Vocal Programs Allowing Multiple Genres

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Hi all! I'm a rising junior in high school, and I've recently been discussing the possibility of a dual degree or double major in music performance and something sciencey, which would satisfy both me and my parents. However, I've been having trouble with deciding what sort of music program I want to apply to because I haven't really focused on one genre and don't want to restrict myself.</p>

<p>Long story short, I'm a soprano with a big, classical-leaning voice. I started out in musical theatre and show choir, then moved to art songs/arias in my solo lessons and world music in choir, and right now I'm focusing on jazz in my lessons and am part of an advanced women's choir that does many different styles of music. I've been told by several different teachers that I should just focus on classical music, but I'm not really interested in studying classical voice exclusively. This summer, I will be doing jazz camp at Stanford and working on my songwriting and producing skills, as well as possibly working on one or two pop songs in lessons.</p>

<p>Right now, I'm very interested in USC Thornton's BM in Music Industry, though I don't know how feasible another major/degree would be with that. My main worries with focusing on jazz/contemporary music programs are that 1) I don't have much experience in jazz and would either be behind in terms of skill level/would realize that I don't want to do jazz all that much in a few years or 2) my voice is quite different from the typical pop/jazz singer and that would put me at a disadvantage. Although I'm foremost a performer, I'm also interested in business and marketing, and I'd like to work in the music industry on the business side in the future (if that small chance of being a successful artist doesn't come true).</p>

<p>I would really appreciate advice on both what types of programs I should focus on and any programs you would suggest looking at. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Classical vocal performance will yield the largest number of schools. Jazz and contemporary is a much smaller list for voice. Pop and rock is even smaller still.</p>

<p>Here is the list of jazz schools we researched when my DD was looking a few years ago:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1107026[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1107026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You should decide which will be your primary focus, much like instrumentalists have to choose a primary instrument. You can always supplement your major with outside activities like bands, choirs and/or musical theater. For example, my jazz vocalist DD is taking private lessons with a member of the classical faculty.</p>

3

<p>You sound multi-talented! I do not know a lot about voice, but assume that classical study might be foundational and transferable to other genres. Is that true?</p>

<p>Here is an article posted recently on a USC program:
USC Music School Teaches the Art of Making a Pop Hit | Music News | Rolling Stone</p>

<p>You could also look into Berklee, and people on here mention Belmont, maybe NYU. Though, if you want a double major or double degree, perhaps you are not interested in a conservatory or music school, and want to go to a college environment. (Look up “Double Degree Dilemma” on the Peabody site for a great discussion of degree options. Sorry, my link doesn’t work for some reason.)</p>

<p>Have you considered schools like Oberlin or Bard, with their double degree options? Or schools like Bennington or Sarah Lawrence, where you don’t have to focus narrowly? Check out their music departments.</p>

<p>You can pick up a lot of skills in music business, marketing, recording etc. through internships. Also, a lot of schools have individual classes in business or programs in “entrepreneurial studies” for music majors. (My daughter is in a classical composition program at a university but has done done long term internships and has learned about everything from fundraising and donor relations to sound engineering for an orchestra’s CD label.)</p>

<p>Are you interested in science or is that a way to make your parents feel safer about future income? You may be wise to think about a day job while you do music. However, it is also true that a bachelor’s in music offers access to many jobs requiring a bachelor’s, as well as access to grad and professional schools such as medicine, law and business.</p>

<p>You don’t have a lot of chances in life to do what you love and I hope you can find a way to explore music in college, one way or the other.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the replies! LGSMom, the idea about lessons with a different faculty member than your major is a good one and a possibility I wasn’t aware of. Also, thank you for the jazz school list - I’m currently enthralled with the various freedoms jazz allows and I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon, so that list will come in handy.</p>

<p>compmom, I personally think that switching between classical and jazz voice is much more difficult than on piano (the other instrument I play) - I would compare it to playing with the keyboard flipped. I’m fortunate enough to have done enough styles to know which techniques to use where, but it’s taken me a lot of practice. </p>

<p>I’m definitely interested in a double degree, something like the Peabody/JHU one. I looked at Bard’s but they don’t have voice as part of their conservatory, and I’d rather stay close to big cities than Ohio. As for science, my parents would definitely be happier with me working towards a BS degree, but I’m very interested in psych/neuroscience/cog sci as well. If it were totally up to me, my academic major would either be something in the mind sciences or business/econ. I’m really looking for very strong academics and strong performance training as well.</p>

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<p>Just as an aside - not that I’m necessarily suggesting Bard for this particular student - but they do offer Vocal Performance as a Music Major - it’s just that the program is in the College Music Program and not in the Conservatory. So, one could do a double major with a BA in Music with Vocal Performance and something else, but not a double degree.</p>

6

<p>Just want to clarify that Bard is in NY state. Oberlin is in Ohio. You might look at Tufts, too: great sciences, and double degree program with NEC.</p>

<p>I just noticed that you are a rising junior. Lots of things can happen in two years. Some of us have kids who were undecided until the very last minute, in May of senior year, when they had to choose a school, or at the end of sophomore year, when they had to choose a major!</p>

<p>I hope you can continue to explore and grow for a little while, in high school. Trying to decide things too early can, in my humble opinion, sometimes prevent opportunities rather than foster them. Things will become clearer, and with voice, you have time on your side…</p>

7

<p>If you are ambitious and willing to take the maximum number of classes each semester (and perhaps an extra summer if necessary), I’d definitely recommend NYU to you.</p>

<p>You could major in Vocal Performance with a specialization in Musical theatre (BM degree). You would be studying with teachers who are classically based, but who teach musical theatre repertoire. D also studied jazz standards.</p>

<p>Additionally you can have a minor in the Business of Entertainment, Media and Technology which will allow you to take music/film/ theatre based business classes through Stern, Steinhardt Music business and Tisch.</p>

<p>Then you can also try to double major or minor in science. I know that students in the vocal performance program have taken the requirements for med school and have graduated as math double majors.</p>

<p>It will be more doable if you are able to transfer in AP Credits.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Great advice, COMPMOM!</p>

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<p>Just so you know, some of the schools mentioned on this thread like Bard, Oberlin and NYU do not offer undergrad jazz voice. You would have to go classical for those schools. Hopefully you will have a better idea after Stanford. The sooner you pick a genre the more time you will have to prepare prescreen and audition rep. The requirements are very different and there can be a lot of competition in the better programs, especially for female vocalists.</p>

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<p>My son is majoring in music business at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. He is a bassist, but they do have jazz voice, opera and musical theater programs. The program is small enough that you might be able to find a way to participate in multiple genres. Most of the Hartt kids also seem to be some kind of pop band with other school mates. They also have a business school with marketing courses.</p>

11

<p>It is indeed a short list for schools in which you can focus on contemporary music. In the U.S., there are about 250 musical theatre degree-granting schools, a slightly lesser number of music department voice programs, and a substantially smaller number of schools letting one focus on jazz vocals. (By “voice program,” most colleges mean “art songs and opera.”) By far the tiniest list is that of pop/rock schools–Berklee, USC and Belmont as mentioned, but there are a handful of others. Given today’s Broadway emphasis on contemporary over ‘classical’ in style of song, you might look at MT programs–like those at Pace, Oklahoma, Shenandoah, and CW Post–that focus on new musicals and/or provide pop/rock training. You might also try looking at the “Little List” of contemporary vocal programs at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16200041-post14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16200041-post14.html&lt;/a&gt;. (The whole thread is at a slightly different URL, which still resolves as <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1372071-rock-vocals.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1372071-rock-vocals.html&lt;/a&gt;.) You might also search through College Confidential for the postings by VoiceTeacher and others, discussing which is better: studying classical and jazz styles, in the thinking that learning these will somehow give you a more fertile soil on which to grow your contemporary voice–or studying contemporary voice, because if you make it to Broadway, the national tours or regional theatre you’re far more often going to be singing contemporary styles. My wording probably gives away my take: ‘classical’ and jazz are just different types of music, just as pop and rock are different styles; none is more central or is ‘more music’ than another. Saying one style came before another is true on a historical timeline–but cricket came before baseball, and I couldn’t suggest that a young athlete dreaming of an MLB career first take up the art of pitch and wickets. But, being far more a center fielder than someone for central casting, I bow to the voice instructors (and working professionals) who post on College Confidential–who in the majority I’ve read say that if you’re going to sing contemporary then learn contemporary. Other than the style of implementation, there is nothing more that classical, art, opera or jazz voice will teach you about ‘music’ than will contemporary voice. (I remember my dad saying a new driver had to learn with a manual transmission before moving on to automatic, but clearly today that’s been revealed as just a generational belief.) Plus, your contemporary degree will look a heck of a lot more attractive to today’s theatre directors and producers on your resume. “That was a lovely audition you did with ‘Surrey With the Fringe on Top.’ But we don’t handle casting for the Lawrence Welk show.”</p>

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<p>Hello again everyone! I finished jazz camp about a week ago, and it basically confirmed that if I’m going to do a performance degree in college, it’ll be in jazz voice rather than vocal performance. I’ve also been doing research on colleges and thinking more about what exactly I want to do musicwise and careerwise in the future. </p>

<p>I’ve recently become much more interested in composition/songwriting (partly due to the students I met at jazz camp) and I’m currently working out how to use Pro Tools. I’ve also been talking to a friend who’s a music producer - she doesn’t sing, but she majored in hard science while at university while sending tapes to labels and landed a job fairly easily. I’ve realized that my main goal is to work in the music industry, even if I’m not the one performing, as a producer, songwriter, or vocal coach. I’d probably be as comfortable on the business side as well. </p>

<p>So I think I have two options: 1) I can go for a dual degree in jazz and something else - I’m really not sure what the other degree would be in at this point - and attempt to learn production and recording in whatever time I’ll have with such an intense courseload or 2) I can do more of a double major type thing with two academic-ish degrees - for example, Stanford’s STS in IT, Media, and Society sounds really appealing, and I would double major or minor in one of their music programs, while performing as much as possible outside of class.</p>

<p>I’m really leaning towards the non-performance degree right now, which I think my parents would be happier with as well. A couple of friends also recommended that I double major in business and music, though my parents don’t approve of majoring in business as an undergrad. </p>

<p>I’d really appreciate any insights you might have about what I’m planning to do.</p>

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<p>I know a Jazz singer whose parents both are professional Jazz musicians. She is currently in the program at University of Miami and loves it.</p>

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<p>Miami is an excellent choice. Please don’t discount taking lessons that include classical in them as well. It does translate and in my very limited experience, I have noticed that jazz voice lessons tend to focus on ‘notes’ whereas classical will often focus more on ‘pedagogy’ which means that you may want to do both to get both sides of that talent. Pedagogy will teach you better how to control, nurture and train your voice. Jazz is more likely to focus on things like learning how to work a 12-bar blues phrase.</p>

<p>Again, my experience is somewhat limited, but I’m married to a college voice teacher and have been around ‘that world’ a lot.</p>

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<p>Simi, if you’re a strong science student, are getting interested in production and songwriting, love singing and have an MT background there are a couple of schools with degrees that might be a great fit for you.</p>

<p>At NYU, there is the Clive Davis department of recording arts in Tisch where a singer/songwriter can work on producing and business together with further honing in terms of performance. It’s a competitive program requiring an extensive portfolio, but you may have time to pull that al together. 27Dreams is a former poster who was accepted to the program but ultimately chose USC Thornton (which is already on your list.) she might be able to give you guidance from the vantage of a singer. (my son is more a composer and technician, so our vantage was a little different.)</p>

<p>If you’re also decent at math and have a good technical aptitude, you might want to check out University of Michigan’s PAT curricula A program, which is a BMus wherein you could still be taking a voice studio while also composing and learning music production. One thing in your case that might make Umch a nice fit is the very robust MT and theatre production network and the sheer variety of performance opportunities in SMDT, whether you’re dual degreeing or not. (And you can dual degree…but it’s def a long haul…very great neuro sci programs etc at Umich as well.)</p>

<p>My son started out dual degreeing, but later decided to focus in on his SMTD degree. But since he also loves film and theater, he regularly composed and worked production and sound design on a variety of films and stage production, and has made good network connections in those disciplines as well.</p>

<p>The PAT degree is highly specialized in its sequence of courses, which makes it tougher to dual degree, but its also very flexible in that there are streams or routes to specialize…there are four different degree types, including straight up engineering, or bfa curriculae in electronic production and multimedia. So lots of opportunity for a science-minded, tech savvy musician to explore, but also lots of top performance students, teachers, etc.</p>

<p>Like NYU and USC in terms of both stats and specific program selectivity, it is a very competitive admit where they seek “triple” threats of raw talent, developed experience/training and academic rigor. The emphasis is typically on portfolio/audition and interview, but because these programs are in high demand, where all else is equal the academic factor can play in. If this sounds appealing to you, please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions about the portfolio requirements. Here’s a link. Actually, I’m going to put in the degree description because I always repeat myself on these threads trying to describe it so now I’ll have it for reference :slight_smile:
[UM</a> School of Music, Theatre & Dance - Department of Performing Arts Technology - Degree Programs](<a href=“http://music.umich.edu/departments/pat/programs.htm]UM”>http://music.umich.edu/departments/pat/programs.htm)</p>

<p>Curriculum A - Bachelor of Music in Music and Technology - designed for students who possess demonstrated interest in producing music with technology who are also performers in voice or on an acoustic instrument.</p>

<p>Curriculum B - Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performing Arts Technology, Music Concentration - designed for students who possess demonstrated interest in music technology, electronic music composition and performance,or sound recording & production.</p>

<p>Curriculum C - Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performing Arts Technology, Media Arts Concentration - designed for students who possess demonstrated interest in music technology, electronic music composition and performance, multimedia art forms, visual arts and technology, sound recording & production, or engineering.</p>

<p>Curriculum D - Bachelor of Science in Sound Engineering - designed for those students who demonstrate abilities in both music and engineering and are interested in music technology, sound recording & production, electrical engineering, and audio equipment design.</p>

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<p>Vocal Coach would be out as they work with classical voice and are trained as pianists, first and foremost, and have to have extensive knowledge of opera repertoire.
The MST program at Stanford would definitely be worth investigating, if you have the grades to catch their eye. They confound me as I know of a young lady, double legacy, who applied there as a voice major and was rejected even with a 4.2 GPA. She ended up at Rice, go figure!</p>

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<p>If jazz is really important to you then you need to pick a school that actually has jazz voice. This rules out Stanford where there are no jazz voice teachers on the faculty. It also rules out NYU where they only have jazz voice as a graduate degree. By contrast, Miami has 4 jazz voice faculty. If jazz is your anchor then start with the list of schools that have jazz voice and then look at the academic options for a possible second concentration. If you pick a school without jazz voice you will only have the option to take private lessons outside school or work with a jazz faculty member whose instrument is not voice which is not optimal and raises a concern over vocal health in young singers.</p>

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<p>There are a small number of ‘music industry programs’ at colleges on the ‘rock vocals’ list–a couple, like NYU’s, have been mentioned here. It looks like there may be a few more from the UK, as the UK has many schools offering pop/rock voice performance degrees, which are the schools I’m looking at exclusively. The below are non-performance:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, New York University, New York, N.Y.</p></li>
<li><p>Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Program, U Miami, Coral Gables, Fla. (esp. songwriters)</p></li>
<li><p>Canada: Humber College, Toronto, Ontario</p></li>
<li><p>UK: Univ. of Chichester, Chichester, England (via Platform One, Isle of Wight)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>I’m no help on jazz or art/opera programs. Luckily, those are far easier to find, as a search on CollegeBoard or BigFuture shows.</p>

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<p>We housed an NEC Opera singer for a few days two weeks ago. One thing I learned is that one of the all time best pop-rock singers to walk the planet-Freddy Mercury was classically trained. My son tells me that there are many classical music singers who are indeed hoping to go into Jazz or Rock eventually.</p>

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<p>Freddy Mercury wasn’t "classically trained at the higher levels, but he did begin piano lessons when he was 7!!</p>