Still trying to get admitted, but...

[faa2010]

I am still trying to enter to a music school where admission exams are obligation. I can pass the first exam without any problem, but the next exam, the audition, I cannot pass it.  Some say that it is because as I get older (I am 28), the examiners are more strict, because even if the documents say that the age is not restricted, they will only pass the youger ones.

This is making me think that maybe I cannot be a professional pianist. However, I want to improve my piano technique and learn more subjects related to music like History of the music, solfege, musical appreciation, etc.

Could it be possible to improve and learn all of it without entering to a conservatoire or a "official" school?, would be fine if I enter to a private school or to a "less prestigious" school?

[awesom_o]

Could it be possible to improve and learn all of it without entering to a conservatoire or a "official" school?

Yes.

[faulty_damper]

You can learn everything, and more, by not going to music school.  If you have bad teachers, like we had, you'll not learn very much.  For example, there was once a teacher who hated his position because he thought he deserved to work at a better school and with better pay.  He would sometimes not show up to teach, or show up drunk, and if he did show up he would insult the students saying that this was "so easy" for him and accused the class of being stupid for not understanding.  He groped some of the female students and was a major homophobe that at the end of his contract, he peed on a gay professors office door.  You can imagine what the professor thought when he saw the yellow liquid running in from under the door, and then opening the door to see him zipping up.

My point is not only to entertain with this true life story, but also to warn you that music school can be a huge waste of time if you aren't there for the right reasons.  If you're there for a degree, you should quit piano now.

However, some things I learned to do that would not have occurred otherwise was to learn how to sing.  We had a very good voice teacher and it seemed she could perform miracles on even the worst singers.  I still sing now because of her.

As well, you could also meet some really talented people whom you may become lifelong friends with.  Or not.  The social aspect of music school was very much and eye opener for me.

Anyway, it sounds like you have technical problems, musical problems, or probably both.  You'll need to figure out how to remedy them if you want people to think you play well enough to be accepted.

[m1469]

Ultimately, what a person gains inside a school or out, is more a matter of finding the right things at the right times, and less a matter of almost anything else.  Obviously the teacher(s) you are working with can play a huge role in that in one direction or another, inside or outside a school setting.  

A problem with career-oriented thinking as it relates to the arts, is that it can easily become more about a career than the art, or the two can become nothing but synonymous in a person's mind.  I would be interested to find out how many individuals in the world there are who have pursued an art seriously, with a career in mind, and who are not currently disappointed or let down or outright resentful about where they've ended up in their career - and the affect that has on their art form and craft.  How many circumstances that have come to fruition as being part of somebody's career, are actually purely about the art?  I know there are some, but I think it's very rare to find that.  "The career" currently rules the world of the art (it currently rules the world in general).  Most schools are directly hooked into that intravenously and, within context of a world run by careers, it is logical that they are.

[faa2010]

Thanks damper and m1469. I forgot why I wanted to do the admission exam, but now I remember that it is not because I want to pass the exam, not because of the degree, not because I want to show off that I am a good pianist only with a piece of paper or because of doing big concerts like a maestro.

What I really want is to improve my technique, to remember the basic and play the pieces I want, Chopin's especially, to open wider my perspective in music. I want to have the piano level I should have until now.

[timothy42b]

.

What I really want is to improve my technique, to remember the basic and play the pieces I want, Chopin's especially, to open wider my perspective in music. I want to have the piano level I should have until now.

Then music school would be an expensive waste of time for you. 

What you need is a really good teacher.  That's not cheap either, but it's less expensive than paying for a degree you don't need and won't use. 

Go to engineering school and take piano lessons from the professor at the conservatory.  If he won't give you lessons because you're not good enough yet, get the name of a good teacher from him and take lessons from that guy until you are good enough. 

[m1469]

What you need is a really good teacher.  That's not cheap either, but it's less expensive than paying for a degree you don't need and won't use.

Sorry, but that's not necessarily true, either (there is a lot to it).  Personally, the thousands $$ that I have paid in private teachers could have gotten me at least one Graduate level degree by now, and with that I would at least have more options as a teacher than what I currently have.  I believe it was my right path to do it this way, to meet and work with these particular teachers,  I was more than willing the entire time I was studying with them and I do not regret it, but each individual definitely needs to figure that out.  While having degrees are no guarantee towards mastering the instrument, they at least give a person professional options they wouldn't necessarily have otherwise.

[timothy42b]

Many years ago I was playing in a college orchestra, run by somebody connected with the Chicago Symphony, and we had a few conversations over beers in the student union.

He had a theory that was novel to me. 

He said if your goal is to be a professional musician in a symphony, going to a conservatory is not what he would recommend.  He suggested one move to a city with a top tier symphony AND a respected college.  Get a rounded education at the college, something that doesn't happen in a conservatory, while taking lessons from the symphony principal and learning your craft well.  You have just as much chance of winning an audition, but will gain far more from your other education (and may even end up employable in your degree field.)  When you're auditioning behind a screen, they don't care about your degree, just whether you can play.  (except Vienna of course, they did care about something else once) 

[gregh]

I think what you could get from a college is resources and opportunities. Ensembles, master classes, the chance to play with musicians who are better than you. For some of that, though, you don't even need to be a student. I've walked into master classes at the local U just out of curiosity, it's not like they check your passport or anything.