Schools of music and conservatories offer the Bachelor of Music Education and the Bachelor of Music in Music Education. The main difference between these two programs is that students may have more performance and performance pedagogy requirements to earn the Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Most liberal arts colleges offer the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education, which has the fewest performance requirements but the greatest access to other kinds of education courses, such as counseling theory in education and exceptional needs education.
Music education programs require students to take core music courses in music history and theory, followed by further coursework in these subjects. In addition, they require performance competencies and mastery of introductory courses in music education, psychology, music therapy and music education research. Many programs include state teaching certification requirements and national teaching exam preparation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, combines music education requirements from its College of Letters and Sciences with education certification requirements that are earned through the School of Education.
Some undergraduate music education programs allow you to specialize by your upperclassman years. Florida State University’s College of Music, for example, offers advanced coursework in vocal and instrumental pedagogy, piano technology and music therapy. Students can also take advantage of the Orff-Schulwerk teachers’ education course, which offers a popular approach to teaching music from kindergarten through 12th grade. The University of Kansas has combined music education and therapy as one department, which enables both majors to gain crossover course experience.
Just because the music education major is not specifically offered at your college, you can still design a music education program that would prepare you for either a career in teaching music or graduate studies. Majors in music at liberal arts colleges, like Amherst College, can include much of the same course work as a music education major at a school of music. Within your studies at a liberal arts institution, take advantage of spending a year abroad studying music education at a school of music to shore up any weaknesses and to work on teaching qualifications.
Throughout your undergraduate career, your music education classes will be with music and music education majors. The introduction to music education should focus on age-appropriate music learning activities, tying in Piaget’s theories of learning readiness, and music education approaches, like Orff-Schulwerk. In this course, you will also learn how to write course observations and you may gain your first brief practicum experience. Pedagogy courses will teach you about specific aspects of teaching voice or an instrument. You will gain further long-term practicum experience in some pedagogy courses and in more advanced music education and education courses.
MajoringinMusic.com points out that, before graduation, music education majors should learn how to be outstanding musicians, improvisers, entrepreneurs and music advocates in addition to being current and technologically proficient. In addition, according to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, music educators must communicate well in the classroom. Good music education programs will offer frequent short- and long-term practicum experiences, both of which will give you the opportunity to video record your teaching. This teaching example is useful once you are in the competitive music education job market.