So You Want to Be a Music Major?

[Music] so you want to be a music major hi it's dr. Watson here and in this video I'd like to share six considerations six areas that people who want to major in music in college can and should be working on it at least in high school and earlier if possible so let me just get into the list because I have a lot to share and this is gonna be sort of one of a longer video because it's kind of like a counseling session for those who want to major in music okay before I do share these ways I just want to say that I've taught more than three decades both in k-12 and university music I've had tons of student teachers that I've worked with my own kids or music teachers they've grown up and then went to study music at school so I think I have a perspective and this is my opinion take it for what it's worth okay number one you should study your instrument hard and this has two parts take private lessons and practice regularly if you're not already taking private lessons find the best teacher you can in your area somebody who will challenge you inspire you and then practice regularly to make the most of those lessons your musical skill is like your ticket into the musical world just like a Broadway ticket it takes you into a show and the more you achieve in private lessons and practice the further you're going to go the better show you're going to see are the better seats you're gonna have in that house you'll successfully audition for ensembles like district band regional bands state band and many other things because of those private lessons because of your practicing regularly it'll really give you a competitive advantage sincerely - will number two get involved here I just mean that music make majors our music makers and if you want to major in music and you're not making music with all the ensembles that you can be in or that you qualify for at your school you're doing yourself a disservice you can benefit from being in those ensembles and those ensembles yeah they can benefit by having you but don't think that you're the only one who's offering something to somebody else when you're you know say you agree to play cello and you're your Orchestra it's not just that you're contributing and they're getting to have a good cello player you're gonna learn a lot of stuff and I'm saying this even if you believe that you're far above the level of the ensemble at your school just trust me there is so much that you can learn and you can gain from being in those ensembles some reasons that people offer to me over the years for not participating in their school's ensemble when they are going to major music which I know it seems kind of silly but but some of the reasons are academic they think that if they spend more time in band chorus orchestra their grades will be lower and they want to have a higher GPA I do think that's wrong headed but it's just my opinion but I do I will say this there's a 2006 article in The Wall Street Journal by Ann Marie chocker Chak er look it up it talks about how people who have applied for Ivy League schools like the University of Pennsylvania have been turned down with with high SAT scores and with valedictorian on their resume over people who played tuba in their band because the the university wanted a well-rounded student and they wanted it to have a player for their university band so I do think that it's wrong headed to only you know pass on band so you can take a certain AP science course especially if you're going to be a college music major okay other reasons people give for not participating in their school ensemble is that they like to play on their own well I'm just gonna debunk that right here by saying music is one of the most collaborative fields that there are and if you want to be in a collaborative field and yet the way you're gonna prepare for that is by being a musical hermit and playing on your own you're wrong okay doesn't like the director I get it I'm a director not everybody likes me but I have told my own my own children my own kids who are now adults over the years that there's always something they can learn from any teacher and that's certainly been true I've had teachers who I had empathy with and personality chemistry with that I really got along well with and that was wonderful but I've also had teachers who I didn't but I still learned a lot from them the harsh taskmaster but who still has a perspective that I'm glad I was around them and anyway I'll just say try to be open-minded give your teacher a chance the the biggest reason most people don't like teachers at first is they aren't like their their previous teachers so maybe you're going from middle school to high school and you had a great middle school experience and your high school director is different so give them a chance okay or give her a chance other ways that you can get involved by the way besides participating in your school music program or let's say it this way in addition to participating in your school's music program are playing for your church or synagogue at worship you know share your talents participating in a youth an area Youth Orchestra or a Youth Honor win band things like that of course only participate in those ensembles if they facilitate you participating in your school music program if they have an exclusivity which sometimes causes you to have to miss rehearsals or especially performances in your school program then those programs have the issue they have a problem and they really need to get over themselves so they're not really doing justice to your school program so I would definitely consider that okay number three vary your musical experiences if you view yourself as an instrumentalist consider singing in your high school choir if you view yourself as a vocalist consider playing in the band or in the orchestra here's why if you are an instrumental music major you're gonna need choral experience because you're gonna have to use your voice in theory classes in college and you're gonna be required to participate in a chorus so why not start now if you're a vocalist or you're interested in musical theatre if you play an instrument you will be a better music reader than if you only sing and some of the most talented vocal choral people i've known including the current and the former chorus director at the very large I think successful high school program where I teach both of them played in their high school band and did play an instrument think they would tell you it was a valuable experience other ways to vary your musical experiences are take music theory and not just harmony but oral music theory or ear training where you have to sing in solfege doremi faso a lot do youdo that kind of stuff and you have to do a dictation which means somebody plays a melody and then you write down what you're hearing things like that are very valuable and I know when I taught college music theory I felt that the freshmen music theory people were least prepared with oral theory with ear training so if you have a chance take take courses like that piano is also very helpful not entirely necessary I've have known some very successful music teachers and instrumentalists and so forth who didn't have piano background but I think to a person they don't say if they could have had piano they would have taken more of it it can be a useful tool so for instance it can help you in rehearsing ensembles accompanying students composing and arranging if you do any of that in this day and age of music technology the keyboard writte those MIDI keyboards are the primary way that we interact with the technology so there's a lot of reasons consider taking piano lessons and having some keyboard skill other things that you could do to vary your musical experiences maybe a summer music camp - if you have a chance and if it's something your parents can help you out with you know send you to a summer camp help you get away from the the local scene hear how students elsewhere perform and if it's on a university campus like the one I went to when I was in middle and early high school I went to a camp at the College of William and Mary so it gave me a sense of what a college campus was like okay number four this one I'm gonna call self analysis and this has taken inventory of your talents and your temperament compare your abilities to others auditioning for an honor ensemble so say you audition for your state's district band or your areas district or region band you'll know how you stack up compared to other people and that will give you a sense of where you are you've heard the statement or the saying about being a big fish in a small pond well there's nothing wrong with small ponds in fact small ponds are sometimes great places to grow up but sometimes you don't have a perspective until you've gotten out in the bigger world and seen you know maybe you're a great trumpet player your school but it turns out of all the 30 kids chosen for district band you you were 30 first so there's 30 people better than you in your own area imagine how many better than you there are in the greater state that you live in or the country that you live in so that might motivate you to practice just because you want to you'll be the best musician you can and you might have thought you were pretty good until you realize there's some other players who or maybe working harder and have for longer okay what else I would say in trying to determine if majoring in music is for you maybe ask yourself these three questions this is all part of that self analysis topic so question number one would be do you have a passion for music because you're gonna need to really spend a lot of time doing it as a college music major and if you just enjoyed the bus rides or the the band trips that might not be enough to take you the distance of four years in college and doing all the hoops you're gonna have to jump through as a music major so do you have a passion for it do you feel it's something for which you have a natural talent so not that I have I've really emphasized the idea of hard work here in this video but but also some natural talent is it something that you know certain parts of it come easy to you just because of your your naturally built that way and then is it something that others feel you're good at have have people who know about music said to you wow you really are special you really have some unique talent in this area rather than mom and dad who you know we all think our kids are the greatest then I do too but but other than than than people who say naturally are predisposed to how awesome you are like it like a music teacher okay so let's go into the fifth area and that is to find the right school for you so if you determine that music is for you ask music teachers you admire for their recommendations maybe ask them the word where they went and where other teachers that are successfully working in your area where they went you know in the more than 30 years that I've taught music I've never had a guidance counselor at the school where I work ask me a veteran music teacher with a doctorate I'm a regularly published composer and I'm fairly highly regarded in the area of music technology as a specialist an expert but I've never had a guidance counselor asked me which regional programs that that I would recommend that they share with students so I know when I was in high school and I wanted to be a music major of my high school guidance counselor recommended several schools which it turns out would have been really bad fits for me and some of them not even that great of music schools to begin with but they just didn't know I'm not knocking guidance counselors at all I'm just pointing out that you know sometimes we live in such a disconnected world and we're all sort of in our own departments so yeah check in check in with your guidance counsellor but more importantly check in with the music teachers who you admire in your area so we'll go on say major on the majors that would be another College choice consideration and what I mean by major on the majors is the strength of the program I think is is something important or if you're going to study with a particular teacher how highly regarded that teacher is and the chemistry of it those teachers things that aren't major in my opinion would be say how much you like the campus so don't go to a big school just because they have a Big Ten marching band or get on TV unless that's really a good school for you and don't go to a small school because you're afraid of being on a big campus you know just pick pick the one that has the best program for you and that especially if there's a teacher that you're gonna be working with a lot you're a mentor teacher like say you're a trumpet major who check out the trumpet teacher at that school okay number six is just be prepared for change you're gonna enter your undergraduate years following a dream and during that and that's that's cool that's that's what it's part of the the journey is having those those aspirations but during those four wonderful years you're gonna work really hard to explore that dream and many people those dreams or those plans evolve and that's the change I'm talking about so follow your dreams but don't resist change because I think change is inevitable let me tell you just really quickly about a few personalities dan-levitan is the author of a book that I love this is your brain on music and some other books but he started life as a rock guitarist then he morphed into a recording engineer and then after going back to school ended up being a neuroscientist and a very best-selling author on the topic of musical cognition and perception so closer to home there's a friend I have a Jim Franco who started out as a middle school band teacher he went to school as a tuba player I believe when Tania graduates was a tuba player then got a job as a middle school band director in general you know classroom music teacher then he left the K to 12 music world to go into music industry where he headed a a company that was dedicated to putting technology in the hands of music teachers then he left there and worked for musical sales group Ria's now founding their sort of digital education division so talk about changes right he's also an adjunct adjunct professor at Columbia Teachers College so I know there are many people like well-known composer Robert Sheldon Bob who's a friend of mine he started out as a band director but now he's the editor at Alfred music in addition to his his work as a composer and a conductor but one of my favorite transformations was a former student we had at Parkland High School where I teach I mean off to college as a percussionist but majoring at a Bible College at a at a Christian Bible University so he was a percussion slash Bible major but then he went on to his master's degree was in music history or maybe was yeah I think it was music history and then he got a doctorate at Oxford University's model in college and then he went to Germany did postdoctoral work and now he's a professor in Salzburg Austria where his sort of focus or area of expertise has to do with modern dance so I mean what up you know what a shift he's made over all those years so just be prepared for change anyway those are the six things that I think are important for all ins aspiring music majors to be doing if you want to be a music major study your instrument hard take private lessons practice hard regularly get involved in your school program and outside very your musical experiences you really want to be a musical music major do some candid self analysis and if you're sure then find the school that's right for you and finally if you want to be a music major be prepared for change majoring in music is a worthy endeavor whether you're a music educator teaching kids to understand and the love of music or perhaps a music therapist helping somebody cope with change or discomfort music professionals help others get the most out of their lives and that's really what I'm trying to do for you in this video is help you get the most out of your path towards being a music major I hope it's a goal that you'll make and that you'll be happy you made you [Music]

Channel: Scott Watson

Views: 18,165

Rating: 4.9537277 out of 5

Keywords: music education, music major, university music program, college music program, music degree, music ed, music ed degree, music education degree, music performance degree, music therapy degree, university music major, college music major, succeeding in music, college music success, want to major in music, studying music

Id: kGjd95VvC6g

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 24 2018