Thoughts and experiences on Music degrees at Universities

[Aktea]

DD, awaiting GCSE results, is strongly considering a Music degree. There are a lot of choices and having looked at modules offered it would appear Uni's vary greatly in the kind of degree and experience you get. She is a better academic than performer and so we assume Uni a better choice than Conservatoire? She particularly enjoys composition. She doesn't really know what she wants to do afterwards.

Cardiff for BMus and BA ...the BA being much more flexible , less compulsory theory

Have a look at Sussex and Notts. My Dd actually ended up at Cardiff but moved to Reading for a BA Education degree.

My DS has firmed Sheffield. Very flexible degree with no compulsory modules. It can be taken whatever direction you want. We went to the open day and one girl was focussing mainly on music psychology and outreach music. A boy was doing performance and musicology.
They have a great tech studio with apple logic so you can do tech modules as well as the more traditional modules. They also have a year out in industry in year 3. It's quite well ranked in the tables too.

Apologies for dusting off an old thread, but @Soma can you remember which college this was? DD is starting to look at music degrees.

My dn is about to enter 3rd year music at Bristol. She has been pretty unimpressed with the degree. Shocked to have only 5 hours contact time in year 2. Unimpressed with the quality of the choirs and orchestras. Has not felt challenged. She is going to apply to do a masters in composition at oxford in the hope she will get the rigor and challenge she is looking for and to immerse herself in the choral scene in particular.

@Delphigirl Why didn’t she get into Oxford then? Most students won’t have got near choral music at school! So they don’t want it at university. If you want choral music there’s always choirs in a city. Musicians always find people like them and of course self study matters and many do hours playing their instruments. It’s all learning.

Golly you are rude Tizer.

@TizerorFizz, do you just hang about the HE threads waiting to say something that implies you have specialist knowledge on, well, everything? I've seen you do this so many times and I don't know what you gain from it.

Leaving aside the snarky comments, in the 3rd year of my Music degree in the last millennium (now classed as a RG institution), I only had a couple of hours' contact time each week. However, one of the expectations was a couple of hours of daily practice minimum for performance specialists plus lots of research for the dissertation which were down to the individual students.

I did one. Highish end RG. Bloody stupid idea for me because though I was talented I wasn't ever committed (ADHD in women wasn't a thing back then). Wish I'd never listened to my mum and I'd done Law instead. That being said, dd1 did Law very successfully and is now working in an entirely different field.

I'm in contact with many many people from my Youth Orchestra days who are still working in the music industry so it's worked for them.

I taught secondary music for a few years and more recently have been teaching in primary schools. Not the plan but with 4 children and a husband working abroad it has worked for us.

@TizerorFizz I did a PG year at Cambridge. It would have been wasted on me earlier (though I did play in a quartet called Oxbridge Rejects) and I'd have ended up in huge bar debt!

Most students won’t have got near choral music at school! So they don’t want it at university.

This is such a bizarre statement.

I agree. I did masses of choral music at school, sang in all sorts of churches including St George’s chapel, Salisbury cathedral, appeared in a choir on tv with the triumvirate of highway (Harry secombe! Tiny 🤣), praise be and songs of praise (!), my Dn has sung in Westminster abbey, at St John’s Cambridge and Merton College chapel, at the royal festival hall and the barbican with her school etc etc…

@Delphigirl how wonderful!

I can’t sing a single note, but DS has been in multiple choirs since he was 6 or 7. He went on a choir tour to Italy a few years ago and is about to go on one to Normandy (hopefully singing in the abbey on Mont St Michel!). It’s a huge part of his life and he’ll be seeking out choirs wherever he applies to uni in the coming months.

That sounds fab @CatkinToadflax

At my DCs comprehensive, there was loads of choral music in mixed and single sex choirs, with a wonderful Christmas concert in the cathedral. To say that most children never get near choral music is nonsense

And our nearest "deprived" Yorkshire town has one of the best youth choirs in the world (ranked 5th). Many of the talented singers went to DD's school.

@Tizerorfizz ... R3 broadcasts, international tours, cathedral choristers, junior conservatoires, Eton Choral Courses ... and all from the local comp. Nonsense of the highest order.

Excellent musicians in Yorkshire.