[ArchSax]

What can I expect? How long did it take the Music Ed majors here? Did/is anyone plan/planning on pursuing graduate degrees in Performance?

 

[thadnoland]

Congrats! What school?

I started out in MusEd but eventually changed ( a few times ) until I settled on Performance.

At both my schools, University of Louisiana at Monroe & Berklee College of Music, MusEd is a 5 year degree.

Good luck in your studies!!!

 

[BariSkaJazz]

I just graduated with a music ed degree this weekend. I did it in four years, but I had to take summer courses and courses online to fit everything in (I graduated with 152 credits). The biggest thing you need to do right now is decide if you want to be a player or if you want to be a teacher. I tried to do both, and as a result I became pretty good at playing and pretty good at teaching, in stead of being AWESOME at just one.

If playing is your thing and you want the music ed degree as a backdrop, realize its going to be very hard if teaching isn't your main focus, especially when you get into student teaching. I would suggest putting all your focus into playing and getting an alternative certification.

If teaching is what you want to do, go find the best teachers around your school and spend time in their classrooms. If possible, make your class schedule where you leave time open during the public school day so you can volunteer and watch. This helps you network, and gets you tuned in to the teacher side of teaching, as opposed to the student side, which is where you've been for most of your school experiences.

Teaching a jazz band, running sectionals, or teaching private lessons is nothing like teaching a full band class. You'll use similar skills, but in a more efficient manner. If you don't classroom management starts to become a problem.

When observing teachers, take notes on the classroom management and pedagogy thats happening, not what level the piece is and how you hear the flutes were out of tune. If you spend time in ensembles and listen to lots of music, you'll develop good ears. The important thing to take away from observing other teachers is how they run their classes, because the environment they create is what allows the students to learn.

This was all just off of the top of my head, and YMMV. PM me if you'd like to get more info.

The more specific your questions get, the better your answers from everyone in this community will be!

 

[Agent27]

Yeah, it's a 5 year degree. A lot of music classes are only 1 hour worth of credit so you have to take a lot of classes to build your hours up. I was a performance major and it took me 5 years while taking classes every summer and mini semester up through the end of my junior year. And with MusEd, you have to be pretty much done before your last semester so that you have the time to student teach.

I disagree with the alternative certification mention. Music is a special beast. They teach certification classes to aspiring teachers in all disciplines and it's basic classroom management and planning type stuff. So if you don't already know about the idiosyncrasies of being a music teacher, you're not going to learn it there. Even if you're doing it as a backup, if you plan at teaching at any time, those conducting and instrumental methods classes as well as the student teaching are a good idea. If you go the certification route, you're being hired as a teacher, not a student teacher, right off the bat and if you don't really won't know what you're doing there's a good chance you'll hate it, fail, and quit. I'd say the attrition rate for music teachers is much higher for those who got alt. certification than those who got a MusEd degree.

 

[nathan61]

There is nothing wrong with getting certification after getting a performance degree. During a year-long post-graduate certification course you will study education and do student teaching etc. In many states, if you play your cards right you can get a BM in performance and then do a fifth year and get a teaching credential.

In most careers, and especially in education, you learn just about everything on the job. No amount of listening to other people lecture you on "how to teach" is going to prepare you for running your own classroom. There have been studies that show that teacher certification does not lead to increased student learning. Experience is everything in education.

 

[ArchSax]

I just graduated with a music ed degree this weekend. I did it in four years, but I had to take summer courses and courses online to fit everything in (I graduated with 152 credits). The biggest thing you need to do right now is decide if you want to be a player or if you want to be a teacher. I tried to do both, and as a result I became pretty good at playing and pretty good at teaching, in stead of being AWESOME at just one.

If playing is your thing and you want the music ed degree as a backdrop, realize its going to be very hard if teaching isn't your main focus, especially when you get into student teaching. I would suggest putting all your focus into playing and getting an alternative certification.

If teaching is what you want to do, go find the best teachers around your school and spend time in their classrooms. If possible, make your class schedule where you leave time open during the public school day so you can volunteer and watch. This helps you network, and gets you tuned in to the teacher side of teaching, as opposed to the student side, which is where you've been for most of your school experiences.

Teaching a jazz band, running sectionals, or teaching private lessons is nothing like teaching a full band class. You'll use similar skills, but in a more efficient manner. If you don't classroom management starts to become a problem.

When observing teachers, take notes on the classroom management and pedagogy thats happening, not what level the piece is and how you hear the flutes were out of tune. If you spend time in ensembles and listen to lots of music, you'll develop good ears. The important thing to take away from observing other teachers is how they run their classes, because the environment they create is what allows the students to learn.

This was all just off of the top of my head, and YMMV. PM me if you'd like to get more info.

The more specific your questions get, the better your answers from everyone in this community will be!

That's alot to take in Bari. I will hit you up for that PM; what you did is what I want to do! I want to be a great teacher, but being a great player is integral to being a great teacher, at least to me.