How to get Better Grades as a Music Major
When I was told that majoring in music was hard from some of my mentors in high school, I did not really believe them at first. Now, after arriving at college and beginning classes my freshman year, there is one thing that I have noticed. Being a college Music Major is a lot more difficult than I had originally expected. Most of the strategies that worked for me in high school, which got me through all of my core classes, all of sudden quit working. I have been thrown to the wolves and had to go and create my own strategies to come out on top. Forming some of these strategies is one thing that really helped me in the long run. In this article, I will list some tips that helped me and hopefully will help you too.
You should always schedule at least an hour of your time for practicing a day. In college, you are graded on your private lessons and they are quite important to moving on in your degree. One of the most important things that you will do at the end of every semester is a jury, which is where you perform a prepared solo in front of the faculty of professors who oversee your instrument family. You are then graded based on the specific aspects of your performance of the solo. One thing that is easy to do when you have homework and tests coming up in other classes is to forget to practice. That is one thing you cannot do as a music major. Without practicing, you will not get very good grades on lessons as your professors will not notice improvement, and your jury grade will suffer due to lack of preparation. As a music major, do yourself a favor and always schedule an hour to practice. At least an hour a day keeps the bad grades away!
You should watch all the commitments you make to other people. I thought the same thing when I saw all the ensembles that I could be in and all the different things that I can play. However, when you play in 5–6 different ensembles that can take away a lot of time that you can be using to work on other assignments for the major classes that you have to take as a music major. Some of the ensembles that you aren’t required to play in can suck a lot of time from your already limited free time which can be used to get things done. You must plan out your ensembles according to your workload, otherwise you are in for a rude awakening.
You should always be prepared for assignments by writing them down in a planner. Whether it be a Theory test or a Class Piano playing quiz, writing things down has definitely helped me be more prepared for all the assignments that I have due. As a music major I am currently enrolled in 18 credit hours of classes, as a Freshman. If I didn’t have a planner to organize all of my assignments and tests, I would never get anything done. Also, throughout my planner I normally highlight with different colors to differentiate priorities. Showing up for a volunteer quartet rehearsal is less important than studying for my Theory exam. Color coding and indicating importance with different colors can help manage time by getting your priorities in check.
You should do your best to eliminate all distractions when you sit down to do your work. I have found that I work more efficiently when I keep my phone out of my sight when I work. However, I do listen to music while doing most of my work as it helps me concentrate to listen to my favorite music while doing work. I just make sure that I start my music on its shuffle before putting my phone next to me face down or putting it on my laptop while I am sitting in bed working. Keeping the screen of the phone facing away from me allows me to eliminate my distractions while continuing to make good progress on my work at hand.
You should view other sources than just mine to help yourself develop strategies that work for you. I developed some of mind after reading How to get Good Grades in College by UMass Dartmouth, which is a compiled list done by the college itself. It was helpful as I took some of the tips and began to think and figure how they would fit into being a music major. Then, once they were specified to my specific major I was able to then start applying the strategies to see how useful they truly were to me. It is important to consider tips from as many sources as possible because you never know what will work for you until you try them out.
These are the tips that have worked for me throughout my freshman year. They may not work for everyone, but they are some of the main tips that have helped me survive throughout college so far. I would not have been able to do as well as I have so far without these tips and I am a strong supporter of looking at the type of classes you have and develop your own strategies and tricks to get better grades. The idea of having bad grades and not doing well in classes that I am paying so much to be enrolled in somewhat frightens me. That is why I began to search for these tips and create these strategies. So I could prevent the nightmare of bad grades from destroying confidence in my abilities. As my final point, I encourage every single one of you to take a step back and take a broad glance at all of your classes. Look at all the time and assignments that they require you to do throughout the year via the syllabus. Then take time to look around at some sources and figure out what can work best for you.
