<p>In choosing my schools I have the option of different majors with different schools, with music ed at probably the best of the pickings and performance elsewhere. Thus, in making a final decision I want to know exactly what I'm in for and how it can be used to further my career. Thus, my question is: Can one truly be prepared for leading a high school ensemble with a primary instrument that isn't a core instrument for any common ensembles? I guess what I'm saying (and this could also be applied to music ed students playing guitar, harp and other instruments) is that although the piano is used to accompany high school choirs, I'm not much of a singer and I do play viola but not that well so I don't know if I'd be as good an orchestra teacher as someone who does play an orchestral instrument (again, some piano used there but it's not one of the four main string instruments) and I don't have any experience with band instruments....</p>
<p>Things to consider about what I know/think before responding: Music ed certification qualifies you to teach any music class at public schools in whichever states you're certified in. I'm fine with being a high school orchestra teacher and if I go into music ed I'd either do that or become a professor, ideally. Obviously, if I was only able to find a job in another area of music ed I'd have to take it but I really do not want to be an elementary school general music teacher. I'm not insulting any music ed majors who play instruments like mine that aren't orchestral strings or winds or who aren't singers. I'm just asking for opinions on how hard it would be for me to catch up with peers whose skill sets are more geared towards the ensembles they lead or if the gap is never really filled until after college, etc. Also, is it harder to find a job this way or are principals (who I assume are the people in charge of hiring most music teachers) blind to the primary applied instruments of those who apply for jobs?</p>
<p>Also, a reason that I have some trepidation is that many programs I looked at, including the flagship of my home state, either don’t allow one to major in Music Education with piano as the primary instrument or require an audition on another instrument to demonstrate competence as well…</p>
<p>Just a snapshot of the music ed teacher selection process in my area of upstate NY for a large competitive suburban school district: Your resume is selected by the music administrator and you are interviewed. If you pass the interview, you are asked to play on your primary instrument for the entire music department. Next, if you pass, they invite you back to play on secondary instruments (if you are an instrumentalist). The next step is to teach a sample class to the music department. If you pass then, you will be interviewed by the building principal(s). Then you are asked back again to to teach a class to actual students while being observed by the principal(s) and music administrator. Don’t know if this helps and there are many different paths to landing your dream music teaching job. Many times you’ll start in a smaller district and wear different hats such as general music, chorus, band and/or orchestra and get the chance to develop your own program. </p>
<p>As for whether to go for a stronger music ed school or performance school, it will depend on which you are most passionate. My son is trying to do both music ed and performance and finding it very difficult to do the amount practicing for his primary instrument as he would like due to all the time required on the tech instruments.</p>
<p>I had or do have the same problem as you; since obviously we are not yet living on performing or teaching, our predictions now for what we think we would like to do most can’t be 100% accurate.</p>
<p>The way I see it is this; if you can’t tell which is better, you probably are interested and/or like both a great deal. In that case I think it’s just about balance; don’t think about which one you would want to do only, but what your free time for it allows as well. For example, if you teach music at a school you have a lot of school vacation days (especially summer break), so practicing should be no problem if you still want to perform. If you don’t like performing thaaat much, you could keep it as sort of hobby, in which you can land a gig here and there and get a few hundred bucks occasionally (my band teacher has a BM in Music Ed and Masters in Performance, he does this) or just keep a youtube channel up or something. (What I mean is, if you come back from school at about 5pm or so, you “could” practice 6 hours a day like a full time performer, but it means you’ll pretty much dedicate all your free time to practicing).</p>
<p>Then the other option is performing full time, and some private teaching. I don’t know about you, but I’ll guess that you would not want to spend 6 hours a day practicing if you also teach at school, so I guess you should just think about which combination you would like more. If you focus on performing and teach on the side (if you choose to teach at all in that situation), you would have to commit to a certain number of hours a week. But if you go with music education at a school and just practice solo on your own time, you can have more flexibility in that way.</p>
<p>Maybe you already considered all this but if you didn’t then hopefully this might help :)</p>
<p>I am pretty much ignorant about music, and I get told so almost every time I try to engage in conversation about music, here are my thoughts, take them for what they are worth…</p>
<p>For string orchistra, percussion, and band teaches, I would think that you would need to be proficient up to one level above the highest level you would expect to teach - on every instrument you would expect to teach. So if you were planning on teaching at a high school level, you would at a minimum be able to play all instruments at or above the level of a typical high school senior (maybe senior allstate level would be a good way of putting it). </p>
<p>But for high school band directors who will be teaching marching band, you also have to have a good understanding of marching band, which may be nearly impossible for someone who didn’t do marching band in high school and in college and possibly in drum corps, winter guard, and indoor percustion. </p>
<p>So overall, yea, a highly motivates piano player could possibly in 4 years become a string orchistra teacher, but I don’t see that piano player becoming a band director at the high school level due to the lack of marching band experiance.</p>
<p>H has a music ed degree with piano principal. He also plays flute and sings. He teaches band, chorus and general music in a public school. He does not play all instruments to the level at or above a high school senior, but does teach all band instruments. His program is quite successful. Honestly, I don’t know how it’s done either. But, a good music ed program includes methods of teaching in each the instrument groups, and students would do well to take all of them. I know that at Eastman, two different methods courses are required, but many students take more than what is required.</p>
<p>sopranomom92, does he teach high school, and if so, do they have marching band?</p>
<p>And I guess that I should have included in my initial disclaimer (admitance of ignorance) that my experiance is just based upon my experiance being highly involved in the music programs at my son’s school, and nothing beyond that. Obviously situations do vary, and maybe their are appropriate teaching positions for people of all backgrounds.</p>
<p>At my son’s middle and high schools, the band directors only taught band, the chorus director only teaches chorus, the wind orchistra teacher only teaches wind orchistra, and the general music teachers only teach general music. At times they hired people who are qualified to teach band, but put them in the orchistra slot, at great loss to the students. For two years when my son was taking orchistra with a band teacher, he learned nothing, and almost dropped out of music altogether. </p>
<p>Also, the woodwind players and percussionists in our district tend not to be as good as our brass players because all of the band directors play brass as their primary instruments. When I look at the high school band across town, their percussion section always sticks out as being one of the best, but they have a full time percussion teacher who is exceptionally qualified to do so.</p>
<p>Anyhow, competitive marching band is a big deal at some schools in my county, and when new hires are made, there is more consideration to “can this person create a winning marching band program” than there is to the education level or employment expense or anything else.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about it and I think I want to eventually become a professor of music education but also keep up a certain level of performance. I think I’ll probably attend CCM (the school I’ve only been admitted to for ed) and reaudition for the double major, since I know that can be done. Then I think I want to go to Boston Conservatory for my MM because of their autism pedagogy program for ed majors, which seems really cool to me, and then Eastman for my DMA since very few schools offer a DMA in ed; they’re mostly PhD programs. Somewhere along the way, I think I want to get an Artist Diploma from The Colburn School since they’re tuition free and getting three degrees is going to be very costly. I realize that’s a plan that’s really, really specific and the likelihood of me actually going through with that exactly is slim, but I think it’s my new goal. Careerwise, I think I’ll start as an orchestra or general music teacher, giving piano lessons as well to a small studio so I have free time but can supplement my income a little. Then once I have the DMA I’ll go for a professorship. The AD is more or less a personal goal of mine because I want to eventually get to an elite level of pianism, regardless of career path. Although, if I do go through with it I may as well go for some kind of performing career too.</p>