The new semester is right around the corner. You're probably wondering how many books you'll have to buy, how little studying you can get away with, how many tutoring hours you'll have to squeeze in for that one gen ed you know you'll never get your head wrapped around. Everyone's got these pre-semester wonderings. Music majors, though, we've got some of the most crowded schedules on campus, and a very specific set of questions and thoughts that are going to bother us until the semester starts.

1. Did I practice enough over the summer?

Short answer: no. As your professors have told you many times over, you can never practice enough. There will always be somebody who practiced more than you. Now is a good time to remind yourself that quality always trumps quantity when it comes to putting in the hours for practice. But whether you practiced one hour a week or forty hours a week during the break, there is always more to do, isn't there?

2. Who will be sitting next to me?

Vocalists and instrumentalists alike share one common fear: a stranger may be sitting or standing next to me and I fear the unknown. I had just gotten used to sitting next to my current stand partner, now you're telling me I have to learn how a stranger sits so they don't poke my eye out with their instrument? Or what if it's someone really annoying? Or disrespectful? Or who has bad rehearsal etiquette? What if I'm sitting with a freshman and I have to explain everything to them? That's like being a parent, and I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility.

3. What ARE we playing?

Yeah, yeah, I know at least one thing, whatever the chair audition excerpts were from. But besides that, do we have any answers? Unless your director has sent an email, you're left in the dark. Somebody claimed you were playing this, somebody else said that the director mentioned another piece. Each rumored piece more terrifyingly difficult than the last. And of course there's always that one person who thinks it would be funny to suggest playing Strauss's Don Juan. Nope. No thanks. That was funny freshman year.

4. How on earth am I going to schedule all these rehearsals?

Private lessons. Chamber ensembles. My own students. Personal practice time. Sectionals. that doesn't include time that has to be set aside for outside things like gigs or any in-class singing/playing I may have to do. There is absolutely not enough time in the day for all of it in addition to studying and actual class time. Large ensembles that are scheduled classes are the only universal constants, they are the lifeblood of my weekly calendar and I must cling to them for support.

5. Did that person finally graduate?

There's always that one person. In every music building on every campus in America, there is always that one person. They've been around, longer than some of the professors, it is rumored. They have seen semester after semester, always with the promise of graduation. But alas, one more gen ed course they claimed to have no prior knowledge of. Perhaps they wanted to learn a second instrument, or a third, or switched their major back and forth between music and something completely unrelated, perhaps electrical engineering. And just when you think they've finally gone after they've been missing a semester, they're back from their third round of student teaching. Godspeed.

6. I don't have any gigs the first week back, do I?

Surely nobody wants me to sing for their wedding this late in the summer. Surely nobody needs a jazz combo for a public event this weekend. Surely this hotel's grand opening isn't hiring a solo pianist at the end of the month. Surely the business school's annual banquet isn't scheduling the string quartet until at least October. Surely...

7. I am in way over my head again this semester. It's going to be awesome.

Music majors are some of the busiest people on campus. We overwork ourselves every semester, and we enjoy every second of it. It's our livelihood and we couldn't imagine doing anything else. To all my fellow musicians, good luck this semester!