How important is piano skill to be accepted to music school for composition major?

College Majors Music Major
1

I want to be a SFCM (San Francisco Conservatory of Music) TAC (Technology and Applied Composition) undergraduate student. Everything I’ve wanted to learn is there. Not to mention that the faculty looks amazing. I’m confident of expressing how much music means to me and how much impact it had on my life, writing essays and showing them my creativity from my composition works.

However, my piano skill is pretty mediocre.
In fact, I’ll be very honest, I’m terrible at piano.

This isn’t because I skipped practicing or I was being lazy. I decided to do go to a music school when I was 20. And before that, the last time I learned the piano was when I was 11. For that 10 years, I stayed away from the piano as far as possible, trying to ignore what I want to be, crying every night. That’s the summary of my teenage life. Now I’m 21 and I’m not gonna escape from doing what I truly want. However, I cannot undo the past and make myself an extraordinary pianist who never stopped learning piano.

I WILL try everything to improve my piano skill, but realistically speaking, the chance of dramatically improving my piano skill within 1~2 years is infinitesimal. I need time to study other stuff also. How does one’s piano skill affect the result of their audition? And are there any other schools that provide a similar undergraduate curriculum from SFCM TAC? (teaches composition for films/video games/commercials with modern technology, but still being impacted by classical music as well)

excuse any grammatical errors please, English’s not my first language.

2

For some college activities, it is not a time to learn, but a time to refine what already exists.

3

You will need to shine in every other aspect of your application to make up for just being proficient at piano.

Are you taking private music lessons? You won’t know how fast you can get your skills up to speed until you start trying.

Continue to research other schools – every college list needs safety schools. Don’t forget to research affordability. Many music schools have lousy financial aid.

4

@AroundHere I found out that Academy of Art University (AAU) in SF also has a similar curriculum, but it is said the school just accepts everyone and students don’t seem to be satisfied with the school, so I’m not sure it’s a worthy place to attend. I haven’t seen musicians talking about this school either.

I heard University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is great too, but the film scoring curriculum is for grad students.

My family is not like a reaaaally wealthy family, but we are lucky enough to be able to afford a 4 year school that costs over 50k per year. But I have to give very careful consideration to decide if the school is really worthy, and if I really use 200k+ for bachelors degree course, we won’t be able to spend more money for masters’ degree 'cause that’s just too much.

And I’m going to consult a new piano teacher tomorrow.

5

You do not have to be skilled at piano, no. You have to be able to do the piano exercises in theory, that’s all. You can be an advanced composer and never even touch an instrument, except for theory class. Schools have placement exams during auditions/interviews but they are only that, placement.

It is certainly helpful to start up again with piano but don’t stress about it.

The program at TAC is relatively new, and looks great. There are many many schools where you can pick up the same skills and education. It depends on what you want to do. Berklee in Boston, NUY, Hartt in CT., Ithaca in NY, UMass Lowell Columbia College Chicago, UNCSA, U of the Arts in Philadelphia, College of St. Rose, U. or Denver. If you are in California check out what state U’s and state colleges have to offer.

USC has a renowned film scoring program for grad school but wants students to first have a foundation. I believe USC undergrads in composition are automatically admitted.

If you have a portfolio, Michigan’s P.A.T. is interesting. UNT U.of North Texas) is a possibility.
Miami Frost.

Look at Oberlin’s TIMARA, an entirely different direction that also involves technology and media.

A lot of students want to study film scoring as undergrad, but you want to consider how narrow you want your focus early on. Also the “new music” world of composition doesn’t really favor film scoring so there are pockets in schools that have a very different kind of curriculum, that might not suit your needs.

You really need to look at websites carefully. Look at details like courses required for majors and the actual course descriptions.

There may be some small liberal arts colleges that meet your needs as well, if you look at their actual courses.

6

I know someone who has a PhD in composition who doesn’t play piano well at all. He plunks out notes. That said, I do think it is an advantage to be able to do so. Our voice teacher didn’t play piano but improved a ton through UG and grad school and even now as a young adult. So I’d work on it.

7

Hi, Daisy,

I was admitted into the TAC program at SFCM, and I can tell you what experience I had in piano performance before my audition if that would help you at all. I have been playing piano for 5 years, and started getting serious about practice and technique about 2-3 months ago. You see, I have been playing that long, but it has mostly been composing and messing around with my own stuff (I do take lessons though). However, I think even doing that helped me develop familiarity with the piano. So for my audition, I spent almost 2 months learning Robert Schumann’s Grillen, and it came out fine (got it 90% correct), I also played Clementi’s Sonatina in Cmaj op. 36 (only the first movement).

Now keep in mind that they probably won’t let you play long (I only got to play piano for about 4-5 minutes) before sitting you down to interview you (which is like 15 minutes). All they wanted to see, was my proficiency in piano performance, which they may use to determine scholarship awards. I don’t think it is going to cut you off if you cannot play piano, but like other people have said, you will probably need to shine in every other way.

I think you can improve a lot in 1-2 years, I went from having only played Fur Elise in the past 2 years, to playing Grillen in two months. The main thing is to be focused and don’t learn how to play piano incorrectly do everything slowly and correctly. Also, to give you an idea of what got me through the prescreening, I gave them one piano score and three composition videos. I had assistance with my score, so don’t worry about asking people to help you out, just don’t let them add things to the piece that would make it less your own. Also, my composition videos were not crazy complex, I had one which had a simple chord structure and was melody based. Then there was one with jumping octaves and chords, which is similar to the Entertainer, but with a more musical film theme. Lastly, I sent them a video of me playing my score which I sent to them, just to increase my chances of making it to the audition. Keep in mind, that I have not actually attended the conservatory yet, so I am not sure how much weight playing piano has, or if I am spewing a bunch of nonsense.

I will have you know that when I came out of the audition room, the girl at the sign in desk (a student) said that most comp applicants don’t play like that and that “I sounded like I could have been auditioning for performance”. I am not boasting, I am trying to show that most of the TAC auditioners may not be amazing at piano playing (I am not either), so you are probably fine. Okay, I am typing an essay, sorry. This is just information I wish I knew, so I wanted to share.

8

Hi, Daisy,

I was admitted into the TAC program at SFCM, and I can tell you what experience I had in piano performance before my audition if that would help you at all. I have been playing piano for 5 years, and started getting serious about practice and technique about 2-3 months ago. You see, I have been playing that long, but it has mostly been composing and messing around with my own stuff (I do take lessons though). However, I think even doing that helped me develop familiarity with the piano. So for my audition, I spent almost 2 months learning Robert Schumann’s Grillen, and it came out fine (got it 90% correct), I also played Clementi’s Sonatina in Cmaj op. 36 (just the first movement).

Now keep in mind that they probably won’t let you play long (I only got to play piano for about 4-5 minutes) before sitting you down to interview you (which is like 15 minutes). All they wanted to see, was my proficiency in piano performance, which they may use to determine scholarship awards. I don’t think it is going to cut you off if you cannot play piano, but like other people have said, you will probably need to shine in every other way.

I think you can improve a lot in 1-2 years, I went from having only played Fur Elise in the past 2 years, to playing Grillen in two months. The main thing is to be focused and don’t learn how to play piano wrong, do everything slowly and correctly. Also, to give you an idea of what got me through the prescreening, I gave them one piano score and three composition videos. I had assistance with my score, so don’t worry about asking people to help you out, just don’t let them add things to the piece that would make it less your own. Also, my composition videos were not crazy complex, I had one which had a simple chord structure and was melody based. Then there was one with jumping octaves and chords, which is similar to the Entertainer, but with a more musical film theme. Lastly, I sent them a video of me playing my score which I sent to them, just to increase my chances of making it to the audition. Keep in mind, that I have not actually attended the conservatory yet, so I am not sure how much weight playing piano has.

I will have you know that when I came out of the audition room, the girl at the sign in desk (a student) said that most comp applicants don’t play like that and that “I sounded like I could have been auditioning for performance”. I am not bragging, I am trying to show that most of the TAC auditioners may not be good at piano, so you are probably fine. Okay, I am typing an essay, sorry. This is just information I wish I knew, so I wanted to share.

9

My comment was reposted for some reason, sorry. I think the first one was flagged or something.

10

Okay for this particular program, you either play piano or contact them and tell them that piano is not your primary instrument.

“Performance of a selection of music on the piano that demonstrates your level of fluency with performance and musical notation. Pieces can vary in difficulty, but should give our faculty a baseline idea of your musical aptitudes and training. If you would like to prepare something more advanced, we encourage you to do so. If piano is not your primary instrument, we encourage you to contact the Office of Admission (apply@sfcm.edu) to make alternative arrangements.”

This just irks me more than I can say. Why assume that most composers play piano as their primary instrument? And why require composers or TAC applicants to play an instrument/audition on an instrument at all?

Usually piano and theory skills are for placement only. A piano audition for a composer or TAC applicant is an unfair way to assess musicianship and “aptitudes.”

Do you play another instrument well? If not, then you will have to show them you can play the piano.