Preliminary Visits as a Junior

binx
Sun, 14 Jan 2007 09:50:24 +0000

No, Junior year is not too early for a lesson. In fact, that is all this is - a lesson. Not an audition. This is the time for your son to figure out if he can relate to this teacher. If he likes the teaching style. I also think it’s real valuable to get the teacher’s impression - does he encourage your son to apply, or is he lukewarm? My S dropped a school off his list because the teacher was extremely critical of everything S did. It may just be the teacher’s style, or personality, or it may have been a bad day. But my S felt that if he went there, he would be expected to change everything he did, from style to technique. It was such a huge contrast from experiences at other schools that he knew he didn’t fit there. (Up to that point, he’d rejected a few teachers for being “too nice.” Felt he wanted a stricter teacher. After that, he realized that he wanted a picky teacher, but not necessarily a constantly critical one.)

After you visit a couple schools, you will begin to feel where there is genuine interest, and where there is simply polite interest.

I agree with Thumper - my kids also never did overnights. (No opinion about them - it just didn’t work out.) All S2 did was meet with the teacher, and tour the campus. D has also sat in on classes (such as music theory). We also examined the condition and tuning of the pianos in the practice rooms. Silly, maybe, but it helped us evaluate the commitment to the music program.

Another thing about visiting junior year is that, come senior year, you can visit the top contenters again when you audition. You’d be surprised at how much more you learn the second time around. Plus, it’s my opinion that the audition is a little easier if you’ve visited the school already, know your way around, have met the faculty, etc. Takes some of the pressure of the unknown away.