I have noticed that many of my musically inclined friends had quite a large music program at their high school. My high school and elementary had very small programs that were there to basically fill up time through the day. I played the trumpet in high school but wasn't required to practice or take any tests to pass. Also there wasn't a band or choir in school. I believe that is the reason why I have such a hard time grasping the theory behind scales, notes, chords, and any other technique. It would have been awesome to have been exposed to more earlier in my life instead of four years ago.

So here are my questions:

How large is your music program at your school and what extracurricular activities are included?

How do you think it has helped you with your composing/performing and life in general?

What could be added to make it better?

How large is your music program at your school and what extracurricular activities are included?

When I was in high school we had a rather large school marching band, and an even larger band. Large, mind you. Does in no way mean better or has a better program. I was not a part of the instrumental part of the high school marching band. I was in the color guard. But I had many friends that attended band classes. And I envied them. How I wish now that I had taken band classes. Depending on the year dictated how much funds went to the band and what we could do. There were many times where the color guard (note we were a small team. Had maybe 12 people.) Were threatened to no longer be apart of the band. Which to me was heart breaking. I loved it. But as you may imagine, the color guard was over looked when it came to band needs. To my regret I joined color guard during my last two years of high school. And the first year the band's fund was great. We were able to go to each competition, everyone had instruments, and it was just fun. There were winter competitions as well that we were able to do. Solo ensemble(sp?), winter guard and so on.

The second year however was not so glorious. Budget cuts hit hard. Scrambling around for money for buses was a constant. Any winter competitions were canceled and over looked when it came to funds. Uniforms where in demand with none to provide. We had to use broken equipment from time to time. In my school the band and arts department where the first to feel the blade of the budget cuts. As music and art is seen as no where near as important as anything else like football.

How do you think it has helped you with your composing/performing and life in general?

Like I said. I was not a part of the band class. But I have always appreciated music. In grade school I played the clarinet for two years. And was forced to quit. But what being around the band constantly did was grow my interest in music. So because of that as an adult I am learning to play music on my own time and money.

What could be added to make it better?

More discipline.

We have a concert band (quite small), a jazz band (even smaller), and a string band (medium). Oh, and a choir and chamber choir, but the rehearsals for those are only when there are concerts coming up :)

My school is known for having a very prominent music program throughout the district. Note, music pretty didn't exist in primary (elementary) schools, since being in a country area music teachers were hard to find. The program has shrunk over the last few years, but when I started high school be had 1/4 of the school (a normal public one I might add) in the music program. Now we probably have about 1/8 of the school involved. We've got 3 concert bands, junior, intermediate and senior. 2 Jazz bands, stage and big. 3 Rock bands, 1 Celtic Band, 1 Funk Band and 3 Instrumental Ensembles. Bands such as the concert bands are decided by skill, not age group. So a talented junior student could play in the senior band. All bands rehearse weekly and all before or after school. The school also offers Music as a subject which would contribute to a university/college score.

The bands attend various festivals and competitions throughout the year and we do an interstate tour with the top 3 bands (big, celtic and senior concert) in the middle of each year where we take a bus out on the road for about a week and play at various venues and work with other schools. Each bands do many gigs outside of school and many guests conductors and performers come every year (out of their own free time and will, a BIG THANKS to them) to provide a professional viewpoint and teach for a day or two. There is also a music camp at the end of each year where all the students from each school in the district (about 6 schools in total) gather together and form various bands over 3 days and 1 huge item with every performer (on average we have about 250 people performing).

Most of the music students at my school achieve quite well academically and mature a lot faster. With so much social experience and as well as discipline, it really branches out into life without overwhelming anyone. Its an enjoyable experience that really does well for anyone who commits to the program.

Personally the music program made me realize I wanted to be a musician as a professional career. Music is now my life and the program provided me with that.

There really isn't much that can be done to improve our program except for student attitude (numbers have dropped off as less people are joining. The mentality of the newer students does not feature commitment or respect). Funding is a big issue though. Public Australian schools just do not get enough funding and support put into music. The music staff solely run the program here (even the seniors such as myself help out with it). It really isn't promoted enough. We have to do all our own fundraising and our uniforms are made by local parents. If something breaks, we can't replace it or if we need money to pay for an interschool trip, it just isn't there. It's quite expensive on the students who go to music camp and band tour.

The music program sets up students who wish to continue music very well however. Dedicated teachers, weekly (and extremely cheap) individual lessons, small and large (in the range of 5-40 people) ensembles and classroom music theory provide everything that a student could need.

My school does quite a lot on music, but the teachers aren't very good, and they don't like me, so I don't make use of it. I am, however, in the Flute Choir.
There are private lessons, choirs, close harmony, two orchestras, brass ensemble, sring orchestra, smaller student-run groups, group classes for the younger years... it's rather sad that the main teachers aren't very good, because if they were, it could be fantastic. I do most of my music outside school.
Composition, though, is partially down to talent, rather than what can be learnt. Of course, the academic side is probably more imposrtant, but that's what made me start. Therefore, the reason I pursue composition as a carreer is because I was good at it. Simple as that :P

My high school band is fairly small, but over the years, it has been growing. We've been grown from a 30 member band to almost a 100 member band this year. Anyhow, moving right to the point... We have Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Colorguard (Is this even considered part of the music category???), and Winter Percussion. Our school has gotten rid of Chorus and there are other classes like Guitar and Keyboards that really doesn't have much affect in learning. What I meant is that strangely, my director... Or how about this.... ALL of my directors that I have ever met never takes interests in these classes. I mean, all they pay attention to is our school's marching banad, concert band, jazz band, etc.

Ignoring my rant there, my school really doesn't care about us except for marching band. And of course the first time we perform our show in our first football game, nobody's going to be watching it. But depending if we do well in our season or not will affect how many people we have in the audience to actually watch us.

I'm not sure how to rank my school in terms of its music program. We have the basics: an orchestra that has four groups based on ability, two concert bands, three jazz bands, and one marching band, and fiver choruses (two for just women, two mixed, and one for just men). I only have experience with the Orchestra since that is the program that I am in though I wish we could combine the orchestra and a concert band in order to play a concert together (it'd be fun :D). The Chamber Orchestra goes to a lot of competitions and wins most of them. People can also volunteer to be in the Pit Orchestra whenever there is a school pay (I did once and it was great when people threw trash in the pit XD). The director of the Orchestra isn't very strict and from what I've seen of the chorus and band directors, they aren't very strict either. Somehow, concerts manage to survive at our school.

Well besides that, I wouldn't say that our school's music program is bad or in any way small. We have numerous fundraisers for music and music related things. Music may not be the biggest thing at my school, but it's still pretty big. And last but not least, I enjoy it :D.