<p>Does anybody major in music if they’re not actively involved in the field?
And maybe just like…listening to music?</p>
<p>It’s just a general wondering I have.</p>
<p>It would be highly unusual for someone to major in music if they did not play an instrument or sing. At most schools it would be impossible to take a Bachelor of Music without auditioning (i.e. performing). Some schools allow students to do a music major in a B.A. without auditioning or taking private lessons. However, a music major in any degree will require a sequence of theory courses which would be very difficult for a person that neither plays nor sings. Certainly the music history and music literature courses could be accessible to a non-performer who is an active and critical listener.</p>
<p>All the music majors that I have ever encountered do either play or sing at least at an elementary level.</p>
<p>There are some universities (e.g., University of Pennsylvania) where you can get a BA in Music focusing on music history, ethnomusicology, theory, etc. You don’t have to be a performer and performance is not especially cultivated or encouraged. This may seem a little odd, but Penn’s graduate program has produced some fairly impressive composers such as Jennifer Higdon (herself not really a performer), and Osvaldo Golijov.</p>
<p>I think that it would be strange for you to be a music major without any experience in music. I think that you’d need to have the experience just so you can have a greater sense of music, whether it’s through singing, playing an instrument, or music composition. You can’t be a music critic if you can’t understand and relate to what you’re listening to.</p>
<p>Jennifer Hidgon was a self-taught flutist and didn’t really have any formal training until she arrived at Bowling Green College as an 18-year-old freshman. Now she is one of the most sought-after classical composers (last year, for example, she won a Pulitizer and a Grammy; she has commissions booked until 2015 or 2016.) </p>
<p>With a thorough study of music theory, history, composition, etc., and a good analytical mind you could be a critic. (I’m simply playing devil’s advocate to 2CHiLLaXiN’s assertion, not necessarily encouraging that career.) Don’t make the error of assuming that your own experience is the only possible route to achieving a goal.</p>
<p>One suggestion I have would be to look on school’s websites for the requirements to get admitted for a BA in music, and also I suggest e-mailing this question to their admission departments and asking.</p>
<p>I suspect the answer is it depends on what you plan on studying as well as the nature of the department. It might be different for ethnomusicology then it might be for music theory (as a hypothetical example). </p>
<p>However, you will more then likely be required to take an instrument or at least have a basic understanding of the piano as part of the course of study, it would be very difficult to understand things like music theory or the structure of music without some familiarity of an instrument and/or the piano in my view of things. </p>
<p>You don’t mention how old you are or what year you are in school, but my recommendation would be to try a sort of immersion to try and see if you would want to pursue music study in college. First of all, you may want to start taking music lessons on an instrument to get a taste of that end of music, where you have to do things like learn to read music and understand the work of translating written music into what you hear…likewise, you may at the very least want to get your feet wet with music theory (there is a pretty good “Music Theory For Dummies” book that is not all that bad:) to get an understanding of what studying music is like. </p>
<p>It is true that composers come from all kinds of backgrounds (the composer/performer Mark O’Connor started as a champion fiddler and moved over into composition) and that music critics can have an oddball path (take a look at Alex Ross of the New Yorker magazine, he sort of studied music, but his degree was in English…) but I think before going into this, assuming someone can study music without strong background i n playing an instrument, I would suggest feeling out whether you really want to study music, if it is enough of a passion to pursue.</p>
<p>As I mentioned that was just a general wondering I had :P</p>
<p>I’ve actually been playing the piano for 13 years so I’m quite familiar with the field. My friend said something in the extent that you don’t /have/ to have a background in music to major in it, and I thought CC-ers or all people would know that (:</p>
<p>But in any case, thank you for all the input (:</p>
<p>You could also see about majoring in musicology.</p>