<p>I'm a freshman in high school, I've been playing upright bass for about a year, and have played guitar for 3 years before that (private lessons on both instruments, although I recently discontinued the guitar lessons). Music is my life (cliche, but true). About a month ago it hit me to become serious about this, and plan for a music major. My practice regimen went up from 1 to 3 hours a night on the bass, and I plan to major in bass performance. I play in my school's string orchestra, a small jazz ensemble (at school, and on guitar), and I'm picking my courses for sophomore year next month (with guidance from the heads of the school's music department). My grades are steady A's in every class. My ideal after school is to get a job with an orchestra somewhere, and make a living doing that and teaching. </p>
<p>My question is this: What should I be doing to prepare? My parents are a teacher and a lawyer, and none of my friends are going for anything similar, so I'm a bit lost.</p>
<p>Also, what are my chances for getting into a top school, like Eastman? I realize I'm a bit late to the game, but I'm trying my absolute hardest.</p>
<p>You’re not late. Just continue to practice, play with an accompanist, have a look at the audition rep that you’ll need to develop in a couple years, attend summer programs, maybe with teachers you’d like to study with for undergrad and maybe (or maybe later on) try to figure out the French/German bow and standing/sitting choices (can always change all the time).</p>
<p>Find the best bass teacher that you can, even if it means commuting a long way to your lessons, keep up the hard work and you should have a decent shot at a school like Eastman. My daughter followed your timetable almost exactly and wound up getting a nice scholarship at Oberlin Conservatory and was also admitted to NEC and Peabody. Many students get started on bass a little later than on violin, cello or piano, so you are not at nearly the same disadvantage as you would be on those instruments having started in eighth grade.</p>
<p>If you have not already found my series of posts about my daughter’s experience in applying to music schools, have a look at the first dozen or so posts at </p>
<p>Bassplayer08 went through all this last year, so she may be a very good resource for you. You may also want to look for postings by the CC user named Cosmos who studied bass with a top teacher in New York before going to Chicago for college. I will also be happy to answer questions that you may have, but my knowledge is probably not as up to date as Bassplayer08’s because my daughter graduated from college more than a year ago. In addition, I do not play bass myself, so am not qualified to handle questions about technique, only those about the process of looking for schools and applying to them.</p>
<p>Sound advice from Bassplayer08 and BassDad. </p>
<p>You definitely are not too late to the game as a bass player. Your starting age is fairly typical for a bass player. If you are already practicing three hours a night as a freshman, then you will have plenty of time to develop your skills if you maintain this. </p>
<p>In searching for a good teacher, try to find one that has experience getting students into schools like Eastman. Ideally the teacher should have at least several high school students in their studio that are thinking of pursuing music performance as a career.</p>
<p>You should be researching good summer programs right now. Their application deadlines often come up much sooner than you’d expect. The benefits of a good summer program: a) the music immersion can result in huge musical growth; b) you get a sense as to whether you really want to be immersed 24/7 in music prior to college (and most prospective music majors absolutely love their summer programs); c) you get a sense as to your competitiveness relative to your peers for programs like Eastman; and d) as Bassplayer08 mentions, you get to meet a variety of teachers and to assess how well you might work with them.</p>