Music Education B. Mus

The degree in music education is offered with two concentrations:

Instrumental/General Music
The instrumental sub-plan is for students interested in teaching band, orchestra, or general classroom music for K-12 students in the state of Minnesota. Students in this major will pursue coursework in instrumental techniques, methods and conducting, applied instrumental courses, and will participate in band or orchestra and a jazz or similar ensemble.

Choral
This sub-plan is for students who want to teach choral and classroom music at the elementary and secondary level. Completion of this degree program meets licensure requirements for teaching choral and general classroom music for K-12 in the state of Minnesota. Piano emphasis students will take courses in applied piano, general music, basic and choral conducting, pedagogy, style and diction, and voice. Vocal emphasis students will pursue coursework in voice, general music, basic and choral conducting, pedagogy, style and diction, and piano. Music education majors will also participate in a choral ensemble.

Program Advising
Due the nuances unique to the discipline and study of music, students must work in close consultation on a semesterly basis with the department advisor to ensure adequate and timely degree progress. Music programs involve careful sequencing of core courses and applied music study to progressively build musical competencies and techniques. Introductory courses support not only the key concepts needed for success in the next course in the sequence but also the adjacent core course sequences as well. For example, the music history sequence is highly dependent on the concepts addressed in the accompanying courses in music theory, ear-training, sight-singing, and keyboarding.