Performance v Ed Music Major

<p>It’s unfortunate that it’s a little harder for vocalists and string players to jump into the public school music scene from the teaching side than it is for band kids. I started as a music ed major with the intent on pursuing performance, and realized after teaching two summers of band camps that the situation would not be a tolerable alternative. </p>

<p>About the idea of learning several instruments to make oneself more marketable–certainly, a double (or more) is feasible, and can allow you to pick up some more small gigs, but I think the concern is legitimate that if performance on one’s primary instrument is the ultimate goal, time spent outside of that pursuit is borrowed time. </p>

<p>However, I can definitely see the value of a vocalist getting an ed degree if the student has a genuine interest in teaching. Vocalists do not and should not spend the kind of time in a practice room that instrumental performance majors are expected to do. Similarly, vocal music ed tracks (at least ones I’m familiar with) don’t require proficiency on every wind and string instrument. Since the voice doesn’t develop fully until after the undergraduate age anyway, and even in later life the vocalist won’t be needing to put in eight-hour practice days, wouldn’t a job teaching public school choir be as good a job as any as one learns and auditions for roles (again, as long as the teacher doesn’t harbor feelings about the job being a chore or a worthless fallback plan)?</p>

<p>I am not going to reference all the screen names that asked questions, but I will answer some questions and add some news.</p>

<p>For the people who said something about “how above average my skills are” I currently train under an international opera singer who has made a large career internationally in europe and the U.S., he currently has settled down to take care of a family and Teaches at The Setnor School of Music. He has said my vocal skill is way above average and worthy of his teaching. He rejects most private applicants he recieves, but said I had something special. I have been referenced as worthy to attend The Curtis Institute of Music and The Royal College of Music in London. My high school instructor comes from one of the top music schools in the U.S., The Ithaca School, and agrees with my private instructor. </p>

<p>As for my “love and aspiration” for teaching, it is truely a top consideration for my career goals, however I was under the impression it was safer than voice performance careers. I would love to find a great program for Performance and Education, however I would want to get a degree that would help me greatly in education (so would I need the masters?) and would also train me strongly in performance. </p>

<p>In your opinion, what would a B.M. in Ed and Voice Performance with an M.M. in Opera do for me in the education world?</p>

<p>What aspect of teaching interests you?</p>

<p>Those credentials would be fine if you want to give private lessons, or maybe even become an adjunct voice teacher at some colleges. You would probably not be offered a tenure-track position at most colleges with just a Masters unless you became sufficiently well known as a private teacher and performer that you would attract the interest of students like yourself.</p>

<p>For K-12 public schools, some districts want their music teachers to either hold a Masters Degree in music ed or to be enrolled in a program that will get them that degree within a stated time. Some public school districts and many private schools would probably be OK with the Masters in performance so long as you perform your teaching duties within their expectations.</p>

<p>Note that some schools have only one music teacher who is expected to do both the chorus and the band. Some others will have one teacher for each of those areas but expect them to fill in for each other as needed. Some schools will also want you to be a substitute teacher in non-music subjects on occasion. The ability to do these things well would be a positive for a music teacher, particularly at the elementary school level. High schools, at least in my neck of the woods, tend to have several music teachers who are more specialized.</p>

<p>High schools in our area also have specialized music teachers. Our chorus teacher only teaches chorus classes, our string orchistra teacher only teaches strings, and our band teacher only teaches band classes. Many of the other large high schools in our area have a percussion instructor and a brass instructor and a woodwind instructor. Some of the middle school instructors who dont help out with marching band (they get paid a coaches bonus if to do so) give private lessons on the side.</p>

<p>I suspect that it depends on the size of the school.</p>

<p>Very true. My experience is that the smaller, more rural school districts are typically the ones that have fewer teachers covering a wider range of responsibilities. Some larger schools have been headed in that direction, however, because music is one of the first areas to get cut in tough financial times.</p>

<p>Just a side note for anyone considering teaching music in public schools, but in our county salaries of public employees are published. I know that a lot of music teacher wannabees have to be curious about the salaries.</p>

<p>The lowest paid “Director of Bands” makes $54k/yr but I dont think that includes his coaches bonus, the highest DoB makes $84k and again I dont think that includes the bonus. The highest paid music teacher is a middle school teacher with a PhD and three decades of experiance, she makes $94k (actually more than many of our principals do) and she does not help out with any extra curricular activities.</p>

<p>Thats kind of a wide deviation in salaries, but I assume it is typical, and dependant upon educational level and years of experiance.</p>

<p>I also looked up the “base paygrades” in our school district and a first year teacher with a 4 year degree starts at just $33k and with more experiance can make up to $51k. A masters ads anywhere from $4k to $7k per year, and a PhD can make anywhere from $11k to $20k more than a teacher with a 4 year degree. </p>

<p>If someone is interested in being a teacher, they just need to do the math to figure out if a Masters or PhD is financially worthwhile. Looks to me that someone with a PhD probably couldnt justify the financial cost or the opportunity cost of obtaining a PhD to teach K-12. They may be better off teaching on the college level. Or possibly taking an adminstrative position like superintendant or principal (which would probably mean having to get their advanced degrees not in music but in Administration.</p>

<p>There are also a lot of in between salaries for teachers with X hours of graduate classes over each degree, plus extra pay for being a department chairperson or a club sponsor or being involved with extra curricular activities.</p>

<p>Those salaries dont sound great, but keep in mind that salaries and the cost of living in my areas tends to be quite a bit lower than in many parts of the country, so I would assume that many areas would pay quite a bit more.</p>

<p>Those salaries may sound pretty good to a recent graduate, particularly in an area with low cost of living. Even more so if those numbers are for September through June. The pay for comparable positions is not much higher here in the very high cost of living area in which I live despite the power the teachers union has wielded over the past few decades. Many of the public school music teachers I know find seasonal employment over the summer and play weekend gigs whenever they can get them to supplement their income.</p>

<p>There is a wealth of information and advice posted here by some very knowledgeable contributors. My $.02 will only serve to reinforce a good portion of what has already been said. The advice to shadow or volunteer/assist within a classroom or public instructional setting is an excellent one. </p>

<p>Some points that may have been glossed over:</p>

<p>Certification for k-12 is based on the individual state granting the initial license. While it is not necessarily difficult to achieve certification in more than one state, the requirements may NOT be the same.</p>

<p>Music ed is an extremely structured and sequenced curriculum, and small glitches in scheduling or missing a prereq will wreak havoc in terms of time and money.</p>

<p>Some can do both. Some can’t. Some don’t honestly know. Some think they can and realize they don’t want to, or are not cut out for the k-12 environment.</p>

<p>I had penned this a few years back <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6513487-post91.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6513487-post91.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you search “music ed” or “music education” under the guidelines I suggest here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html&lt;/a&gt; you’ll pull up about three pages of threads for each. They are for the most part worth the read.</p>

<p>As for the salary aspect, our community publishes an annual list of the 100 top paid municipal employees. A good portion on that list were educational administrators, but for a few years there were three to four music teachers that were on it. A couple exceeded $100k, and held departmental chairs, but also ran a number of the extracurricular and competition level programs. My personal opinion, knowing the quality and body of their work, was that these individuals were grossly underpaid for the hours they dedicated.</p>

<p>They made lasting impressions on hundreds of kids, and were instrumental in helping to produce more than their share of professional performers.</p>

<p>

I am thinking that you would indeed be someone who would want to audition for those programs and other top level conservatories for a performance BMus in order to both give yourself time to think this all through and receive feedback from other high level professionals, but who would at the same time want to apply to university-based BME programs. When you are taking sample lessons with individuals in BME programs, you might be able to get the “feel” for whether the instruction meets your objectives, and compare same to conservatory lessons.</p>

<p>One question is what state do you want to teach in, and do you specifically want to teach in the K12 environment. If it’s a state that prefers a Masters in music education, then the sensible combo might be performance UG followed by MME if viable.</p>

<p>Somewhere in this thread community there are a few folks with much deeper knowledge in terms of opera and opera programs, but I can’t at this moment recall the one posters name that I’ve seen repeatedly referenced. </p>

<p>I have no idea of the quality specifically of opera degrees at the following, but believe these offer dual degrees for bme and opera performance (I think) – and I’m sure there’s more, but here’s a place to start looking:</p>

<p>Indianna (Jacobs)
Manhattan School of Music
University of Michigan School of Music
Eastman (Rochester)
Oberlin
NEC</p>

<p>Just a quick thought-- if a vocalist wants to keep both education and operatic performance opportunities open, might it not make sense to get the teaching certification in the undergrad with or without a performance degree in addition (but, either way, with dedication to voice lessons and personal practice) and then enter an operatic performance master’s program, where it would be easier to gain significant experience in roles in university productions? I had thought that, at many of the schools that mount serious operatic performances, pickings were slim for undergrads. It just seems like it might make more sense to knock the ed certification out while the voice is at an earlier point in development.</p>

<p>I’m reminded (not in terms of the ed degree specifically, but in the delay of a dedicated performance degree until grad school) of the daughter of one of my former writing teachers, who attended a small liberal arts school not known for music, studied English, worked with a teacher on the side, and then entered Curtis for graduate study and has now started a professional career (with a role in Dr. Atomic at the Met, among others). Of course, this is an exception, but I thought a remarkable path to success.</p>

<p>(Edit of an edit: I realize, upon looking at the above post more closely, mine is pretty redundant. Sorry!)</p>

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<p>Thats one of my concerns for my S. One of the schools he has applied at waitlisted a friend of his last year, the friend did end up attending the school, but not until the second semester (he went to a college in our hometown the first semester). My sons friend is a nursing major, and going to the hometown college worked well for him because the local college has a nursing program.</p>

<p>My sons friend had almost an identical GPA, SAT, and high school curriculum, so I am concerned that my son may also be waitlisted. If he cant start some of his music requirements in the fall semester, he may a some issues with getting all of the classes for a BM Ed degree in the proper sequence. And although we have 6 colleges in our county, only one, an all girls college, has a music degree program. He may have to go to school in “drag” at the girls college during the fall semester (just kidding about the “drag” part - he actually already attends the girls college, but in their pre-college music program).</p>

<p>This is another area in which music schools can be different from others. Many times it will be difficult to transfer credit for music classes from one school to another. This is especially the case for music theory and ear training courses that, in addition to applied lessons, tend to be the bread-and-butter of the first year. They also tend to be requirements for many later classes, so not having gotten through them in first year can make it difficult to schedule classes without adding an extra semester or two in any event. If contemplating starting at one school and then transferring, it is very important to know going in which credits will be accepted by the receiving school. If he has to start a semester or a year late, a vocalist may be better getting some of the non-musical requirements like modern languages out of the way. Also, some schools that do not have a music degree program do have music history classes and piano classes that will let him meet basic skills requirements later. Those kind of credits are more likely to be transferable.</p>

<p>If he is going for performance the audition is what will matter, not so much the GPA and SAT. You indicate that doing the BM Ed is a no brainer, but schools are getting better at weeding out the “back up plan” applicant from those that really want to teach k-12. GPA and SAT do not matter as much as audition and interview. Some highly qualified students we know were not accepted based on interview. The schools were looking for a history of wanting to teach in the activities the students participated in and were good at discerning true passion for teaching kids. .</p>

<p>Again, it is important to think about the timeline in terms of when you start the certification process for teaching and when all the requirements need to be met in order to get permanent certification.</p>

<p>If you start with your music ed degree as an undergraduate and start your initial certification process, you many only have a limited amount of time to fulfill all the requirements that will lead to permanent certification. So if you put off working as a teacher to pursue performing or grad school in performance, you may have a problem. It would be a shame if you would not get credit for student teaching which is a large component of the degree.</p>

<p>All states are different, but I would certainly look into the process before I would get a degree in education and would purposely postpone teaching.</p>