Teach Me to Teach Music

“Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz

A sketch from Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes held at the Yale University Library

“Our manuscript is a sketch that includes the  theme and variations 1, 2, 5, 10, 12, as well as five others that were not  published until 1873, in an appendix edited by none other than Johannes Brahms.  It formerly belonged to Alice Tully (1902–1993), the philanthropist whose name   graces a concert hall in Lincoln Center. She gave it to Vladimir Horowitz (who  counted Schumann’s music among his many specialties in the piano repertoire),  and two years after his death, his widow Wanda Toscanini Horowitz donated it to  Yale. The other principal manuscript source for this piece belongs to the library  of the Royal Museum of Mariemont, in Belgium.”

My freshman year, I have a couple things I wish people had told me. First, I wish someone had told me to stop wearing my lanyard around my neck - it looks dumb and is inconvenient! Second, I wish someone had given me ANY idea of what my classes were going to be like in advance. A music major is, in general, one of the most class intensive majors out there. I took 10 classes my first semester sophomore year, and only had 19 credits. It’s rough.

A music major is generally the same for your first year or so, regardless of specialization, so these classes are all things you’re going to come in contact with!

Music Theory: This class teaches you the nuts and bolts about how and why “classical” music is the way it is. Hint: the answer involves Bach and his hate of parallels. You will take four of these classes over your first four semester. They will get progressively more difficult - for some reason, the third is usually considered hardest of all. You’ll take these at the same time as your Aural Skills classes.

Aural Skills: The point of Aural Skills is to help you improve your ear, sight-reading ability, and ability to convert sight-reading to notes. You have to sing in this class. Yes, that includes you, percussionists. If you don’t practice, you will Have a Bad Time. You will take these at the same time as your Music Theory classes.

Piano: This class is going to beat the basic elements of piano playing into your head. There may be anywhere from one to three classes in the Piano series that you have to take, depending on if you are an Education major. If you took piano lessons before college, or if you’re a pianist, you may be able to test out of some of them. Pianists will likely take something else more advanced. This is where Education majors learn all those warm-ups and stuff that teachers play in lessons, and where non Ed majors learn how to at least kind of fake the ability to use the world’s second most common instrument. Practice or you will once again Have a Bad Time.

Lessons: These are your actual private lessons with your teacher. They can be half an hour to an hour long, and they’re usually once a week. PRACTICE or else cry. Potentially cry as you practice. This class lasts your entire college career.

Seminar: This is a performance class that can have a bunch of other names. Essentially, once a week your whole studio will meet up and your professor will either have people perform, or potentially just discuss topics specific to your instrument. It’s a good time. If you’re assigned to perform on a certain day, write it down! Or you will forget! This class lasts your entire college career.

Convocation: Convocation, which can also have a bunch of different names, is a time when ALL the music majors (or at least the underclassmen, depending on your school) come to the same place to listen to either performances or a lecture on something music-related. This class is required for four to eight semesters.

Music History: The bane of underclassmen everywhere, Music History classes are a study in fitting as much knowledge about as many people and as much music into your head as you possibly can. These classes are usually really interesting for the two weeks where your instrument or genre specialty is discussed, and is hard to pay attention to the rest of the time. Do it anyway, this stuff is important. (Also, it usually only covers Western European music post 1200, so if you want to learn about stuff that isn’t that, you’ll have to learn on your own, because we exist in a society based on colonialism.)

Ensembles: These are orchestra, band, choir, or other potential large music groups. Performance in an ensemble is usually mandatory, the entire time you attend. Pianists, that includes you! These are fun. Chair placing and seating do not mean as much as you think they do.

Gen eds: Unless you were super into AP classes in high school, you’re probably going to have to take a significant number of general education credits in college. Start by taking at LEAST one or two your first two semesters, just to help ensure that you aren’t getting to your senior year with 24 gen ed credits left to deal with. That is not a fun place to be. Your gen eds will likely require more actual studying time (as opposed to practice room time) than any of your classes except Music History or Music Theory, so try and schedule an hour a couple days a week for just that class - it will make it much more likely you give it the attention and get the grade you and the class deserve.

Valentine’s day is on a Tuesday this year. Gross. Studying. Gross. Study your best on this holiday by using one of these study moods to match your own!

The Bitter One: Black coffee, listening to punk rock anthems alone in a study room, reading and rewriting your notes.

This is probably the most common study mood this V-Day. let’s be honest.

The Happily Single One: Sparkling water, listening to top 40 music, reading your assigned texts in a cafe.

Doing your own thing is great! So is chilling by yourself in public. Get those readings done in a nice atmosphere!

The In-Love One: Sparkling grape juice (or champage!), listening to love songs, quizzing flashcards with your SO (or best friend!).

Valentine’s Day is considered a time of togetherness. So go and study with the person you want to hang out with most! Friend-love is just as valid as romantic love.

The Lonely One:  Hot chocolate, listening to Adele, studying flashcards on Quizlet.

Sometimes if you’re lonely it’s best just to wallow in it a little. That’s okay. You do you.

The Indifferent One: Lemon water, listening to soundtracks, writing essays wherever the heck you want.

Who cares about this holiday. It’s commercialized. And writing essays is a task that waits for no one.

The Mushy One: Mocha latte, listening to rom coms in the background, analyzing literature. 

Sometimes you just need to get in the spirit, you know. Rom coms will do that for you. 

Shit it’s already Valentine’s Day????: Studying the art of apologizing to your significant other.

Girls! Women! Fellow femme performers! Whenever you have the chance, learn the basics of microphones, sound systems, and other music tech. You don’t have to know everything, but the more you know about the difference between a mixer and a monitor, or how to avoid feedback, the less time you’ll spend getting talked over and condescended to by male musicians and sound guys.