Music Major Blog
by Barbra Weidlein
Would She Hire YOU? - May 2, 2012
USA Today recently ran an article by a career consultant named Andrea Kay. She talked about her experience of needing to hire a musician for a program she was presenting, and what it was that drew her to hire a particular individual. He had excellent credentials, but that’s not what attracted her. Read More…
Majoring in Music: The Big Picture - April 27, 2012
I just returned from attending my son’s senior recital, and immersing myself in the world of undergraduate music majors. I’m here to tell you that these are some of the hardest working students around. Once again I witnessed how difficult and demanding majoring in music really is. Read More…
Remember You Have Until May 1st… - April 12, 2012
Students have the right to hold off from making their final college acceptance decisions until May 1st. This means that no school can pressure you into making a decision before that date, and cannot deny you any scholarship, grant, work-study, housing, or other offer prior to May 1st.
By or before May 1st, however, you are expected to confirm with one and only one school that you will be attending, along with sending your enrollment deposit and housing request. (Make sure your acceptance is postmarked by 5/1.) You are also expected to communicate your decision NOT to attend all of the other schools where you’ve been accepted. Remember that you may want to transfer or attend graduate school at one of these other schools, so be gracious when you decline them at this time.
Learn more about Students Rights and Responsibilities as described by NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling).
Student Loans & Debt Forgiveness: 4 Things to Know - March 28, 2012
How much do you know about the proposed Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012? How much do you care? If you’re thinking about taking out (or have already) government-based loans to pay for music school, you need to pay attention. Read More…
Paid vs. Unpaid Internships - March 21, 2012
As you ramp up your efforts to find relevant work and experience for the summer, the controversy over paid versus unpaid internships rises to the top. To protect yourself now or in the future, here are three tips to keep in mind… Read More…
Fundraise Your Way to Music School - March 15, 2012
Looking for creative ways to pay for summer music programs, transportation to auditions, even some of your college expenses? Read More…
Summer Music: Do it Now! - March 1, 2012
When high school students attend summer music programs, they transform. There are no distractions to keep them from diving into their music as there are during the school year. You can look at any of the programs… Read More…
Honors Programs for Music Majors - February 15, 2012
Are you someone with strong academic skills who wants to major in music, but are afraid (or your parents are) that you’ll lose some of your academic mojo if you do? Read More…
Music Students Pick Up the Slack - February 7, 2012
Kudos to band students at ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. They’re members of SAM (Students for the Advancement of Music), and they’re providing an interim solution to budget cuts that have forced the elimination of music in the Douglas County elementary schools. Each Wednesday at 7:15 am… Read More…
Should Music Majors Be Concerned? - January 30, 2012
Should music majors be concerned by the decision to significantly alter the Grammy Awards? The 2011 decision by he National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), Grammys’ governing body, eliminates or collapses 31 of the award categories. Those categories include traditional minority music and other less commercial, American-rooted forms… Read More…
Music as an Employable Major - January 20, 2012
I started reading, with trepidation, an article posted a few days ago on Huffington Post that was headlined “The 11 Most Unemployable Majors.” When I finally got to the slideshow featuring all the so-called useless majors… Read More…
Music School Auditions: This Too Shall Pass - January 9, 2012
Classes are back in session at most high schools around the country. For seniors whose plans require an audition for music school, those auditions are just around the corner. This is the beginning of the next phase in the wild and wacky world of applying to music school, and not the easiest of times for students OR their parents. Read More…
Career Development: How Much Support Will You Get? - January 3, 2012
We’ve already mentioned the fact that one of the top criteria for deciding which school to accept, should you be fortunate enough to have a choice, is how much career development support you’ll receive. Now that graduation and what follows are becoming increasingly more real to seniors, it’s time to revisit your options. Read More…
Who’s to Blame at a Concert
We’ve written about the occupational hazards of hearing loss facing musicians, so it was interesting to discover the recent blogpost by Bob Boilen, host of NPR’s “All Songs Considered.” Boilen, who is an avid concert-goer, writes about the trend of increased volume at most venues. He’s not a big fan of wearing earplugs and complains that they “dull the sound.” I couldn’t agree more. Read More…
Letting Your Music Be Heard
Music, like art, poetry, and writing, has always been a viable outlet for channeling emotions, making a profound statement, and facilitating change. Throughout history, it has awakened and mobilized passion and purpose.
Consider having NPR take a look at airing your music. Read More…
Got My Music Therapy on YouTube
While I was in the midst of dealing with a mini crisis the other day, a friend just happened to send a link to a YouTube video from The Jive Aces, a “jive and swing band” from the UK. Their “Bring Me Sunshine” brought me that –– and more. I couldn’t stop smiling!
Read More…
Your Child Wants to Major in Music: What Do You Say?
For many parents, myself included, it’s one thing to hear your middle-school-aged child say he or she wants to major in music in college –– and a whole different ballgame when they talk about it as a junior or senior in high school. Why are so many of us concerned when “music” pops out of their mouths as opposed to “business” or “engineering” or “medicine”? Read More…
Tracking Your Music School Applications and Auditions
Keeping track of music school applications and auditions is tedious and time-consuming, and can make your head swirl (to put it mildly). PhD candidate in Musical Composition, Kate Pukinskis, found a way to streamline the process and insure that none of her information went missing the night before her applications were due. Read More…
Career Support from Music Schools?
David Cutler, Duquesne University music professor and author of The Savvy Musician, wrote a blogpost in 2009 on his Savvy Musician website, about one of the most important questions prospective music majors should ask all the schools they’re considering: “What kind of career training do you offer?” Cutler went on to describe how disappointed he was to find that, based on extensive research, not enough was being done in music schools around the country to prepare students for careers in music. Read More…
Ready for Music Theory in College?
I’m really excited to see Dr. Joel Clifft’s series on music theory on MajoringInMusic.com. Music theory is a part of every music major’s curriculum because it has everything to do with being able to understand and perform music. Read More...
Music Ed Meets Social Work
How exciting to hear that the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be partnering with Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA to offer a one-year Master of Arts in Teaching degree. The training will offer a music ed program geared toward underserved communities. Read More…
Buyer Beware: Scholarship Scams for Music Majors
Tis the season for scam services who want to lure you into paying for access to “thousands of scholarships, internships, and jobs” for a “small fee.” Don’t believe it and, most of all, don’t buy it. Any scholarship or internship that’s worth applying for is one where you don’t have to “pay to play.” But you have to do your homework to find them. Read More…
Planning to Visit Music Schools?
Unless you have plenty of discretionary income or idle cash under the mattress, visiting music schools can carve a big hole out of your budget. When you add up the cost of transportation, lodging, food, and missed days of school and/or work, you’ll start getting the picture. Then, multiply that by the number of music schools you want to visit and it adds up quickly, doesn’t it?
So what can you do instead? Read More…
Music Major or Not, the Music is Always There
Nawang Khecog, Grammy nominee and Tibetan composer and musician, defines music in his simple yet profound poem aptly named “Music.” Read More…
Telling Our Stories through Music
One of the questions we will never forget the answer to is where we were on September 11, 2001. Depending on your age, ten years may seem like a lifetime ago ––– or the recent past. Were you just a few weeks into the big world of middle school? Or maybe just starting third-grade? Or were you early into your work day after driving the carpool, or, perhaps finally sitting down to that first cup of coffee after waving goodbye to the school bus? One decade later, regardless of where you were on that seismic-shift of a morning, you have many opportunities to attend, perform in, or watch on TV or your computer some sort of music-based remembrance. From faculty and student memorial concerts on campuses across the country, to choral events at churches and temples, to labyrinth walks accompanied by chanting, music will provide the web that connects people of every age, color, and lifestyle with a common objective: to remember. What a gift it is to be able to offer and receive music at a time when words just can’t reach the emotional depths of our experience. Music allows us to tell our stories and to listen to those of others without interference or misperception. On 9/11, it will create the container for us to commune with loss and grief juxtaposed with hope and determination. Where will you spend some time remembering 9/11 and how will music play a part in your experience?
Stax Students Hit the Big Time
Kudos to Stax Music Academy students who were invited to perform this summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and for the Broadway cast of “Memphis.” Stax is an 11-year-old music school for 75 at-risk children and teens in the Memphis area. It shares the same name as the now-defunct Stax Records, the Southern soul label that featured black and white musicians on guitar, organ and horn along with vocals by such greats as Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes. Soulsville Foundation, a non-profit founded by philanthropists and former Stax artists, created Stax Music Academy in 2000. The Academy now shares a campus with Soulsville Charter School, committed to “rising up against ordinary expectations and the status quo of public education in Memphis” through a combination of rigorous academics, music, and student-faculty-and family commitments. Check it out here at Stax Music Academy on facebook.
10 Minutes That Will Change Your Life
I was introduced to the semi-supine practice this summer at an Alexander Technique intensive. It seemed so simple that I wondered why so much time was given to presenting and practicing it. After hearing about composers who swore it awakened their creativity and musicians who claimed it brought a fuller, richer sound to their music, I thought I’d try lying in semi-supine for ten or fifteen minutes every morning for a week, to see what happened.
The semi-supine position –– lying on my back with knees bent, head slightly elevated, arms slightly bent, and hands resting under my sternum –– was easy enough. The small stack of paperback books under my head felt uncomfortable until I discovered that placing a washcloth between the books and the back of my head gave just enough of a cushion to allow me to lie there without counting the minutes until it was time to get up.
A few days went by and I found myself actually looking forward to my semi-supine time. It was relaxing, and somehow different from meditation. Then something began happening. It was so subtle at first, that I could easily have missed it. My body actually started telling my mind where the tension was, while my mind quieted down. I was alert, but without the usual accompanying mental chatter and tension in my neck and shoulders. It was like the beam of a flashlight had passed through my body, illuminating the places where I didn’t realize I was holding tension. I could then let that tension go and experience the sensations –– and accompanying peace –– that followed.
I started finding the awareness from lying semi-supine was actually remaining with me as I moved through my morning. As my day wore on, and I faced inevitable work-related challenges and stress, I discovered that I could bring about a change in my attitude and emotional state by just stopping to notice where I was holding tension in my body. My posture would shift ever so slightly in response to this awareness, and I’d find myself feeling upbeat and quietly alert once more.
Since I like to share anything I stumble upon that proves to be exciting and valuable, I contacted Ruth Rootberg, an Alexander Technique teacher in Massachusetts, and a classically-trained vocalist and voice teacher. I asked her to write about the benefits of semi-supine for music majors. I imagined how useful the practice could be for those thinking about majoring in music, as well as for students already spending huge amounts of time using their voices and bodies in physically taxing ways for endless hours every day. Ruth’s article is now up on MajoringInMusic.com, along with links to some highly-recommended, related resources.
The semi-supine practice is such a simple way to put a toe into the world of Alexander Technique. Whether or not you decide to investigate that world more closely, the gain from lying semi-supine on a regular basis is yours for the taking. As a choral singer, I am eager to apply what I’ve been learning to the upcoming season. I’m also investigating Alexander Technique teachers in my area to see what else might be in store for me, now that I’ve discovered immense value just from a daily practice of ten to fifteen minutes lying in semi-supine.
Private Student Loans:
Check Carefully Before You Leap
A survey released in July 2011 focuses on the risk in taking out private student loans to pay for college, and the responsibility colleges must take to inform students about those risks as well as about other, less-risky options. The timing of the survey is particularly relevant since it also indicates that at least two-thirds of students rely on student loans to help cover the cost of attending four-year colleges and universities
”Critical Choices: How Colleges Can Help Students and Families Make Better Decisions about Private Loans,” was spearheaded by The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to making higher education more affordable and available for all people.
According to the report, “Private student loans are one of the riskiest ways to pay for college, and they are not financial aid any more than a credit card is when used to pay for textbooks or tuition. They typically have uncapped, variable interest rates and cost the most for those who can least afford them, while federal student loans have fixed interest rates that are not affected by the borrower’s income or credit score.”
The TICAS report calls for college financial aid offices taking more responsibility in helping students make informed choices and decisions about how much they borrow and where they borrow it from. It also urges colleges to discontinue including risky private loans in students’ financial aid offers, which “give the false impression that this type of private financing is a form of financial aid.”
You can read the full report here and see other TICAS efforts and loan forgiveness and repayment options.
You Never Know Who May Be Sitting Next to You
That guy who plays trumpet in your big band? Get to know him. In addition to being an interesting person, he may ask you to sub for him at a gig that opens the door to more opportunities to get your music out there. The person sitting next to you on the plane? She may be related to the conductor of the symphony you’ve always dreamed of playing with –– or she may be the conductor herself. Start a conversation. Your music business professor? He may have been vice-president of a major recording company before deciding to teach. Talk with him –– he may just happen to know about a cool internship for next summer.
Bottom line: you never know who you’re going to meet and who will help connect you to an amazing experience. Nor do you know what will lead to the next amazing experience. Networking –– and not just through your smartphone –– is your best shot at realizing your dream, or helping to create a new one. It starts with believing in yourself and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone to explore new options. It requires a readiness to check out known opportunities, and an openness to discovering those you don’t even know exist. Entrepreneur classes are designed to help you think this way –– don’t worry, it doesn’t come easy or naturally to everyone. Check out what your school or local chamber of commerce has to offer along these lines to help you think in new ways and prepare for the next time you find yourself, as my friend did a few years ago, sitting next to Robert Redford on a seven-hour international flight.
Colorado State University
Be sure to check out our latest music school page from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Their page includes a terrific video of “The Gondoliers” who bring comic opera to the university.
Musicians Need to Know How to Write
I just came across Mike Venti’s blogsite, Wayward Musician: Ideas & Advice for the Atypical Artist. Mike’s a musician who has also worked on the business industry side. His blog, “7 Reasons Why Writing Well Will Help Your Music Career,” is a useful observation for musicians and music students about why it’s important to keep your writing skills in good shape. You can read it here at Wayward Musician.
After the Launch: The Value of Community
Launching MajoringInMusic.com has been the realization of a dream. There was a method to the madness, after all, of saving all those computer files of conversations with admission folks and articles that brought some sanity to the process of figuring out how to support our son in becoming a music major. Even the cardboard box stuffed with university and music school viewbooks, half-filled-out templates for tracking applications and auditions, books on the best colleges and the next best colleges, and penciled notes from school visits came in handy in one way or another.
Once we pushed the magic button and sent the site live, I felt an enormous sense of relief. That lasted for about an hour. Immediately, we switched gears to getting MajoringInMusic.com to where it needs to go. We’re doing a ton of work on our part to connect with music educators, music associations, prospective music majors, their parents, schools, summer music programs and much more. But it’s you who are reading this who have the real power to get it into the hands –– or shall we say, onto the screens –– of those who will benefit most from seeing what MajoringInMusic.com has to offer. Will you help us with this effort?
We Want to Hear from You! Contact Link
Why? Because we value your thoughts, your experiences, your opinions. Comment on the articles with a commitment to add value and make this an even better web resource. Think about what you can add in your comments to make the article you just finished reading even more worthwhile to the next reader. Are there specific links you know of that you’d like to see us add to the articles?
What topics would you like to see us address on MajoringInMusic.com? Are you a student, parent, musician, teacher, music business person, or anyone else in the music field who would like to write for us and who has a flair for writing and a passion about a particularly useful topic for our readers? Or, do you know of and can recommend to us someone who fits this description?
Help Us Spread the Word!
Networking is everything these days. If you read something on MajoringInMusic.com that you find useful, let others in your network know. Give us a shout out on your Facebook page and become a fan of MajoringInMusic.com. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about anything worthwhile you find on the site. Go ahead and retweet what you see and like. Please join us in making MajoringInMusic.com the resource we all wish had been there for us when we or our children or students were looking at becoming music majors.
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