<p>LOL, VicAria…my D kind of says the same thing about putting up with what she puts up with. Her band director is great, has imagination, really inspires her but her HS voice teacher…? Not so much. D often talks about all of the great things that she would love to do to make music more interesting and is hoping to land a job after college at a school where in addition to teaching band she could also get involved in musical theater, drama, and coaching (cheerleading) on some level. I was recently talking to a very young voice teacher at our district and she was explaining to me that she had to look for other jobs out there because “living creatively for 2 concerts a year is just not enough”. I can understand that but because she was not given the opportunity to do more our district is losing a great teacher with lots of fresh and new ideas. It is a shame.</p>
<p>BassDad, Allmusic and others,</p>
<p>While on these early visits, did your child actually have a lesson or were these early visits just school tours to narrow down your long list then a return visit for lessons with a prospective professor?</p>
<p>I’m particularly interested because of the cost factor for the trips/visits.</p>
<p>The early visits were sightseeing expeditions to a few schools within easy driving distance (we live within a couple of hours of both New York City and Philadelphia.) There were no lessons involved yet, just the standard tour and a visit to the admissions office to collect brochures and get daughter’s name on the mailing list. That gave us a basis for comparison of the facilities once the serious visits started several months later. The first sample lesson happened during spring break of junior year and continued through the start of auditions in December of senior year.</p>
<p>My son actually had a lesson with a teacher at Eastman (the school he ended up attending) in spring of his freshman year. We were in the area on vacation and I was just planning on a visit so son could learn about how a conservatory is so different from a college. Son’s private teacher strongly recommended we try and schedule a lesson. It was quite a good experience for my son. We did other trips with lessons during junior year, spreading them out over the course of the year to coincide with his breaks. He also returned to Eastman for another lesson with the same teacher in fall of his senior year. </p>
<p>I don’t think you lose anything by doing things earlier. After all, the main point of the lessons is to help the student find a good fit. Spreading things out helps with the cost factor as well as trying to minimize time missed from school.</p>
<p>Every time we visited a music school, from Sophomore year on, S met with someone (like the chair of department), or at least hung around with a student for an hour, or went to a class or rehearsal. These visits coincided with family vacations, and of these three visited schools from Sophomore year, none is currently on his “list”. The visits were important that way in screening out what he didn’t want, as much as what he did.</p>
<p>He didn’t do any practice lessons until Feb vacation of junior year, and subsequently did several more lessons in April. He will have quite a bit of interaction with a potential teacher at a summer music program that he just left for today! We have one more school which he decided to add more recently, and that will require a trip in the fall for a lesson. Other than that, he wil have met with or had lessons everywhere he wants to audition. </p>
<p>I thank the other musicians and parents on CC for this advice. It makes starting senior year somewhat more sane with most of those visits under our belt.</p>
<p>rudysmom- my thoughts based on what might be most comfortable for you:</p>
<p>If you are scheduling summer visits, it may be difficult to pin down faculty, as many have performance obligation and festival positions and are simply not on campus. It depends completely on the individual faculty and timing. It would to try and contact faculty and have a preliminary lesson.</p>
<p>One way to go about it is to begin work on some of the standard audition repetoire. You’ll probably see overlap beween schools as to what the “standard” audition rep for cello is. Pick a piece that works across a couple of your short-listed schools. A high level alternate piece he already knows would work as well.</p>
<p>There’s a potential issue if the piece is not up to snuff. The instructor may well give useful insight on what needs to be worked on; occaisionally, it may cause a faculty member to pre-judge his ability, which could be detrimental a year or 18 months from now. Objectivity can not always be guaranteed, and
first impressions are often lasting ones. Your son’s private teacher is the best judge of if he’s ready for a sample lesson.</p>
<p>You might want to defer the lesson for close schools now, as you’ll probably be making return visits. Take the lesson now at the schools where distance/expense might prohibit another visit.</p>
<p>If he’s really ready now, there’s nothing to hold him back. Go for it.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for this useful information. I believe my D would want to be a performance major, but is leaning to the mus ed since she has wanted to be a teacher since elementary school. She is volunteering at a summer music camp so we will see if teaching is really in her blood.</p>
<p>I like the idea of the early visits to local schools , especially since we are a little over an hour to Philly and 1.5 to NYC.</p>
<p>Does anyone happen to have any information on UDel’s music program?</p>