Is this a red flag?

College Majors Music Major
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<p>DD is only a Freshman in HS but determined to major in performance or music ed. I've posted before about her accomplishments, and that we support her decision and know it may change.</p>

<p>So here's my concern now. She took Chorus as an elective this year and absolutely hates it! She is a pretty good singer, not the best, not something she would consider studying after HS but was in JR High all-county for three years and so I don't think her voice is totally out of tune! She says she doesn't like singing in front of the director alone and doesn't want to do it anymore as lessons are required. I asked if he was mean, abusive, or what? She said he has a temper but it didn't bother her as he's never yelled at her personally, just the group as a whole. I asked if she was nervous singing in front of him. She said maybe a little, but what was also tough was that Wind Ensemble requires lessons, too and and all of these lessons-- choral and instrumental-- take you out of class and there are certain things she can't miss. So she has to attempt to make up lessons and as far as Chorus goes, it can't be done after school because the Chorus director immediately leaves for his duties as head
of the drama department so he offers no after school make up lessons. She wants to drop the class. (Chorus)</p>

<p>I guess my main concern is if this is a case of the first time she's ran into a less then "friendly" (for lack of a better term) director, she wants to quit. She says this is not the case, as yes he makes her a little nervous but she's just not that interested in vocal, and it
takes away from Wind Ensemble, competition and private oboe lesson practice, and her outside Orchestra practice, which is true. It's also true she didn't want to take Chorus at the beginning of the year, I kind of talked her into taking it as an additional music course. </p>

<p>So report cards came out and her lowest grade was Chorus! Not that low because she has an extremely high average, but she admitted to me she missed a lesson or two and even
though she tried to make them up, he didn't have after school make ups and she had no time she could leave class. </p>

<p>Sorry this post is so long-- :) but there's a little more. I asked the chorus teacher if there was any other time that she could make up lessons as she has her instrumental lessons and can't leave class so many times per quarter for lessons. He said no, not really. </p>

<p>DD's school policy is if she drops a full year course before January, it will not even appear on her transcript and the grade will be removed from her average. So she and I were going back and forth on whether or not she should just drop Chorus, for time sake being her argument, me wondering if this is the right thing to do.</p>

<p>Well, her Chorus teacher got wind of her thinking about dropping and e-mailed us that he
really wishes she would stay and wants her to try out for all-county. Even though the quarter is over, he's offered to let her do some extra credit and he will change her last quarter grade! He's being wayyyy more accommodating then I would be!, but I do understand how there are just so many hours in a day, and we may have the same issues next quarter!</p>

<p>Do you guys think this is acceptable-- to let her drop? Is Chorus necessary for her musical development in general? Is it a red flag she wants to drop the class with the first music teacher she's a little uncomfortable with? (Although I will say she's studied voice or oboe with 8 different directors/ teachers, not liked them all but never quit.) is voice just not her thing? And with Music Theory and other electives, this is probably the only year she'd have for chorus in any event. Thanks for reading all this! Any thoughts?</p>

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<p>Oh, and FWIW, there is sort of a “war” going on between the music department and academic teachers over lessons interfering with class time so it’s not only my daughter facing this problem. Also, although the director seems very good and puts on excellent musicals, the talent of the Choral program this year, just because of who decided to join, is not as good as in years past, if that makes any difference.</p>

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<p>If oboe is her main focus, and if she is also interested in her academic classes, then she should drop chorus, in my opinion. High school is when these choices need to be made.</p>

<p>The most important thing is what your daughter wants to do. She should be beginning to guide her own choices, at this point.</p>

<p>Our kids started doing more music (lessons, theory, ensembles) outside of school in high school, both because of conflicts in the school day and because quality was better elsewhere.</p>

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<p>I agree with compmom. A high school musician can’t take every music class offered even if they want to. The fact that lessons are required in addition to class complicates it.</p>

<p>My daughter also sang when she was younger, was in honors choruses, used to sing the Star Spangled Banner when she was 9 for sports events–but she has trouble with the chorus director at school. It has more to do with teachers competing for students. My daughter never signed up for chorus, but did start taking music theory with the chorus teacher last year. She had to drop it during 1st quarter, as the chorus director kept singling her out during class. Instead, she switched to an advanced topics music theory class taught by the band director (much better) and this year takes music theory privately. She will eventually sing again, maybe in college. She had wanted to sing a part in the school musical, but she knows the chorus director won’t take her (and besides he’d rather have her play a Reed part so that he doesn’t have to hire as many musicians). The choral program isn’t so good, but the students are told that they are great.</p>

<p>Watch out for the stress factor. If certain classes are too stresful, I’d consider dropping them. High school students have a lot on their plate.</p>

<p>It sounds as though your daughter’s school is still trying to figure things out–I recall your posts from a year ago.</p>

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<p>I would also suggest dropping chorus – not just because she doesn’t like the director, but because HE thinks she should try out for All State. That may be in his interest…but certainly NOT hers if she intends to pursue an instrumental performance degree. Time waster on all fronts, even if there weren’t the additional lessons required.</p>

<p>To me, it’s not a red flag. It’s common sense. Time to focus!</p>

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<p>I agree with the others, if it is causing stress on her instrumental music, drop Chorus. If in 4 years she still wants to do music performance the extra time she could have on practicing, doing ensemble work or academics will far outweigh the value of being in Chorus. Though I was by no means an accomplished musician in high school (I call it loitering in front of the instrument), in my high school you had to make the choice, you couldn’t do both.</p>

<p>As far as the choral directors attitude and the rivalry and so forth, that is way, way common, I have heard it quite a few times. School music directors in any of the various disciplines (vocal, instrumental) when the see kids with some talent are eager to latch onto them, having kids make all state and so forth is a feather in their cap. I can’t entirely blame them, in the sense that school music programs are a crapshoot and for every good student, you have kids like myself. That said, in their quest to find good music students the teachers IMO can forget that the program is about the kids, not about themselves. Over the years I have gotten to know a lot of high level music students and their parents, and more then a few of them have kept their kids out of school music programs in part because the time requirements can take away from the other things they are doing and they get what we got, how the kid "owed it to the school’ and so forth (like,hello? what about the kid’s needs? In our case they were trying to use our kid as a one stop shop to make ensembles in middle and high school look better, to the point he had a school day from hell, then got their nose bent out of joint because he didn’t want to do certain ensembles and couldn’t do pit orchestra due to conflicts…and this was at a school we were paying full freight tuition on 25k a year…not like they gave him a scholarship for being in the music program).</p>

<p>Dp what you and she feel is best for her and don’t let them guilt you, because school is supposed to be about doing the best for the students, not making a name for the teachers.</p>

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<p>If your child goes music performance, participation in chorus will not matter nor will the grade. It will be all about the audition. As several have said, the time in chorus can be better used in the practice room or private lessons on the performance instrument. If your child decides not to major in music at all, the chorus grade likely will not matter. Many schools toss the school gpa in favor of a gpa they create made up of core courses which in most cases do not include music courses. Music ed. might be the only time chorus would matter, but then it’s only freashman year so it shouldn’t matter much.</p>

<p>I don’t want to completely bash music directors too much. Most I think are under great pressure to deliver statistics for their schools. All City, All Region, State. During my son’s senior year in high school, he chose not to do All Region violin since as a future composition major with limited time he chose to devote the time to composition. As he didn’t do all region, he could not tape for all state. The most upset about this was his school’s music department since that was a loss for their program stats. In the days of arts program cuts, arts directors are under a great deal of pressure to produce participation numbers in order to support their budgets.</p>

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<p>Yes, compmom, it’s me again! I guess I just wanted to make sure Chorus wasn’t a necessity and she does make (most!) of her own decisions-- which is why she explained to me yesterday she’s putting so much into school and oboe, somethings got to give. </p>

<p>Everyone that responded, thank you! You guys always reassure me or help me see a different point of view!</p>

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<p>I don’t think that most instrumentalist take chorus in high school. I think that it could be a good thing, but certainly not neccesary or expected.</p>

<p>My son did have to take one two credit hour voice class in college, part of the requirments for music ed at his college. He’s not a singer at all, can’t sing a lick. He made a C in “introductory voice” and that is the lowest grade that he has so far made in college. </p>

<p>I think that voice is probably the hardest instrument in a psychological sense. It becomes VERY personal when your instrument is physically part of yourself. I know that I could never sing for a grade without trembling and having hot flashes. Way too much pressure for me.</p>

<p>At least he has that past him now and is moving on to other things. He’s managed to make all A’s so far in other “secondary instrument” classes and finds that learning other instruments is super easy. He is even complaining that it almost seems too easy.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry about it too much, either way.</p>