<p>Hi, my daughter is a rising senior and interested in pursuing a music education degree (she plays clarinet). She was looking forward to putting marching band behind her and focusing on her music more in college. But we are hearing from several of her friends that have gone on to music majors at various schools this year that marching band is required.</p>
<p>She is very disappointed to be finding this out, because physically she has had a tough time with marching band, and she really had planned to focus on academics. Most of the schools don't actually state this on their websites, it seems to be an "unwritten rule". Does anyone have experience with this, and if it is required at most colleges?</p>
<p>Pretty sure it’s not required at our state U but I think that’s a direct question for music department of the specific school. However I will say that everyone in marching band here gets a scholarship so it might be a good way to get some extra money for school.</p>
<p>Marching band is not required in many schools (best to check with the school) and I doubt “most” require it. Some schools actually discourage their music majors from being in marching band because of the time commitment. My daughter is a music ed major at our flagship state school and it was not required, encouraged, or discouraged…She will take a class in marching band (techniques) before she graduates.</p>
<p>Son is a music ed major. His school offers it but doesn’t require it. It will depend on where she wants to teach. Marching band will make her marketable in certain areas of the country particularly where football is big i.e. the midwest and south. We’re in upstate NY and marching band is not big… Out of 20 surrounding school districts only 2 or 3 have a marching band.</p>
<p>My D is a vocalist who also plays piano. I don’t have a lot of first hand experience with this but I do have a few thoughts.</p>
<p>Her friends that are pursuing piano, voice, opera, choral studies may also be in music ed and obviously aren’t thinking about marching band. </p>
<p>In the private school she attended grades 6-9 (it went from k-12 but we chose to leave for reasons I allude to below) had a big time marching band program, and the music dept head and his hand picked asst dept head were concert band/marching band guys. Rules were put in place to require concert band if you wanted to be in jazz band. Not uncommon in jh or hs, but very unpopular in this school among students and parents in large part due to the personalities and teaching styles of said dept head and his asst. Pressure was put on music students to go out for marching band. The politics with the jazz band program got nasty and the adults behaved badly to the detriment of the students and the overall program. We moved on.</p>
<p>We know of a talented jazz drummer that succumbed to the pressure in this high school, and actually hurt herself on the bass drums in marching band.</p>
<p>One would hope that the faculty in college have outgrown all that. I think marching band can be fun. The performance opportunities of marching bands and pep bands fabulous. But I think it is fair to say that marching band isn’t going to increase the musicianship of anybody. </p>
<p>Will a clarinetist be recruited for marching band? No doubt. A good musician is going to have to set some priorities and learn how to say no thank you to a range of opportunities with a smile and a handshake and perhaps a hug.</p>
<p>It is a whole 'nother story whether it is useful vocational training for the music ed major. My D is a jazz vocalist. Despite her passion for jazz, we tell her to work on her choral repertoire and Schirmer’s 24 Art Songs and Arias because it is quite possible that she gets a job in a secondary school that can’t afford specialists - there is one choir teacher that handles mixed, treble, jazz, even show choir. Likewise, the band director may have to handle marching band, concert band, perhaps jazz band and combos…and more and more these days, rock bands. And the musical theater pit band. </p>
<p>I would think most colleges give you the opportunity to specialize. But I think it is the wise music ed student that develops a broad portfolio to keep their options open in this era of budget cuts and music department closures in secondary schools.</p>
<p>You could always look for a school without a football team :). Her school does not have a football team. She’s actually a little bummed that there will be no mellophone in her future (she’s a horn player who marched mello).</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies!
Azcatz, we actually have a pretty good option about 30 minutes away with no football team, so at least she does have that as a possible choice! </p>
<p>But the school that she is really interested in (and a good match for merit) is VERY marching band oriented and I think it is going to be a deciding factor one way or the other for her. I guess she is going to have to decide what her priorities are, and we are going to be emailing a bunch of music departments asking questions!</p>
<p>I don’t want her to have to give up her vision of college (which is marching band-less) just for money considerations/departmental pressure.</p>
<p>jazzvocals, I absolutely agree about the need to get experience in as many areas as possible. But the time commitment of marching band and the physical demands would rule out the time and energy for many other things she would like to explore, and she would really prefer to spend that energy on primary instrument repertoire/skills.</p>
<p>All music ed majors will have large ensemble requirements. Some universities will require that one semester for instrumental music ed majors must be marching band (doubtful they require more than one). Others will just state how many hours of large ensemble credit they must have and will let the student pick which ones they wish to audition for. You can always email or call the music admissions office at certain universities to inquire. </p>
<p>However, if she has to take one semester of marching band, in the long run, it won’t hurt her. I had no intention ever of teaching high school band, but at two of my middle school band jobs, I was considered the assistant marching band director at the high school. AND during one of those jobs, the high school band director got another job…in September. So all of a sudden, I was in charge of a large marching band until the district hired a new person. I was really glad that I had the marching band experience that I had from my college days!</p>
<p>S2’s school required music ed majors to be in the marching band 2 years if they played band instruments as their primary. That way they always had a large marching band. Most quit after their required 2 years. It was not his major but it was his roommates’ majors. Definitely school specific so you need to contact the school to find out.</p>
<p>S goes to a midwest school-music ed requires 2 years of marching band. S is music performance(not required) but chose to do 1 year and got to go to a bowl game. If you are thinking about being a Wolverine(wasn’t sure)-always a bowl game</p>
<p>All of the 8 music teachers in our school went to various colleges that didn’t require marching band. But 4 were hired because they did participate in marching band. Marching Band is pretty big at our HS. One that was hired only a few years back was hired because she could play the marching music on the trombone. She had a 10 minute interview and was handed a trombone, and her regular instrument was not brass, but that’s what they needed to improve on for competition. In this time of economic struggle with our schools, I’ve also heard of band directors being hired because they can coach or assistant coach certain teams, can teach ESL, or have some other extra skill to offer-- as if becoming a music teacher wasn’t enough on their plate!</p>
<p>My school didn’t require it. I was glad I did participate because I learned a lot and made some lifelong friends who majored in things outside of music, but there were a large number of music students who didn’t march - Indeed our trombone instructor was very ‘anti’ marching band as someone mentioned above. I’d say that even if it is a ‘requirement’ , your daughter may want to talk to the marching band director as there are often jobs/positions that may not be as heavily involved or may not march at all - Our school had two ‘librarians’ that didn’t march but were part of the marching band. They came to rehearsals, but only to take care of sheet music needs, etc. (This was a 350 piece marching band that required a lot of support)</p>
<p>Well, we went on a tour of the school that was on the top of her list today, and they absolutely require THREE years of marching band for music ed That seems to be an over- the-top expectation to me. I am wondering about kids with an orchestra background, what are they supposed to do? March a cello?
So we will be looking around some more and calling other music departments. It was a disappointment though.</p>
<p>I’m curious what they do about a kid with a physical disability who cannot do marching band? You said your daughter has trouble with marching band physically, but it would seem she does not have a disability- but that made me think. By disability I do not necessarily mean someone in a wheelchair, but someone with rheumatoid arthritis, for instance. Does this mean they cannot study music ed at this university?</p>
<p>compmom, that is what I am wondering also. Surely not every who wants to pursue music ed is able (for whatever reason) to do marching band. I feel that they must be losing some really qualified students this way.<br>
It makes me feel as though music ed students are not as respected for their talent as performance students, if they aren’t given the same time to focus on their instrument as performance majors.</p>
<p>geo1113 - love this video!! As for the marching band requirement, I would assume that if you have a reason you can’t march, and have a doctor’s note, then you can either get out of it (probably replacing it with something else) OR do something else to support the marching band, such as librarian, etc. I doubt very seriously that they wouldn’t allow someone with a disability to graduate because they couldn’t march.</p>
<p>When I was a freshman, I wore a back brace and had a doctor’s note that I had to have an air conditioned dorm (there were only two on campus back then), and the university had no problem with it. I didn’t even try to get out of marching band, even though I found it difficult to march my senior year of high school, but I suppose I probably could have. But by then I was really only wearing the brace at night…but if I had still been wearing it all day long, I might have made that decision to tell them I couldn’t be in marching band (the heat gave me terrible heat rash…and I was going to school in Florida). Would have been interesting to know how they would have handled it!</p>
<p>Love the video. I was thinking of the Rice MOB [The</a> MOB ? Rice University’s Marching Owl Band](<a href=“http://mob.rice.edu/]The”>http://mob.rice.edu/)
The years DD was there there was a marching cello. Marching violin is common. Music Ed is not in the curriculum though. </p>
<p>Accommodation for disabilites is a different issue. If your DD has a physical difficulty she can always consult a physician to see if they can advise against marching.</p>
That seems to be an over- the-top expectation to me. I am wondering about kids with an orchestra background, what are they supposed to do? March a cello?