Taking classes at uni

ShiroKuro

I wrote a little bit about this in the other thread but I have more info now so I thought I’d start a new thread.

Some of you may know that I am a university prof (not in music) and two years ago I moved to a new institution which has a very well-regarded music school. I initially looked into it when we first moved here, and I didn’t think there was a way for me to take lessons there. I ended up finding the community music school I’m at now and didn’t look into further. Well when I found out my teacher was leaving, I looked into it again and I found out that there’s a tuition benefit for faculty which pays for us to take one course per semester. Any course. I just registered as a non-degree-seeking student, and now I can sign up for courses. I’ll be taking intro to music theory in the summer session (staring next month!) Yay!

I talked with my piano teacher this week after our last lesson and it won’t be possible for me to have lessons with him at least until after the end of July. And then after that, the location he’ll teach at is so inconvenient for me that it would be hard to make it work with my work commitments. So while it’s not impossible, it seems unlikely that we would be able to make it work. Also, he won’t be doing recitals (which is one of the things I liked about the music school) so that would be another drawback to continuing to work with him. ETA I forgot the other big thing that concerned me, which is that he said he and his wife are planning to move out of town with the next 12 months, so even if we could keep working together, there’s a predetermined end date there anyway.

So I kept digging into options at the music school at my uni.

And I discovered that the music school offers a course that non-music majors can take, which are one-on-one instrument lessons, and they have a piano program just for that. So I’ve been emailing with the head of that program, and I decided I’m going to sign up for fall classes in piano. I will have a one-hour weekly lesson on campus. Here’s the set-up:

students are asked to learn 3 contrasting pieces over the course of a semester (but we are very flexible on this: the pieces can include pop, jazz, classical, or even focus more on certain skills—for example, some students might want to work on scales and finger exercises as one of their "pieces"). You would discuss your goals with your instructor and they would work with you to pick material that is suitable for your level and interest. You would play one of your pieces for me or for the piano program assistant at the end of the semester as your "jury" - this is a 5-minute, informal performance where memorization is not required.

I think this sounds so cool! And they have tons of class time options, and I can walk over to the music school from my office… logistically this will be perfect. And it will give me the chance to get connected to the music school and I may be able to find a violin or cello player to play with. Also I suspect the music school will offer more opportunities to play in recitals that I don’t know about yet.

And, I may be able to continue a relationship with the community music school (for example, by doing a once-monthly lesson) if I decide I want to keep that connection to play in their recitals…

But I am so excited about getting connected to the music school at my uni!! I feel like this will open up all kinds of possibilities for me!

And maybe I’ll eventually follow in @Sam ’s footsteps? 🙂

twocats

ShiroKuro maybe this will turn out even better than continuing lessons with your old teacher! 😃

Sam

ShiroKuro That's all good news. The University I attended had something similar as far as piano lessons, but it was a studio run by the pedagogy professor so that piano students could do student teaching. The cost was low, it was open to anyone, and a portion of the money made it back to the student teachers. I taught for 2 semesters to meet the requirements - teaching was not my favorite activity! I had a 9 year old beginner and an adult who was a professor in a different department. The professor did not practice!

The drawbacks I saw:

tied to the semester schedule. Things were slow to start and had to be done before exams.
student teachers changed as students took pedagogy or not, or when they moved on. So not much continuity.
The student teachers were being graded, so the final lesson was with the pedagogy teacher observing. So the student had gotten used to their student teacher, and now at the last lesson there is a new person observing. And the teachers had to have lesson plans for every lesson that were submitted to the pedagogy professor - so no going off track - stick to the schedule!

We did have recitals at the end of the semester, in the recital hall on one of the 9 foot steinways, with printed programs recognizing the students and the student teachers, which was a nice touch.

iternabe

ShiroKuro Exciting! This would be interesting so please keep us posted on your experience.

My casual search of finding access to acoustic piano (without buying one) lead to the possibility of using the piano practice room in my local university. Some say the room can be sparsely used during certain hours the one can just walk in and play as long there is no lock. The university do offer non-degree enrollment so one just pay for class they want to take. I suppose I could just enroll and sign up for class like Music Theory 101, then gain legit access to the practice room.

Player1

The school probably has a chamber music group you could possibly join. That would give you more opportunities to play in public too.

One bugaboo I have is that we have music degree program classes at our local community college and the University in Santa Barbara has a music department. We even have a vibrant music culture here but strangely enough there are no public pianos locally. My one wish would be that college music departments would extend their influence to local businesses and communities to get venues and opportunities for people to play informally (as in unorganized rather than organized festivals or recitals) for the general public through use space and/or available instruments like a public piano.

In my case there's a piano in the lobby of one of the hospitals here. I asked and they said only employees are allowed to play it. No employee plays it. Ever. An agreement with the community college music program to allow students to reserve a time to play it in the evenings 1 or 2 days per week so they could become more comfortable in public settings would be a good partnership, yet no one cares to even try to make that happen. When I tried, I got shut down.

So, perhaps some words on your part to your music dept might find some community partnership involvement outside the classes and school programs. These wouldn't be recitals and no seating would be created or available because it's for learning how to play in public before strangers, not guests.

ShiroKuro

twocats maybe this will turn out even better than continuing lessons with your old teacher!

That is my hope！It's kind of a high bar to clear though!

Player1 When I tried, I got shut down.

How frustrating! I know that there is a group in the music school that organizes local concerts (free, in retirement ctrs) because I've played with them once, so I think I will be able to have tighter connections there, and maybe even be involved on the organizing side eventually.

@Sam Very interesting observations!

The student teachers were being graded, so the final lesson was with the pedagogy teacher observing. So the student had gotten used to their student teacher, and now at the last lesson there is a new person observing. And the teachers had to have lesson plans for every lesson that were submitted to the pedagogy professor - so no going off track - stick to the schedule!

I don't have the impression that there's anything like this. But there is a music education program in the music school (with options to do a BA, MA or PhD in music ed) so I will find out whether or how much the one-on-one classes for non-majors (which is what I'll take for now) are connected to the music ed program, and/or taught by people there.

Even if I end up not continuing more than a few semesters, I'm hoping it will help me get more connections in the community.

Sam

iternabe Back when I was working at a University I was able to pay a small fee and get access to the practice rooms, which was by ID card access, like a hotel key card. I was as allowed in as long as no one was using the room. Used to go over on my lunch hour and practice.

ShiroKuro

iternabe The university do offer non-degree enrollment so one just pay for class they want to take.

Assuming I’m calculating right, the price to take a three-credit class at my uni (which is what the music theory class and the piano lesson class are, three credits) is almost twice as much as the price of private lessons that I take at the community music school. (I’ll find out for sure soon!) I only say this to say that I couldn’t do this without the faculty tuition benefit I’m getting.

On the subject of uni practice rooms, my uni’s music school is so big, I doubt they allow anyone to use the practice rooms unless they’re in the program (the website says you can use them if you’re taking any music class, for majors or non-majors).

But when I was in graduate school, that uni allowed any student to use the practice rooms, so even though I never took a music class while I was there, I used the practice rooms all the time. Even though the pianos were horribly abused, they were mostly in tune and all I had at home was a digital, so I loved being able to play on a grand. That uni had a pretty large number of rooms with grands in them. I rarely had the experience of not being able to find a room with a grand, so I only played in an upright room maybe once or twice.

Then in my first faculty position, that uni had a very small music program and very few practice rooms. All the practice rooms were very small and only had uprights, which were all very loud and clangy so I only went there once. I never went again because I thought practicing there would damage my hearing!

I’ll be interested to see how the practice rooms are here, in terms of the number of grands, condition of instruments etc.