GC has many majors that allow for students from all walks of life to continue their secondary education. 

One of those majors is music, and music majors can get their bachelor’s degree in music education, music therapy or music. GC also offers master’s programs for students, and music can also be taken as a minor.

Addison Resh is a senior music major and started her journey at GC as a nursing major. She always wanted to be a teacher and has had a passion for music for a while, so during her sophomore year she changed to music.

“I’m doing choral track, and I’m technically in the high school choral track, but I want to end up teaching elementary school,” Resh said. “I’ve always loved working with a younger population of kids. I’ve always worked with whenever the churches in my hometown had a youth choir and would work with them on stuff. I just feel like it’s kind of where I can do some really good work.” 

Music majors take classes like ensemble, voice classes, music theory and choral conducting. Each class varies in credit, from 0.5 credit hours to three credit hours. This means music majors can be taking up to 10 classes at once to get the amount of hours needed to graduate on time. 

They need to complete other classes, like music history, studies in world music, jazz history and up to the level 2002 in a foreign language, to graduate.  

While going to GC and pursuing a bachelor’s degree, students can work toward getting certified to be a music teacher. 

This is called the M.A.T. pathway and helps GC students to earn a T-5 Georgia teacher certificate, allowing the music majors to teach music at any level of the K-12 grade system after five years of undergraduate school.

“You get a music major, which is your B.A., and a minor of pre-certification, which is a certificate that says you’re good to teach for a certain amount of years until you get your master’s,” Resh said. “So, you have to get your master’s to keep teaching after, I think, like, five or six years, so you have time.” 

Teaching is not the only career path music majors can go down. They can also become a songwriter for TV, work in music publishing or become a performer. 

They also have the option to do film scoring, which involves composing, editing and conducting. 

Resh is a part of the music department’s fraternity for those interested in music.

“I am a part of SAI, or Sigma Alpha Iota,” Resh said. “We are a music fraternity for women and non-binary/gender-nonconforming students who are interested in music. So, you have to take, like, one semester of music, and you have to have one semester under your belt here at the college. So, like, the first semester, freshmen can’t join until their second semester.”

Being a part of SAI means that Resh belongs to the second-oldest chapter of this organization in Georgia, which is the Beta Rho Chapter. SAI works hard to build social contact among music lovers. 

“I love getting to create music with the people I have surrounded myself with in music classes,” Resh said. “Now that I am getting further into my degree, like, we get to conduct and kind of lead rehearsals. So, getting to do that is just wonderful, getting to see these people that I’ve watched grow, getting to create the music that I’ve chosen and like to hear it is just wonderful.” 

Being here at GC has given Resh multiple opportunities to explore music, whether it is conducting or playing Ariel in the musical cabaret “Disenchanted” put on by The Birdhouse in downtown Milledgeville, which have helped her find her passion and worked toward achieving her dream of becoming a teacher.

Choosing to pursue music means making a full-time commitment at GC, and Resh offers advice to those students who may be on the fence.

“I would say do it,” Resh said. “Just know what your time commitments will be. You will have a lot of time to devote to the major. Even a minor you have to devote a certain amount of hours to concerts. And it kind of makes or breaks people. It shows them if they really want to do this. It’s what you are going to have to do. If you don’t enjoy sitting through music and don’t have a general love for sitting through music, I don’t think this is the major for you.” 

She plans to stay in Milledgeville after graduation for a semester and hopes to find a program where the students enjoy music.