<p>The placement exam documents say "suggested texts for study". Am I expected to buy and study with the books ? Some are four or five hundred pages long and quite expensive. If I buy these textbooks will I have others to buy in the fall ?</p>
<p>I meant "Textbooks".</p>
<p>No, you are not expected to buy and study the textbooks. They are merely suggested for those that want to do some preparation for the placement examinations. </p>
<p>If you want to place out of classes and you have a reasonable basis for doing so (i.e. you have previously learned the material in those classes), then you may want to consider the purchase and some investment of time in reviewing the previously learned material.</p>
<p>If you have very little theory background and want to avoid having to take non-credit remedial classes (and I don’t know if your institution has those or not), then you would be well-advised to do some prep.</p>
<p>So if I buy them now I won’t be using them in class in the fall anyway ?</p>
<p>That is a question that I would direct to the school. It will, of course, depend at least partially on your placement test results. Schools do tend to recommend texts that they believe are good and they tend to use the same texts in their courses, but different instructors sometimes use different texts and texts can change from year to year.</p>
<p>Depending on the text and the course, most notably music history and theory, there are a few authoritative editions that would not hurt a musician to purchase and have on the shelf as standard reference sources. Depending on your finances, study habits, and choice of reading material, the fact that they may or may not be used as texts within is a course is irrelevant. They just be good to have.</p>
<p>Agree with violadad about the desirability of having a standard music history text on one’s bookshelf (I recommend Machlis/Forney’s Enjoyment of Music as an easy read or Grout’s History of Western Music for more detail, but if your school has other recommendations, then you may want to follow those). You should be able to purchase very cheap used copies of these online.</p>
<p>Good thank then I think I’ll just buy them. You’re right they’ll be useful anyway.</p>
<p>If it is Music Theory, many schools use the same textbook for several years, so even if you place in to a higher level, you may still be using the same textbook. As an option, you could buy used textbooks at a discounted price, either through the school bookstore or on Amazon. If you find that you do not want to keep them for reference after your required classes, most college bookstores will buy back the used books.</p>
<p>I looked at Juilliard’s recommended texts, then I looked on my S’s bookshelf. I didn’t find any of the undergraduate texts. I don’t know if that means the texts have changed, or if S unloaded them, or if he never had them.</p>
<p>The only match I found was “Hanning, Barbara Russano. Concise History of Western Music.” That’s a grad school recommendation.</p>
<p>He doesn’t have a ton of books. He has a ton of music, scores, and instrument-specific texts. </p>
<p>Since you are overseas, I would be careful how many books you bought now and had to lug to NYC in the fall. Go ahead and buy whichever you think you might actually need in order to brush up, but postpone the others. The worst that can happen is that you end up in first year theory – but there are those (my S included) who would maintain that that is a good thing!</p>
<p>Binx has brought up my reservation too - you’re going (I assume) to be trying to bring a whole year of life in 1-2 suitcases under 20kg. Books weigh a lot!</p>
<p>I think for Juilliard, the books they’ve recommended are the ones that you will be using if you don’t manage to pass out of the courses, so if you feel super confident for the exams, I wouldn’t bother buying them. If you’re not so confident, I’d buy them, but wait till I got there.</p>
<p>I bought them yesterday online. It’s fine because my mom will come with me. Good to know that I don’t <em>have</em> to read two thousands pages of counterpoint, harmony and music history this summer (as interesting as they may be) !! I don’t mind first-year classes: the problem is more that I don’t know the english musical vocab. Thanks everyone !</p>