My son, who originally was looking at jazz-heavy performance programs, recently commented that he is thinking of applying for music ed instead. He’s interested in “the psychology of music” and likes playing a wide range of instruments, and has met music Ed faculty at a couple of schools who were very encouraging. Is this a good idea even if the goal isn’t necessarily to teach young kids? Can you recommend schools that are better for music ed? So far he’s looked at Berklee and Ithaca, plans to check out Temple, Northwestern, JH Peabody – definitely open to others. He doesn’t want to be in NYC or anywhere south (loves the cold!).
He seems to have a good list.
He might be more interested in music therapy. He can study that as a grad student Berklee has a great program for music therapy. I know a flute player who did a BM in performance, then the grad music therapy program at Berklee and is now involved in research in the neurology field at Harvard relating to music.
He might also want to look into ways to combine music and psychology, as a double major or double degree. He does not have to go to a conservatory to accomplish this either: a BA in music with a performance component either in the classroom or extracurricular, might be good for his undergrad.
An interest like “psychology of music” would seem to point to some grad school to specialize and focus 
That leaves many choices for undergrad.
Those are great ideas!! I know that music ed has some psych and sociology courses, at Ithaca at least. That may be driving his interest. Also he’s interested in continuing to learn new instruments as well as doing voice work, whereas before he was honed in on jazz/tenor sax. I love the way the search process is opening his mind to the possibilities.
You son might find it useful to look at actual course lists for the various degree programs and concentrations. Music programs are constantly evolving. Not so long ago, the choices were “composition”, “performance” or “education” but that’s no longer the case today. Even programs with the same title can have surprisingly different course/subject lists and focus. “Jazz studies” is a great example; you might be surprised how different the course lists are from school to school.
U of Michigan, for instance, has a degreed “musical arts” program that’s intended to be multidisciplinary and allows for a lot of flexibility to combine music with liberal arts concentrations. They also have a BFA program in “jazz and contemplative studies” that focuses on creative development and musicology.
Note that at Berklee, the only jazz-specific major is “jazz composition”; there is no “jazz studies” per se. Performance majors are encouraged to explore a wide range of genres, and many students play many instruments. Also, you don’t declare your major until sophomore year or beyond, so not something you have to decide at application time.
If he is interested in music ed and wants to teach in NY, the best values are the SUNY schools: Potsdam’s Crane and Fredonia. You can’t beat 'instate" tuition and now NYS will offer free tuition for students with family income up to 100K and will soon be expanding to $125K. Both Crane and Fredonia also offer academic and talent scholarships which can offset room and board costs, too. Most of the students at Crane annd Fredonia were accepted at other conservatories but chose the state schools for their over all value.
Crane has a very strong jazz concentration and a well regarded music ed program. Many of the grads go on to well respected grad programs for performance. They have a special ed music concentration that prepares students for a Masters in music therapy as well as music education. In addition, their music business grads do very well after graduation. Plus, if he likes cold weather, Potsdam is only about 20 miles from the Canadian border!
If he is not interested in music ed,and wants performance then SUNY Purchase shares many of the same faculty as the NYC conservatories and is a well regarded Jazz school.
We don’t live in NY so this doesn’t apply to us.
Just want to add that perhaps he can apply to several different options for pats of study and decide in April. One of mine did that. There was more clarity at thT point
@akapiratequeen I would not recommend a music ed degree if your son is not sure he is interested in teaching. Having a music ed degree is like having a double major. A lot of time will be spent taking education classes, observing in schools and putting in considerable hours planning lessons and student teaching. All of that focus on the “ed” part of the degree, will take away from time that could be spent studying music. If music performance is your son’s true passion, why dilute that degree? Depending on what school he attends, he can probably minor in psychology, etc if he wants to supplement his degree.
It is very possible that as a music ed major, he may be limited to some of his school’s best professors. Many music programs will have their full-time professors focus on performance majors going for the BM degree, rather than music ed students who may not be considered as serious musicians. My older D was a VP major at NYU and there was definitely a hierarchy of faculty available to music ed students vs BM VP students. VP students got full-time faculty as voice teachers. Ed students got grad students and new adjuncts.
My younger D was deciding between pursuing a BFA in studio art or going for an undergraduate degree in art education. As a teacher myself and after seeing the difference in instruction and curriculum, I encouraged her to go for the BFA degree in studio art and become a real expert in the field she wanted to teach. She ended up getting her BFA in studio art with a sculpture concentration and was then able to finish her MA in art education in just one year. She ended up getting a position as a sculpture teacher at a NYC public school this September after completing her masters in June. She was hired back in March while still pursuing her MA degree. The principal brought her into her school after seeing her portfolio and being impressed by the gallery shows she had exhibited in as an undergrad. My D would not have had these opportunities as an art ed major. The 4 years she immersed herself in the study of art helped her gain confidence as an artist and gave her the time and support to create a body of work that she is proud of. As a senior BFA candidate she was selected to be in the scholars program and have special opportunities to work with curators and visiting artists. She was involved in two projects that got national recognition and were both written up in the New York Times. These kind of opportunities were for BFA students only. In the end, my daughter sees herself as an artist who teaches. She continues to create art and looks forward to summers when she can work independently on her art or go to residency programs. She is a natural teacher and loves working with children. So she is able to pursue both of her passions to the fullest.
I bring up my artist D because I believe there is a real parallel between her experience in art and the experience of music majors.
In most states, a master’s degree is required after teaching a set number of years, or while not required by other states, a master’s is often pursued in order to get onto a higher salary track. By entering the field with her master’s already, my D will not have to juggle getting her master’s while working full time as a new teacher.
Good luck to your son!
Thanks! Hoping he doesn’t have to decide right away.
You want to check out Syracuse and Oberlin
Oberlin is on the list…hadn’t heard about music at Syracuse though, is it a good program?
Oberlin Conservatory does not offer undergraduate Music Ed degree.
I am aware of this, thank you. My son is considering and education degree among other options.
Oberlin has BM students apply to their MM music ed program in their 4th year of undergrad. They are able to take some of the graduate requirements in their senior year and apply them to their MM degree. It is a 14 month program for anyone with a BM degree, but seems undergrads at Oberin get to take some classes early if time allows.
Music education degrees also often involve less applied study than performance degrees. Ithaca performance students take 4 credits of applied study per term, while music ed students take 2 (they also have a combined degree with 4 credits that takes 4.5 years). Music ed students at SUNY schools also take fewer applied classes. Eastman gives one hour lessons (4 credits) but with a limited choice of teachers in some instruments. Music ed students also usually don’t have full recitals. Music ed students are usually held to a lower standard than performance students.
Peabody is different. Music ed students take the same music classes as performance and are held to the same standards. The problem with Peabody is the music ed program is tiny (4-6 students a year). In addition, since it is only 4 years, it has very few music ed classes (almost nothing for secondary instruments.
I also have a son who is considering both music ed and music performance. To further complicate things he’s also has two instruments he’s pursuing–voice and cello. He’s a junior and soon I need to make a thread with my questions! Anyway, we’ve been pondering the pros and cons of music ed vs performance as well. He’s always wanted to be a teacher, but he’s not wanting to give up performance either, and he’s had some success in high school. We recently visited a local university and spoke with the directors of music ed and voice performance programs.
The music ed director emphasized that there are big differences between a performance degree and an education degree: The education degree prepares you to be a k-12 teacher. Most K-12 music teachers start in elementary or junior high, not high school. The skill set needed to teach well is in many ways different than the one needed for performance–a great teacher doesn’t necessarily have to be a great performer. The music ed degree, as others have mentioned, has 30 min lessons, and the performance degree has hour lessons at this school. Music Ed takes 4.5 years by itself and does not have a light course load. At this school, double majoring in both was not encouraged. There were also substantial differences between the choral and instrumental music ed emphases although they lead to the same certification. At some schools there seems to be less of a difference. It did sound like he could audition for both programs, on both instruments, and make a final decision later (or have it made for him by audition results!). It also sounded like he could maybe take lessons on cello while majoring in voice but not vice versa at this school. There’s quite a bit of variation between schools we’ve researched in the coursework required for music ed and whether double majoring is possible. It does make putting together a list of schools more challenging! We’ve also been told that a bachelor’s and a master’s is not necessarily a good combination for a brand new teacher. Districts prefer to hire just a bachelor’s degree at a lower salary and it’s adivsable to go back and get the master’s later, both for hiring reasons and so you better know what you’d like to pursue for a masters. This makes a bachelors in performance combined with a master’s in education seem less positive.
We’ve been looking for programs that allow a double major. DePaul in Chicago looked like a possibility. I haven’t gotten that much further in making a list. Son is also thinking more critically and more realistically about his options after those conversations. So much to consider.
This is great – please keep us posted as you move forward! I can tell you where my son, also a junior, is so far: he spent a summer at Berklee in the jazz program and loved it. But he also came back feeling like he’d rather be in a university conservatory with more of a liberal arts setting, even if that’s not what he’s doing. Right now we’re looking at Ithaca College (great for education, not sure otherwise), Eastman (he’ll probably do a week or two there this summer), Temple and Rutgers (fairly local for us and much more cost-efficient), and maybe Oberlin. He’s definitely open to other options though.
Ithaca is great for music as well as for music ed (not sure about jazz). They also have a great summer program. Eastman also has great summer programs. The jazz program is 2 weeks and involves the jazz faculty. The Music Horizons program is three weeks. It does not use Eastman faculty (except for theory, music history and musicianship), but it is great (very intense). In my daughters opinion, it was better than Tanglewood.
@uskoolfish I believe Oberlin recently did away with the Education Masters. Maybe someone in the know can tell us for sure? I seem to remember something about this in Oberlin news in the past year or so, and I can’t find mention of the program on the website.
When I searched “Oberlin Music Education”, the page come up for the MMT degree. But when I tried to access it off of the Oberlin website under programs, it was not listed.