When to schedule sample lessons

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>After reading this helpful forum, it seems clear that it is extremely important to take sample lessons with the teachers you are interested in at the schools you are interested in. I was wondering when is the best time to schedule these sample lessons, recognizing that we live on the West Coast and most of these schools are on the East Coast. Do you try to arrange these . . .</p>

<p>-- spring break of the junior year?
-- fall of the senior year?
-- the day before your audition?</p>

<p>Summer is out because all the teachers are probably doing festivals.</p>

<p>Any advice for my sophomore piano son would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>alohagail, a number of faculty will not do lessons around audition time. The only way to be sure is to ask. Yes, summers are typically out, but if you happen to be near a summer festival or program, or even a regional concert performance with a faculty member you are interested in, sometimes you can arrange to have a lesson off-site. The stumbling block is often arranging a lesson between a time that works for both you and the instructor, so initiate contact early.</p>

<p>Timing is up to you, but earlier is better, and it normally ties in with a look/see visit to the school. It helps to get a feel for potentially weeding out school/faculty choices for whatever reason.</p>

<p>Lots of tips in the links I posted here
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/850220-contacting-teachers-sample-lessons.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/850220-contacting-teachers-sample-lessons.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Plus a few more:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/334339-taking-practice-preview-lessons-before-applying-conservatories.html?highlight=lessons[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/334339-taking-practice-preview-lessons-before-applying-conservatories.html?highlight=lessons&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/341209-critical-have-lessons-before-auditions.html?highlight=lessons[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/341209-critical-have-lessons-before-auditions.html?highlight=lessons&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/465933-scheduling-lessons.html?highlight=lessons[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/465933-scheduling-lessons.html?highlight=lessons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>There isn’t one “correct” answer to your question, alohagail.There is something to be said for junior year, but then again, faculty changes and so do the abilities of the student. Fall of senior year is great, but only if you’re not planning on an Early Decision/Early Action, as it will be a tight squeeze time-wise. Day before? Often there is not time then and good teachers should be reluctant to give construtive advice to a student that close to an audition.
I think D ended up with every possible permutation in the equation! She had two in October of her junior year, one the following November before an audition, one the evening of the day she auditioned and another two weeks after and audition. She ended up at her first-choice school, which was one she had been to in her junior year.She found out that the teacher she liked there had left, but she auditioned anyway. Right after she finished, one of the teachers on the audition panel asked her if she would be available to come back that evening and "work with (the teacher) "? D was, she did and she just finished her first semester there!</p>

4

<p>My son did most of his during fall and spring of junior year (cello). One lesson was arranged with a teacher who was performing in a city about 3 hours from where we live. It wasn’t ideal but we were able to meet with him in his hotel room for a short lesson. My son was also able to have lessons with different teachers at various summer programs in high school. This helped him to eliminate a couple of people as well as consider a couple he hadn’t thought of before. It helps to look at summer programs with an eye to who is teaching there.</p>

5

<p>DS did the following:

  1. Lessons during his junior year spring break and on long weekends.
  2. Lessons during the summer after junior year with two different teachers at two different music festivals (one where he was an enrolled student, and the other where the instrument teacher was on the faculty).
  3. Lessons during the audition weekend. This happened at only one school to which he applied. He had contacted the applied teachers and two of them offered lessons to him AFTER his audition. We were there for three days. They knew he was traveling from a distance. I think these two lessons were as much for THEM to see him in a lessona as for him to meet them on a different level.</p>

<p>The thing to do as mentioned above…contact the teacher and ask about scheduling a lesson with them and ask about availability. There are some schools that do NO lessons from Jan to May. It is so variable by school and teacher that the only way to really know and schedule these things is to contact the folks directly.</p>

6

<p>alohagail - Between grades 10 and 11, we actually took a summer vacation to the west coast and my D took a voice lesson with a SF Conservatory teacher at her home. We used fall break and spring break of Junior year to do the rest of our visits. We had one, two or three lessons arranged at each school. Another suggestion I would make is to identify teachers you are interested in and look for summer programs at those schools or places where those teachers will be. It was well worth the travel to have that behind us. We eliminated schools up front. Many of those teachers told us they don’t give lessons at audition time. However, we are voice and not piano.</p>