<p>At my son’s college, the music minor is almost exactly the same curriculum that most first year music majors take. As a matter of fact, it’s exactly what my son took.</p>
<p>Music Theory 1 and 2
Aural Skills Training 1 and 2
Music History 1 (or Music Appreciation for a minor)
6 credit hours of private lessons
3 ensembles</p>
<p>Is it easier than a music major? Yes and no. It’s just an abbreviated version of a music major, that doesn’t mean that it is any easier or harder. I would assume that Music Theory 1 is just as hard for a music minor as it is for a music major because there are both music minors and majors in the same class and the expectations and requirments are the same. however, in the applied music classes (your primary instrument private lesson class), my son’s studio professor doesn’t require as much individual practice of minors and non performance majors as he does performance majors and music performance certificate candidates.</p>
<p>If you just want to performan and not have to take academic music classes like music history and music theory, most colleges have ensembles that you can perform in. At my sons college about 75% of the marching band members are not music majors. And there are even non-audition ensembles that just anyone can play in for personal fullfilment (and credit hours).</p>
<p>And some colleges have performance certificate programs that you can take simultanious to any degree, but it’s not neccesarally an easy program. At my son’s school you still have to audition and be accepted into the program (about half make it), and you have to take the more rigerous applied music (private lessons) class and practice the same number of hours as a performance major does.</p>
<p>Now about athletic ensembles (marching and pep bands), many colleges offer small marching band scholarships or stipends. At my sons college out of state students are given huge price discounts on out of state tuition, plus a small scholarship. And if you play in some pep bands you can get paid additonal for that. At some schools these ensembles with be audition only and may be hard to get in, others will allow open enrollment and will accept anyone to these athletic ensembles.</p>
<p>And, you might want to check your colleges policy on “double dipping”. Some allow very generous double dipping and some will prohibit it entirely. Double dipping is basically allowing a single class to fulfill more than one academic requirment. So lets say that you were majoring in Math and minoring in Music - the math general education requirment may require that you take a class an art field. the school may or may not allow one of your music classes to count as the art requirment for your math major and also count towards your minor. It’s just up to the school and department. At some schools and with some majors, they may not allow ensembles to fulfill elective requirements for non-music majors. It all just depends on the college and major and what may work for one major at one college may not work in the same major at a different college.</p>
<p>Some colleges don’t even have minors (like Furman University - where if you want to study more than one field intently you have to double major), so if you really want a music minor, you might want to narrow your list of colleges by eleminating any that don’t allow minors or don’t offer music minors.</p>
<p>And of course some college don’t offer music degrees or minors at all (like Clemson University).</p>