There are without a doubt many very talented people in the world. Some are artists, some are musicians and others dance. Music is such a great part of our culture that you would think there would be more opportunities for musicians. Ironically, choosing a career in music is one of the hardest things a person can do, even with a bachelor degree, Aside from going into teaching, the rest of the musical field is very competitive and very hard to get your foot in the door. So does a bachelor degree in music really mean anything? Well, we'll leave that debate for those who feel like waging it. For the purpose of this article, we'll just give you a basic idea of what to expect from a Bachelor of Arts program in music. The first year of your bachelor degree in music usually revolves around an introduction to music itself. You'll learn the many different forms of classic music and cover the various eras. You'll probably learn about a number of composers like Back, Mozart and Chopin. You won't begin to get into any in depth analysis of any of the material. It's simply to give you a brief history of music and aquatint you with the different styles. Rarely does an intro course cover modern music such as jazz, rock and blues. Along with your music course you'll have to take the usual requirements such as English, History, maybe a math or science. Each college has different requirements for their bachelor program, regardless of what you major in. So it is difficult to generalize in this area. The common theme however, is that you usually only have to take a minimum of those "other" courses. After you have taken you introductory music courses, which are usually all of your first year, you then move into whatever your specialty is going to be. This can cover anything from composition to performance. If you're going to major in music composition, you're going to have to take a number of courses focusing on composition. These begin as very basic and then, as they progress, become quite advanced. Your early courses will simply focus on how to read and write music. You'll learn what a musical staff is, what the notes are, time signatures, tempos, etc. As the courses become more advanced, you will begin to actually write your own compositions. Your final independent project before graduation will usually involved writing a major piece of work such as a sonata or concerto. For those going into music performance, it's a little more difficult. They don't teach you an instrument in college. You have to already be fairly proficient with whatever instrument you play. They will actually audition you to see if you qualify for their bachelor program. If you do, the remainder of your time in school will involve learning quite a number of pieces until graduation when you have to perform a major piece of work in front of a lot of people. And then, after all of this and you actually graduate, good luck in finding work. Teaching music may be the only thing you get to do. |
