<p>My daughter is ending 8th grade this year and she is very interested in music. She wants to be a recording artist like Taylor Swift as many young women do (yes I know a very long shot) and has been practicing guitar for about a year. She also has a very nice voice with good tone though not a strong “Broadway” type of voice.</p>
<p>She wants to make music her career but also has an interest in Zoology and Medicine.</p>
<p>From what I have been reading, getting into med school is a possibility if you major in music ,though I’m not sure if the same applies when majoring in music education. </p>
<p>The reason why we’re looking at this so early is that majoring in music performance seems to require focusing on classical or jazz guitar rather than pop acoustic guitar, so it sounds like she would need to take lessons in those areas, where some teens have already been practicing for some years in those styles of music, so I’m not sure how to advise her. Also I have heard that the performance track of music school is more difficult than the music education track, but please correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>Oh Artie, my two kids (B/G twins) are approaching the end of their freshman years…so I at least have a perspective on the generalized subject of college. But I just don’t think I can provide much that’s useful as it applies to college for ANY 8th grader.</p>
<p>Whether she ends up in college for music or not, you are right that now is the right time to start private lessons if she wants that opportunity. If she has the interest, drive, and talent you will be able to tell after a few months of lessons. If she does, then you can follow her interests and the recommendations of the private teacher. If not, you are out nothing but the cost of a few lessons and she will have improved her technique.</p>
<p>artie1,
My son, who is completing his freshman year at a conservatory as a Jazz performance major did not start on his instrument (Double Bass) until the middle of his 8th grade year. As movemetoo said if your daughter is motivated and music really is something she wants to devote her energy to you will know after a few months of lessons. But there are a few things you should know:
Pick a teacher who is musically skilled. Ideally they should have training in classical and Jazz. They should know advanced music theory and have experience nurturing young musicians through the college application process. Definitely take time to research and pick a teacher that is a good match for your daughter. If the teacher’s personality is not a good match do not feel guilty switching teachers. The teachers should be flexible about what genre they are teaching your daughter and more focused on teaching the big structures and framework that western music is based on. </p>
<p>2) I took a bit of an unusual approach with my youngest, who has two older siblings. The oldest did HS the typical way for a kid living in an upper-middle class overachieving suburb. She did APs and was active in extra curricular and pushed herself as hard as she could. She fell apart emotionally in her senior year after getting accepted to her dream school for her dream major. It took her a long time and a year off after Freshman year in college to finally find herself and reset and figure out what she wanted. My middle child was dealing with a complex mix of learning disabilities and illness. he basically skipped HS. He barely attended school between 8th and 11th grade and spent most of that time in his room practicing his guitar. There were periods where the only formal education our middle son was getting was in his private lessons with his guitar teacher. That child is now a Junior in college and is excelling academically. So what I realized was that the most important thing was to get my third child through HS happy and mentally healthy and if I did that all would be well with the world. I also see the HS academic focus on APs and SATs for what they are…damaging to the brain. My middle son’s time spent learning music did more for his brain development and helped him more than any amount of tedious HS homework could have. When this dyslexic son enrolled in Russian we thought he was insane and would fail. But he excelled and he explained to us that learning music taught him that he can learn anything. And based on the rigorous courses he keeps taking that seems to be the case. So we let our youngest practice music as much as he wanted and we let academics happen but without the push to always be on top or be taking the hardest courses. He loves music and he is certainly on his way to being able to make a career of it, but at the same time he sometimes jokes…maybe I will eventually go to medical school. He also has said studying music has taught him that he too can learn anything if he wants to.</p>
<p>I really wish arts were emphasized more in HS. I fear that we are raising a generation that knows how to take a standardized test but does not know how to learn or how to think.</p>
<p>artie1, I also wanted to add that depending on the opportunities available at your daughters high school, you might really have to search out extra experiences for her as she gets older if she really does get into her music. Our public high school is very limited in musical offerings, and it has really been the outside lessons, band camps, competitions etc. that have lead to growth.</p>
<p>Private lessons are definitely the way to go. Maybe school or church choir to strengthen her music reading skills. But if she is inspired by Taylor Swift, she won’t be happy with either classical or jazz college programs.</p>
<p>This past fall, one of her groups did very well in a major international competition and she has recently gotten some very positive, although as yet still unofficial, news about her application to a grad school program that could give her some of the contacts and training she needs to take her career to the next level.</p>
<p>If you asked her what she wanted to do at the start of eighth grade, the answer would have been musical theatre. By the end of eighth grade and through most of high school, it would have been playing bass in a symphony orchestra. In college, she realized that she had interest in a very wide range of music and did not want to be pinned down to any single genre. Now she’s playing everything from early music on viola da gamba to funk-infused bluegrass, to hip-hop, to Klezmer band covers of Lady Gaga tunes (I kid you not).</p>
<p>As movemetoo says, start with the lessons and you will soon find out if they are going to lead to something bigger.</p>
<p>Wow-Thanks for all the thoughtful posts. We’ll look for a good teacher. </p>
<p>Jeannemar, I think you may be right- she doesnt like Jazz or Classical at this point (maybe that will change). We are trying to expose her to as many forms of music as we can over time so she has a broad appreciation, but she is resistant to anything other than pop right now. </p>
<p>Maybe a good guitar teacher can get her to open up more (Like BassDad’s D) It doesn’t sound like being great at pop will necessarily translate into getting into collegr for music performance-they seem to be looking for a better rounded, better trained music student, which is understandable.</p>
<p>StacJip- Yes they do have some classes and lessons at her HS but not much-time to look outside!</p>
<p>As a music performance major, I can personally say that there is no focus on pop music at all. It is something people do in their spare time, but the whole purpose is to learn classical or jazz music (jazz is a different major altogether but requires many of the same classes). Music education isn’t different from performance much in that you have to take the same classes such as theory and ear training, but you are also required to learn basics on every instrument in a band setting and take teacher education classes. Private instruction is required in all of these majors.
I agree with other posters in that you should start private lessons and see if she remains interested.</p>