of M, UofC, Peabody and NYU were rejected). In the end, she was accepted to 7 of the schools she applied to (she applied to 15). That being said, her acceptances were not at the tippy top schools, but at what some might consider the second tier and lower schools. Obviously she didn’t have the diction and polish that those who had been studying classical voice for a longer period have. </p>
<p>I don’t know what their cello programs consist of…but here is the list of the schools my D applied to:
NYU- rejected at prescreen
BOCO-accepted
Hartt-accepted
Oberlin-accepted
SUNY Purchase-rejected
SUNY Potsdam-accepted
U of C- rejected at prescreen
Baldwin Wallace- rejected
Otterbein-accepted
Plymouth State University-accepted
Carnegie Mellon- rejected
California Baptist University-accepted
NEC- rejected at prescreen
U of Michigan- rejected at prescreen
Peabody- rejected at prescreen</p>
<p>Ultimately my D decided to go to The Hartt School. Her decision was based on location, total cost of attendance and where she thought she might best excel. Don’t know that I 100% agreed with her final decision, but ultimately it was her choice. I encourage her to pursue her passion and can’t wait to see how she develops over the next four years. She may be behind right now, but her intent is to apply to grad school and eventually pursue her doctorate.</p>
<p>I’ve only been a part of CC for less than 6 months, but the one definitive is that there is no single path. You are doing the right thing by asking questions now, continue to learn and by next summer, you’ll have a better idea of which programs may be suited for you. If they work out, great! If not, no biggie…wasn’t meant to be. </p>
<p>Bass players usually start much later than other string players. </p>
<p>@vk-
The upright bass is very different than violin or cello, much like wind instruments or brass kids tend to start later on it, and it doesn’t have the competition that piano, violin and cello (and to an extent, flute) because it is not a solo instrument. On the solo instruments you are running into heavy duty competition, on all three instruments kids start very young, and more importantly, in large part because of students from Asia where kids not only start young, but also work at it from a young age at levels most people would scratch their heads at for a kid so young, and as a result the level to get into a high level program like a Juilliard, NEC, Rice, etc, etc on those instruments is stratospheric. All instruments have experienced this to a certain extent, but with those instruments the end result is that for most students, they have to decide quite young to ‘get serious’ simply to keep up. I am not saying that the Bass is easy, that it doesn’t compare, it is simply that up until this point, non solo instruments are in general not as popular, plus there are physical limitations to learning bass, even with a smaller one that don’t exist with violin, piano and cello. Part of the problem is sheer time, if a kid started violin in 9th grade at 14, they would face as much as a 10 year gap with many kids, whereas a kid starting the base in 9th grade at 14 might be facing a gap of a couple of years and that time is very difficult to make up. With music admissions, even kids who have been playing a long time, who have dedicated themselves to it before high school, don’t get into top schools, so for a kid who started late it will be even more daunting. </p>
<p>If you want to see what I mean, if you are in NYC check out the Juilliard pre college recitals (they are open to the public) or at another high level pre college program, and see what it is like on Piano, Violin and Cello. Not all the kids are stratospheric, but if you look at the top 20% of students on those instruments, you will get an idea of why I say what I do, and they represent a small total of those who will attempt to go into music schools. On the other hand, even for students who have been playing a long time it is a crapshoot, so as long as someone knows the odds and has the drive to go for it, and understands that the odds are against them, then I won’t disagree. Seeing comments on here over the years, I don’t object to those who say “If you really love playing the violin, have the real passion, and want to explore it, see what happens, and know that will always be with you, then by all means try going for a performance degree” but what I object to are those who phrase it like “Of course you should study violin, my best friend’s cousin went to a community college, then went to a local college, majored in violin performance, and is now in <some high=”" level="" orchestra="">, as if this happens all the time (not to mention that a)that could be urban myth or b)that it happened 30 years ago" (I am not saying your or Stacjp or anyone else on this thread is doing this, just talking about the past on here). </some></p>
<p>Your right. All that I have to compare it to is the saxophone which my son started playing in fourth grade. I’ve noticed that there are kids who picked sax up in middle or high school and if they are really determined, can “catch up” to the kids that have been playing since elementary. This might not be the same for violin, cello, etc. I just hate to see someone give up if they have the passion for music and not try. My son made amazing improvements during his senior year of high school, but this was done by more than doubling his practice time and continuing with private lessons.</p>
<p>musicprnt, I think what you are trying to convey is that it will be a lot of work and it is going to be competitive and one is going to need focus and determination and it is going to involve sacrifice. I think that message is coming across loud and clear. Even if one started young, to make it in music requires extreme sacrifice, dedication, focus and hard work. And one will need to confront failure and be willing to pick oneself up and continue forging ahead despite the failure. The world has enough people like that Princeton professor that shut down that boy’s dream of going on in pure mathematics with one sentence. What the world needs is more people who say, “Look, if this is what you want and you are willing to work for it then by all means give it a try, because if you don’t you may regret it later.” Over the years our son met plenty of those nay-sayers. And nay-sayers get under my skin because I see the way they shut things down. Sometimes especially with the arts the nay-sayers are parents. And that bugs me too. </p>
<p>Because of my son’s story I spend a lot of time seeking out and collecting stories where grit and determination prevail. These are stories where people for a variety of reasons had late starts in life or changed careers or decided to pursue something that other’s told them was unwise. These stories include famous architects who were told they had no talent, artists who were told they should look for other careers, academics and scientists who were failures in and college. </p>
<p>Oh with regard to Bass….my son is a bass player. It is a great instrument for a late bloomer because competition is not quite as intense for Bassists as it is for other instruments and Bassists typically do start later in life. My son did not start playing the Bass (although he had played piano and cello before) until he was in 8th grade. </p>