College Professors
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College professors in general? I didn't take music courses in college. I went to college after serving in the military (I was 25), so I looked at things different than the average undergrad.
Most kids just went on "rate my professor" and picked the easiest/highest rated professor. I tended to pick professors that my peers complained about. I often liked them for the same reasons my peers didn't. Here's my $.02.
My preferred criteria:
-Age 40+. While one professor that I liked was an adjunct and not much older than me, I preferred older professors.
-Gender. I preferred male professors. Women tend to be too soft/touchy feely to me (again...I was in the military). I wanted a professor that would tell me what to do, how he wanted something formatted, and send me on my way.
-Real world experience- For whatever reason, colleges employ professors that have spent their entire career as an academic type. They went to graduate school when the finished their bachelors and never moved out into the real world. Higher education is in no way, shape, or form the real world. In some cases, I had direct experience with things that some of these less experienced professors spoke of like they were regurgitating from the text book.
-Race. Doesn't matter.
My favorite professor was a ~50 year old black man. He had real world experience, told it how it was, and was a great educator.. He'd spent time managing in the field being taught (I was a business major) and wasn't one of those professors that was just regurgitating things out of a book. He served as a reference, when I went on the job hunt.
Another cool one was a ~40 year old Russian guy. He was a good professor, managed to relate things in a way that the average student could grasp, and had a very cool accent. He sounded a little like Borat (wow wee!). :mrgreen:
-Accent. Keep in mind that some professors (i.e. one I had from Pakistan) are VERY difficult for MOST students to understand. I didn't have an issue because I'd spent time overseas and was used to different accents. If people in your age group have an issue understanding a particular professor, do yourself a favor and go with another one (if there's a choice).
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I know a retired navy Captain (female) that you could appreciate. No touchy-feely there.
I find it amusing that your experience with academia you assume that your profs are lifetime academics. I have known dozens of profs, and the ones without 'real world' experience are rare. Perhaps things are different in Bus. admin. schools.
I can also see your preference for training, rather than education, and have courses with the right 'answers' where everything is operationally defined (not that there's anything wrong with that).
Anyone that bases their class/prof choice on ratemyprofessor are morons.
I prefer profs that teach out of a book, as long as they are the ones that wrote the book.
Grafton + TH & C alto || Naked Lady 10M || TT soprano || Martin Comm III
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How about rock, pop blues etc?
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....ones that don't look like they just rolled out of bed. I had one. I couldn't ever even look him in the eye.
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I wasn't limiting the responses. I figured I'd throw a few starting points out there.
-Bubba-
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It seems that your question pertains specifically to applied music instructors (e.g. sax teachers). Most responses so far are geared toward choosing college professors in general.
If you're referring to lecture professors, I would try to avoid those who are embarking on their maiden voyage through a particular course (unless it's a new special interest course that the professor has developed from scratch).
Well...when several of your professors aren't a whole lot older than you are...it's not hard to estimate their experience level.I know a retired navy Captain (female) that you could appreciate. No touchy-feely there.
I find it amusing that your experience with academia you assume that your profs are lifetime academics. I have known dozens of profs, and the ones without 'real world' experience are rare. Perhaps things are different in Bus. admin. schools.
I can also see your preference for training, rather than education, and have courses with the right 'answers' where everything is operationally defined (not that there's anything wrong with that).
Anyone that bases their class/prof choice on ratemyprofessor are morons.
I prefer profs that teach out of a book, as long as they are the ones that wrote the book.
Like i said...some of them had time to get through their undergrad, graduate work, and 2-5 years of teaching.I'm speaking of the professors that take the pre-canned power point presentations from the textbook CD, teach that, and add little else. I literally had classes where you could have skipped whole sessions and known EXACTLY what was covered. The only reason to show up was to get attendance points.
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Sorry about that.
I went on scholarship to two universities.... neither would formally teach me jazz, only classical. And my second teacher and mentor was in the UNT 3 O'clock lab band, but the 'University' would not allow him to teach any jazz as part of the program - He did cheat a little on the side for me, although well against regulations. That sucked big time for me, because I played lead tenor in each jazz band I was in and I didn't learn what I needed to progress in jazz solo playing. What I found was that I did develop technical proficiency in scales and playing. I am only now, many---MANY years later learning what I didn't know about jazz back then. I am speaking of improvisational skills only - I did have teachers that showed us how to phrase jazz lines and read like crazy yes.
I would ask for flexibility regarding styles because when you leave college as a saxophone player, what are your options? Not too many classical gigs going on for us sax players out there.
I would ask for flexibility regarding styles because when you leave college as a saxophone player, what are your options? Not too many classical gigs going on for us sax players out there.
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Lol. One of my accounting professors was a joke. I had him during a summer session (I took classes all year). We had a 10am class. The students looked to be in better shape (not completely hung over) than that guy. He had a sippy cup in class pretty much every morning. I'm 100% sure that it wasn't straight coffee. He was also the "dirty old man" type. He used to kind of jokingly flirt with one of the girls in class. One morning when he asked her to answer a question, he put his hand on her shoulder. The "I'm going to rip your hand off and stuff it down your throat" look she gave him was priceless.
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I think it's very important that a prof can get down, funky, old school...haven't met any yet, though.
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At first, when I was going to college, I really didn't care all that much. I was more concerned with the school and the quality of its program, overall.
On my own time, I went strictly for those with professional experience i.e. my first sax teacher was Sadao Watanabe, and I took trumpet lessons with Bob Fleming who was a first-call trumpeter with Disney Studios for 20 years.
Direct, clear communication is a must.
On my own time, I went strictly for those with professional experience i.e. my first sax teacher was Sadao Watanabe, and I took trumpet lessons with Bob Fleming who was a first-call trumpeter with Disney Studios for 20 years.
Direct, clear communication is a must.
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