Music theory question

soozievt
Wed, 03 Jun 2015 21:43:26 +0000

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be able to sight read music and understand music theory if planning a career in MT. Yes, BFA or BM students will get this training in their college program, but just like any other area (voice, dance, acting), the more training you have prior to college, the better.

My MT daughter had/has a thorough understanding of music theory and has since a young age. This was never with a MT career in mind. Simply, both my kids studied two instruments each, one being piano, from a young age. Their piano teacher was very big on theory and gave the kids homework in it. As well, sight reading music was part of that training and part of a national evaluation they had each year on piano. Both of them also were in band and jazz band. My MT daughter did not take Music Theory in high school. Whatever she knows is simply from studying instrumental music, namely piano the most. I suppose in Chorus class in HS, there was some music theory, but by then, my D knew it from her piano teacher anyway. Skip ahead to entering her BFA in MT program at Tisch when she was 16, and on the first day, she placed out of the two full years (four semesters) requirement of Music Theory, and so she never took it in college, but most of her classmates had to.

I also recall my D’s first professional audition in NYC right before she turned 11. The audition required her to sight read difficult music right on the spot. The composer was the auditor and remarked how quickly she picked it up. She was cast.

In college and beyond, she easily sight reads new music and this also comes in handy for auditions when you may be given music you have never seen before with less than 24 hours to go to your audition appointment.

Further, being so competent at reading and understanding music, and being able to play piano in particular, came in handy in college for accompanying herself, others, musical productions, and musical directing. She had many paid jobs doing those things for youth programs, high school MT programs and BFA programs, though she on longer does those survival jobs. While she never studied music composition, all her instrumental lessons over the years growing up gave her such a good understanding of music that she is now a professional songwriter and also a MT composer/lyricist, in addition to being a MT performer. Further, she has now been in quite a number of professional musicals that have required her to play an instrument (she plays piano and accordion in several musicals as an actor/singer, and can play some guitar too as she took guitar lessons in high school too). So, being able to play an instrument has been instrumental (LOL) in being cast lately in quite a number of Equity productions.

I am sharing this anecdote because I can’t tell you how handy it has been that my D had such an understanding of music prior to college. So, I do suggest both piano lessons and studying of music theory as wonderful prep for not only a college MT program, but for a career in this field.