Schools of mucis in the south east?

donalson · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 9:18 pm Post subject:

well i'm fairly shure i've decided on going into music this time around... I did my freshmen year at a local community college which somewhat killed my passion for music but after a 2 year brake from school i think i'm ready to goto a real school.

i'm looking to be starting in the fall of '03 so i have some time to research this and get my chops back into shape, i'd like to dual major in preformance and music Ed

i'm looking to stay in the south east part of the country here's a list of states i'd consider

- FL (where i am right now)
- Alabama
- Georgia
- South carolina
- north carolina
- tennesse
- mississippi
- louisiana
- Arkansas

of those states i know there is a lot of schol choices... things i'm looking for is a very strong legit teaching, never been one for jazz, i'd also love a good marching band but thats not THAT high up on the list.

so any sugestions

thanks
mark aka donalson
Play it with a passion

sfenick · Regular Member Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 36

Florida State and Miama are both great schools, and are in your state of choice. Georgia has Fred Mills on their faculty, so probably a good chance you will get great legit teaching there (even if not from him). There are others, but these come readily to mind. I could post a pretty impressive list, but for the sake of brevity knowing more of your criteria would be helpful.
Thank you,
Steve Fenick

donalson · Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 11:43 pm Post subject:

fred mills where do i know that name from?

anway the school requirements, like i said before a strong legit teaching, if the school had an orchestra that would be awesome, i've always loved playing w/ the local one and lisenting to recordings of a full orchestra

i'd like to do both preformance and education as my majors but if one had to give it would be my preformance, i'd ultamately like to teach High school, i see that as beeing so rewarding as time passes, i loved giving private lessons to "budding" students and i feel the same would be for the entire band.

i'd also like a good marching band, i loved marching in HS and miss it. i loved the very millitant style we had, very drum corp-ish style rather then a showy style, i'm not a FL state fan at all largely because of seeing how horable one of their shows where... Ohio state on the other hand is probley the most amazing SCHOOL marching band i have EVER seen (my college marching band experiance is sadly very limited)

lastly... the school must be affordable, i'm now married which = i'm poor

i had a great experiance at stetson when visiting w/ my Jr. college but feel the private school cost is out of my leauge, My HS band directior whom i highly respect keeps pushing his school on me (Universtiy of alabama) due to this i'm somewhat swayed in thinking that may be the school for me, the only other school i've had any experiance w/ was Mr. bach from the University of NC in greensboro, i was at a clinic of his while in HS, from talking w/ him he seemed like a teacher i would love to work w/

anyway any more sugestions would be great

... i'm in no rush

thanks
mark

donalson · Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2002 12:00 am Post subject:

PH · Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2002 8:14 am Post subject:

1. Is money an object
- YES i'm married so i will have some finacial support for the wife but other then what scholarships, pell, and loan $$$ i can get i'll be working my way though school
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Then you should probably limit your search to state schools and you should look at the state schools in Florida (your present home state) first. Florida has a number of outstanding music programs in their state university system.

State schools are generally cheaper than private schools. Additionally, in-state residents usually pay approximately half as much tuition at state schools than residents of other states. This is due to a subsidy that comes to those colleges from state tax coffers. If you have your heart set on attending a state school in a state other than Florida you might consider moving to that state first and establishing residency for a year before inquiring about admissions procedures. This is risky. You might end up not wanting to go to that school or you might not be admitted. In-state residency could be worth $10-15K over the course of a four-year degree, however.

Many times I see people getting excited because they were awarded a scholarship of $15,000 per year to a private school ($60K over 4 years) and they are bugged that the state school didn’t offer them any financial aid. However, when they figure the bottom line they discover that the private school is still going to cost them $5,000 more per year than good old State U.!
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2. How do you feel about big school vs. small?
- i guess i'm in-between in HS we had about 20 trumpet students, in college i was the only one, I thrived on compatition which ment when it was jsut me (in college) i backed off, this being said i don't just want to be a face in the crowd when it comes to the professors... i like them to know my name so somewhere between is ideal i supose
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Then you probably want a school that has at least a couple of hundred music majors. You probably don’t want North Texas, Miami, or Indiana.
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3. How do you weigh academics vs. the music "trade school" approach?
- obviously as i plan to do education along w/ preformance the academics is a must even though i don't like that part of schooling
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You should look at the classes required for music education majors at each school. There is a surprising amount of difference from school to school (and state to state) as to what classes a music ed major must take: how many academics, how much non-music stuff in the school of education, how much music theory and music history, etc. It sounds like you want to be sure you get plenty of time (and credit hours) in ensembles and a relatively high number of credit hours for your trumpet lessons (this also can vary a lot).
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Based on everything you have told me so far I would suggest that you investigate the following schools in Florida (forgive me if I omit a great one-this is hard):
Florida
Florida State
South Florida
Central Florida
That list is in no particular order.

The trumpet teachers at all four schools are great-not just good! I don’t know how the ensembles are at UCF. You should investigate. I know that the jazz groups are superb at USF, but I don’t really know much about the bands and orchestras.

You should also investigate some of the other state schools in the other states you mentioned. This will give you a good basis for comparison and you might find one that you prefer.

In addition to Alabama I would suggest looking at:
UA-Birmingham
Georgia
Georgia State
South Carolina
UNC-Chapel Hill
UNC-Greensboro
Appalachian State
Tennessee
LSU
NW Louisiana

I know more about these than some of the other programs in the states you mention. I am sure that many of them would be fine as well. There is a lot of diversity in this list. Big city/small town, big school/small school, lots of grad students/no grad students, etc.

Be sure to visit the campuses you are interested in. Listen to the ensembles rehearse and perform. Talk to the trumpet teacher. Talk to the students. Sit in the practice room or student lounge and listen to what (and how) the students talk about their lives/classes/teachers.

WARNING: All students bitch. While you’re in school everyone thinks school sucks. After you leave it was the best time in your life.

Good luck!!!

donalson · Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2002 11:28 am Post subject:

again thanks for all the good sugestions.

as for residency i was going to look into that, i'm in the VERY far north of FL so hoping the border wouldn't be that bad.

i know while in michigan i found that the residency requirement was a mear 30 days vs FL's 12 months, i'm hopeing that i find more on the 30 day residency requrments rather then the 12 month ones (12 months is largely due to a mix of the fact that this is a tourist state)

guess it's time for some more research on my end

thanks again
mark

PH · Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2002 7:18 am Post subject:

I know that here in Indiana it is 12 months. Ditto for Ohio (where I used to teach in the '80s & '90s).

However, I know that there is some kind of a deal (details are sketchy) in Texas where if the school offers you above a certain dollar amount in scholarship that you are classified as a state employee and resident and they waive the out of state tuition. So...if you could get UNT to offer you a $3,000 scholarship (hypothetically) you would also automatically qualify for the reduced Texas resident tuition.

Does someone know more precise details of this?

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2002-08-24 10:20 ]

trptcase · Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 12:47 pm Post subject:

Hopefully I can provide some more details on this...

I am originally from IL and went to school at North Texas for my undergrad. As far as North Texas goes, any scholarship in the amount of $1,000 dollars or more waives your out-of-state tuition. They generally don't give amounts over the $1,000 for out-of-state students. So, in reality, the scholarship is worth a lot more. This scholarship is renewable on a year to year basis. (I finished in four and was able to renew it each year, but I've heard if it takes you five, they are reluctant to renew it a fifth year).

From what I understand, this amount of $1,000 is the case for all Texas state schools. Hope this helps!

Casey Matthews

cgooding · Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 12:59 pm Post subject:

If you already live in north Florida, go to Florida State. It has one of the top Schools of Music in the country, and it's cheap!!!! They may not have the best trumpet teacher in the country, but the rest of the school makes up for that.
_________________
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

PH · Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:32 pm Post subject:

There are an awful lot of very good trumpet players coming through Bryan Goff's studio @ FSU. That means that he is a very good teacher and/or he attracts very good students...and you'll have a stimulating peer group. Either way that sounds like a good deal.

Cavalier · Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:47 pm Post subject:

Ed Bach at the university of north carolina @ greensboro is indeed a fine teacher. They have a great music program as well and just opened a new music building three short years ago. He has some great players and has turned out some terrific talent in the last few years. You should drop him an email sometime or give him a call.

Derek

trptcase · Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 2:22 pm Post subject:

Actually, I forgot to add...

I am starting my master's here at FSU (actually classes started today) and while I haven't had a chance to be involved in ensembles or anything yet, I have met a lot of great trumpet players this week. Everyone here seems very motivated and it appears to be a very positive environment among students and faculty. I am really looking forward to it.

Casey Matthews

sfenick · Regular Member Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 36

donalson · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2002 10:47 am Post subject:

thanks about the fred mills... yes thats where i know the name from

... been out of the scene for to long i guess.

mark

BeboppinFool · Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2002 8:15 pm Post subject:

donalson · Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 2:38 am Post subject:

PH · Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 5:37 am Post subject:

Rich is right. USF is a great program to look into.

Dr. Jay Coble is the trumpet teacher there. He is fantastic. His degrees are from places like Indiana, where he studied with Bill Adam, and USC (So. Cal.), where he learned about the Stamp approach from Roy Poper. He is also a very musical teacher...and a very funny guy.

Jay can really play. In addition to being a fine legit player he had a number of years in LA and on the road, including long stints with Paul Anka and Tom Jones.

njp · Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2002 6:01 am Post subject:

"il pirata!"
Check out East Carolina University! Students typically do well at ITG and NTC competitions and the city provides a chance to really focus on practicing. The professor Britton Theurer donates virtually all his time to students; meeting with them from 6:30AM to 11PM! Unbelievable dedication and care!

PH · Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2002 6:57 am Post subject:

Britton is a REALLY great guy!

mcshane72 · New Member Joined: 07 Nov 2002 Posts: 3

I really enjoyed studying with Michael Johnson at Alabama. Laid back yet knows his stuff. The brass department has the reputation of being slack within the school of music but it is what you make of it. The students in his studio are not as malicious some others in the Southeast. Good luck!