Fable
The conservatory's foundation training and performance rehearsals
A music conservatory's training system is divided into two major phases. In the first three years, all students take the same courses: ear training, music theory, music history, and basic piano and vocal skills. Whether they later want to be a soloist, an accompanist or a conductor, during this period they are all building the same foundation. Looking back after graduation, no one knew during those three years what they would ultimately specialize in, but anyone with a weak foundation could not go far in any direction afterward.
In the fourth year, students branch into directions. They choose a major based on their aspirations and circumstances, entering a specialized rehearsal season. Solo-performance students grind through concertos daily, chamber music students extensively refine ensemble coordination, and composition students begin writing their own works and seeking orchestras for tryouts. The training methods and content of the rehearsal season are completely different from the foundation stage: not casting a wide net, but repeatedly polishing toward one clear goal.
The academy once tried a reform: let first-year students take foundation courses and rehearsal courses at the same time. The academic affairs office thought, "Earlier exposure to real practice means faster learning." The result was that students who couldn't even play their etudes were forced into concertos, and people who didn't understand chords were pushed to write compositions. After one semester, foundation courses had widespread failures, and the rehearsal course results were unlistenable.
The academy urgently called a halt and set a rigid rule for course order: those who had not passed the foundation exam in the first three years were not allowed into rehearsal classes. This was not meant to be difficult—it was because the prerequisite assumption of rehearsal class is that the foundation is already in place. A conductor will not stop rehearsal to teach you how to count beats.
Later, a visiting professor came to the academy to share. During the lecture, he drew a thick line on the blackboard, writing "general" on the left and "specialized" on the right. Investment on the left was calculated annually, with high cost and general capabilities as output; investment on the right was calculated weekly, with controllable cost and specialized performance as output. The two budgets were made separately, and the two sets of evaluation standards were set separately.
The academy wrote this line into its teaching evaluation system. Assessment at the foundation stage looks only at coverage and solidity of basic skills, not specialized performance. Assessment at the rehearsal stage looks only at the completeness and artistic quality of the target repertoire, without going back to check basic skills. Each stage has its own standards, eliminating the confusion of using rehearsal performance to grade the foundation or using foundation standards to block rehearsal results.
Two years after the reform, employment data showed an interesting change: students who had been streamed from the foundation stage had shorter adaptation periods when switching direction. The reason was that the foundation had not been compressed; they entered the new direction with complete general capabilities and only needed to rehearse. Those whose foundation had been skipped or rushed had to start from scratch when switching direction.