• The Theory Majors: Nerdy, bookish, spend lots of time in the library, music know-it-alls. We generally have really good ears and get easily annoyed with "bad" music. We get along with musicologists and composers pretty well. We despise most voice majors.
• The Musicologists: Even nerdier than the theorists. Spend almost all of their time in the library. Tend to be fairly socially awkward. They know tons of esoteric facts about which composers had syphillis and in what year a certain symphony was performed. They tend to talk less about the actual music and more about what cathedral the piece was performed in or who was having an affair at the time or if a certain manuscript was really written in 1648.
• The Voice Majors: The dumb blondes of the music school. They're not usually good with theory or history of music. They generally can't sightread well, and they resent having to take classes that don't focus on vocal music. They don't know how to talk about music intellectually, though that doesn't stop them from attempting to contribute to class discussion.
• The Composition Majors: The cool guys, the artists. Maybe a bit socially awkward, but somehow that works to their advantage. Usually great at theory. They know the craziest, coolest, up-and-coming music. They seem to get along with everybody.

There are other groups at the music school I could expound on (bassists, trumpets, education majors), but these are the groups I tend to have the most contact with. And, of course, there are people who are in the above groups who are not representative of the stereotypes. There are also--believe it or not--very intelligent voice majors in the music school.

Labels: Music, school