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Marketing Your Musician
by
Wendi Swanson
"The College Search Process"
Is your child a college-bound
musician? Are you dreading the task of trying to find the right college
for your son or daughter? Whether your child is looking to perform
for a prestigious marching band, or just hoping for an opportunity to continue
playing her instrument beyond high school, here are some important guidelines
that you should follow to make that happen:
Developing Your Child’s
Skills
To continue participating
in a marching or concert band at the collegiate level, your child does
not need to be All-State or even All-County. He just needs to be
passionate about playing. You can do your part to help in the early
years by emphasizing hard work in the classroom, sending your child to
music camps and encouraging practice.
Emphasize Hard Work in the
Classroom
No matter how talented your
child is with an instrument, college preparation begins in the classroom,
and it begins freshman year. Musical talent and interests may clinch
an admissions slot for your child, but it will never be a substitute for
the minimum academic requirements of a school. Solid grades and SAT/ACT
scores will pave the way for the greatest number of options when developing
a list of your child’s schools of interest.
Send Your Child to Music
Camps
While not a necessary component
of college preparation, music camps can provide your child with some advantages.
Since only the most dedicated student musicians attend camps, peers who
are striving toward the same goals will surround your child. This
support will encourage your child to grow her skills to their fullest potential.
New and advanced playing techniques will often be introduced at music camps,
giving your child “take home” lessons for skills improvement. Camps
will also help your child weave a network of music teachers and mentors
who can assist with college introductions and recommendations.
Encourage Practice, Practice
and More Practice
As with any skill, nothing
will substitute for pure practice. Your child should be encouraged
to work with his music teacher to develop and implement a daily practice
regimen. You can help your child by providing a comfortable environment
where furnishings allow for proper playing posture and where concentration
will not be broken by siblings, television or other distractions.
Marketing Your Child’s Interests
and Abilities
To seize the opportunity to
continue playing and performing at the collegiate level, your child, along
with passion, will need to be serious about finding the right college program.
This can be done through an organized approach to the college search.
You can help your child by working together to complete the initial steps
in the process.
Prepare a Résumé and Skills
Demonstration
Since your child is the subject
that you are marketing, it makes sense to begin the process by assembling
and profiling her “credentials.” Just as you would prepare a resume
in a job search, a resume, or profile, should be prepared for the college-bound
musician. The resume should highlight academic and musical standings
and achievements, and should provide a description of any involvement in
other extracurricular, work or volunteer activities. While the resume
is indeed a place to boast, be sure to keep it as accurate as possible.
It is not a place to bend or stretch the truth. Any misrepresentation
of your child’s actual ability level, in academics or music, will only
hurt your child in the long run. A musical performance skills
tape is a great way to accurately demonstrate your child’s playing abilities.
The tape, accompanying your child’s resume, will help the college music
director to determine if your child’s talent is the right fit for an open
chair in the upcoming school year.
Develop a List of Schools
of Interest
With over 4,000 colleges and
universities in North America alone, the task of narrowing your child’s
choices can be quite cumbersome. College guides and electronic searches
are the most common methods of finding and learning about schools and their
attributes. Electronic searches provide the advantage of querying,
according to personal interests, for quick results. The best place
for your child to start is to filter out schools that do not offer instrumental
music opportunities. Then, schools can be kept on a list or eliminated
based on location, size, availability of major and/or other preferences.
A preliminary list can contain any number of schools (recommendations usually
range from 10-50) and will be used as a mailing list for your letter of
interest.
Communicate Your Child’s
Interests
One of the biggest mistakes
that can be made during the college search is to wait for colleges to find
your child. Don’t wait…be proactive. Work with your child
to write a letter of interest. The letter should introduce your child
and will emphasize her academic and musical interests and abilities.
By sending the letter, with a copy of your child’s resume (skills demonstrations
may be included with this introduction or may be sent as follow-up), to
all of the schools on your child’s list, you will open up a dialogue with
the admissions departments and music directors at the schools that most
closely match the interests of your child. Once you have opened the
lines of communication, you and your child are on a path to finding the
right college, where academic and musical abilities are a perfect fit.
Many resources are available
to assist you and your child with finding the right college. Online
resources, like CollegeRecruiting.com, can be especially helpful in making
the process time and cost effective. By using these resources and
the general guidelines above for marketing your musician, you will find
that the college search process is a manageable one. The end result
of an organized search is the satisfaction of making an informed choice.
Wendi Swanson is the Founder
of CollegeRecruiting.com,
Inc., an online educational resource that connects high school musicians
with the right colleges. Ms. Swanson holds a Master of Education
and is a former teacher and percussionist.
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