What should I be doing as a freshmen if I want to go to a music college?

College Majors Music Major
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<p>You mention that the instrument you are playing belongs to your school…and was last used by someone who is now a teacher. My daughter is an oboe/English horn player (non-major). One thing you will need to consider before going off to college is the purchase of a good professional level oboe. I would not recommend you purchase one until you are sure that you want to continue playing this instrument as they are a bit costly. But…you won’t be able to take the HS instrument with you to college…and college majors are expected to own their own instrument(s). If you are taking lessons with an oboe player, that person may know someone who has a good used instrument. My daughters oboe and English horn are both excellent quality used instruments. The oboe was only three years old when we bought it. The EH was older, but extremely well cared for. Do not buy an instrument without trying it. In other words…don’t order over Ebay unless there is a guarantee that you can return the instrument for a full refund. These are finicky instruments and even several instruments of the same make/model will play differently. You really need to try the instrument yourself.</p>

<p>My daughter never played an old oboe, but she DID play a couple of very old English Horns. They were awful instruments. Make sure that old oboe is working properly, has been recently repadded, and is properly lubricated (you really shouldn’t do this your self unless you really know what you’re doing). The keys also need to be adjusted properly. If the instrument isn’t a good one, you might get discouraged unnecessarily. Our high school had some old (very old) oboes…and many students tried them unsuccessfully. So…just an FYI…make sure the instrument is properly tuned.</p>

<p>Yes, eventually you will need to learn to make your own reeds. BUT you can also buy premade reeds. We used to buy them by the dozen (they were cheaper that way). DD makes her own now…and has done so since 11th grade…but she didn’t before that. As noted…it’s hard to do. Also the tools and reed making supplies are not exactly a bargain cost wise.</p>

<p>Oboe is a great instrument. It’s not an easy one, but I love the sound of a well played oboe. Good luck to you.</p>

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<p>You are being very thorough for a 9th grader, and you sure do seem motivated. However, as a parent of 3 who have fairly recently gone through high school (one a musician and one a dancer), I would also advise you to stay open to many possibilities (for the next two years, anyway) and enjoy high school in its many facets.</p>

<p>Continuing piano and oboe, and adding singing, might be very time-consuming at your age. I would say to do those things only if you yourself feel a strong desire and drive to do them. Also, some piano teachers now are teaching piano with an emphasis on theory and/or composition, and that kind of piano teacher might be fun for you.</p>

<p>I think it is great that you have played piano, cello and oboe: this variety gives you a nice “holistic” experience in music. Now that you have chosen the oboe, it is a great time to work hard at it, and focus on one.</p>

<p>Our daughter did a lot of auditions at good conservatories last year. She is a composer, so I don’t know what instrumentalists do in terms of exams or interviews involving music theory. However, I will say that our daughter a lot of 3 hour theory exams, and did really well, and she was not one of those kids who spend years of Saturdays at the local conservatory, studying theory.</p>

<p>She spent the first two years of high school doing a lot of things, one year soccer, two years lots of theater, some volunteer teaching of drama, and worked on both clarinet and her new passion, classical guitar. I figured she would be an English or drama major in college.</p>

<p>But then she started writing music all of a sudden, things like string quartets and clarinet trios, when she was a junior. For her, she had found her means of expression. Before that, she thought everyone heard music in their heads, and it really did take the right (piano) teacher to inspire her to take this more seriously. This was an unexpected adn wonderufl direction. You may have similar surprises ahead, who knows?</p>

<p>She took music theory at school, an inferior course, believe me. Then, for the last two years of high school, she took theory at a conservatory prep school. She was strongly driven to do this, and would have crawled to the classes! The last year, we also paid for a private theory lesson, too. (again, she is a composer, not primarily an instrumentalist)</p>

<p>My main point here is not to worry too much in early high school, and, as many have said, just do what you are drawn to doing, what you love. Don’t follow too many “shoulds.” Explore. Certainly, work hard at the oboe since you are developing a love for it.</p>

<p>But many things can change. Your interests may be different as you develop, or they may deepen. Don’t stress trying to predict or control your own evolution, let it happen- but work hard at those interests that do blossom.</p>

<p>Oh-and for those interested in double degrees, Bard’s fairly new conservatory actually requires a double degree, and the program is 5 years. Our daughter did not like being told what was good for her (!) but the program would be good for many, as is Oberlin’s double degree program, as mentioned. Tufts also has one with NEC, 5 years.</p>

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<p>I agree with Compmom, if you are serious about being admitted as an oboist, which I think is your best shot, then you need to concentrate on becoming a fantastic one.</p>

<p>My d began bassoon at 13 after being a very mediocre clarinetist and saxophonist. By 17 she had won NFAA in bassoon, she now attends Shepherd School at Rice, a very good conservatory. Everyone around her is always amazed at how few years she has played. I can tell you how she did it.</p>

<p>She began her instrument in 8th grade. She took private lessons each week, 52 weeks a year, and practiced 2-3 hours each day (that does not mean orchestra or ensemble rehearsals, that means practicing scales, etc.) She listened 24/7 to professional bassoon CDs. She played in a pit orchestra for 6 weeks that summer. In 9th grade, she asked for a lesson with the bassoon teacher at the local precollge, Juilliard, and asked what she needed to do to get in. She auditioned at the end of 9th grade and was accepted. Her teacher told he she had to get a better bassoon and she got her first professional one. She played every orchestra gig she could get- every youth orchestra, local pit orchestras at community theater, formed a quintet, and spent every summer at a music festival or playing in a pit orchestra. She practiced about 3-4 hours each day in addition to all her commitments until one year before auditions, when she upped it to 5 or 6. Reeds were made between midnight and 3am. I’m not sure when she did homework, maybe on the train, but she did graduate well. By the time she auditioned for college, she was accepted everywhere but Curtis, with scholarship. Now she will tell you that she had mediocre technique in high school, (she only compares herself to professionals, never to students) but she managed to get judges to overlook it by having tremendous musicality and extreme due diligence from hours of practice a day. The minute she made it into college, she began her diligent work on technique. That takes more years than she had before then.</p>

<p>With regards to reeds, I’m certain she did not dedicate time to them until 10th or 11th grade. She needed to focus on her instrument first. Perhaps you should consider working something out with the teacher to do that later.</p>

<p>Can it be done? Yes. Does that life have any resemblance to a normal high school existence. No. She missed every high school function except the prom and graduation. She didn’t need a life outside of music, her friends all played music with her and she had a long road to climb in a short amount of time. I do not recommend this existence unless you are compelled to go there. You can never get back those years. I can tell you unequivocally the she has absolutely no regrets and loves her musical life! She’d do it all again, and maybe work even harder.</p>

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<p>You’re scaring me, team_mom! :stuck_out_tongue: And I have one less year to do all of that than she did! I am trying to practice for an hour each day, but I can’t imagine three, let alone five or six…I am in all honors classes at my high school and I have a lot of work to do. How in the world did she manage that?? I am amazed! Thanks for the insight; it has given me more idea of how hard I will need to work.</p>

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<p>I don’t think team_mom is trying to scare you deepsy, but she’s pretty well summed up the reality of the experiences of many who will be your peer group should you decide to pursue performance.</p>

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<p>My daughter also started on her major instrument in eighth grade and did not follow quite as strict a regimen as the one team_mom set out, but “trying to practice for an hour each day” is not likely to get it done for someone looking to be a performance major in a good music department or conservatory. The key is getting the best teacher possible for the run-up to the auditions and those kind of teachers are not going to be interested in taking students who have not put in their practice hours.</p>

<p>Keeping up with classwork is always a challenge. Music students need to be really good about time management and using even short periods of down time to do homework. You do not have to sacrifice a social life entirely, but you do have to think in terms of going out less than most people your age and keeping the texting and IM traffic to a minimum, particularly when you should be working. You pretty much have to ignore the phone and computer completely during practice time.</p>

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<p>Oh, I know an hour a day is nowhere near enough. I will be increasing my daily practice time by at least an hour, and it still won’t be enough, but I don’t know how to practice more without failing all of my classes, missing every EC activity, and driving my family insane.
Well, this board has given me valuable insight. This is what I wanted to know - how much you really need to put in to actually go somewhere in music. Perhaps I should pursue my passion for history instead…</p>

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<p>The advice that is usually given is that you should not try to make music your profession if you would be happy doing nearly anything else.</p>

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<p>I really don’t know at this point…after all I am only a freshman. I am just trying to see if I have any prayer of getting into music school, which it sounds like I don’t, even if I up my practicing to 2 1/2-3 hours a day and look into more music programs. Thanks for everyone’s help, though :)</p>

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<p>My daughter also started playing oboe fairly late (she played clarinet from 4th to 8th grade, but never had private lessons) and still managed to get into some good music schools. Though she had a few lessons the summer before 8th grade, she didn’t start regular private oboe lessons until the middle of 8th grade, just before her 14th birthday. And she didn’t practice lengthy hours at first. In 11th and 12th grades, she probably averaged about 2 hours per day (beyond rehearsal times) and tried to fit in an hour of reed making when possible.</p>

<p>How did she do it? First, she had some raw natural talent - nice tone, good intonation, strong sense of rhythm, and she learned quickly. She’s also very competitive by nature, so she pushes herself to do more than is required. Second, a local youth orchestra during the year (she started in 9th grade) and residential summer music programs starting after 9th grade. Third, Interlochen starting in 11th grade. Here she found a good teacher, talented peers, good performing opportunities, and a strong academic environment that supports students’ interests in the arts, all in one place. It may be possible to put these elements together on your own, but this is what worked best for us. Fourth, supplemental lessons. We started doing this on our own, but also when she was looking at college-level programs and teachers. She learned alot through these extra lessons.</p>

<p>In 9th and 10th grades, she had other ECs, including sports (volleyball - the hands!!) and drama, but by 11th grade, she had to make some hard choices. She continues to have interests outside of music and she has a social life, but she recognizes that the oboe is a very demanding instrument. We take everything one year at a time. She sets yearly, achievable goals for herself, works hard to reach them, and has back-up plans.</p>

<p>Of course, all of this cost more money than I ever imagined in the beginning, but we go just one step at a time.</p>

<p>So I believe it may be possible to achieve your goal. Good luck, and explore all of your options. Don’t worry too much now about possible outcomes. Just follow your passions. Only my two cents…</p>

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<p>Music & more music. Follow your passion.</p>

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<p>So that was basically my case…
don’t let go of academics ever. EVER. you need basic 3.6 or 3.7 gpa unweighted
sat get 1800+ for good schools
and I actually move to an art school senior year. I also had solo concerto performances with a full orchestra . I went to korea to perform as well. try to get as many orchestra performances where you’re so. not part of the orchestra that doesnt really count.
and do oboe. rather than doing a little here and there just concentrate on oboe and you can let go of piano honestly. colleges would rather want to see your dedication to one than split between two. </p>

<p>practice 2-3 hours a day. :slight_smile: itsgood for you</p>

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<p>If you play two instruments at a very high level, or have voice and comp, or voice and another instrument, do not be dissuaded. Auditioning on two instruments is not for the faint of heart (especially if you have to be invited to audition from two pre-screens, and even more if people tell you no one really does this, it’s unprecedented, not the usual course etc.). I can vouch for the fact that even some schools that say that they will not take kids on two instruments or two genres, in fact, do. It isn’t to minimize the difficulty of doing this, or indicate that this is an easy route, but for some kids, it is the only route that they can imagine.</p>

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<p>I haven’t been here for awhile, but just reread this thread. I guess I wanted to add, in order to avoid misunderstanding, that I think most of the replies to your post are describing preparation for a conservatory. Your original post asks about a “music college.”</p>

<p>With your now blossoming interests, you could consider applying to a liberal arts college or university, and either major in music there, or participate in musical activities offered. I know that at Tufts, for instance, something like 90% of the students either sing or play an instrument in the college’s music activities, such as orchestra, glee club, and also world music groups like gamelan.</p>

<p>One route might be to focus on the oboe, and then play in a school’s orchestra or chamber music groups. Another route might be to continue your more “holistic” (the word I used before) approach to music by also doing piano and theory. You can do whatever you want, and can afford, really…it is all good! </p>

<p>The main thing here is that you do NOT have to give up a normal high school experience to do music, in some way, in college.</p>

<p>The conservatory experience is sort of “hard core” and entry really does require the kind of preparation that people here describe.</p>

<p>The daughter that I have who is a dancer is similar to the musicians parents are writing about in their posts. She takes the train one hour each way, to take a dance class, 5-6 times/week. In 10th grade, she missed 60 days of school to dance (with permission from the school) and this year she is going to school only part-time, and doing 2 courses online. She misses sleepovers and proms. She mostly lives her high school life with other dancers who are in their 20’s and 30’s. She now dances in a company, which takes even more time.</p>

<p>She is sublimely happy.</p>

<p>I ask her all the time if she would rather have a more normal life, or if she would like to take some art classes (she is talented in art, actually), and she looks at me as if I am crazy.</p>

<p>She is not doing this because she “should” do it. In fact, she has even heard quite the opposite from some quarters. She is completely driven to live like this, with no real thoughts in terms of getting in to conservatory, although, now, at the end of 11th grade, she is trying to decide whether to do that, or just dance…But she can’t seem to find the time to look at catalogs- too busy dancing!</p>

<p>Student musicians have dedication and drive like this. It is a wonderful thing, but a serious choice too. The thing is, and I think other parents will agree, they are happy doing this and wouldn’t choose another path (not that conflict over this is absent in everyone, and it does crop up for even the most committed, as it should).</p>

<p>I would guess that you could get pretty good at the oboe, and really, really enjoy music for years to come, but that you might not want to practice the hours and hours needed to get in to a conservatory. So many colleges, of so many types, have wonderful things going on with music, and the students participating have all kinds of different things going on in their lives, as they did in high school.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if you find yourself very, very eager to concentrate on the oboe, and continue to be interested in a conservatory or music performance major, there is a lot of great advice here for you…</p>

<p>Take care…and good luck!</p>

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<p>Agreed with the above post. I have one music major and one who is not a music major and enjoys music in college. </p>

<p>My post still applies. If you plan to play the oboe in college, you will need to own your own instrument. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a major or not (actually music programs are MORE likely to loan school owned instruments to majors than to non-majors)…you can’t take that high school borrowed instrument with you to college.</p>

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<p>Obviously I know I won’t be able to take my school oboe to college…I’ll have to buy one sometime in the future but right now I definitely don’t have that kind of money (I’m already completely broke paying for oboe lessons!).
I still don’t know if I want to go to music college, I’m just keeping my options open because I really enjoy the oboe. Just wondering - if I do happen to go to a liberal arts college and play in the orchestra or something, what happens to my oboe playing after college? Where would I be able to continue it?</p>

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<p>deepsy, there are a multitude of local, regional, and community orchestras of varying abilities comprised of amateurs, students, music teachers, retired performing professionals everywhere. Try googling community orchestras for starters.</p>

<p>Some are quite good, playing at high levels, whereas others are less accomplished. Most will welcome anyone, some may require an audition. In most areas, you can always find a performing group to suit your needs and ability.</p>

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<p>This is exactly what my DD is doing (on the oboe/English horn just like the OP). Violadad summarized the options for after college very nicely. Since DD has already played in a number of civic orchestra and community theater producations, she would love to continue that after college. </p>

<p>If she doesn’t…well…DH says we will sell the instruments…both of them…to pay off her college loans:)</p>

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<p>Focus on something else as well. Don’t ever let music consume your entire life. Always remember that you are much more than just a musician, and find other things that you enjoy and are good at as well. Because, there will come a time in your life where you will probably need a break from it, and if all you’ve known so far is the life of a musician, things can become very difficult. So write, act, draw, or study poli sci, marketing or philosophy on your own. Or at least delve into other aspects of music, like composing, production or maybe song or lyric writing, so you never become bored or limited. Most geniuses, btw usually express themselves in many mediums.</p>

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<p>hmmm its a tough situation. i’m in somehwhat of a similar postition. All i can say though is if you really want to. practice! try to get as much practice as possible and see for yourself if its possible. If after a year or two you really see some progress and still want to puruse a mjusical career then continue. pretty much as long as you believe you can do it, then go for it. i have my similar doubts, but so far my passion for music is still slightly stronger than my self doubt. its a really good idea to ask your teacher, develop a good relationship with him or her and ask for an honest opinion from her. but no matter what she says PRACTICE as much as you can. if all else fails then theres always double degrees and music minors. General rule of thumb: if you believe in your talents and you can glue your bumb on your chair and practice, then you have the basis for a successful musical career. some stuff that i;ve said might be a little a little debatable. but listen at your own discretion.</p>