To join an ensemble or take lessons
Students will be able to sign up for an audition time when you arrive on campus
at Jump Start Days (July 20 or July 27, 2009) or Weekend of Welcome (Aug. 22, 2009). Look for the sign-up table in Janzow
Campus Center during registration.
Choral auditions – no prepared solo necessary
Band auditions – scales to demonstrate tone /range and a short sight-reading
excerpts. Be sure to bring your instrument with you.
Private lessons
The Department of Music offers instruction to all students, regardless of major,
in voice, organ, piano, guitar, percussion, and all major woodwind, brass, and
string instruments. Lessons are offered for one or two credits to music majors
and for one credit to non-music majors. Private lessons must be taken for credit
(they cannot be audited) and have a course fee of $145 per credit hour. Contact
your freshman advisor to register for lessons or further information.
Information for music majors
Students who will be majoring in music (this includes in the education program
with a music endorsement) should register for private lessons on your principal
instrument, an ensemble applicable to your program (note that the BME program
requires two ensembles), MU102 (Aural Skills I) and MU103 (Music Theory I).
There is no prerequisite for Music Theory, but it will be helpful if you know
the names of the notes in treble and bass clef, note values (whole, half, quarter,
eighth, sixteenth, dotted and tied notes), and terms such as measure, time signature,
and key signature. If these are unfamiliar, you might wish to ask someone to
help you learn them, or teach yourself at a website such as www.teoria.com,
www.musictheory.net, or www.emusictheory.com. The material on these websites
will occupy the first five weeks of the course, but the more you can learn before
you arrive, then the further ahead you will be. Especially important is the
ability to identify notes on the treble and bass clef staves without hesitation.
The Note Name drill at www.emusictheory.com is particularly good at helping
you learn this.