how important is it for a future music major to participate in the school orchesta? His schedule prevents him from being part of it even though he will play for a more advanced orchestra outside of school.
It seems to me that skipping the school orchestra is not uncommon for kids who are seriously involved in advanced orchestras or pre-college conservatory programs outside of school. Often there are time conflicts.
That said, some of our local school districts seem to have agreements with the advanced orchestras, stating that kids need to remain involved with the school orchestras as well… so that the advanced orchestras don’t poach the best kids.
We know kids who have gone either way with this.
By the way, our local advanced orchestras / pre-college conservatory programs also seem to have workshops for college applicants. He might consider participating in those. They might have good advice for this situation too. Most kids seem to come up against scheduling issues eventually.
Disclaimer: my kid is not planning to be a music major, but he is involved in a few different orchestras and we know a bunch of future music majors.
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Oh if he is doing an auditioned regional program, I wouldn’t worry about it. My daughter had lots of friends go on just from the regional orchestra program to college programs. (ETA she just auditioned for college programs but not in her orchestra instrument)
It can be helpful just to keep a binder to throw anything they do and perform in to create a resume for college apps later and create a rep list from. Concert programs, solo recital programs, master classes, summer camps, etc.
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He is involved in the regional orchestra and chamber program.
I know skipping school orchestra prevents him from participating in all state orchestra, but he isn’t as interested in it either way.
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I don’t think conservatories care at all. Frankly, the top ones don’t even care if you play in orchestra at all, at least for string players. If you are going for Ivies or other more academic programs, it might be considered, though.
Having said that, many programs/youth orchestras do require you to play in school orchestra if you are able to (my son’s scholarship program requires it, for example), and a lot of people consider it a bit of a service opportunity. But if you cannot fit it in, I wouldn’t be too concerned.
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He can’t fit in, but he will play all the concerts anyway just or help them out.
Yes, he is going for strings (cello) in schools that have dual degree options. The most complicated path he could have chosen. Sigh.
My music kid stopped participating in school music entirely, as did any others who were serious about music. It worked out fine. They (the various students) did do music outside of school, of course, in various ways, including conservatory prep, youth orchestra, summer programs and college classes.
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My kids are homeschooled. I think that there were definitely some disadvantages to that when it came to music (fewer opportunities early on equaled a later start for my music kids), but by the time they got to high school it was mostly helpful. They could only play in selective, auditioned ensembles, so they pretty much never had the experience of being the best ones in the room. They always had to work hard and practice a lot to keep up.
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If the class schedule can’t fit in the school orchestra, then there’s nothing you can do. My son took school orchestra all 4 years because it has been part of him. His orchestra experience made him grow from a kept-to-self shy kid to a true leader. He has friends (in other states) who are accepted to great conservatories with 1-2 years school orchestra, also knows homeschooled kids (no school orchestra) attending great conservatories. From what we know, not able to stay in school orchestra does not rule one out from being considered for music major.
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What about piano skills? Is there a keyboard exam at music schools for non piano players? Are scales in four octaves primarily what he needs?
I have not heard of a keyboard skills exam for entrance to any programs for music performance. I know my son felt that learning some piano (as much as he could fit in while prepping for auditions on his instrument) was really helpful with his understanding of the entirety of his audition selections which was helpful to his performance.
For classical instrumentalists, your performance on your instrument during the audition will be the primary (possibly the sole) deciding factor.
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Not for admissions.
But where my kid went, class piano was required of all music majors. There was a placement test to determine which level the student should be placed in. I don’t recall anything about four octaves of scales. But then my kid had take 5 years of piano…and could play all scales in any key both major and minor.
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We know this cellist kid, one of the best, just accepted into colburn, Curtis, Eastman, Juilliard, etc., is planning to start piano lesson soon. 
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Yes, that’s it. I didn’t mean for admissions, but it would be nice to be able to place out of keyboard requirements by preparing to pass that exam. I wonder what that would entail.
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Placement testing for keyboard once accepted and enrolled in a program may vary widely. In my opinion, best to mainly focus on audition preparation on his primary instrument to maximize his options for acceptance. Once he has his acceptance in hand, he can ask about placement tests at the specific school/conservatory for piano and theory.
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Exactly. These placement tests typically happen at the start of classes freshman year. Getting accepted is the first step…this sort of thing follows.
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But with a beautiful piano at home, and free lessons (musicians at home), I thought it would be nice to get a head start. It won’t take more than 15 minutes a day to bring him up to standard. He can already play a bit.
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I personally think piano is very important for all musicians. If he has the time, definitely do it. My son studied piano from about age 10-14, just enough to get to an intermediate playing level. He still plays every single day, probably only 15 minutes, but enough to keep up his skills and even build on them.
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My D (a vocalist) only did a bit of piano…even though we encouraged more. She did play violin for quite a few years in elementary and middle school however…so that took time. Once she started true voice lessons, she was constantly in shows (with some dance lessons) so piano went on the sidelines.
She did have to take a piano placement test (after acceptance). She only passed through the first semester (of 4 required…I think). So she did have to take piano in college. If I remember correctly it was 1 credit course (P/F) and did not take up a lot of time. Still it’s another thing to fit into your schedule. I thought I would get a fair amt of complaining…but she seemed fine with it. And…she now plays piano quite a bit…for teaching voice lessons (although she can use an accompaniment app…which is usually what she does, I think) and just to work on her music for roles at home.
Just another “experience” to add to this thread.
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I agree that piano is valuable for all musicians, even when it isn’t strictly required.
My daughter (9th grade) is a cellist and has also taken classes in composition in the past. She became more serious about composition this year, and is also taking some serious music theory classes (this is all at a pre-college conservatory program). The composition program doesn’t strictly require piano (unlike some others), but at the beginning of this year she became very frustrated with how her low level of piano skill is holding her back in both music theory and composition. She’s taking a group piano class, but I can see that we are going to need to invest in private piano lessons pretty soon. She already has private cello lessons (of course) and private composition lessons… it all adds up to lots of $$$ as all the musician parents on this thread already know…!!
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