Choosing the subject of study can be one of the most decisive moments of your music career. Before applying to an audition you need to answer the following questions:

1. What type of musician would you like to be? For example, do you want to become a pianist (a performer) or an academic? Would you rather play concerts or teach cranky students in a classroom why a composer did this and that? Or, maybe you would like to work in music administration. You need to have a clear idea of your goals because different music colleges and universities have different strengths and areas of concentration. Musicians who prefer to become academics tend to start their studies in universities rather that in music colleges.

2. What specific course would you like to study? Is it music? Is it music with psychology? Is it music with physics? Is it music technology? Is it music marketing? Etc. However, if you decide that you want to become a pianist, it’s perhaps better to choose a course with as little academics as possible. Not that academic research won’t help you as a pianist down the road, but because you will have less time to practice. And, as we all know, in order to become a pianist you need to sit on a piano stool for as long as possible.

3. What is your preferred level of study? For instance, do you feel you should study for an undergraduate degree in order to get the general sense of music and at the same time improve you piano technique? Or, do you think that you are already an advanced pianist who understands music and only need to solely concentrate on the piano as a postgraduate student? Or do you feel that it’s time to research music in depth by doing a research degree?

Those are the basic questions that you need to answer prior to applying for a music course.

Good luck!

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© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 16/03/2013.