<p>i'm a fairly good violinist, but by no means am i prodigy... if you audition for a spot with a teacher at college... how are they going to grade me, my sister says it's based on ability and how well you play, but are they grading all their students on the same level? if so isn't that a bit unfair...? i really want to continue violin in college, but i don't think i want to if i'm going to be getting graded against music majors... hurting my grades won't help me in the long run...</p>
<p>Some schools don't offer lessons for credit; you wouldn't be graded on your violin study. At those that do, grading is going to depend on the department rules and on the teacher. In general, though, college grading is adjusted for the level of the class-- an A paper in an introductory course wouldn't get the same A if submitted as a senior thesis. You aren't going to be taking a tutorial aimed at violin majors, and the odds are good that you'll be evaluated on your progress from your starting point, not simply your talent.</p>
<p>k, but question... the schools i'm looking at are fairly well known... upenn/columbia/cornell/jhu... i'd be taking lessons from teachers at juilliard/peabody etc. i'm not sure if that makes any difference...</p>
<p>My son has had private lessons on trumpet for the past two years with a prof at a state university [son was hs student]. As I understand it, the teacher grades his students on consistent effort and diligent practice, successful execution of assigned material [etudes, solo pieces, proficiency exams], and quality performance at a designated level.</p>
<p>I believe that the students who are not as advanced at the outset would not be expected to have the same level of repertoire and performance as more advanced students, but every student is expected to give full effort and demonstrate excellence of execution in the material assigned to him/her. </p>
<p>Most music professors expect several hours of daily practice on your instrument for satisfactory progress. At the level of music instruction you're speaking of, more practice time may be expected.</p>
<p>My daughter, at Stanford, looked into violin lessons. They are offered on a pass-fail basis. So no stress. She decided to play in the orchestra instead, also offered for credit, but pass-fail.</p>
<p>The most difficult hurdle will be getting a teacher at a conservatory like Juilliard or Peabody to accept you into their studio. At that level, the teachers must give preference to registered conservatory students before even considering requests from their associated schools. On violin, you are likely to have a substantial amount of competition from other non-majors looking for lessons. It is far more likely that you would take lessons from one of the better students at the conservatory, possibly under the supervision of their teacher.</p>
<p>That said, if there is a particular teacher with whom you want to study, you may be able to contract with them directly for private lessons. Many college level teachers maintain private studios, but their substantial fees will not be covered by tuition payments and no college credit would be granted.</p>
<p>If you do manage to get into a teacher's conservatory studio as a non-major, the standards will still be quite high. Most teachers will not grade you in comparison with their other students, but rather by how much you have accomplished personally over the course of the semester. If you want to get a good grade, expect to have to practice one to two hours a day, or they will find someone else willing to work at that level. Most performance majors would consider less than three hours of personal practice over and above ensemble playing an off day.</p>
<p>If you want to keep playing but don't have that much time to invest, look into a school ensemble intended for non-conservatory students or a community group outside of the school. Violin at a place like Juilliard or Peabody can be some of the most difficult credit hours that you ever earn.</p>
<p>It's most likely that if you're a non-major you'll study with a teaching assistant that is a masters or doctoral student. Of course, some of those students are much better than professional teachers; at Rice last year there was a doctoral violist who I recommended to my fellow high school friends more highly than any of the teachers in the area (except one who I love dearly but never has time to take more students). I know I talked to someone at USC who told me I would study with a teaching assistant if I went to school there.</p>
<p>The teachers here at my school seem to basically give A's assuming you show effort. The music program at my school is pretty small, and the teachers understand that music is not student's first priority.</p>
<p>A warning though trying to get Peabody or Julliard teachers... that is very difficult. BassDad already mentioned this. I have a friend at JHU who played piano for like 10+ years, and he couldn't get lessons with the piano teacher.</p>
<p>Honestly, it's very hard for me to see a teacher at a place like Peabody or Julliard taking on a student who is not going to practice 5 hours or more a day. Taking lessons from a student of the teacher, as BassDad mentioned, might be a more viable option.</p>
<p>All schools have ensembles for students not majoring in music, and those will not require much practice time, but allow you to keep playing, and possibly earn 1 credit worth of an A.</p>
<p>My S is a student a Juilliard -- was accepted with Presidential Distinction, which means he was the top applicant in his department. He's gotten straight A's except for his private lessons. He was a bit surprised at first - he is a hard worker, and has been pleased with his progress. But then he figured if he was "perfect" already in his instrument, he wouldn't need to be there. That said, he also said that there seemed to be wide variation among the private teachers -- with some always giving A's, others seldom.</p>
<p>I doubt many of the Juilliard teachers have time for extra students. My S wanted lessons in another area, and was directed toward a couple graduate students. And it was going to be quite costly, so he decided against it. If you are picking a college based on whether you can get lessons at an associated college, I would ask a lot of questions about cost / credit / availability ahead of time.</p>
<p>By the way, (and off topic -- sorry!) good for you for wanting to continue violin. D and H are both violinists -- like you, good but not prodigies. I am hoping D will want to do what you are doing. Violin is such a competitive instrument! So many people think that if you can't be best, you shouldn't continue. But there is lots of room for more amateur musicians in the world!</p>
<p>Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
--Henry Van Dyke</p>
<p>DD was given the opportunity in freshman year to take private voice lessons due to her acceptance in the Honors program at her school. She had to audition, and be accepted into a professor's studio, but once that happened she was basically just another student in the studio despite the fact that she was an El. Ed. major. After freshman year the Music Dept. could no longer provide a teacher, due to demand and time constraints, so DD ended up registering with the college's Community Music School in order to continue her lessons. Unfortunately she misses out on the opportunity to be part of a studio and participate in studio classes, but otherwise she's continuing her voice lessons with a professor she adores (who is one of the regular Music Dept. profs), and is making wonderful progress. Sometimes it's easier to go outside of the academic system to continue music lessons, especially when the school has a busy or demanding music department.</p>
<p>I realize that I don't have much info on the horn teacher besides the fact that he's a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music and that D finds him to be a good teacher.</p>