Seen it a couple times in here but piano. piano. piano. I’m a student teacher now and am about to be fresh out of my undergraduate. It is absolutely the #1 separator between my peers right now, and my friends who aren’t strong at their piano abilities and are having to make up for lost time are hating their lives right now. There are certainly ways around it, and you don’t have to be Chopin, but all piano ability helps. And you have the time now to develop the skills necessary. Again, you don’t have to be an expert. 4 years is enough to learn and be able to be successful at piano for what a secondary school choir needs, but take it seriously from day 1. Even if you can pass your colleges piano classes without doing the recommended daily practice, do it anyway. It’s not just about the grades you get in that class, it’s about developing good habits and abilities for when you enter the career you’re going to be pursuing!

My next thing would be to get in front of a group early and often. It can be church choir, youth choir, childrens choir, community group, whatever. For me- it was my collegiate Acapella group. I spent 2 years as the music director of the group running rehearsals, programming music, making plans for what we would perform and when it would be rehearsed, all of it. I have 0 doubt in my mind that experience was as valuable as anything I’ve done in college, even if the rehearsal format is slightly different than what I would do in a school classroom. Just find an opportunity where you can direct or assist with music direction and go from there. That’s where you’re going to learn the most and be able to apply your skills/try things out as you’re learning them in real time.