S was not told to save money, lol! He’ll be going to a festival for the bulk of the summer. I"m super sad about it, but pretty much every other student in the studio is doing it. I know he won’t immerse himself at home in the same way, so off he goes.
I was going to mention that it may depend on instrument and music style (classical vs jazz).
I know some vocalists who did more “songbook” or choir work in the summer. So I think that there are programs available and if a school sends a lot of kids to one of those programs…you’ll feel the peer pressure! @dramasopranomom that may be what the teacher was alluding too. There are always programs available and different people may find them valuable.
For opera work however, I would guess that the voice is still too young after Freshman year. I don’t recall any pressure for a summer program after Freshman year. Many of the summer programs my D attended later had grad students in them. If you are cast at a young age you may be paying big bucks to be in the chorus. So no problem waiting.
The great unknown, “what will S do with his summer”, is now known, along with what other classmates have done with their summers.
First, many rising college sophomores had their wisdom teeth removed at this time.
Also, many did return to their home bases where they took gen ed classes at their local college. S stayed at his main college an took some gen ed classes along with the final courses in music theory and aural skills (still ongoing right now). Of those who took a college writing course this summer, they found their practice time impacted more than they had hoped for because of the demands of the essays.
Missing from my data samples would be attending a jazz festival or having a significant and full musical job over the summer. I anticipated the more ambitious ones in my sample set would go for this because it sounded like something awesome to do. But, that choice was not seen.
S is getting in more practice time on his instrument this summer and does find some Dallas-area bands to play with on roughly a weekly basis, while many of the college musicians have scattered away from campus. As the sophomore year approaches, S will have a 12-hour semester so that he can practice more. Among the classes is some breadth into an Afro-Cuban ensemble and also his first “composition” class.
“Afro-Cuban ensemble”??? Jazz musicians have all the fun!!!
Yes they do @dramasopranomom !!
He will be doing a vocal ensemble as well. Yay to 12-hour semesters.
So the sophomore year has started for S. The first week of classes have started. The class load is exactly as hoped for - not much in the way of gen-eds, but a few ensembles/bands and all music classes. There are 2 outside-of-school bands that S has joined as well. The wood-shedding summer has blended right into a busy music semester.
Lab band placement was higher than anticipated. S checked into that because it didn’t seem likely. It turns out that at this moment the folks at about the 4th level of band got tired of hanging out at that same level, and they went for some of the specialty, non-numbered bands to work on other dimensions of their music. This caused a little vacuum in certain spots and drew S, and possibly others, into a higher band than would be normally expected.
It turns out that the peer group does support and challenge each other. The peer group pressured S into testing out of a medium level class. And then something revealed itself to S, that he could now graduate one semester early, if he can take care of one continuation exam at the end of the semester. The medium level class he placed out of allowed a chain of other classes to move up by a semester. So, the spreadsheet of classes has been adjusted, and it looks good.
So now, if S pushes that forward, it might be time to start thinking about grad school possibilities, what city to be based in, and/our what jobs to go out for.
We are visiting S at school for Thanksgiving again in this sophomore year. We are still learning more about options for lessons, consultations, and when/how to get upper division lessons started in classical and jazz bass. We got to see S play in Dallas with guest artist Roger Ingram. We’ll return in December to see him sub in The Enablers for New Year’s Eve.
S is now 3 more semesters away from graduating with a Performance BM in Jazz Studies from UNT.
He earlier learned how a good number of the students will de-focus on the numbered lab bands that you first hear about, such as the 1 o’clock band and will go into non big bands such as the Zebras, a jazz choir, a guitar ensemble,and such. He has been playing regularly with a big band gig in Dallas, so he decided his diet of big band was already in good shape, so he “diverted” over to jazz choir bands this semester. Based on normal rankings experience, it can be estimated that he would have been in the 3 or 4 o’clock band this semester if he had listed “big band” as a high choice. You have to rank each and every of the band types, and then your audition results and your choice list determines where you go. I think his playing with the adult big band is giving him some nice social time with established musicians. As post-college time get scloser, this is good.
Because of working on something that classical bassists do - spicatto - it worked one side of his body more than the other, and the imbalance lead to a slightly dislocated rib. The TA noticed his discomfort and referred him to the school doctor who recommended exercises that fixed the issue.
The spreadsheet I made before college started, with all required classes from the university, school of music, and jazz studies department, has been great. He has had a very efficient schedule with as many as possible classes that serve more than 1 requirement. There is always some class shuffling each semester, and it is easy to track that total hours, advanced hours, minimum semester hours, and all that is on track. I would recommend something like this.
S has not been home since going to college. We go to him. He is looking into the apratment idea now. And he is looking at summer plans, too. That’s where we are for now.
It’s great that your son is doing so well and moving forward towards graduation.
I thought the spreadsheet was a bit of overkill at this point but a couple of days ago I started looking at the requirements for the degrees my son is interested in, at one of his options (not UNT). Oh wow it’s a lot of one and two credit classes! I’ve had friends who majored in music tell us this is the way it is, but it hadn’t sunk in, in terms of keeping track of all the requirements for GE’s, music degree requirements, music ed requirements, ensemble requirements. I was copying and pasting everything from a college website into one list and it got overwhelming. No wonder the spreadsheet is coming in handy. Yikes.
My Ds school organizes it and tracks it for her, thank goodness. I can’t imagine trying to track it all.
My D finished her 5th semester with 127 semester hours complete.
PLUS she’s taken 20 semester hours for no credit.
It is insane!!!
3 semesters to go!! Woo hoo!!
Here is this semesgter’s 14 credit hours for S - 9 classes:
Credits Class
1 Lab Band - Avenue C
1 Jazz Chamber Music
2 Jazz Bass Private Lessons
2 Classical Private Lessons
1 Piano 4
2 Advanced Improvisation 3
1 Lecture Series
1 Vocal Jazz - West End
3 Music History Before 1750
Also, I love spreadsheets.
My son sat in on that music history class when he visited. He was very interested. He really needs to be in college so he can take classes like that.
Thanks for posting your son’s course list. I appreciate the real life look at a college musician’s schedule. It doesn’t look too completely insane, Son does that now, if you consider 6 high school classes, a youth orchestra, and two music lessons per week… Throw in the school musical he’s in now and the crazy time sink that is, and maybe college won’t be too bad. At least he will be studying what he wants!
This was really interesting to see. My daughter attends a classical program at a stand alone conservatory and her schedule and classes are very different from this. Additionally, she had completed 61 hours at the end of her third semester, but there is no option for graduating early, regardless of the number of credit hours you earn (and the required course schedule has them taking at least 20 hours each semester for the first 2 years). It just goes to show how important it is to research each school thoroughly, as they are all so different in so many ways! Thanks for sharing.
If you want to PM, I could provide the entire workbook.
So has accumulated 89 hours to date, not including those listed above in this semester’s schedule. There also was an apparent blockage to graduating early due to the number of lab bands, jazz forums, continuation exams, lessons, and the whole stack-up. BUT, a way was found to knock a semester off. A couple long poles in the tent were cut down by placement testing out of a class, such as Improv1, and by taking the classical bass proficiency exam to enable the earlier-than-nominal starting of jazz bass lessons (4 semesters of that required). So, actually being there (S’s being there) and listening, watching, askig, and trying, there were ways I would not have not about to get things done.
Yep no early grad here either.
My D is enrolled in 24 semester hours worth of classes. They allow music majors to take certain classes no credit if the needed classes cause a tuition overage. So, she’s taking 18 for credit and 6 no credit (pass / fail).
They do not allow her to proficiency out of any music classes except a basic keyboard class freshman year. Even her AP music theory classes did not reduce the required theory. If anything it placed her higher and thus made the requirements harder classes!
S is currently on spring break in semester 4 at UNT, jazz studies, bass. Everything is normal and fine, but here are some extra notes.
S is starting to get more calls and connections. He feels he has started to get noticed by the bigger dogs (cats). He jams, subs, and so forth whenever he can and notices how it is kind of like an audition in front of the other players.
But now the fun news. S has accepted an offer to play all summer (like 2 gap days on each end to travel from/to school) at Hershey Amusement Park, over in that part of the world that we are less familiar with, but I think many on this board are more familiar with. It will be nice financially and hopefully network-wise.
S did get thru callbacks for Disneyland AACB, but did not get the final call - it might have been a more famous activity, but would not span as many weeks, so would not have produced the same revenues.
@GoForth congrats on the summer gig! I bet it will be lots of fun and some coin in the bank will help in the long run. Way to go. Classical kids becoming financially afloat this early is not very likely so I am envious in a very positive way. Good for you and your son!
That’s awesome! I’ve read a lot (and followed some YouTube channels) from college jazz kids doing cruise ships and other hospitality oriented gigs. It seems like a great early path to financial momentum and gaining some independence. Hershey Park is a super cool venue and I bet he has a great experience there.
Today we will travel over towards UNT, where S is wrapping up juries (jazz and classical) and next-semester auditions (jazz bass and jazz voice) and studying for one last final exam on Monday. A storage unit has been secured for the few items that will not travel with him to PA. The Honda Fit will be used to the max yet again with 3 adults, and upright bass, electric bass, amp, and accessory items. The upright bass is not needed for this job, but will be along to help stay sharp on the instrument.
After this summer, there are only 3 more semesters, and then undergrad is done.