8 Ways to Study Music in College
When a high school student says, “I want to study music in college,” that can mean a variety of things. They might want to become a professional classical violinist, write songs, compose film scores, produce records, teach high school band, study music history, work in the music industry, develop new audio technology, or study something completely different while continuing to perform at a high level.
Families often begin by asking whether a student should attend a conservatory or a university. Before deciding where to study music, students should think about how they want to study it and what role they want music to play in their undergraduate experience.
Here are 8 different paths to consider.
1. Performance: When You Want to Master Your Instrument or Voice
For a student who wants to become a professional performer, a performance-focused program provides the most intensive undergraduate musical training. Students typically spend significant time in private lessons, ensembles, rehearsals, studio classes, music theory, ear training, music history, and individual practice.
These programs often lead to a Bachelor of Music (BM) and are commonly found in conservatories and university schools of music. Admission typically depends heavily on the audition, and some highly selective programs require applicants to pass a prescreening before receiving a live audition.
For performance students, one factor deserves particular attention: your private teacher. A violinist isn't simply choosing a university or conservatory; they may be choosing the professor who will shape their playing for the next four years. Research the program, take a trial lesson when possible, talk with current students, and find out how much access undergraduates actually have to the primary faculty member.
2. Composition, Songwriting and Scoring: When You Want to Create the Music
Some musicians are most excited by creating their own music. That might mean classical composition, songwriting, arranging, electronic composition, film scoring, game scoring, or writing for musical theater.
These programs can lead to a BM, BA, BFA, or another specialized bachelor's degree depending on the school. Admissions may also look quite different from traditional performance admissions. Instead of relying primarily on an instrumental or vocal audition, students may submit portfolios containing original compositions, recordings, scores, or songs.
Students considering this path should start building a body of original work well before senior year. The goal isn't simply to demonstrate technical ability. A strong portfolio should begin to reveal something about the student's artistic voice: What do you create when nobody tells you what to create?
3. Music Production, Recording and Audio Engineering: When the Studio Is Your Instrument
For some students, the recording studio or laptop is as much an instrument as a piano or guitar. Programs in music production, recording arts, audio engineering and sound design combine creativity with technical training.
Students may study recording techniques, mixing, mastering, acoustics, digital audio workstations, electronics, live sound, and signal processing while producing actual recordings. Depending on the institution, these programs might lead to a BM, BS, BA, or BFA.
The differences between programs can be enormous. One may essentially be a traditional music degree with significant production training, while another may resemble an engineering or technology program centered around audio. Look beyond the title and examine the actual courses, studios, equipment, faculty, and projects students complete.
4. Music Technology: When Music Meets Computer Science and Innovation
Music technology overlaps with production, but it can go considerably further into computing and emerging technology. Students might explore digital signal processing, acoustics, software development, electronic instruments, interactive media, artificial intelligence, spatial audio, or the technologies used to create and manipulate sound.
For the student who loves both music and technology, this can create an exciting alternative to choosing between the two. Some programs are housed within music schools, while others connect music with computer science, engineering, or interdisciplinary technology programs.
Students should pay particular attention to the balance. Does the program primarily train musicians to use technology, or does it provide substantial technical and computational education as well? Those can lead to very different undergraduate experiences and career possibilities.
5. Music Business: When You Want to Build a Career Around Music
The music industry needs far more than performers. Music business programs can prepare students for careers in artist management, record labels, publishing, concert promotion, licensing, marketing, distribution, touring, and entrepreneurship.
These programs can also differ substantially depending on where they are housed. A music business major inside a school of music may include theory, musicianship, and performance requirements. A program connected to a business school may place much greater emphasis on marketing, finance, management, and entrepreneurship.
Students should also look closely at location and experiential opportunities. Internships, industry partnerships, student-run labels, concert organizations and access to working professionals may be just as important as the courses listed in the catalog.
6. Music Education: When You Want to Teach
For the student who dreams of becoming a school music teacher, directing an orchestra, leading a marching band, or teaching elementary music, a music education program provides specialized preparation for that career.
Students still receive substantial musical training, but they also study conducting, pedagogy, educational psychology, teaching methods, and curriculum development. Classroom observations and student teaching are typically important parts of the experience.
Because teacher certification requirements can shape the curriculum, music education programs may have less elective flexibility than some other music degrees. Students should also investigate where a program leads to certification and what additional steps would be required if they eventually want to teach in another state.
7. Musicology, Music Theory and the Academic Study of Music
Some students love music as much intellectually as they do artistically. They want to understand how music developed, why it works, how it interacts with culture, or how different musical traditions developed around the world.
Those students may gravitate toward musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, music history, or other forms of academic music study. At the undergraduate level, these areas are often concentrations within a broader BA in Music rather than standalone degrees.
This path can be particularly well suited to students who want music to be part of a broad liberal arts education. They may still perform, compose, or take lessons, but their academic work asks larger questions about music itself: its structures, traditions, history, meaning, and relationship to society.
8. Dual Degrees and Interdisciplinary Programs: When You Have Several Interests
What happens when a student is a conservatory-level musician but is equally serious about engineering, economics, neuroscience, or another academic field?
Some universities offer formal dual-degree programs that allow students to pursue intensive professional music training while earning another degree elsewhere in the university. A student might graduate with both a BM and a BA or BS. Because students are completing two sets of degree requirements, these programs can sometimes take five years or more.
Other colleges encourage interdisciplinary combinations without requiring two separate degrees. A student interested in music and computer science, for example, might combine the two through a double major, minors, electives, or an individualized program.
These options can be demanding, but they can be transformative for students who don't want to decide at 17 that pursuing one passion means abandoning another.
Where Do Conservatories Fit Into All of This?
Once you've thought about these 10 paths, the question of conservatory or university becomes much easier to answer.
A conservatory generally provides a highly immersive environment in which music dominates both the curriculum and the community. A university school of music can provide similarly intensive professional training while surrounding students with a much larger university and a wider range of academic opportunities. A liberal arts college or university music department may offer greater flexibility for students who want music to be one important part of a broader education.
But these categories aren't absolute. A conservatory can exist within a university. A university school of music can provide training every bit as intensive as a standalone conservatory. A liberal arts college can have extraordinary faculty and performance opportunities.
That's why families should look at the degree, curriculum, faculty, facilities, performance opportunities and access to subjects outside music.
Start With the Life You Want, Not the College Name
Families often begin by searching for the “best music schools.” Try reversing the process.
If you are the student, imagine an ordinary Tuesday during your sophomore year of college. Are you practicing violin for three hours before orchestra rehearsal? Recording an original song with friends? Writing music for a student film? Working in a recording studio? Learning to build new audio technology? Preparing to teach a middle school music class? Studying the history of jazz? Leaving a computer science class and heading to a chamber orchestra?
Ask yourself, “What do I want music to look like in my college experience, and which undergraduate path gives me the best opportunity to explore it?”
Once you understand that, building the college list becomes a lot easier.
Not sure which path is right for you? At Mentor Admissions, we help students look beyond the college name to find the programs, degrees, and opportunities that match how they actually want to study music. Schedule a complimentary consultation here, and let’s start building a college list around you.