The Transition to College

This is an article from the original Horn Notes Blog, first posted on 10/10/06.

I was looking recently in the website of my ASU oboe colleague Martin Schuring and noticed that he had a new article on Preparing for and Choosing a College that should be of interest to anyone considering music schools and degrees in music.

One paragraph of this article has come back to mind several times in teaching lessons since then, where he states

A lot of lesson time in high school is spent preparing the student for the next concert, audition, or contest. As a performance major in college, the emphasis shifts to really teaching the student how to play. This transition can be difficult and stressful for the unprepared.

Not only does he in this quote encapsulate what is the difference between college and high school level study, but also he gets at the difference between teaching lessons to high school and college students. You have to look toward longer range goals in college, goals that can’t be met without overcoming challenges that take a while to work out. Kopprasch etudes in B-flat basso, for example, are not that fun but performing these in this manner trains several skills that must be mastered to be able to reach the next level as a player.

Check out his entire article, much of it relates to horn study just as easily as oboe.

The additional thought I would add (2009) is I have seen this played out over and over, and it could be even applied to the way some teachers teach. Those that teach a lot of high school and younger students tend to be good at cheer-leading and focusing in on what needs to be learned for the next major event be it contest or youth symphony auditions or such. The college professor has to get down to the long term business of actually working out all the underlying technique. If you are a teacher it is a topic to ponder.