Klarinet Archive - Posting 000020.txt from 1995/07

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Minor correction
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 01:42:27 -0400

On Sun, 2 Jul 1995, Kory Vrieze wrote:

> I'm slightly confused. I received a BM with an emphasis in music
> education and still had to do a full recital at the end. Did I get the
> shaft here or is anyone else in the same boat?
> It seems that most music ed majors got a BS, BA or BME. Do these
> letters truly mean anything or is the course work and applied stuff that
> creates the credentials?
>
It sounds to me as if you certainly DID NOT get the shaft. What you got
was the double advantage of a music education degree program which
includes a strong performance component. This is what the school at
which I teach has elected to offer to our students, and to me it seems
that this sort of program has a decided advantage over those which have
chosen to consciously de-emphasize the importance of performance skills
in the music education curriculum.

Perhaps I can help sort out some of the obvious confusion about degree
programs and their designations. The requirements for degree programs
are determined by each school individually, but in fact there are two
controlling factors which delimit the choices of schools in determining
the content of their music education programs, and which tend to cause
such degrees nationally and in other countries as well to bear strong
resemblances to each other. These factors are the requirements of the
state or province teacher training and certification board, whatever that
entity may be called in the particular area, and secondly, the
requirements of the national and/or regional accrediting agency. In the
U. S. A., that primarily refers to the National Association of Schools of
Music (NASM).

But, after the curriculum content has been determined, a school may elect
to title its program in any way it sees fit. Thus, very similar programs
in Music Education can be found with titles like: Bachelor of Music
Education (BME), Bachelor of Science in Education with a major in music
education (BS or BS-ME), Bachelor of Music in Music Education (BMME),
Bachelor of Arts in Music Education (BA-ME), and many other variations on
these various possibilities. The last time I saw any statistics on this
was several years ago, but I seem to recall that BME is the most popular
choice, accounting for about 60% of all such programs.

What is most important is not the name of the degree, but the curriculum
content itself, the accreditation and reputation of the institution, and
most importantly, the quality of the faculty and their committment to the
music education program.

A similar situation exists with regard to degrees in performance, which
may also bear a variety of designations. Hardly any useful purpose would
be served by listing the various possibilities here.

It is NOT a foregone conclusion that music education majors receive a
different type of training in performance, or a different number of
lesson hours or credit hours than do their counterparts in performance
track degrees. In some institutions, music education students are not
required to study applied music for the entire four (or five) years of
their enrollment, and in some others they are. In some instances, music
education students take their applied music instruction from graduate
assistants or second-line applied music teachers, and in some others
students take lessons from the same teachers, regardless of their degree
choice. In some institutions, music education students receive less time
in the studio for their applied music instruction, and in others the
difference is not in lesson time but in credit hours awarded.

I don't want to perpetuate the impression which has been promoted by this
thread that music education and performance are the only two degree and
career-track choices for music students. Other popular options include
music therapy, music business, arts management, liberal arts degrees with
a music emphasis, and others.

It is in the best self-interest of students of music to be aware of all
these factors and to make informed choices based on real-world facts and
not on pre-conceived notions of what a career in music might or must
consist of.

This topic has merely scratched the surface of what is a very big and
complicated issue for music schools and their accrediting agencies, and
one over which they agonize, debate, and legislate almost unendingly. I
hope this will at least help unravel some of the mystery surrounding the
situation.

Ed Lacy

*********************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)497-2252
*********************************************************************