Music Education (BMME)

The UO’s music education program is among the most comprehensive and innovative in the western United States, and the only one in Oregon to offer bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Our faculty members provide expertise in band, choral, elementary, and string music education. UO is among only a handful of West Coast schools to offer music teacher licensure within a four-year bachelor’s degree.

For more than two decades, nearly 100 percent of UO music education graduates seeking employment as K–12 public school music teachers have received job offers upon graduation. Our alumni teach throughout the United States and internationally, including in China, Italy, Spain, and Vietnam. For future music teachers, a UO music education degree signals outstanding preparation through a rigorous and comprehensive program.

Program's Admission Requirements

Please visit the program's website.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

• General Studies - Competencies: Think, speak, and write clearly and effectively.
• General Studies - Competencies: A familiarity with fields of study beyond music such as those in the arts and humanities, the natural and physical sciences, and the social sciences.
• General Studies - Competencies: A functional awareness of the differences and commonalities regarding work in artistic, scientific, and humanistic domains.
• General Studies - Competencies: Awareness that multiple disciplinary perspectives and techniques are available to consider all issues and responsibilities including, but not limited to history, culture, moral and ethical issues, and decision-making.
• General Studies - Competencies: The ability to identify possibilities and locate information in other fields that have bearing on musical questions and endeavors.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: Technical skills requisite for artistic self-expression in at least one major performance area at a level appropriate for the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: An overview understanding of the repertory in their major performance area and the ability to perform from a cross-section of that repertory.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: The ability to read at sight with fluency demonstrating both general musicianship and, in the major performance area, a level of skill relevant to professional standards appropriate for the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: Knowledge and skills sufficient to work as a leader and in collaboration on matters of musical interpretation. Rehearsal and conducting skills are required as appropriate to the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: Keyboard competency.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills -Performance: Growth in artistry, technical skills, collaborative competence and knowledge of repertory through regular ensemble experiences. Ensembles should be varied both in size and nature.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: An understanding of the common elements and organizational patterns of music and their interaction, the ability to employ this understanding in aural, verbal, and visual analyses, and the ability to take aural dictation.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: Sufficient understanding of and capability with musical forms, processes, and structures to use this knowledge and skill in compositional, performance, analytical, scholarly, and pedagogical applications according to the requisites of their specializations.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: The ability to place music in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts.
• Composition/Improvisation: Students must acquire a rudimentary capacity to create original or derivative music: written, electronic, or improvisatory forms and methods. These may include but are not limited to the creation of original compositions or improvisations, variations or improvisations on existing materials, experimentation with various sound sources, the imitation of musical styles, and manipulating the common elements in non-traditional ways. A basic understanding of how to work freely and cogently with musical materials in various composition-based activities, particularly those most associated with the major field shall be demonstrated.
• History and Repertory: Students must acquire basic knowledge of music history and repertories through the present time, including study and experience of musical language and achievement in addition to that of the primary culture encompassing the area of specialization.
• Synthesis: While synthesis is a lifetime process, by the end of undergraduate study students must be able to work on musical problems by combining, as appropriate to the issue, their capabilities in performance; aural, verbal, and visual analysis; composition/improvisation; and history and repertory.

Music Education Major Requirements

Courses used to fulfill the "Core Requirements" must be taken for a letter grade and passed with a grade of C- or better. "Core Requirements" that are fulfilled through Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams are acceptable with a mark of P*.

Courses used to fulfill the "Music Education Core" and "Specialty Requirements" must be taken for a letter grade a passed with a grade of B- or better. A grade of P* must be earned in courses designated pass/no pass (P/N) only.

¹

For band track students only, during the first nine terms, all students enroll in a conducted large ensemble. During the 10th term, students enroll in Small Jazz Ensemble: [Topic] (MUJ 395). 

²

Students receiving a School of Music and Dance scholarship enroll in a conducted large ensemble for 11 terms.

³

Six terms at the MUP 265 level and three terms at the MUP 365 level, with concurrent enrollment in assigned ensemble.

 Band Specialty

Choral Specialty

Elementary Specialty

Strings Specialty

Other Requirements

• A minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.75 and at least two years in residence. Students must achieve a B– or better in all courses with the MUE subject code. Those failing to do so must retake the course before enrolling in student teaching
• Continued enrollment in the music education program, for which students typically apply at the end of their sophomore year, requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75, a grade of B– or better in Foundations of Music Education (MUE 326), a successfully completed audition and application, and faculty approval

Choral option:  Students must also pass three terms of Functional Piano (MUP 163). Students whose primary performance is piano or any other wind, percussion, or stringed instrument, must also complete three terms of voice performance studies at MUP 265.

Elementary option:  Students must also pass three terms of Functional Piano (MUP 163).  Students whose primary performance is piano or any other wind, percussion, or stringed instrument must also complete one term of voice performance studies at MUP 265.

Instrumental Option (Band and Orchestra). Piano, organ, recorder, harp, guitar, or other nontraditional instruments may not be used to meet the primary studio option requirements. String speciality students are also required to complete one term of studio instruction on a secondary string instrument at MUP 265.

The current music education checklist is available from the music undergraduate office.

Four-Year Degree Plan

The degree plan shown is only a sample of how students may complete their degrees in four years. There are alternative ways. Students should consult their advisor to determine the best path for then.

• Band Specialty
• Choral Specialty
• Elementary Specialty
• Strings Specialty

Band Specialty

Choral Specialty

¹

Singers take MUP 163 Functional Piano; instrumentalists take Music Performance Studies: [Topic] (MUP 265) (Voice).

²

Only required for instrumentalists.

Elementary Specialty

¹

Only required for instrumentalists.

Strings Specialty