I'm only a sophomore in high school but I know it's never to early to think about my future plans. Can anyone suggest any good music colleges in the area of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo?
On a second note, I play guitar and bass, but I also play alto saxophone. My plan is to become a music teacher. I would really like to make guitar my priority, but I know that saxophone would be more applicable if I were to teach in a high school. Is plain old guitar even possible in college, or would I have to learn to play classical? The problem is I love playing my electric more than anything in the world, and I'm afraid that taking up classical guitar or working on my sax more would only be discouraging if I don't have time to play my electric anymore. Advice??
So I guess I really have no idea what my plans are anyways. Where should I go, and what should I do?? :? :? :?
A bit east of Buffalo, in Rochester, is the Eastman School of Music. It ranks up there with Julliard as one of the finest in the world.
If you want to major in plectrum guitar, your choices are fairly limited. There's Berklee in Boston, and the technical schools like GIT; otherwise, you'll study classical (which also means auditioning on classical, so you'd pretty much have to start now).
I faced the same dilemma when I went off to college - I couldn't afford to live in Boston then, so Beklee was out... but I also played percussion, so I chose that as my principal instrument.
If you want to teach, you should give a little thought to where... to teach privately, a technical school will be ok, but it will limit your career options outside of performance and private instruction. If you want to teach in public or private schools, you'll probably want to study music education.
Since school music teachers have to work with students on all instruments, an education major in music will consist of a class or two in each of the instrument families (brass, winds, strings, percussion), where you'll learn the basics of the instrument, the ranges of the family members, etc., and enough classes in education, including student teaching, to get a teaching certificate. You'll also take the music core subjects of history, theory, harmony, ear training, basic keyboard skills, and arranging.
What you sacrifice as a music education major is study time on your principal instrument. Performance majors typically take four years of lessons, education majors get only a couple.
You'll have to be the one to figure out what you want to do... and you should do that before you figure out where you want to go. If you decide on teaching in schools, you might ask the teachers at your high school to recommend schools in your area for music education.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
I know I want to teach in a high school, so I am basically ruling out plectrum playing altogether? I already have a classical, I just don't play it much. Can anybody recommend any books or resources for learning to play classical?
