My daughter will be starting college in the fall with a major in music education- vocal emphasis. She has been playing the piano longer than she has been taking voice and in addition to teaching voice in elementary school, she would like to teach piano privately. There will be some keyboard required of her with her vocal emphasis but not enough to get to the level she would like to be at. Will continuing in private piano get her to the level where she can teach and accompany her voice students effectively or does one need to take piano in college as a major? There is no option to minor in piano or have a secondary instrument. Probably because music ed is such a high unit program. Thank you.
I can’t say for sure what her school does, but where I went you could test out of class piano and piano for voice and take private lessons with faculty instead. The kids who had taken piano for years didn’t have a problem testing out. When we went for registration, there was a keyboard proficiency assessment to decide what piano class to start you in. It also depends on who she intends to teach. I’m not great at piano, but I’m good enough to give grade schoolers a good start. If she really wants to have a bunch of formal classes, the best thing to do is take gen. eds locally over the summer to free up space in her schedule. Even then, schedules are so tight that it may not work out. I had semesters when I was in class from 8am to 5pm straight- no breaks, no lunch. Once she has an assigned advisor, talk to him/her about her goals and how best to make that work.
I don’t know the answer, but the people in the CC music forum might.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/
In my son’s program, voice music ed majors have piano as their secondary instrument and take 4 semesters of class and/or applied piano.
She should reach out to the music education/piano faculty at her school with her question.
Thank you. Great idea! I wish hers has that option. But I will have her ask.
She does have to take a keyboard test and she is expected to test out of the classes. I will suggest she ask about private lessons instead. Thanks so much.