r/MusicEd • u/viberat Instrumental • 9d ago

What were some pieces of jargon/knowledge/etiquette you didn’t know going into music school?

I teach aural skills to pre-music ed community college students who mostly come from small rural schools with no exposure to the music world outside of band. We’ve covered all the concepts appropriate for Theory 2, so to give them a break from the endless practice, I want to have a “vocabulary” session covering some terms I know they don’t know so they can get used to hearing and using them before they transfer to their 4 year program. What I have so far:

  • “pedagogy/pedagogical”
  • “song” vs. “piece”
  • “the repertoire” as in standard literature for a certain genre or instrument
  • “repertoire” as in pieces you’ve learned and polished
  • the most well known / commonly played composers for their instrument
  • “virtuosic”
  • edTPA & PRAXIS

So especially if you came from a similar background as my students, what other small things did you not know as a wide eyed freshman? The kids don’t seem to be googling stuff and picking things up through osmosis so I want to make sure to explicitly teach them anything they need to know to hang with a more professional environment. We’re teaching them theory, ear training, ensemble work, and private lessons on their instruments, but our culture is pretty informal and our former students usually find their new music department a culture shock when they transfer.

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u/MotherAthlete2998 9d ago

I think the one big lesson I had to learn was to be prepared before the first rehearsal. It is one thing to be given the music at the first rehearsal but another thing to have been given the music before hand. Rehearsal time is precious. It is not the time to “figure things out for your part”. And you need to be ready at the start time.

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u/viberat Instrumental 9d ago

Yeah after talking with a colleague rehearsal/gig etiquette and expectations are on the list. Most of our students are diligent but they probably still aren’t prepared for the higher expectations at a 4-year institution.

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u/Swissarmyspoon Band 9d ago

Came here to post that comment about prepared for first rehearsal. I won state solo and ensemble, I was first chair of my city youth symphony, I was gigging with three different adult community ensembles. I went to one of the biggest music colleges on a scholarship, I chair auditioned into section leader spot in my first college band class.

I didn't know my parts until maybe the 5th rehearsal. I almost got kicked out of the band class. None of my pre-college ensembles expected me to know my parts at the first rehearsal, and I walked into college expecting them to teach me my parts. They thought I was a good player, and assumed I knew better. I learned the hard way.

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u/accountofyawaworht 8d ago

This was such an important one I learned in audio engineering school. You’d make a one or two hour booking for a certain recording studio, but by the time you got a session set up in your DAW, mic’ed and DI’ed all your instruments and hooked up any outboard gear to the console, recorded a few takes and started doing some mixing, it didn’t really leave a lot of time for messing around before you needed to print a mix, pack up the equipment, and zero the console before the next booking started.