Posted by Doug Whitten on May 03, 2003 at 09:26:49:
In Reply to: too many ? posted by js on May 03, 2003 at 01:12:11:
There really aren't that many full time tuba professors. There are a lot of professors who teach tuba and a myriad of other subjects, just as you said. Being a person actively seeking a university level faculty position I have read all the music job postings for the past several years. I can not recall ever seeing a posting for a full-time position that was just teaching tuba/ euph. It is nearly always paired with music education/ band/ theory or something else. Almost all tuba/ euph only jobs are part-time. The only exception being in a place where the number of tuba majors really does fill up the professors schedule...and I think that may be a total of 3-5 schools in the whole country. The position at Oklahoma, for instance is advertised as a part-time adjunct position.
Advanced degrees: Few people will tell you that the only way to get good at playing and teaching tuba is in a formal educational environment. However, the days of a hot-shot player without a doctorate getting a tenure track faculty position are long gone. This is not necessarily because schools see people without doctorates as inferior players, but because thet are not usually considered professional professors. Technically, a person who has completed a doctorate is an expert in his or her field and is an authority in their specialization. They certainly do teach, but also are engaged in scholarly activities and do research. Doing doctoral work is not usually just more training on your instrument. It should be a change of focus from the practitioner degrees (Bachelor and Masters)to a more philosophical focus, from which the doctoral student should contribute to field of knowledge. It is the goal of a MM to create a great player, whereas it is the goal of a PhD to dream about what's next and develop a way to get there.
It is important to note that the emphasis on hiring music professors with doctoral degrees is drivin by accreditation folks more than schools of music. Most music faculty recognize that for applied music instruction, nobody is better than a great player who inspires his or her students.
In short, no, I don't think there are too many tuba professors. There are very few full time tuba professors. I would actually like to see enough tuba players to merit more full time tenure track tuba professors.
Lastly, do you know how much an assistant professor or adjunct professor makes? It ain't alot folks. I will be taking a huge paycut going to teach at a college from what I was making teaching public schools. It is not until you get promoted to full professor that the money gets good, and often not even then.