Music Schools - help?

[nathanmcnathan]

Hey everybody. This year I'm going to be graduating, and I need to start planning which schools I'm going to audition for. I want to study contemporary music and jazz, either in performance or composition. I live in Ontario, Canada, and I've been doing a lot of research as to what schools I'd like to attend. Can anybody make some recommendations for good music schools? I'm likely going to go for colleges, but some universities would probaby accept me.
Thanks!

[thedbassist]

Some of the top jazz schools are the University of Miami, Manhattan School of Music, USC and UNT. There are other great schools, these are just some of the top that come to mind.

[brivello]

Where do you want to live? city/small town ect. what instrument do you plan on playing?(I'm guessing bass, electric or upright?). Price range?

be sure to check out who your instructor would be and maybe even get a lesson from them before you commit to a school.

as for my recommendations. If you want to live in the city(like me). Philadelphia or New York is the place to be. Lots of live music. Big acts as well as a good sized jazz community.

Schools I looked into:
Philadelphia:
University of the Arts
Temple

New York:
The New School
NYU

I ended up choosing temple(I'm starting this fall). Great Music department, great bass teachers, I liked the campus, very good value $ wise. good luck finding a school

[charlespf]

I'm getting ready to start my applications. My list is:

NEC
Berklee
New School
CalArts
UMich

I decided that I really want to live in a big city, and all those schools have programs/bass professors that I like.
I'm planning on applying to UMich because I live in Ann Arbor, I'm studying in the bass studio currently (and Diana Gannett is amazing), and they have an excellent program.

I'd personally like to hear some info on the caliber of students in conservatory versus students in university programs (generally speaking, of course). I feel like the nice thing about going to a strictly music school would be the opportunity in being purely surrounded by music, and living in a large city would give me the chance to also absorb a lot of culture, both music and otherwise.

You might want to check out Humber College in Toronto, which is supposed to have a fantastic jazz program. There are a few awesome players who studied there living in my town. Also McGill in Montreal has an excellent jazz program.
A lot of the New York schools have great jazz programs, New School (huge bass faculty), MSM (Harvie S), CCNY (Patitucci), Juilliard (Ben Wolfe-- huge sound, gut strings kinda guy), etc. North Texas has Lynn Seaton, a wonderful player and poster on the board, UM has Bob Hurst, and Michigan State has Rodney Whitaker. Lots of options.

I also don't know what your scene looks like, but in my city, if you're planning on applying to any of the schools who require recordings, we're encouraged to have those made by the beginning of the school year, before stuff gets really busy. I'm getting ready to record my guitar trio right now.

Anyway, best of luck!


EDIT


Nathan, did you ever play at MusicFest Canada? My school combo went and played in Vancouver a couple years ago. Didn't make it this year because of tight scheduling. Just curious.

[iandmcelroy]

In Canada:

Humber
U of T (Don Thompson is the chair of the Music Dept there)
Nelson School of Contemporary Music
Vancouver Island University
Mohawk College
Capialno College
Concordia
McGill


The States:

Berklee
MI
and all the rest of the heavy schools that we've all heard of.

Be aware of how much it costs for foreign student to attend colleges. I looked into Berklee and it was somewhere around 60,000 a year plus living expenses. That was a while ago and the exchange was worse back then.

[mattfong]

Originally Posted by iandmcelroy

U of T (Don Thompson is the chair of the Music Dept there)

Don Thompson's at Humber. U of T's bass profs are Jim Vivian, Dave Young and Andrew Downing. Both great schools with great teachers.

U of T still hasn't told me who I'm studying with. 2 weeks to go.

Edit: By the way, St. Francis Xavier and York U are a couple more Canadian schools.

[jumpinin]

Originally Posted by mattfong

Don Thompson's at Humber. U of T's bass profs are Jim Vivian, Dave Young and Andrew Downing. Both great schools with great teachers.

U of T still hasn't told me who I'm studying with. 2 weeks to go.

Edit: By the way, St. Francis Xavier and York U are a couple more Canadian schools.

I did a music degree at St.FX. On the negative side it's a very small town in rural Nova Scotia so there are very few opportunities to play outside of the university itself. On the plus side, it's a very small town in rural Nova Scotia so there are very few distractions from shedding and rehearsing. The bass prof was Skip Beckwith while I was there but I hear he's had some health problems so I'm not sure who's there now.

[Villam]

I had a pretty negative experience with my bass studies at St. FX. Rather than express personal details about the person I had this experience with, let me just offer to share my views via PM to anyone interested.

[nathanmcnathan]

Originally Posted by charlespf

Nathan, did you ever play at MusicFest Canada? My school combo went and played in Vancouver a couple years ago. Didn't make it this year because of tight scheduling. Just curious.

I did this year, but only for our school's concert band. Our jazz combo wasn't strong enough this year, so we didn't enter - too bad, because we had the best drummer in our school, and we were our teacher's favourite rhythm section.

[PocketGroove82]

Nathan,
As a guy who has been to a mega-large, famous contemporary music school I will offer my advice. Decide what kind of lifestyle you want to have...city life, college town...etc. Go in person during the school year and check out the school to see if you "vibe" with the student body. I knew many people who didn't check it out prior and they found themselves to be uncomfortable and out of touch with their peers (imagine a 45 year old, mother of three, classically trained vocalist, in class with a bunch of 18 year old stoners). lol, true story. Also, I would think about how large of a program you are looking for. Do you want to be 1 of 5 bass majors, or 1 of 80...can you hang with the cut-throat, small fish, big pond, thing?

There are a ton of little things to consider to ensure that you get to the right place. I spent years at one school thinking it was the one for me, and then I got out on the road and saw numerous other schools which I now realize where a much better fit.

Good Luck!
Matt

[nathanmcnathan]

So, I've decided I'm going to wait an extra year to go to college - I'm going to work full-time for a year to save up enough money, so that I'm not distracted by money at school.

[HaVIC5]

Be aware of how much it costs for foreign student to attend colleges. I looked into Berklee and it was somewhere around 60,000 a year plus living expenses. That was a while ago and the exchange was worse back then.

Foreign tuition is the same as domestic tuition in the states, since there is no federal funding that goes to higher education. The one exception is in public schools that get state money - then in-state tuition becomes cheaper than out of state. This definitely does not apply to big private names like Berklee, New School, Juliard, NEC, etc.

Just a common misconception to clear up.

[Eric Swanson]

Another factor to possibly consider is the music scene in which a school functions. Where do you want to live/work as a player after graduation?

Are you interested in studio work? Would you like to work in show bands? Do you see yourself on the road as a journeyman sideman? What is your vision (if any, at this point).

If you are interested in jazz, a NY school a la Juilliard, MSM, Mannes, etc. can go a long way toward meeting people who will be working in that scene at one stratum or another. Lots of shows, GB work, and jazz in and around NY. Of course, jazz happens everywhere, but it is tough to beat NY for the concentration of excellent, serious players.

If you are interested in movie stuff and/or studio work, perhaps a California (or Western) school would be a good choice. I know less about those schools, personally.

What I am trying to mention is the networking thing that happens at school. I am a MSM dropout (not proud to say that I walked away from a full scholarship there...) who ultimately chose a career other than music.

Many of my schoolmates, however, are still professional musicians who are now deeply dug in to the current scene, or working on traveling gigs that came out of those connections. What I notice, decades later, is how several of them have continued to expand on the relationships that they started while in school.

I couldn't really understand the value of that when I was younger. People tend to hire and work with people they know and are comfortable with. Similarly, in my non-musical career, it is all about relationships and reputation. Knowing people and having a good rep helps.

So, my point is to try to evaluate not only the faculty, the location, the cost, etc., but to also consider the value of the relationships you will develop. Additionally, the number and caliber of the (professional) playing opportunities that surround the school.

Its great to be in a happening college town with lots of student jam sessions. Its another thing to be in a place where there is paying work for musicians who can read, play, and know some people already in the scene.

Whether a person wants to live in NY is another issue. I am just trying to talk about the contextual thing...

[MingusAmongUs]

Did something get deleted from this thread... or was there another one *exactly* like it a few weeks ago?

[SevenReasons]

Grant MacEwan college in Edmonton has a great jazz and bass program. I graduated about to years ago. There is also a great jazz scene there, and tons of work for bass players. The school also has amazing transferability to other schools as well. Mail me with any questions. I'm playing on a ship right now so it might be a day or to if i get back to ya.Good luck

[dkziemann]

I go to Eastman now.. and while I've only been here for 2 weeks in the jazz program, more than anything I've just been working on things on my own so far. And it's great- there are SO many kids to play with. Look into it

[mapleleaf4evr]

Don't underestimate Humber - it's a good school.

[bnutz]

There have been a lot of great suggestions, and I'm not really sure I've got anything new to add, but mainly just support things others have said.

Primarily, find the person you want to study with and go wherever they are. One (maybe too lengthy) anecdote I've got about this was when I was at USC (although I didn't major in music I took music dept. classes and was in different ensembles) and in a big band (playing trombone) directed by John Clayton. It was a pretty remarkable experience. He actually told us one day "Your parents don't want to hear this, but if you really want to play professionally, you are wasting your money by going to music school." He want on to talk about how you need to find a mentor, do whatever you have to do to get them to accept you as a student and work your tail off. I don't necessarily entirely agree with that, but I see his point. Although I bet most of us here would gladly have forgone university, moved cities, sold our first born, to be mentored by Ray Brown.

I would however very carefully consider who is on faculty, who are the members of local philharmonics, etc. and which great players call that particular city home. Just because your teacher or dept. chair may be X doesn't mean you can't also take lessons or attend gigs of Y & Z.

Taking time off to save money will be helpful if you can't afford your top choices right now, but keep your eye on the prize- it's very easy to get sidetracked. But I'm excited for you... just thinking about that period of my life gets me all gushy.

Best of luck.
-b

[nathanmcnathan]

OK, new development. Looks like I'm not gonna be taking a year off, because then I don't get child support to pay for school. So, I think I'm gonna go to Humber. I think auditions are in may, so basically I have about 8 months to get ready.

[B.C.]

Good luck with everything man.

I would highly suggest University of Illinois. Amazing jazz program with some of the best professors, who actually are at the top of the jazz scene today.