A love of music and an interest in a particular instrument is a good start, but finding the right music teacher for yourself or your child is essential to cultivating a positive, lifelong relationship with the musician’s journey. A music teacher should be more than just the dictator of technical finesse and playing strategies, s/he should also connect on a personal level with the students – creating a safe, trusting and inspiring instructional environment in which the student can thrive. 

 

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The conductor is the most important figure in the orchestra, but the first violinist - also called the orchestral concertmaster - is a close second. For music students, the coveted "first chair violin" position is more about "being the best" than anything else. It's a consistently dangling carrot and the subject of much controversy and competition if orchestra or band teachers aren't diplomatic themselves.

 

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Summer is the perfect time to develop your professional skills in the music industry. With no classes taking the lion’s share of your attention and energy, summer jobs are opportunities to explore. You can try out a new musical experience for a few months. If it turns out not to be the right one – best to find out through a summer posting!

 

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Graduation is such an exciting time. Years of hard work are finally culminating in a well-earned degree and credential. Plus, you know, the parties are pretty good.

 

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As musicians interested in scholarships and acceptance into music school, the focus becomes narrowed to academics and musicianship. But there is another area that is important to consider in this social media-centered world – your very public online presence.

 

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Does being a fantastic strings player mean you're on the way to the top of the orchestral career ladder? Not necessarily.

 

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Putting together a demo reel is a must-do for any music student. You have so much to focus on and it seems your actual performance is just one piece of it. There’s everything from the acoustics and technical quality of the recording to what you’re wearing. You also need to think about whether you are legally recording the song you’re performing.  That’s right. You have copyright laws to consider as well. 

 

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School is expensive. You know that. Debt is bad. Hopefully you know that, too. The bottom line then (quite literally) to making your music school dreams come true is finding the right collection of music scholarships.

 

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A single violin competition can be a challenge. Preparing and applying for multiple competitions can feel overwhelming. But there is method to your madness in casting a wide net to find violin competition success. So, apply some method to managing all the information and tasks needed to apply and move forward.

 

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For all you budding composers out there, your career path may take you into the realm of “New Music” by definition. While there aren’t strict definitions of what qualifies as new music, one universally accepted criterion that qualifies any music as new music is its date of composition. So if you’re composing now, you’re composing new music.

 

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