<p>is cornell's music program good? really good? in comparison to other schools?</p>
<p>obviously it's not a conservatory, but every single person i've met in the department has been really good. incidentally, the synthesizer was invented at cornell, and also, a professor just won some huge composition award the other year. It's obviously not a conservatory, but it's got great facilities, great faculty, the resources of ithaca college, which is supposed to be good in music, and the benefits of getting a BA from the Liberal Arts College at Cornell University, a member of the Ivy League. If you want to be a professional musician, go somewhere else, but there are few better places IMO to do a double major in music and "something practical," many of whom are phenomenal musicians. The two best non-professional pianists I have heard I have met at cornell. I know countless students who are doing a double major with music; it's very common here.</p>
<p>Also, the curriculum is very flexible, and you can be prepared for anything from composition to history to performance to education with your degree from cornell.</p>
<p>Look at the rate my professor ratings: <a href="http://ratemyprofessors.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=298&orderby=TDept&letter=M%5B/url%5D">http://ratemyprofessors.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=298&orderby=TDept&letter=M</a> There seems to be one bad apple, but the two guys that really stick out in ratings, pond and miller, really are that great. Miller is my trumpet teacher and Pond is my faculty advisor for my music degree. Both incredible, exciting people. If you can take Pond's writing seminar on jazz fusion & herbie hancock...do it! In defense of the dept., the bad appl guy teaches only music 120 it would seem, which is a music/digital tech course...sounds cool but obviously not a very core music program course.</p>
<p>Like I said, not the best dept., but solid, just like almost every dept. at cornell is. What particular things are you looking for in your music education/music degree. What facilities do you want? What goals do you have?</p>
<p>if you want to be a professional musician (i guess everyone's heard this) - bekeley's the best. Many of the best rock bands were from berkeley, such as dream theater and dragonforce. (was steve vai from berkeley too?) I heard Northwestern's also pretty good.</p>
<p>Anyway, so sparty - even though i'm just a beginner to theory, can I still cope up with music theory at Cornell (provided I work hard, of course)?</p>
<p>granted i know nothin abt music...but i always have believed that if u work hard anythin is possible</p>
<p>yes of course...you could even do the theory course, with hard work, if you had never read music before. However, yeah, it helps to know how to read treble and bass clef, even if you're crappy at it. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Most students don't know much voice leading before college.</p>
<p>and i thought i knew even a little bit... but reading the above post - "treble and bass clef", "voice leading" :( . Damn... I gotta work on my theory before going to cornell...</p>
<p>as i said...if u work hard anythin is possible :D</p>
<p>can you read music metallicmaniac? like "real" music, not guitar tabs? "staff notation" as the proper name would have it. If not, there's a 1 credit, 4 week introduction to notation course.</p>
<p>treble and bass cleff are 2 cleffs...voice leading is the whole idea of basic theory: knowing how voices mix harmonically</p>
<p>nope - i can hardly read music... just a bit, not the complex stuff. thanks for the info on the introductory course. I'm mostly self-taught in music theory, i.e. not only reading but also other theory like modes, scales, etc.</p>
<p>Cool, so how long have u been learning music? and got any good theory sites? - they would be Extrememly helpful. thanks a LOT for the help.</p>
<p>ur welcome...im hopeless ain't i... :D</p>
<p>"What particular things are you looking for in your music education/music degree. What facilities do you want? What goals do you have?"</p>
<p>The main thing I was looking for was flexibility, since I'm really hoping to major in something 'practical' too. I've been going around getting lots of opinions and everyone says that the music dept works with double-majors really well. I really wanted a place to continue violin since I love it so much. I was asking all this because I thought it might sound weird if my 'intellectual interest' was only about music. My concern was the admission officers going,"does she want to be a professional musician? we're not a conservatory." I don't know, do I need to make sure to add my 'other' intellectual interest(not really sure what it is) too or is just music fine?</p>
<p>This site is fairly comprehensive for a lot things you should memorize to be come an educated musician Read this site first: <a href="http://www.musictheory.net/%5B/url%5D">http://www.musictheory.net/</a></p>
<p>Explains counterpoint in depth <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint</a>
counterpoint essentially dictates the guidelines for common practice composition, but sometimes, harmonic progression becomes more importnat than melodic progression and line.</p>
<p>If you know a little reading, taking the 4 week, 1 credit notation/basic skills course the semester of or before Music 151/153 is a good idea. It will bring you up to speed, and get you a credit, too.</p>
<p>Cornell's dept. is great for flexibility. What do you want your practical field to be? I don't think loving music but wanting to pursue a different career is odd in terms of intellectual interest...that's what 99%+ of musicians do. Even pro musicians usually teach lessons or HS bands to get by, financially.</p>
<p>However, you should probably reference your primary field. Researching and talking about the dual-degree options at cornell will make it obvious to cornell that if they accept you, you will very seriously consider attending, which is an important thing to do in RD.</p>
<p>hows the theory placement test?</p>
<p>can you get into an advanced (semi advanced, i guess, post AP) theory class in frosh year?</p>
<p>yeah, but make sure not to forget what you learned. I blanked on the species of counterpoint, so when on the placement I was asked to do first and second species counterpoint for a given cantus firmus (CF=baseline), I couldn't do it because I didn't know which forms were which (also, we had a very harmony based method, and didn't do THAT much counterpoint writing). There's also an analysis section.</p>
<p>Doing well puts you into 152/154 instead of 151/153, i.e. you gain a semester. In rare cases, students skip to 2nd year courses.</p>
<p>I'm leaning toward the science field since science is one of my strong points. One of my essays talks mostly about music. The other one talks about how i'll take advantage of flexibilities of cornell's programs to double-major in two of my passions. I sort of just touched on science as my other interest. hopefully they'll be a window to my future</p>
<p>
[quote]
if you want to be a professional musician (i guess everyone's heard this) - bekeley's the best. Many of the best rock bands were from berkeley, such as dream theater and dragonforce. (was steve vai from berkeley too?) I heard Northwestern's also pretty good.</p>
<p>Anyway, so sparty - even though i'm just a beginner to theory, can I still cope up with music theory at Cornell (provided I work hard, of course)?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Umm Berkeley is the UC.....</p>
<p>Don't you mean Berklee School of Music in Rhode Island?</p>
<p>That's where John Petrucci, John Myung & Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater went, not Berkeley.</p>
<p>berklee is obviously what he meant. well, not obviously, but to anybody in the music world it's obvious.</p>
<p>is band low key at cornell? i love playing but it's definitely not my primary focus. and oh, the marching band!? i'm really excited to join, ha i'm a nerd.</p>
<p>anybody can join pep band and get in free to the hockey games.</p>
<p>sorry for the error... wasnt aware of the spelling.</p>