Eligibility for Applied Instruction

Any student may enroll in applied music study; however, if personnel resources are limited, the Department of Music may not be able to accommodate every student’s desire or need to study music in applied lessons. The Department of Music will offer lessons to students ranked according to the following hierarchy of needs:

1. music majors needing applied study for graduation;
2. music minors needing applied study for graduation;
3. students from other academic disciplines (non-majors or non-minors) needing applied lessons to fulfill a specific scholarship requirement;
4. students from other academic disciplines who also contribute to one of the Department’s ensembles;
5. students from other academic disciplines.

Further, the Department of Music may deny the opportunity to study music in applied lessons to students who, in previous semesters of applied study:

1. were frequently unprepared for lessons;
2. were frequently absent from lessons;
3. and/or failed to pass the Junior Level Proficiency Exam after two attempts. 

Course Numbers for Applied Instruction

• MUS 152/352 (2-3 SH during long semesters) for music majors only
• MUS 151/351 (1-2 SH during long semesters and summer session) for music minors and for study  of secondary instrument (piano for voice majors; organ for piano majors; secondary instrument for instrumentalists)
• MUS 149 (1 SH) for all other students

Principal Applied Instruction

Undergraduate music students must master the requisite technical skills for artistic expression in at least one performance area through study in principal applied lessons. In the first two years of lower division study, the student takes Applied Music 152 for 2 or 3 semester hours depending on their degree plan (fifty minutes of lessons each week). At the end of each semester, the student performs a jury for faculty evaluation of technical progress and performance of the assigned literature. At the end of the 4^th semester of study at Texas A&M University-Commerce, students will perform an extended jury known as the Junior Level Proficiency Exam (JLPE; see below for more information). After successfully completing the JLPE, the student continues applied lessons in advanced lessons (MUS 352) for fifty minutes each week. As a culmination of the MUS 352 process, all students will perform a half recital. In addition, performance majors (Bachelor of Music) will continue with MUS 352 and perform a full recital in a subsequent semester (See below for specific area length requirements).

Principal Applied Lessons (152, 352, 552) are not offered in the May-Mini, Summer, or Winter semesters.