<p>Hey guys, I'm a HS senior planning on starting up at Florida State University in the fall of '07 as a music education major (french horn). Although music is and always will be where my heart lies, how suicidal is it to have a minor with the intense workload, etc? How much more crazy is it to double major in another field? (The field I refer to being engineering). </p>
<p>Thanks guys,
Rachelle</p>
<p>I think it is virtually impossible to minor in engineering while majoring in music education. Both are very very demanding courses of study with few electives.</p>
<p>My son knows one person who is double majoring in music and biochemistry. He said this guy is super smart, but he still was generally getting by on an average four hours sleep a night and finding very little time for anything but school. It may be possible, but I don't think it is a very good idea.</p>
<p>My daughter attended NW with a guy who was a violin major and math major. After two years, he was asked not to continue with violin because he was not practicing enough. The trouble with being a music major is not even so much the difficulty of the program, but the time involved. Music majors have so many demands on their time. For example, if you are an English major, it's true that you have many papers to write and lots of reading. But your free time is your own, when not in class. You can organize your day and evening and weekends to make sure you cover all of your required work, and still have time to have a social life. Unfortunately, music majors have rehersals, performances, master classes, lessons and hours and hours of practicing on top of their classroom time and homework. Even if you adore what you are studying and it may even come somewhat easily to you, it's just plain time consuming.</p>
<p>I have a friend who's double majoring at Northwestern in bassoon performance and engineering. It's tough, but very possible. I would imagine it would be a little bit easier to do with music ed than with music performance, since you would have fewer performing obligations that you would have to devote practice time to...but I could be totally off base there.</p>
<p>Music ed requires more course time away from the primary instrument than a performance degree. What might save your chances is that (frankly) horn players physically practice as much as pianists or string players; you might manage it.
I'm not recommending it, but it might be possible.</p>
<p>Fiddlefrog - I think you meant horn players CAN'T physically practice as much as others. This is pretty true, except that my S manages to practice quite a bit by practicing for shorter periods throughout the day. I think he aims for an hour (maybe less), 3 or 4 times a day. And he does a lot of non-blowing practice -- listening to recordings, studying music, working out fingerings. </p>
<p>Hornplayer - my S's first horn teacher went to one of the Florida schools (I get them mixed up - sorry, but I think it was FSU) to double major in horn and sound engineering. He did it because his parents insisted that he have a "back up plan." After 2 years, he realized that music was his first love, and he wasn't giving it his best shot. His divided focus was making it less likely he would succeed as a hornist. He decided to postpone his engineering, transferred to CCM for horn, Juilliard for grad school, now plays with the Atlanta Symphony, and has never needed his back-up plan. He strongly urged my S to also postpone any Plan B until he had a better idea if Plan A was going to succeed, rather than try to do them simultaneously. </p>
<p>My S's schedule as a music major is quite intense. This past year was pretty stressful for him as he juggled everything. Juilliard's 100 year anniversary celebration meant extra concerts and rehearsals. Second semester he had over 50 scheduled performances and rehearsals, including Friday night rehearsals, weekend rehearsals, etc. He was exhausted, as were his classmates. He described one rehearsal where the entire horn section had the flu, and took turns covering each others part when the other person had to make an emergency run to the bathroom! </p>
<p>I don't know if FSU's program is quite that intense (and I hope Juilliard's won't be that way again next year!) I guess it would help if you could talk to a current music student at FSU and get their opinion. Certainly a minor would add less intensity than another major. </p>
<p>Edit: I just re-read your post, and realized I missed the fact that you are going for music education. Somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think that the education major might be a bit less demanding performance-wise than the performance major. So adding a minor might be more feasible. What do you hope to do with music education and engineering?</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the replies, I truly appreciate it. </p>
<p>Binx - my main goal is to become a high school band director. Engineering has always just been the backup plan in case I ever doubted a career in music education.</p>
<p>Music Education degrees are often 5 year commitments. I've heard of double degree programs with music performance but it's hard to do engineering with Music Education simply because of the course requirements. </p>
<p>"Engineering has always just been the backup plan in case I ever doubted a career in music education."
It's funny you say that- a music education degree is probably the safest one out there in terms of job security.</p>
<p>It might be better to major in music ed and add another secondary school subject so that you can be certified in two subjects. That would double your chances of getting into the high school of your choice, and then if you don't get the band position right away, you will be able to move into it should it become available.</p>
<p>Also, consider working in the elementary or middle schools in the music department, as those people would probably have preference for the high school job in the same district.</p>
<p>Sorry, binx! I somehow left out the "can't" while deciding whether or not to use a split infinitive.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I would imagine it would be a little bit easier to do with music ed than with music performance, since you would have fewer performing obligations>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Music education COURSEWORK is actually more defined than music performance coursework. I am very familiar with the program in music ed at the Hartt School and Duquesne, both very good music education programs. It is NOT possible to double major there. The coursework in music education begins freshman year, and there are very few electives. Music ed majors still have the ensemble requirements of a performance major (at least one ensemble per term), instrument or vocal lessons, and studio class (that is the class that is associated with your instrument). The only performance requirement they do not fulfil is the chamber music one...they do not need to have a certain number of chamber music hours. AND they get less credit hours for their studio class than the performance majors where this IS the emphasis. Music ed majors still have to practice...they still have to take private lessons for four years. And music education majors have the added things like practicums in the schools and student teaching. Oh...and the semester you are student teaching, it would be VERY difficult to continue your engineering courses. Performance majors spend a ton of time practicing, practicing, practicing and the practicing some more. Their time is very consumed (as it should be) with multiple ensembles (large ensembles, small ensembles, chamber groups) and preparation for solo work, juries, and the like. I have to say that I think that engineering and music are two of the most demanding and course restrictive (not very many electives) majors out there. I'm sure you could minor or double major in these two areas...but it wouldn't be easy...and it might take more than four years.</p>
<p>And I'll echo what others have said...music education is an area of shortage in this state. There are jobs for music teachers here.</p>
<p>I am curious, do music ed students need to learn how to play all instruments passably? It seems that most music teachers are able to help students with any instrument.</p>
<p>Yes, music ed students learn to play most instruments. Some schools have group instruction (strings class, etc.), some require private lessons on a minimum number of instruments, and some require a combination of both. I know a choral student whose first teaching job included teaching both choir and band at a small rural school. And not everyone who plans on teaching at the high school level will start out teaching high school. It's nice to be somewhat proficient on an instrument that you have to teach to a beginner.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I am curious, do music ed students need to learn how to play all instruments passably?>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>They need to learn how to play each instrument...but they don't have to be at the "concerto level" on each instrument. Part of the course of study for music ed instrumental majors is study of strings, winds, brass, percussion instruments. In addition to knowing how to play them, you also have to have a little knowledge of how they are assembled, and how to fix small things.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people who double major. In more places, it would probably take 5 years instead of 4. Minors are actually not as hard as it seems. If you have to take a certain about of gen. ed elective classes, you can fill them up with those the classes needed for your minor and, if needed, take some summer classes. Minors are what they are- minor. As a performance major, I know we have more room for extra classes as alot of our credits are taken up by our private lessons. But if you don't have too much of a set schedule for music ed, I would consider a minor to make yourself more marketable. Double majors are definitely harder but not impossible. If you're willing to go and pay for school another year, go for it.</p>