Searching for the right music program (contemporary music/songwriting/composition)

College Majors Music Major
1

Hello!

I’m hoping to either double major or major in minor in a music-related major and a more academic major (probably philosophy or global studies). I thought I’d post specifically about the things I’m looking for in a music program, and if anyone has any ideas I would very much appreciate it!

I’ve been playing piano for about 10 years, and am a competent jazz and classical pianist (I also play guitar and sing). However, I am most confident about my songwriting skills, and want my studies to revolve around this. I still want to improve as a player, so hopefully somewhere where I could at least take lessons and/or play in a small group or two (either within or outside of school), and I would want some theory classes, but I also want to be able to take some music composition/songwriting, music history/musicology, and production/music tech courses. I am wondering if perhaps at some places minoring in music would allow me the flexibility to pick and choose in this way rather than being confined to strict performance requirements through a jazz degree, for instance.

Obviously I don’t want to go to a conservatory, or if I did it would have to be one that was partnered with an academic institution as well.

I also really would like to be in/near a city with a prominent and diverse music scene, such as obviously LA, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, etc.

I have pretty good academics; I did Running Start (dual enrollment at a Community College) during my second two years of high school and finished my AA with a 3.86 (unweighted) GPA, and have quite a few extracurriculars, including a one-year exchange abroad.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Let me know if you need more information from me. :slight_smile:

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Oh yeah, here’s my current list that I’m looking at, roughly in order:

University of So Cal
SUNY Purchase College
Eastman School of Music/Rochester U
Northwestern U
Ithaca College
The New School

and a couple more that I haven’t had time to check out yet.

Also I graduated from high school last summer.

3

Sounds great! A few thoughts:

Ithaca (4 hour drive) and SUNY Purchase (2 hour drive) aren’t near or in large cities. Still great schools, just not urban (except for Eastman in Rochester, a nice but small city).

My son is applying this year in jazz, and other programs in or near cities that look good include: NYU Steinhardt, Columbia U if you have top grades and boards (nice jazz program), Peabody/Johns Hopkins (in Baltimore), USC/Thornton (LA) and U Miami/Frost (Miami). Good luck!

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Purchase, NY is less than an hour from Manhattan.

5

Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois (ok, the town itself isn’t great) offers a variety of music degrees and groups including Jazz. Auditions for groups is open to anyone. It is also an all Steinway school. You are three hours from Chicago and 2 1/2 hours from St. Louis. There are also several state and private universities within an hours drive giving you the opportunity to see groups perform. They have generous merit scholarship and scholarships are stackable and renewable.

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I second Miami/Frost and New School although they don’t have a lot of songwriting there. Maybe add NYU/Clive Davis but don’t expect to get a lot of $$$ if you get in. Berklee could be a good addition as well.

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Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I do have a few on my list that aren’t really that close to their nearest big city, but are at least within a day’s travel.

Money is a factor which is why the New School and NYU aren’t super high on my list right now, doesn’t seem like they give out much money. However, I was considering the Contemporary Music major at Lang, but I don’t know if I would still be able to take lessons at the jazz school as a Lang student.

This is honestly one of my biggest difficulties; while it’s not too hard to find schools with good jazz programs, good songwriting/composition/production offerings, and good academics, the tricky part is finding a place where I will even have the opportunity to take advantage of those offerings through a double-major/dual degree/major and minor. If that makes sense.

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I don’t understand your list since you say “obviously” you don’t want “conservatories.”

Are you thinking about double degree or double major or major/minor?

Have you read the Double Degree Dilemma essay posted closer to the top of this forum? It is about the different ways to study music, and might be helpful to you.

Several times you write “songwriting/composition” but in terms of majors, these are very different things. Do you want to do classical composition? (These days that generally means “contemporary classical” aka “new music.” Are you familiar with that?

What music is it that you want to write. It makes a difference in terms of schools.

From what you wrote about yourself, and your desire to have an academic major like philosophy or global studies, I would recommend that you attend a school that offers a BA major in philosophy or global studies or international relations or whatever, as well as a possible double major with the academic major and music, or major/minor. In that context, music is a liberal arts major, generally, but sometimes there is a performance component in class and almost always you can do lessons and extracurricular performance.

If you choose that path, you would have to change your list because all of your schools have BM programs, and often BA students at schools with BM programs do not have the best teachers and performance opportunities, since theygo to the BM students in the conservatory/school of music. This is not universally true.

Alternatively, if you DO want a conservatory or school of music, your list is great but you need to investigate the possibility and logistics of doing a major in an academic subject at these schools. Some make it easy, some make it hard.

If composition in the more traditional sense (though contemporary classical can certainly be edgy and sound nothing like Mozart!) then a BA program is just fine, either as a music major or philosophy or other academic major, with double major, major/minor or using electives- or even NOT doing music as an academic focus but doing a lot with lessons and extracurricular performance.

We don’t know much about your academics, finances or location, but for me, in the Northeast, I would recommend Tufts (International relations, great music, double degree with NEC that can be entered later). Clark (interesting curriculum and good music dept.), Vassar, Sarah Lawrence. Bard has a conservatory but a “low wall” so a BA student can study composition. If your academics are good you could shoot for Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Harvard or Yale- all have great music departments and academics.

9

SUNY Purchase is a 35 minute train ride, (Metro North to Grand Central), into NYC, with a campus shuttle that runs to the station roughly every 30 minutes or so. It is about an hour to drive into S Manhattan if not during rush hour. S drives or takes the train into the city once or twice a week.

The Studio Composition, (songwriting/arranging/production), major at Purchase is a BMus conservatory program, and you would have a very difficult time double majoring. However you can take Studio Comp as a minor if your priority is an academic major.

If you want to be in NYC and cost is a big factor, check out the programs at CUNY City College New York or CUNY Brooklyn.

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Thanks for the correction re: Purchase @brantly and @indeestudios – we come from NJ and I got the times mixed up.

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Another thing to consider is talking with Berklee Global’s staff and people. The goal of Berklee Global is to create musicians who are going to use music for social change. I understand that you want “academics” But “academics” can be many things and give you have taken a gap year it sounds like you have a strong sense of what you might want to do once you get your college degree. I would then look at institutions with an eye toward who is going to let you learn and make progress toward your goals and not get too hung up on what the piece of paper at the end of four years actually says. Also given that you have this wonderful running start you likely know how to talk to college professors. I would talk to professors in various programs and tease out which ones feel like they have something to offer you that you want. Try not to listen to other’s who might say “this program is more prestigious or better.” Instead go with your gut about who you want to work with.

I had a son who had a running start and when he was applying to college he did exactly that because he had a sense of what his goal was. He ended up not going to the most prestigious institution he was accepted at and it ended up being just the right decision.

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@compmom - thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful post. I definitely wasn’t clear; what I really meant is that I don’t want to go to a place that is only a music or arts conservatory (like Berklee, although I love their contemporary writing and production program).

I have been meaning to read that post and I will per your recommendation. I am not set on a double major/major and minor or double degree; I was kind of just trying to find programs on both the academic and music side that interested me and then seeing what the options would be at each individual institution for me to combine those. I had not considered your suggestion of getting a liberal arts BA of music degree, that does sound like it could be a good option and I’ll have to try to find some schools with that option as well. Some of the schools on my list–not all–seem to be well set up for double-majors (The New School has a program for dual-degree students, USC I’ve heard encourages double majors, etc.) but likely not all so I will start looking into that as a first priority. Do you (or anyone) have suggestions on how to find out how easy/difficult this might be at various places? (I assume I should just start making calls!)

I also wasn’t clear about my composition interests, which probably reveals my indecision about it. What I love to do is write songs of various styles, and while I don’t do much instrumental composition I would love to learn about it and other things in order to be a well-rounded writer and musician and expand my musical vocabulary. That being said, I do not know how much opportunity there will be in programs to explore my interests in that sort of flexible way. I lean towards contemporary songwriting/production.

Thanks again for your comments and I hope that clarifies a bit what I’m looking for in my education!

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@StacJip thanks for the advice. I had not heard of Berklee Global so I will check them out. Creating music for social change pretty accurately captures exactly what I would want to pursue post-graduation! (In a perfect world…)

Also thank you for your advice on looking at programs and talking to professors. I have been getting the sense that that (along with talking to alumni) is probably the most accurate way to get a feel for how well a program will help me learn what I want to learn, and will follow that advice!

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I PM 'ed you