<p>Hi I am a Junior in high school and am in need of some serious help. I play saxophone and I want to be a music major (not so sure in composition or performance, but one of the two). I am getting lots of emails and info from colleges but have no idea which ones to pursue. I know that Washington and Lee is a good liberal arts college, but I have no idea what their music program is like. I was also thinking of UCLA b/c I heard they have a good composition program but I don't know for sure. If anyone could answer about these two colleges it would be much appreciated. Also info on other colleges would be extremely helpful. thank u for any posts. : )</p>
<p>If you were to major in performance, are you interested in classical saxophone music, jazz, both or something else entirely?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, might I recommend you start by reading my series of posts at the start of the thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a></p>
<p>HS GPA, career goals,etc…? More info will help us. Don’t think I’ve seen a lot of sax majors here, so this should be interesting! And NEXT year’s crop- already!!</p>
<p>actually I am really interested in both. I have private lessons focusing mostly on classical music, but I have been to music camps the focus on jazz so I THINK I am pretty educated in both (I am in alaska though…so honestly the standards here could be sub par haha)</p>
<p>Mezzo’sMama well my gpa isnt great its a 3.5 so any schools that also requires really high gpa’s are kinda out of the option. for career goals not completely sure, but I would really like to be able to be a full time musician, taking gigs and touring, but honestly I don’t think I will be able to do that. I think I am good, but I’m no prodigy. so teaching is kinda the most realistic goal, which I will be fine with. I don’t want to major in education though. Which is probably just me being stubborn. haha</p>
<p>oh and what do u mean by next years crop already? maybe im being dense but i dont get it</p>
<p>Oh and I was also looking at Willamette college in oregon. I have been there before, but I don’t really know how the music program is ranked.</p>
<p>You’ve gotten good advice. There is not much here in the way of sax specific info:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064066517-post102.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064066517-post102.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/836570-saxophone-performance.html?highlight=saxophone[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/836570-saxophone-performance.html?highlight=saxophone</a></p>
<p>More background is helpful. Knowing how your skill set relates to competitive audition based programs will be key. From a performance pursuit standpoint, strength of instructor, studio and peer quality will be primary factors, but will weigh less if your goal is composition.</p>
<p>Plenty of info here on comp, jazz specific and classically focused options.</p>
<p>Washington & Lee or Willamette tend not to be names coming up frequently in discussions centered around serious music study.</p>
<p>Peruse the old standby thread here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html</a> for general info about programs.</p>
<p>How far afield geographically do you want to venture? Small, large, urban, rural, cost factors all aid in helping to narrow potential options.</p>
<p>I would advise you against asking about “rankings”. The “best” programs serve the needs of the student within their specific goals.</p>
<p>RE: next year’s crop… Saxboy what Mezzo meant is right now the seniors are all doing their auditions waiting for results etc…You are “next years crop” meaning Junior who will be going through the audition process next year…It is good you are here now to gain the wisdom of those that have gone through it before you…welcome!</p>
<p>By next year’s crop, she means the class who will be seniors next year and who will thus be auditioning just about a year from now.</p>
<p>What summer programs have you gone to? Any that would let you measure your abilities against some of the top talent nationwide? What plans do you have for this summer?</p>
<p>W&L and Willamette appear to have music departments that meet the needs of their communities, but they are not exactly the types of places that your typical hard core performance or composition major would put on the A-list. Neither school appears to have a teacher who specializes in saxophone although they probably have a teacher who doubles on it, at least for jazz and popular music. I am not at all certain that you would be able to continue the study of classical saxophone at either one. Neither has a full symphonic orchestra and their chamber orchestras are composed of students, faculty and local residents. Neither program requires auditions for admission. W&L requires that their students who receive full hour applied lessons practice a minimum of seven (7) hours per week. You would very likely get bounced out of most really serious music programs within a year if you did not average at least two or three times that.</p>
<p>UCLA is very different from either of those schools and is much more typical of the flagship university music department that will attract some very talented applicants. The faculty includes top symphony and chamber players and composers who are well recognized in their field. Their classical saxophone teacher, Douglas Masek, has impressive credentials. Auditions are required for admission to the program and they have many different ensembles, including one symphonic orchestra filled almost entirely by music majors and another that is more oriented toward non-majors and community players. Note that you must be eligible for admission to UCLA before the music department can even consider you and over 90% of their admitted students have a GPA of at least 3.75.</p>
<p>Saxyboy, would you consider going to a jazz summer program, like the one at Eastman? There is also a great one in Port Townsend, WA ( a little closer to you) where you can get together with other musicians, and see whether music is the path you want to take, how you stack up with other musicians etc. This kind of experience was invaluable for my son.</p>
<p>BTW, Willamette has a music major, and it’s a great liberal arts college. Their program is pretty small, though, if you really are passionate about pursuing music as a career.</p>
<p>You mention teaching, but not (music) education, so if you are looking at options, it might make sense to begin to get a handle on some of the aspects and differences. A current active thread is here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/861869-advice-violinist-daughter-music-ed.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/861869-advice-violinist-daughter-music-ed.html</a> and there are plenty of other links within.</p>
<p>The approaches on how you may best position yourself for performance, composition, music ed or a more general BA music path will not necessarily be the same. It is important to understand that as well.</p>
<p>Well most of the programs I have gone to are in state. Living in alaska means you don’t always get the best talent there. There is the UAF summer music academy that I usually go to every summer. It is where the best kids in the state usually go (I have no idea how kids here compare to kids in the lower 48). There is also the Alaska Jazz workshop that I go to. They usually invite a guest artist who is pretty good. One time it was Jason Goldman who teaches at USC. Another time it was Michael Davis, a trombonist from New York.
As far as state competitions go I won a command performance at the state solo and ensemble competition. I also applied for the Honors performance at carnegie hall, but only became a runner up. As far as material I have played (if it helps at all) I played the Ibert concerto (well third movement, but I can play it all). Other material is Flight of the Bumble bee, William Bolcom’s Lilith. LOTS AND LOTS OF charlie parker solos. My teacher here is in love with his playing, very understandable of course, but its getting old :). I feel that this is at least fairly hard standard of playing. oh and as far as practice hours I usually put in 7 hours a DAY. ( well more like 5, I have school and work to compete with haha)</p>
<p>Oh and just in case this name rings a bell my teacher is named Richard Freeman-Toole. He was never famous, but he got a scholarship to UCLA and then to Illinois Urbana Champagne. He has never really been that famous, but he is an AMAZING teacher. He taught at a few colleges. Just thought I would throw it out there, you never know the music world is pretty small maybe some one knows him (and is on good terms with him)</p>
<p>Oh and I realize that without hearing me play its near impossible for anyone to know, but if anyone feels like it, can you inform me about how I would stack up against people from lower 48. At least what you can get from the material I stated I could play. Just asking b/c I’m not sure how I stack up against other ppl. Like I don’t know how high of standard I should be shooting for, so I don’t know if I should go someplace that serious musician’s would consider A-list or if maybe I should go with a B or C-list.</p>
<p>Oh and for this summer for anyone who wants to know, I plan to go to a few music camps on the west coast, mostly in oregon, cause its close and I have family there. Also seeing if I could go to Berkley’s 5 week saxophone work shop. Oh and also if this affects anyone’s opinion my theory is pretty good. I got my command performance at state for a jazz solo (if you don’t know that jazz is like ALL theory I can’t really help explain why I stated this haha), and I have taken several college courses on theory (mostly 100 or 200 level classes, but some fairly hard ones).</p>
<p>oh and I wasn’t saying that jazz is all theory, like that is all it takes. I was just stating that a lot of jazz players know theory like the back of their hand and that’s the way I learned.</p>
<p>okay and sorry i will stop rambling on now haha. oh wait one last thing I am sorry i didnt get next year’s crop thing. don’t judge me on that. I’m really not that stupid haha</p>
<p>Nobody is here to judge you. You are absolutely correct in that we have no idea of your playing level because we have not heard you play. If you get to some summer programs this year, it will be good ask some of the teachers with whom you work whether or not you have the chops to make it into the better programs. If they tell you that you do, ask them where they think those programs are. Don’t worry about being from Alaska - I have met students from that state at some of the best music schools in the country.</p>
<p>If you are working with a very good teacher and practicing 5 hours per day (useful practice that is, not just ingraining bad habits), you may want to at least start doing some research on finding out where the best college teachers are and identifying the material you will need to audition at those schools. If you decide to go the composition route instead of the sax performance route, you will need to have a portfolio of compositions put together that meets the specifications for applying to several schools. Now is a good time to do the research on school web sites to figure out what you will need.</p>
<p>There is a fair amount you can find here on CC that concerns the composition major. Violadad has given you links to the limited amount of information on saxophone performance majors. It is against the terms of service on this board to post links to other forums, but if you were to do a google search on the words “saxophone performance major” you will probably find on the very first page of results a link to a site that is very specific to saxophones. If you were to go to that site and look around the forum there, you would find a lot of discussion of interest to you. Make sure to start at the end of each list of threads, because that’s where they put the newest ones and the ones at the beginning can be pretty old.</p>
<p>As BassDad says, te instrument specific forums can be a wealth of information.</p>
<p>There are also a few threads on some California and other west coast programs, which I would be happy to point out. Whether they will work for sax performance or composition will depend, but are worth investigating.</p>