Attn. voice majors/teachers: will one mediocre grade in private voice effect my chance of teaching/performing?

Question

I'm a senior voice performance major who has always done well in college music classes, never receiving a grade less than an A- in private voice...In October I gave an excellent senior voice recital. Then, before my final performance the last week of school I had bronchitis which temporarily effected my voice quality when I sang for my final...today I received my final grades and ended up with a B+ in private voice this semester. (I've heard before that in order to teach on a college level, one has to have earned only A's in that particular field which they desire to teach. Teaching on a college level, and performing, is what I plan to eventually undertake.) When other colleges see my transcript someday, will one B+ impact their decision to hire me? I'm also planning to attend grad school. If I receive A's this coming spring semester, and in grad school next fall, will only one bad grade matter, even if they see that I coincidently received it the same semester of my recital?

Answer 1

The grade means next to nothing in comparison to your actual voice; the grading for any performance is so subjective, considering you've had all A's up until now, people looking to hire you will want to hear you first before they judge. Also, grad school makes a much bigger impact than undergrad work does. Go to a good grad school and no one will say a word about one B (and a B+ at that!) in undergrad.

Will it affect if you get into grad school or not? I doubt it will be the deciding factor; if you don't get in somewhere, the B+ may not have helped, but it won't have been the only reason they rejected you. Still, your audition will be much more important. If anyone asks what happened, why the B+, tell them the truth: you were sick, things happen, you tried to work through it, c'est la vie. I can't imagine them thinking less of you for it.

For performance, the fact that you are a vocal perf major will be a plus, but they'll want someone with the voice, stage presence, chemistry with other performers (for opera/musical theatre) or the audience (for solo gigs), and the general desired look before they cast you. Grades won't mean a thing.

For teaching, I've never heard that you needed all A's to teach at the collegiate level. I'd guess experience will count more than grades anyways. If you graduate with a composition major, but never get a piece published or performed, it won't matter if you had all A's, you won't get hired because you haven't shown that you can perform/produce. It will also depend on where you want to teach. It will be harder overall to be hired at Julliard or Curtis than at a small local state school without a particularly reputable music department, so your grades might be more important in getting hired at the former.

Please don't sweat a B+. Make sure you rock your grad school auditions and you'll be fine. Break a leg!

Answer 2

You'll be fine, for several reasons.

1. B is not a bad grade. A C might have been looked at, but even a C would probably not have impacted you at all in the long run. I had two back-to-back semesters that I made a C in piano lessons because I had to have surgery on my right wrist and it was a slow recovery. We did "modified" lessons, only using the left hand and really working on strenghthening it. The teacher said he couldn't give me a higher grade because I didn't do the same work as everyone else. Anyway,in the end, I'm glad we did because I am left hand dominant now. Things that seem important now will be completely forgotten within a short amount of time, so don't worry about it. I hadn't thought about that in years until just now.

2. Once you finish grad school, no one will ever look at your bachelor degree again other than to see where you went. Basically, employers only look at your highest degree for their needs, and the rest is just water under the bridge. Their thinking is that if you got into grad school, your bachelors must have been just fine. And if you get your doctorate, they assume your grad school went just fine.

3. When it comes to voice teachers, no one gives a rip as long as you can perform and demonstrate good theory skills.

You will be just fine!

Answer 3

The short answer is no. The genuine answer from a professor is-- a B+ is not a mediocre grade. You will quickly realize this when you start grading your own students. A B is a good grade (whether you think so or not) and a B+ means that in this ONE private voice lesson you didn't do your very best work as opposed to others perhaps. A- and B+ grades are the same. They speak more about the sternness and demands of the professor vs. the ability of the student. When you start teaching you'll have to decide those things yourself. Get prepared. It's hard for us to make those distinctions. Just this semester I gave 2 students with 89% B's vs. A's. (we don't do -s and +s at my college). The bottom line is that they're work, overall, wasn't the most exemplary. It was incredible work, but not the very best.
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. :)

Answer 4

I can't speak so much about teaching - although I know someone who is teaching voice at an Ivy League school who got the job because someone heard him sing, got talking with him, discovered he actually knew something about voice and voila.

But in performance, the audition will outweight the transcript. And if you are looking for a job teaching voice, I would have to think the level at which you are able to perform should be a major factor, not how well you take a test or get graded subjectively.

And if the school does give more credence to the transcript than to the performance, I wonder if you really want to be there.

Trust your talent. Nobody goes to listen to a transcript.

Answer 5

By what I'm reading here, you sound like you're drowning in a glass of water; don't worry about it. Remember, a B+ is NOT what your major is all about. For me, a grade is PART of a greater whole. Besides I don't think any college will ask if you can sing your class well. If you plan to teach music and/or singing in a college there are other factors that they should consider (and I should know: I'm a music teacher and choral director/composer/arranger) like class organization, planification, class management, etc. To me, a grade of B+ shows that you're a well-rounded student and college grad, and not a perfectionist. At least, that's what I would see if I were an H.R. person (human resources, that is). So just keep singing. I know where you're at.

Answer 6

i do not imagine there's a regular coaching guide. basically that there are voices... nicely, you recognize what I propose. My uncle is a medical schizophrenic as well, yet he hears voices down water pipes and voices basically in his head tell him that he's the subsequent messiah; he's likewise fully confident his complete marriage were a rip-off and that there became no marriage in any respect (i became there at the same time as he were given married, concepts you) and that his "so-referred to as" spouse had slipped him drugs in the course of it to maintain him questioning he became more desirable typically than not disabled so as that she might want to exploit the incapacity checks... So i imagine that the way schizophrenia comes up in those human beings clinically determined, relies upon on how they take care of paranoid ideas. it really is maximum in all probability fullyyt different from one man or woman to a distinct. of route I even do not recognize myself because i'm not schizophrenic. I also do not believe there has been a lot information you may improve schizophrenia in later existence through pressure, trauma or anger. there have been analyze in the route of schizophrenia and drug abuse and there is information that cocaine and schizophrenia are linked. also that hashish and schizophrenia are linked. yet even right here, psychiatrists ask the question even if the drug motives the ailment, or those with a latent tendency for this ailment are attracted through the drug to floor their ailment. Experiments with mice does tutor that drug abuse (cocaine or hashish) at an noticeably youthful age (previously 15 in our case) may reason everlasting damage and does actual reason psychological ailments like as an party schizophrenia. all and sundry who makes use of those drugs after the age of 15 is shown to haven't any result from the drug. therefore the question; does the drug reason the ailment or does the ailment reason the drug?

Answer 7

I wouldn't get too worried about it. I performed alot and barely got out of Music History and Composition.

If you passion is it performance and teaching in college, you wll be fine. Keep you voice up, continue to practice and get out there an perform all you can. THAT'S what you will be judged by.

GOOD LUCK!