I thought this write-up was nice to give a completely unaware student, who has some time remaining, to be aware of the breadth of preparation they might want to pursue. Is it a good list? I never saw such a list at our small high school, for example. I think it would be nice if colleges would post something like this, tailored to their school, just so that student applicants would not be completely surprised.
This isn’t half bad, I agree that many kids/parents don’t know what you need, and this is a lot better than the misperceptions I still here out there, like “oh, you can play in the school orchestra, and then get serious in college” and so forth.
I also liked that they emphasized kids getting a basic grounding in theory and aural skills, it can only help (in most programs, though, that only helps with placement, it doesn’t factor into getting into the school). Theory and solfege are often some of the most dreaded things, and I think kids having exposure to it is a huge thing, it keeps the shock from happening:).
A couple of things in there that they claim as universals are not. Outside of vocal students, the claim that students will be expected to sing during an audition for music school in tune is not anywhere near universally true, it could be some schools require that (Obviously, leaving out voice students!), or maybe that is something they do with music ed students, but for instrumental music I asked my son, and he never heard of instrumental students in an audition being asked to sing. He said they ask you that during placement for solfege, but not on the audition (he thinks they may have meant the solfege placement).
Likewise, the keyboard requirement is not universal, most school require basic knowledge of the keyboard for harmonic analysis and so forth, but the idea that you have to be able to play piano is not universal, I remember when I was in high school music kids who wanted to go on scrambling, but again while schools require some literacy on the keyboard, for instrumental students I doubt they require the ability to play a piece on the piano on entrance (again, could that be more common with music ed?) and may simply require the student to take a class or two when they get in (so having knowledge of the piano is like theory and solfege, it is great to have knowledge coming in, but doesn’t seem to be universally required).
The other thing for serious instrumental students they don’t really talk about is having enough time to practice, that they should allocate up to several hours a day for practice, depending on the instrument.
Still, overall, I kind of like the fact that they show it is pretty rigorous to get into a music school and study music, and that is a big plus.
This addresses a generic “music major” without distinguishing between BM and BA, conservatory and college (or double degrees for that matter). For a college BA music major I am not sure this is (all) really necessary.
And college programs generally don’t have auditions for admission.
A general music major that is not a performance program will have theory and solfege, music history, composition, ethnomusicology, technology, music analysis and so on as 1/4-13/ of a students’ total courses. Performance will often be extracurricular.
I find it strange that they don’t make this distinction, because it is the basis for the most difficult decision for most music students: conservatory or college. The requirements are quite different.
(Also, not to be picky, but there were a couple of basic grammar mistakes in the first section that surprised me coming from teachers!)
For us, the most difficult thing was to guess that we had hunted down the major categories of proficiecy to not have a gaping hole at audition time.
@compmom-
Yeah, I suspected it was a mashup, too. I wonder if some of it was music ed (any music ed parents/majors around to comment on requirements there). @goforth, I think it is better to be overwhelmed by something like this than underwhelmed, in the sense that I have read a lot of things written about getting into music schools, especially performance, that made it seem easy…hopefully someone will see this, then do some nosing around to see specifics. Among other things, hopefully they look at the website for the music schools they are thinking of, and see that that they don’t require students to play piano, they don’t require a student to sing in auditions, and those kind of things, it would be sad if a kid couldn’t sing well if something like that deterred them from studying the clarinet or whatnot.
Yes and for composers, many music schools, including top conservatories, don’t require an instrumental audition at all (or voice, or piano). You do have to have a portfolio for conservatories, and usually an interview. For colleges, an arts supplement suffices. The piece didn’t mention composers specifically.
I think for any applicant, instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, a key thing during high school is to do something outside of school- conservatory prep for instance (we did it only the last two years of high school due to cost). Youth orchestra. Get with peers who are talented and working hard and the path will be clearer.
@compmom:
That last part is a good point (not that the rest isn’t:). One of the things I try to stress is that having a private teacher is critical, but also that the teacher be aware of what it takes to prepare someone is huge, too. Having a teacher who keeps in touch with the world out there, knows which programs are good, who seems to be good, and knows the current requirements is huge. There are a lot of teachers out there who graduated more then a few years ago who don’t keep up/don’t network, and may know how things were back then but not now. When you do music programs like youth orchestras, prep programs and so forth, you network with peers who may already have information, plus those running the program, the teachers and conductors and such, can be aware of things, too. Music is like anything else,networks do a lot, and while of course it is possible for a student to be somewhat isolated and still do well, get into a good program, having that kind of thing makes life easier.
An oldies but goodie, I think this is still one of the best summaries http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-to-be-music-major-one-familys-experience-p1.html
@Singersmom07 - I always loved that series. I sort of wanted to give back in the same way, but did not think I would care enough to produce such a deep and well-thought out summary once my S got into a college program, so I have been keeping a journal as time goes on. BassDad is one of my favorites from that era that is not that long ago, but is now several cycles old.
Just wanted to add something to this thread, in the article they make a big point about music theory and such. While there are definitely benefits to studying theory and solfege early, can make you more comfortable, can let you take more advances course earlier (or in the first x semesters, focus on other classes, electives and so forth), it also is not a big deal if you come in pretty much new to it (and few schools i know of use it in their admissions). My son proctored and graded the theory exams at the conservatory he is at, and he said most kids did pretty badly on it, were directed to level 1 and the other graders said the same thing, piano students seemed to do a bit better than other students, and he said what was interesting was that kids in the top studios didn’t do any better or worse on average than kids in the other studios on that instrument…the most interesting one is he graded a couple of composition students, and none of them did very well, that surprised him.
For music ed, yes they will ask you to sing, match pitch, etc.as an instrumentalist. Friend of son’s was accepted for performance but not music ed because he failed the aural skills part of the test on audition day.
That’s odd - aural skills are equally important for performance and music ed. I suspect he played well and the teacher wanted him in his studio.
Regarding theory, I agree it is useful but not required. When I was in HS a great many years ago we didn’t have any theory classes (compared with my kids, whose school has both intro and AP theory). My trumpet teacher had me do some basic theory from workbooks to prepare for college. I was fine for written theory. Having extra ear training would have been helpful though.