The University of New Hampshire thrives off of its students, and what the students contribute to the school. And with over 15,000 students on campus, everybody has their own preferences on musical style, genres, and favorite artists.

After interviewing Jessica Ross, Jillian Meszar, both music majors, and Kevin O’Brien, a non-music major musician, I found similarities and differences about how playing music at UNH has changed them.

Music majors typically spend much more time in the classroom compared to other majors. This is due to many university systems making music classes typically only 1-2 credits, while standard courses are 4 credits each. This means that to meet the 16-credit minimum at UNH, music majors may have to take up to 7 classes a semester.

Transitioning from high school into the university music department is rough. Before coming to the University of New Hampshire, Ross only sang for fun.

“For me, the biggest change was the style and seriousness of music. I wasn’t at ALL a classical singer – I had no idea about technique or diction or any of it. I just sang because it was fun. And then I came to UNH and all of a sudden it was this entire world I’d never known before,” said Ross.

Meszar told me that one of the biggest changes she noticed going from high school to university level music education was the opening of doors to many different people. She values working with the faculty in the music department and learns from their expertise from schools such as Julliard and Berklee College of Music.

Working with her peers has also expanded her knowledge and desire to study jazz when she was mostly focused on classical music during her high school years.

Ross stated that “At one point, I had 38 hours of class a week”. Along with this rigorous schedule, they are also required to go to concerts, practice constantly, and keep their grades up.

Meszar had similar thoughts. “I think one of the major things is just the fact that people don't fully comprehend the difficulty of our major when we mention it,” she said when comparing her major to others.

“Just hearing ‘I study music,’ people tend to think it's just a bunch of people jamming out all the time, but it is much much more than that,” Meszar added.

“The differences between music majors and non-major musicians are very subtle. Music majors are perfectionists, and we’re very hard on ourselves, so that’s one thing. We tend to treat every performance like it’s our last. We also have been trained to know exactly when we mess up,” said Ross.

This level of rigor has trained Ross to become a great musician and find flaws in her own work, to improve, without feedback from others.

When I spoke to O’Brien, I found many similarities between someone who is a hardworking music major like Ross and someone who is a casual musician. When O’Brien began performing at the University of New Hampshire, he didn’t anticipate how much he would improve.

“I'm constantly exposed to great original music and given the opportunity to meet new peers that I can share ideas with,” said O’Brien.

O’Brien has used these friendships with other musicians, both majors, and non-majors, to become the best musician that he can be. While he mostly plays folk, he also likes to experiment with other styles, claiming that genres like rock, reggae, and folk are the most common on campus. Ross had similar opinions on having constructive peers, but with music majors being much more competitive.

O’Brien and Ross both enjoy performing most at The Freedom Café, a nonprofit near campus. The Freedom Café’s main goal as a business is to fundraise and bring awareness to end human trafficking. Every Wednesday night, there is an open-mic night where musicians, poets, comedians, and storytellers can perform.

“It’s a good break from the stressful side of music that I get in my major. I just love it,” Ross said about the café.

The Freedom Café is a great place to perform on campus that doesn’t feel as serious to music majors but attracts an even larger crowd of non-music majors such as O’Brien. This diverse group of people from engineering students, psychologist majors, professors, and people who just love coffee or tea, perfects this environment and works as a joint for everyone musical on campus. Meszar has similar feelings towards The Freedom Café, but preferred the 3S Artspace, a small venue in Portsmouth, to perform.

Those who primarily study music at university tend to be more critical of themselves and push for excellence. That being said, O’Brien’s words on how he has improved since performing at the University of New Hampshire suggests that the power of peers may be just as valuable as the skilled educators that Meszar and Ross have the privilege to work with as music majors.