<p>Do the live audition.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I did a regional audition for one of my schools without meeting anyone on faculty, and I got in with a generous scholarship. I was so surprised and happy! Maybe I’m the exception, but it IS possible :D</p>
<p>One thing we learned: If you are serious about a place, let them know it and be in contact with someone on the faculty. Being a composition major, my son didn’t have to do live auditions and hadn’t visited (no time - mistake - make time) any of the campus’ he applied to (quick visit to East Coast two weeks ago), but rather researched them on-line and got advice from you all (THANKS SOOOOO MUCH!). Two non-IVY universities were serious contenders for him, so attending would depend on an excellent financial aid package. He corresponded with a faculty member at one, letting him know of his interest & concern for financial aid - they came back with a very good offer. He didn’t contact the other university and they gave him a pittance. Personal contact is very important, I believe, in getting where you want to go.</p>
<p>Concerning Harvard/NEC program, we asked and were given to believe by a Harvard staff member that entrance into the dual program was more up to NEC rather than Harvard, and again I believe it was the personal contact that got my son in. We made an effort to visit NEC and spent about an hour and a half talking with one of the composition faculty there, expressing our great interest. My son also put on his application that he would not go to NEC if he didn’t get into the dual program. I didn’t think he would get into Harvard, because his academic transcript, while very good, was not stellar. He does write good essays though.</p>
<p>Yes, my D was accepted at all those schools where she did an on-site audition and where the faculty spoke with the students directly. She did not do lessons at most schools because I could not miss large amounts of time from work. She was waitlisted or rejected from those schools which had a “sing and good-bye” audition- and from the one regional audition she did.</p>
<p>jazz/shreddermom, did he play giant steps? and the head of the program, are you referring to kenny burrell? where did he end up going and get accepted?</p>
<p>UC2008, he played Donna Lee. And yes, it was KB. He’s going to his first choice, USC Thornton!</p>
<p>How does one get the word out to schools that they come looking for you? When do the offers to join them roll in? Should we be doing anything year ? The Ds are juniors.</p>
<p>If you mean how do you get schools to start sending your daughters brochures and emails, one way is to take the PSAT and check the boxes saying what their interests are and that they want to receive information; for academic schools (vs. conservatories), a high score on the PSAT will yield you a bonus in the number of brochures…they will fill your mailbox. Another is to go onto websites and contact particular schools, saying that you are interested. A third way is to attend college fairs - there are college fairs conservatories and for regular colleges, and you can fill out a card, and they will send you information. I think IU is still sending things to my kid years later! And a fourth way is to go on college/conservatory tours and leave them your contact information.</p>
<p>I’m just starting the process with my daughter, a vocalist interested in jazz or contemporary music. She’s a junior and has been preparing pre-screening audition music. I know it will be very competitive. How do you get an independent, professional assessment?</p>
<p>loves2sing, if you haven’t already read this, <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> please do. It is invaluable. I’ve posted a couple of links in posts #138 & 139 there that are “where do I begin” discussions.</p>
<p>Independent professional assessment can come from a variety of sources, including but not limited to professional musicians within your own or d’s instructor’s circle, through faculty met at summer intensives and immersion programs, allstate, festival and competition scenarios, by visiting colleges and undergrad programs and scheduling trial or sample lessons with faculty.</p>
<p>Thanks violadad - very helpful information!</p>
<p>For jazz vocals – consider University of North Texas, known for its jazz program and its vocal program. Tuition is extremely low for both in and out of state students, esp with scholarship money. Arrange for a practice lesson from this and other candidate schools; also ask them for their advice regarding a professional assessment. Make sure that the person you hire for the assessment knows that you will not consider her or him for lessons so that you will get an unbiased opinion. Choose someone, for example,who is located too far from you home for you to consider them for weekly lessons. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks so much Key of H. We’re in the Chicago area and after I realized she needed an assessment I scheduled with an instructor at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. Maybe I should reconsider. She’s always had very positive feedback about her jazz singing - has a good ear. She had a lesson at Western MI and feedback about her classical singing was not as positive. </p>
<p>Her top three school choices are Berklee, USC and Belmont - because they are more commercial. Next are the jazz (but mainly to lead to commercial) - Miami, Texas, NEC, New School. All these schools I got from this site. Others I’ve just read about are Denver, Temple and UArts - haven’t checked into those yet. Maybe Northern CO too?</p>
<p>Am not sure I even have a complete list of schools with commercial music majors. I googled colleges in Nashville and came up with Tenn. State as having commercial music. There’s also Columbia in Chicago, but my daughter has no interest in being so close to home. Do you know of others I may be missing?</p>
<p>My daughter recently applied for the 5-week summer program at Berklee and we just found out she did not get a scholarship. Now she’s thinking she’s probably not that good. I think 25% of the applicants get a scholarship. I’m surprised at my own reaction. I had said she could attend if she got a scholarship; now I’m thinking maybe because she didn’t, she should definitely go and see how she stacks up against the competition. However, I’m a little worried about the unsupervised nature of the program. She could maybe do a couple of their shorter camps - vocal, stage performance.</p>
<p>I’m also really torn about the idea of even needing some kind of degree if your dream is vocal pop performance. Maybe she should pursue neuroscience (her second interest - way below music) at a school where she can jam with like-minded music lovers? I don’t know where that would be. Maybe Belmont?</p>
<p>She’d been thinking of combining performance with music therapy, but job shadowed two therapists and found it was not for her. No interest in music ed. Maybe music business - I don’t understand it enough to know why not a regular business degree to be more marketable?</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post - I’m rambling…</p>
<p>Loves2Sing, does your daughter have any interest in “producing” her own contemporary work, or that of others, and does she write her own songs? I only ask because via my son, we explored the Clive Davis program at Tisch, NYU (fairly new program, takes about 30 out of 300 applicants, by portfolio). It is not a ‘school of music’ program per se but instead emphasizes artist production and development – whether YOU’RE the artist or merely want to produce others. In my son’s case, he chose a school of music with a specialized, portfolio-based technology program at the University of Michigan, which, due to its size, has a very nice assortment of program options avail. But Clive Davis seemed really well organized toward creating contemporary performer-producers, and had the benefit of being housed with the Tisch film school, which is a great environment. New York is an obvious venue – as would USC be, to my mind, but I don’t know if USC has a contemporary vocal program.</p>
<p>And if your daughter were to pursue neuroscience, you might want to take a peek a U. Michigan, which has a plethora of opportunity casually and formally for signers, plus a voice program and ergo voice teachers. While it is possible to dual degree with the School of Music and LSA (literature arts & science) it takes at least 5 years and is not for the faint of heart. But that would be true anywhere.</p>
<p>Just alternate suggestions to look into if they seem to fit at all.
Good luck in your search!</p>
<p>I’d like to make another vote for keeping grades and test scores as high as possible. My son and I had many discussions in which he said “grades and scores don’t really matter in music”. I have no idea how they affect admission, but in his jazz band he and his peers all got into the schools they applied to -Juilliard, MSM, NEC - but the only
“free ride” was for my son, whose scores and grades got him full tuition at USC and at William Paterson U. All through this process I’ve been adamant that taking out loans for music school is foolish given the uncertainties of the profession, so I’ve been very happy that we won’t have to do so.</p>
<p>Another point that others may have made - don’t expect visits for auditions to be of much use in assessing a school. The faculty and staff are too busy to get much information.</p>
<p>Love2sing, </p>
<p>One option for this coming summer could be Grammy Camp which is held at USC and I think in the past the Dean of the Popular Music Performance program has been involved which would give them exposure to each other. It goes 10 days vs 5 weeks and costs about one third what the Berklee 5 week program costs I think. Application deadline was March 31, but I don’t know how hard and fast they are on that. If you would consider it, it wouldn’t hurt to call them and explain that your daughter is accepted to the Berklee 5 week program, but you have recently become aware of the Grammy Camp and would they consider reviewing her application.</p>
<p>USC has both the Popular Music Performance and Music Industry majors which seem to cover your daughters interests. USC has good science programs also. Also, as bumpyroad’s son was talented/skilled enough to receive, USC gives some great academic merit awards. Requires exceptional scores, etc. but they are available. </p>
<p>Best wishes and feel free to PM me if you have specific questions that you think I could assist you with.</p>
<p>My son will attend USC in the fall as a studio/jazz guitar major. As a lover of progressive rock as well as jazz, he also considered their popular music program, but his thinking was that he already plays/composes/gigs popular music in “real life” and the best way to advance his playing level was furthering his jazz studies in his music academic life, knowing he could still take popular music courses. </p>
<p>Interestingly, at our admitted students event, we met a girl who made the same decision about jazz vs. popular vocals. There was yet another student who had been accepted to NYU Tisch for musical theater, but was leaning toward a classical voice major program (at a school that also offered musical theater) for much the same reason. </p>
<p>Anyway, my point is that I agree it’s a good idea for daughter to be at a school where she can pursue both popular and jazz vocals. And I have to add to that my son has several friends in and joining USC’s popular music program, and from what we’ve seen, it’s awesome.</p>
<p>A final thought. Because it’s such a unique and varied animal, I’m not sure that’s really possible to get a truly reliable or consistent “professional assessment” of popular music talent.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for the information! Really very helpful!</p>
<p>bumpyroad - will your son be going to USC? My daughter’s grades/scores may not be high enough. She’s 3.9 GPA out of 4.0 unweighted and got a 30 on the ACT in December. Taking it again in April and the SAT in May. Top 5% of her class - unweighted.</p>
<p>She’s torn about taking a 4th year of science and has only signed up for four AP classes senior year. I know USC recommended a 4th year on their website. Her concern is time - for music and preparing for auditions. I had spoken to a couple of schools - Belmont and I can’t remember the other - about AP Biology. Both suggested waiting until freshman year of college. I got the impression the AP classes in HS were more for getting things out of the way vs. getting a head start on a possible major.</p>
<p>Agree with you completely about paying a lot of money for a commercial vocal major. USC lets non-music majors take their popular music classes I think - I could be mistaken about that. Maybe we should check into that further.</p>
<p>jazz/shredder - you make a really good point about pursuing jazz vs. popular music. When I spoke with New School, the admissions counselor explained the same thing to me - but I didn’t really get what he was saying until I read your post. There’s really no standard for pop music. I have asked USC what they were looking for and they described mostly power - controlled power - in a singer. My daughter is just learning to use chest voice (I’m not sure if that’s the right term?) for more power in her singing. I feel like we’re always a step behind. Maybe that’s what Berklee was looking for also, and why she didn’t get a scholarship?</p>
<p>kmccrindle - my daughter is just beginning songwriting. Again, I feel like we’re a step behind. She has always arranged music - changing hip hop to acoustic… and improvised with jazz combos/bands. But has only recently begun to write her own music. I will check into U of MI - thank you.</p>
<p>raddad - I knew about Grammy camp - they require their singers to be songwriters, so I signed up D for a songwriting class. She has always been able to put a melody to chords, but needed the chords and lyric ideas to get started. I had called them to discuss - they encouraged me to have her send something in - but D wasn’t comfortable about it - didn’t feel it was good enough since she’s only just started. Sounds like a great camp. Maybe I should push D a little and call again to see if there is any deadline flexibility.</p>
<p>I wish I’d been on this site a year ago!</p>
<p>for musician’s first priority should be skill in arts and if their is time, academics. but there is so much competition that there is rarely time for academics. i studied hard in high school and spent not enough time in my arts and i regret my choice every day</p>
<p>UC2008 - are you a vocalist or instrumentalist? Do you think that makes a difference? My daughter would say the same - that to follow her dream she needs to have more time for music. There’s only so many hours in the day. What are you doing now?</p>