Playing Piano in College

[kaligleean]

Hello.  I am about to attend a university next year but I am not majoring in music.  It is just a hobby that I am passionate about.  I am just wondering if I will have enough time to practice and develop my technique despite all the heavy workload.  I sometimes worry that I will have to quit it for a while to focus on studies.  Thank you.

[cagal]

I ended up stopping due to course load plus boyfriends relationships got much more serious (I have been married to the guy I dated in final year for 18 years).  Don't worry about whether you will stop or not.  Priorities shift all the time and if it's not your career path, it's not going to be the end of the world if you have to take a hiatus.  Also, just becuase you may stop or play less for a while doesn't mean it is a permanent thing.

[enjru]

I continued taking lessons for the first three years of university. I stopped formal lessons for the last three years there but continued to play and practice quite seriously. I kept playing and practising and even learnt rather difficult pieces when I began work. I found that when I was working AND doing post-graduate studies - THAT'S when it was too hard to keep up with the piano playing and I stopped for a year here and a year there.

[pytheamateur]

Don't stop!  You should be able to find the time to have lessons once a week and practice at least an hour every day.  It will teach you how to organise your time and use it efficiently. 

I had piano lessons when I was at university studying a non-music subject.  Of course you will not be able to progress like a music student but you should be able to make reasonable progress, enough to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

[megadodd]

I agree, none studying something else than music, won't ever in this world progress (in the amount of time of study) as much as those who do study music.

And I'm sure you can find time, atleast an hour a day? In university, I don't know where youre from though, but there arent many classes where I live, so you do all your assignments at home, and you have classes for max 3 hours / day.
Just don't stop, pauses are great however. If you don't play for a week, it won't make you any less good.

[kaligleean]

Thank you for the comments.  I really like to play and hope to find at least 1 hour a day of practice time.

[michelle_oh]

Your biggest stumbling block to regular practices in college maybe an easy access to a piano. If you live in a dorm/house with a good piano, then you can make it a regular thing. If not, it will be more difficult for you. You will no longer have a piano a few feet from your bed as you do in your parent's house.

The group, Pink Martini, started when the two principals met at Harvard, going to college, studying something (not music). They would go to the piano nightly, sing (she would sing opera arias) and play (he would accompany).....  They obviously lived with a piano in their college house. 

In comparison...
When I was in residency (post graduate medical training), one of my fellow resident had studied piano performance at a high caliber conservatory before medical school. She was on track to become a concert pianist but went into medicine instead. She did not have an easy access to a piano where she lived. Although she had a key to a practice room at the University Music School. Because of her schedule, she only got there only a few times here and there through the month.

As you establish your routine for transitioning to a University life, make sure you pick a dorm/house with a piano. Because of the location of the piano maybe in public places away from people's beds, you may be able to play at hours that you could not at your parents home...

I wish you the best in your transition.

[williampiano]

I'm planning on doing the same thing, keeping piano as just a hobby during college. But, do any of you know if there are ever somewhat advanced piano courses at respectable colleges that don't completely specialize in music? I don't really want to do music as a major, or even a minor either, but I think it would be nice to study piano with a music professor on the side during my undergrad. Can I do that, or do I need to study music as my major or minor to do that? Also, do any of you know if they have somewhat decent music departments at the UC schools?

[Bob]

Piano probably isn't going to get as much attention as you'd like to give it.  You'll have a major and it's major work.  There won't even be enought time to do all you need/want to for your major. 

Most people quit after high school.  Or just don't play as much.  Then after college, there's a job, family, etc.  Responsibilities.  People get back to it during retirement.

It is possible to study with a piano prof.  Either as a class or pay them outside of school.  Then there are grad students.  The class piano courses I've seen supplment the curriculum for music majors and include things like transposition, not quite like traditional lessons.  And the "advanced" part in some of those course titles is a joke -- More like Beginner 101, Beginner 102, etc. 

[_achilles_]

You decide your own level of involvement.

[roseamelia]

Don't worry you'll find the time to play it. You'll always find some way to pick an hour out don't let it worry you none

[oxy60]

Much of this will depend on the flexibility of the institution. Preparing pieces at a slower pace and then asking for advice from a piano prof on a loose schedule might be difficult to arrange. The main thing is to not stop playing your learned repertoire. You must keep that going even if there is no time to learn anything new.

I go through this once a year and just play what I know until I get back to my instrument for daily practice.