<p>redeye-</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone was saying that music theory and such would be too easy for your D, I think what they were saying was that because music students have to take music theory when they get to college and in a lot of cases taking theory in high school won’t get you placed out of much,if not taking theory allowed your D to take language it might be a good compromise:).</p>
<p>My thought wasn’t that theory wasn’t tough enough, but rather that as a serious music student your D might get better ensemble experience outside school, at a youth symphony and such, which would free up time for language. I have seen a lot of school music programs, played in one that was considered one of the better ones back in the day (I wasn’t, however, one of the better players) and have also seen/heard high level youth ensembles and it is a very different experience (for one thing, school music programs have a range of playing ability because it is a school program, auditioned programs like New York Youth Symphony, Chicago Youth Orchestra (or is it symphony), Seattle youth symphony attract serious music students and have to be at a certain level, generally pretty high…</p>
<p>I am not saying don’t do the school program and look for an outside group, I am just saying that if the academics are conflicting with the music program in school, there is an alternative, one that IMO is generally better quality then most in school programs so you have options.</p>
<p>I would just add that until your daughter is older, you shouldn’t limit her academic classes, and therefore, she should plan on taking 4-5 years of a foreign language for now. As she progresses in music, you can decide to drop the foreign language. In eighth grade, you don’t know if she is going to have passion for playing the oboe like she does today. If she ends up at an Oberlin or a Boston U or type of school that has great music and academics, you wouldn’t want to limit her scholarships to only her musical talent, and you wouldn’t want to limit her applications to only schools that expected 1-2 years of a foreign language.</p>
<p>Another point of view here. My daughter is a rising 10th grader who plays sax oboe clarinet bassoon and some flute. We went through similar issues last year with credit choices. She had two music classes–wind ensemble and jazz band–so to take foreign language she’d have to add an extra credit. Students can take extra classes at her school, but D was already overworked with just seven, so she dropped Spanish II as it was too much work and she couldn’t follow the new teacher (after doing very well in Spanish I with a different teacher). She’d already taken two years of French in middle school and struggled with it. Since her schedule is somewhat manageable she gets straight A’s, but has to stay up to 2AM every night studying and loses sleep. She might be able to pick up foreign language again in 11th grade when PE is no longer required. But my D only wants to study music performance.</p>
<p>An older daughter did not take enough foreign language in high school yet was admitted to every public university she applied to, and ended up attending USC. She’s enjoying taking foreign language now in college much more than she did during high school.</p>
<p>Music daughter will not do well on the SAT; she’s a slow processor and refuses to take the tests to qualify for more test time. So she’ll have to either attend a conservatory (which is what she wants) or our local university. She plays in a well-known youth symphony on oboe (sometimes bassoon) and recently attended Tanglewood on oboe. She wants to study sax at conservatory however. The reason she doesn’t want to overload on classes is to have more time to practice and to play in ensembles, pit orchestras, etc. This past summer she earned money performing in musicals.</p>
<p>Regarding reeds, I sometimes order some from Stuart Dunkle for her. it has saved her a lot of time and she spends that time practicing. She can make reeds and will probably need to devote more time in the future to it, but for now her time is limited.</p>