<p>My daughter is a freshman in vocal performance in a conservatory program. She was home this weekend and, while she likes the college she chose and her teachers, she is finding the classes too easy and is bored! Is this typical in freshman music classes and do classes move faster as the semester progresses? D went to a large, competitive high school with an award-winning music program. She has been in piano since age 4 and has studied voice from age 11. While I wasn't surprised that she was a little more advanced than some other students, I didn't expect her to be so frustrated with her classes. She says that everything moves very slowly because so few students can read music or sight-sing. She has always found aural skills easy and is pulling her hair out relearning the basics at an incredibly slow pace. Choir is far slower than her high-school choir, which upsets and confuses her. She took many APs and has passed out of all Gen Eds except one semester of English and also passed out of introductory musicianship and theory classes. She is working with a private tutor in piano, since the classes repeat material she mastered years ago. Freshmen/sophomores at the conservatory do not get a lot of performance opportunities, so she is finding that frustrating, too. Can anyone reassure me that the program will speed up? I'm concerned that she may want to transfer if she feels she is not learning--and I don't think I could survive another round of auditions.</p>
<p>Every school is different. Can she take more advanced language courses? If it’s a stand alone conservatory that might be difficult, but if it’s associated with an LAC or another U, it might be an option. Either way…she should speak with her teacher and/or adviser. Basically—she should be proactive on making her education challenging. In classical voice there is always plenty to learn. (unless she is already fluent in French, German, Italian, Russian, Latin and Serbo Croatian 
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<p>I remember when D was a goofy freshman. Her teacher gave her the music that she “wanted her to learn”. D came back the following week after a tough week of study with each piece memorized. The teacher laughed: “THAT was for the semester…but if you insist on picking up the pace…have at it!”
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<p>She can’t add any courses at this time in the semester but will try again next semester. The conservatory language classes are full, so she is looking at the university to see it there are classes that would work. I’ve also encouraged her to take an extra class in non-music subjects that interest her. That should all help next semester. She loves working with her voice teacher, and she can control the pace of their sessions, so that is fine. While she likes the other students a lot, she doesn’t like that several of them “multi-task” (read, knit, use their ipads) in other classes rather than pay attention, slowing everything down. She is really surprised at how low the standard of musicianship is and wonders if other conservatories have a similar mix of students. I’m guessing they do, since from our audition process, the kids were admitted/denied based on a five-minute audition, with only one or two schools giving musicianship tests (even those were for placement, not audition). Is this a major flaw in the admission process? Most of her student peers have great voices, but are not necessarily strong musicians.</p>
<p>It is common for freshman not to have many formal performace opportunties. They want them to learn good techniques first. But there are opportunities out there. Seek out small ensembles, composers who want a singer, charitable events etc. DD and her classmates arranged a class recital that had not been on the schedule. The school thought it was a great idea.</p>
<p>Good ideas^ I’m sure that there is a nearby church or synagogue that would love to have a talented young singer involved in the music program. Christmas is coming…time to learn Handel’s Messiah. Any oratorio work that she can learn now will earn her money later. Learn Shubert’s Winterreise. All of it.She should not be waiting till next semester…she should be learning lots of rep on her own. (just have her pass it by her teacher and periodically employ the services of coach) Whether or not her voice is ready…she could still learn the music without singing it alta voce.
And don’t focus on the relative weaknesses of other students. It’s about your daughter’s education not theirs. This too shall pass.</p>
<p>I don’t think any of my son’s peers or my son were bored musically their freshman year. If anything they felt a bit out of their league and many went through periods of doubt about they ability to make a career in music. So I wonder would your daughter consider transferring to a conservatory where she has peers that are more her level.</p>
<p>The only classes my son was bored in were his liberal arts classes. He went to a very rigorous high school and some of the other kids in his class did not speak English as a first language so the class felt very basic and too much like high school to him. Some of his peers also felt that way.</p>
<p>My S is also a freshman vp major. He says that he is surprised that the courses are not more difficult as well, even though he placed into a higher level music theory, piano class and Honors gen ed. He’s finding beginning Italian to be easy since he’s fluent in Spanish. But I know that he’s putting in lots of hours practicing and loves his voice teacher, so I told him just to enjoy the ride. I’m sure things will get more difficult as he goes along. </p>
<p>Of course, we have yet to see any grades so S’s idea of “easy” may be totally subjective. 
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<p>His biggest complaint, however, is that there is nothing to do on the weekends. He’s a big city kid and having trouble adjusting to a small town/small school. And not having a car isn’t helping.</p>
<p>Perhaps your daughter should transfer to a school where she is more like her peers in performance.</p>
<p>Regarding music theory, sight singing, ear training, and English–I think the approach in these classes varies from school to school. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that at my daughter’s conservatory, ear training classes are divided. Students who have perfect pitch are in one class, and students who do not are in another. So much better than throwing them all together (which is what I had at university). Music theory is divided by learning style. Mandatory English classes are divided by native English speakers and non-native. My daughter’s English course is a real university-level English class with plenty of homework.</p>
<p>I don’t think my daughter has ever been bored for a minute. (She is now a senior.)</p>
<p>Ditto here. Not a minute of boredom and some stress over theory in freshman year, I would say.(Woodwinds, I love the idea of separate theory classes for students with perfect pitch!)</p>
<p>It seems as if either your daughter is at the wrong school for her, or she needs to change her attitude. Not saying that as a judgment at all, just a reality. Perhaps she could find a way to have a role helping others-? Or concentrate for now on activities outside of school-?</p>
<p>What did you mean when you wrote that most of the students cannot read music? I am puzzled by this in the context of a conservatory!</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. I guess I just have to give it time and stop worrying. I am so in fear of having to repeat the audition process that I panic at every stumbling block D comes across. All part of letting go, I know. I’m encouraging her to stay positive and focus on the classes that do challenge her, while continuing to look for other activities within and outside the conservatory and university. Yes, compmom, there are students who barely read music and hold up class/choir, including two students with learning disabilities. It is a small VP program–only 12 new freshmen this year–withing a 350-strong music conservatory and I believe it is pretty well respected, so I was surprised to hear about the musicality level of D’s peers.
I really don’t want her to transfer, but we’ll wait and see if things get better.</p>
<p>Claire74— Your daughter needs to know that she will encounter this sort of disparity throughout her career as a vocalist . You said it best when you mentioned the audition. Even the best conservatories are looking for an instrument with a lot of potential. They can (hopefully) teach sight reading, ear training, and other forms of musicianship, but they can’t replace the actual instrument. That sort of thing can be frustrating to someone like your daughter who has achieved an exceptional level of expertise.
Just from my own history— My D had a very tough time her sophomore year. A lot of her own anxiety manifested itself by pointing out the faults and shortcomings of others. The harder she worked, the easier it was to let this sort of thing go.</p>
<p>Remind her she is blessed with the ability to learn the material quickly. DD struggles with a learning disability that impacts reading music. She has learned to use various techniques to reduce the impact of the disability, but it took several years to get proficient at it. She has to work twice as hard to learn her music. Aural skills and theory are still a struggle even in grad school and piano is off the charts. She does get accommodations that reduce the impact on classmates. As your D gets comfortable in the school and professors she could ask for some advance accommodations to keep her challenged. Schools are used to accommodations for LD students, but ones for advanced students are not unheard of.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear your D is finding it too easy, I don’t know a lot about voice programs, but with instrumental music the courses like that, theory and solfege especially, have placement to get you into the right classes. One suggest, since it is a small program, has your D talked to the teacher about it? Your story reminds me of public school, where you have kids who are advanced readers and the teacher makes them go along at the same pace as everyone else, and it is idiotic to me that a college level program could do the same thing. I would suggest she talk to the teacher, because there is nothing to be gained from her slogging through stuff she knows. It could be that being a teaching assistant of sort would help her boredom a bit, but it also quite honestly doesn’t help her. To ne honest, I have never liked when people say "you have to learn to deal with people of varying abilities’, because while that is true, it also negates the fact that being in that situation can also be harmful to the person involved, it would be like taking Malcolm Lowe or Glenn Dictorow and putting them as concertmaster of a community orchestra and expecting them to slog through every rehearsal and every sectional with people who have just picked up the instrument again…</p>
<p>The experience by no means is even, there kids at high level conservatories like Juilliard and so forth who get stuck in chamber ensembles with other students who either aren’t motivated to do chamber (thinking it is beneath them, not important, etc) or who simply have never done it…and orchestra can be a mixed bag in many schools, if what I have heard is true. A kid who has been in high level orchestras before college, can find themselves in the schools “lower” orchestra that isn’t that great, it all depends…if the school won’t work with her, and she is that bored all the time going down the road, then I think others suggesting a transfer may be in order. This kind of goes along with discussions about schools, that while teacher is paramount, being a big fish in a small sea or the ‘talent’ brought in to help bolster a programs level may not work well either, if the level of the other students is such it hampers the ‘talented’ person. </p>
<p>One thing also, this is first semester, it also could be she will find that when she hits next semester they separate students out and it becomes faster paced:). </p>
<p>Okay, so now I am fascinated, why do vp students learn serbo-croatian? I can understand french, russian, spanish, italian , german and russian, for the reason that those are the dominant languages in operatic and classical songs, and latin is the root of all the romance languages, plus also is used in medieval music and church music, but why serbo-croation? It is a slavic tongue, of course (my mother in law spoke it), but why do they learn it?</p>
<p>They don’t, musicprnt1 I think it was meant to be a joke! Italian, German and French are required; Spanish isn’t needed unless one is going to sing Zarzuela and since there’s not a whole lot of Russian rep, schools concentrate in diction for that language.
But, back to the OP’s words, how in the world can all of the language classes be full? The registrar should have put your D in whatever language she needed automatically unless she tested out of them. That needs to be corrected, so do have her talk to the office.
The choral rep may be more difficult and involved that what she had in high school, and since not everyone is in the same place, it will take a while for the group to function well as a unit. Can your D audition for the solos in the choral pieces or are there smaller ensembles that she can take part in? Maybe she and a few others can start a group of their own specializing in works of a certain period?
I would not suggest that she select and work on rep without her teacher’s express permission because it is far too easy for young singers to learn something incorrectly or incorporate bad habits which can be very difficult to “unlearn” later on. Each teacher has his/her own methods and it’s very early in the school year, and the relationship, to strain things. For the very same reason, it’s not a good idea for her to seek coaching from anyone else- it’s very important for the teacher/student relationship to develop and gel and outside influence would interfere with that. No coach at a school would step into that area with a new student for that exact reason.
It’s a fact that VP students can be the “dumb bunnies” of the class just because many of them haven’t been at it that long and don’t have nearly as much training as their instrumental peers. They may not take their course work as seriously, but that should change right after mid-terms or when jury time rolls around! There will be some who just don’t cut it and who drop out. My D’s VP class lost half their numbers by graduation day. And let’s not even get into the topic of schools admitting far too many voice students who have no realistic chance of even getting into graduate school, much less having a viable career (Opera News even had an article about this last month). I understand that your D feels like she’s marking time, but she can consider those classes as “easy A’s” which will keep her GPA high! Have her pay attention to her work and not care if anyone is playing “Angry Birds Rio” or knitting socks- the profs know who is working and who is not. When it comes to writing papers, she’ll be the one with the top grade.
Don’t be concerned with performance opps as a freshman or soph- many kids don’t get on stage for anything more than the chorus of an opera until they’re upperclassmen and maybe not even then. She’ll have things to learn for Opera Workshop or Scenes soon enough. Church jobs are hard to come by and usually go to the older students but there is nothing to prevent a group of industrious kids from working together ( yes, involve the instrumentalists too) to organize a program to raise funds for a charity- the Music Fraternities such as MuPhi do it all the time, with the money going to the American Cancer Society in conjunction with Relay for Life.
Please consider stepping back just a bit and not being quite so receptive to listening to complaints- your D will sort all of this out soon enough. It’s as hard for us to separate as it is for them! Do have her make an appointment with her counselor to ensure that she will be placed in the classes she needs, and involve the registrar, if necessary. It is important that someone keep an eye on what courses are needed for graduation and even more so if your D has tested out of some areas or is working as an independent study.</p>
<p>Re: Serbo Croatian…I was joking, but to be honest D had to take private lessons in Serbo Croatian for a private concert at a Consulate and even Celtic Irish for a Bloomsday gig. As far as learning rep, perhaps I should have been a little more emphatic than saying “pass it by your teacher”. But a lot of students only study rep that they have been assigned. And that’s it. This is not about technique but the material. There is nothing wrong with discussing potential material with your teacher, and under her/his supervision: buying some scores, listening to opera and studying an entire opera. D did it all the time(still does it out of school) and it served her well.</p>
<p>Woops—cut off my last sentence.
Basically one can learn the libretto and music without actually SINGING.</p>
<p>My D also tested out of the first theory classes, she was also very well prepared for her conservatory. She is now a senior, but I do not believe she was ever bored. She connected with some of the composition students, and was able to get more opportunities to perform by performing their works. As a sophomore, she and another voice student did their own “non-degree” recital.</p>
<p>Choir? Let’s face it, most of the voice students are bored or somewhat annoyed in choir. :D</p>
<p>As usual, Mezzo has great advice and insight. One of the things you D may be running into is that a lot of good conservatories might have a wider range of students then at one of the tippy top tier schools. It has nothing to do with how good a program is, but rather that a Curtis or Juilliard et al tend to attract students who already have experienced things like theory and so forth, who have done really hard work, and that is the norm, whereas at other schools the range of ability might range from a potential diamond in the rough to really up there. GH’s D is going to one of the tippy top programs, and her experience reflects that. On the other hand, a friend of mine went to Indiana, and he said they tend to admit a lot of kids and then let the best percolate to the top, while gently nudging the kids who don’t to think of other things (he was one of those, switched from BM to a BS in another subject area he was working on), so what your D is experiencing might be that, that she is mixed in with kids who have never had to work at this level, and if what my friend told me and what Mezzo said is true, the ones who aren’t working hard or can’t make it could fall by the wayside, and as time goes on, things will normalize. </p>
<p>I can say that my S, who passed through the basic theory track and is taking advanced theory at the program he is at, has said it is the opposite of boring, that it is the opposite, that he can be time stretched between practicing, ensemble rehearsals and coachings and so forth.</p>
<p>DD also connected with composition students and found it great fun in addition to extra performace opportunities. She could help teach them what COULD be sung, instead of some of their wild ideas She also connected with some strings players that used voice in a few of their chamber pieces. Had fun with getting coachings from a different perspective from the strings coach. Since all of this was within the department her teacher just checked it to make sure she was not tryng anything harmful and checked her singing of the pieces periodically. What she was not allowed to do was go outside the department for music groups or theater performances.</p>