Music Degree n00b Questions

[nanabush]

I've officially switched to a Music Performance Degree after hating my previous program long enough.  The department at the University of Ottawa (in Ontario  )is extremely vague (I don't think the secretary is a musician), so I have a few questions for those of you studying Music:

1)  How do you generally go about picking pieces with your prof?  I know it probably varies massively, but do profs want you to come to lessons with ideas of what you want to play, or would they bring a bunch of stuff and you guys look through it?  I'm getting antsy about that, so I'm just going through all the Hanon/Czerny/anything to boost my technique this summer.

2)  Have you ever relearned a piece with your prof that you may have previously studied before entering the university?  I did my Piano Performance ARCT exam last year, and played a ton of pretty common repertoire around that level which will probably come up.  This is slightly worrying me lol because I know if the prof asks me to play something that I've already learned, he'll tear it apart 

3)  Do you generally pick a group of pieces at the beginning of the year and stick with them, or do you often interchange pieces, learn more throughout the year, etc?

I mostly just want some general insight for the first year private lessons;  I already know about all the theory/history that I'm taking, but I haven't found out which Prof I will have for my lessons; the contact from the department takes days if not weeks to reply, and it's half-assed at that. 

Thanks!

[birba]

You don't know who you're going to be studying with?!  That's pretty strange.  I would think you would have already chosen your teacher.  Maybe the standard procedure has changed since I went to school, but if I'M paying, I want to choose my teacher.

[nanabush]

They asked if I wanted a specific teacher, but I had heard good things about each, so I said no preference.  I'm supposed to find out which teacher I got very soon, but I've pretty much had it with e-mailing/calling the coordinator and waiting for hours on end.

[Bob]

1
I've always gone for variety.  There are so many composers.  Hit one style, then go for another.  My teacher would just pick a piece or give me a few to pick from.  I might give general ideas of a type of piece to work on.  Or we had talked at the very beginning so they knew what music I liked more.  But it was always a different style of piece.  That's not so many if you're marrying the piece for a few months.

2
Yes.  You get a different perspective.  You're different.  The nice thing is you've probably already got the notes in your fingers and have a general sense of the piece.  I don't feel like I'm ever finished with a piece, so it's just pushing the material around again.

3
Picking pieces was a never a big issue.  We already had an idea of what was coming up.  Sometimes it was the number of pieces -- I wanted to cover more music, so we covered more music.  But if I didn't ask, the amount of music would be set at the beginning of the semester and kept through the whole semester.  I didn't quite like that.


Keep a final or junior recital in mind too.  I went back and pulled pieces from previous years.  Some straight, complete from the past.  Others were parts of larger pieces from the past and I learned the rest of the work.  Cuts down on learning all new stuff and helps the memory. 

If you don't have a preference on teachers, maybe you can study with all of them.  That can be a good strategy too.  Switch up every year or so.

[giannalinda]

What are noobs?

[Bob]

Ask your mother. 


Newbie.  New to the area. 

I thought nanabush was already in music though. 

[nanabush]

Thanks for the replies!

lol, I've been on the forum since about 2005, haven't posted for all of it though.

I really wanted to take music, and had myself convinced for a while that I would choose music, but I guess the pressure from the majority of my graduating class at high school (engineering/commerce/bio-med) made me go into a more conventional program - and I hated it!  I've been teaching for 3 years, still take lessons, and I spent more time practicing for my performer's ARCT than I did studying for exams; I put way more importance on that practical test than my school stuff simply because I wanted to succeed more in that.  Tons of hints that I was not taking the right program at university for me.  I do, though,  have enough economics credits to make a minor (if I take a few 3rd/4th year economics), but I'm not too sure how a minor works in a performance degree.

I'm just all around relieved; I know one girl who is taking clarinet at the same school (she went in straight out of high school, and is going into her third year) and she loves it, theory/history classes included.  I keep hearing that the profs are amazing, so I really can't wait to start.  I'm not even bogged down in the slightest that I'll have postponed it by two years, because I've still been taking lessons in that time, so I'll be going in with two years more experience.  That's what I like about a performance degree, and what I like about what Bob was describing about typical lessons at uni.  You won't get held back with fundamentals the entire time, and you won't be getting rushed or overwhelmed with piles of work. 

I really just want this summer to pass quickly!