AnnaBeth Crittenden, Campus Carrier entertainment editor
Standing up at Ford is the music building, the location of weekly concerts, occasional talent shows, vocal and instrumental lessons, and the central hub for the music majors.
The music major at Berry has two components: education and performance. Both these concentrations require many hours spent in class and ensembles, with practices whenever there is time.
Senior David Warren is a music education major, concentrating in conducting.
He is currently president of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha and plays trombone in several ensembles on campus including the brass ensemble, wind ensemble and symphony orchestra. He has also performed in and conducted the concert choir.
Although his classes are more geared toward education, he still performs the same amount as those with the performance concentration. However, what he learns performance-wise is applied to his future in education.
“Since I am in education, everything I do is geared towards the education side of things, rather than the performance side of things,” Warren said. “Our minds are more focused on teaching the instrument than performing the instrument.”
Because his education is focused both on performance and teaching, a normal day in Warren’s life is full of classes. Music majors usually take around 20-24 hours a semester and Warren cannot recall a time that he has taken fewer than 22 hours.
These hours include 18 for credit and two to six hours in ensembles and choirs, which can be taken without credit. Classes usually last until 3 p.m. with ensemble practices lasting until 9 p.m. These classes range from music theory to instruments to history.
For education majors there is even a class in which they must learn all the orchestral instruments on a 6th grade level in order to be able to teach them in a band setting. They spend weeks on each instrument, learning them in addition to their own primary instrument.
“When you’ve learned one instrument all your life and then one semester you’re supposed to learn all the fingerings for woodwind instruments to teach sixth graders, it gets time consuming,” Warren said.
Many of the music classes are two credit hours, but contain more information than can be taught in the two days a week.
“You cannot learn everything in four years — I’m not even close to learning everything that I can,” Warren said.
Music education majors like Warren will end up graduating with two degrees: bachelors of art in music as well as an education degree. Therefore, their course load includes many of the education requirements.
They must do 15 hours of student teaching experience in middle schools and 30 hours of experience in elementary schools, as well as submit lesson plans.
“Berry’s lesson plans are probably the hardest in the state,” Warren said. “They basically want you to say when they’re going to breathe.”
This heavy course load results in a high level of time management by the music education majors.
“You have to learn how to use your time wisely,” Warren said. “I’ve learned that you can get so much done in 10 minutes. Half an hour is like a dream,” Warren said.
However, many music education majors, including Warren, end up having to take a fifth year.
Although containing slightly less coursework than the music education major, the music performance major is still time-consuming.
Junior Austin Talbot is a music performance major with a focus on euphonium and tuba. He plays in all the major music ensembles and sings bass and baritone in the concert choir. Like Warren, Talbot takes over 18 hours every semester, including lessons and ensembles.
Talbot’s typical day begins with his academic and general education classes before his multiple ensemble practices.
Between his classes, he has to make time to practice his instruments. However, he praises the professors in the music department for their willingness to help out whenever it is needed.
“They’re all very helpful in getting you to where you should be,” Talbot said.
Both Warren and Talbot have plans for their lives after Berry.
Talbot is currently working as the music director at the Holy Lutheran Church in Rome, with hopes to stay on with them as long as possible.
Warren hopes to begin teaching right out of college at the middle or high school level, before going back to school to get his masters and doctorate in conducting.