I'm currently looking at music courses at various unis and was wondering whether anyone who studied/is currently studying somewhere particularly cool - or if ur looking too, what have you found good about a particular course/uni??

Cheers,
Lucy

It very much depends on what sort of music degree you want. If you're after something largely based around performing, then a conservatoire might be your first choice, but if you would prefer your study to be based on a more musicological/academic frame, then perhaps somewhere like Goldsmiths or Kings College in London might be preferable.

Choose what you really want to get from the course, before looking around. It will help focus your search.

I went to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and absolutely LOVED it!!!

There's a great, fun, friendly atmosphere at RWCMD and one of the nice things is that it's not just full of music people, you get to meet drama types too! Cardiff is a brilliant city to be a student in as well - great shops, cheapish accommodation, fantastic nightlife etc.

RWCMD are going to change the ugly 1970s building as well - new theatre, proper recital hall, and more practice rooms etc.

RWCMD may not have the reputation as being the best music college, but it's a very nice place and loads and loads of people go on elsewhere (RNCM, RCM, RAM etc) to do postgrad study.

In Singapore,
the best university to study music is the:
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

It has a rich pool of talents.

As it may already been mentioned, you could always try applying for a conservatoire. A friend of mine is studying oboe at the RNCM and says it's a fantastic place to study!

University wise, Manchester, Bangor, Cardiff and I imagine Birmingham all have pretty good music departments. Manchester is linked with the RNCM as far as I'm aware

I'm at Hull doing a joint degree and enjoying it. The course is very similar to Nat's (Nocturne in Silver), although I'd recomend checking out a few things before you make any decisions!

For example- I have to pay for all my lessons and then put in a claim to get the money back, and I'm only allowed £300 worth a year-Nat says I'm getting a raw deal!

I also have tp find my own accompanist for my exams- also a bit of a problem

But besides those slight draw backs, it;s great!

I had to find mine too (I was at Kingston), but it wasn't actually that much of a problem. We had some extremely capable pianists amongst both students, academic staff and visiting instrumental teachers, all of whom were more than willing to help if they possibly could.

You'll find that everyone around here is really enthusiastic about where they studied, no matter what subject, but look beyond just the course. Obviously, loads of music happens within music departments, but how much else is there? I was really spoilt for choice, as I was just on the outskirts of London; Husband went to Cambridge, and loads of music happened there too.

There are many capable pianists, but we are a huge year, and the pianists are outnumbered by the rest of us! So they all have about 5,6,7,8 people they have to accompany plus their own work load, which is a bit unfair Some teaching staff do it, but the older students I asked are too busy accompanying their years...

I went to Huddersfield and could not recommend the department more highly it is an excellent place to study.

LEEDS LEEDS LEEDS! A fantastic music department and Leeds is a fantastic place anyway!

For a while i studied music as part of a joint degree at oxford brookes uni.
The music dept there is pretty small but the staff are really enthusiastic and there was a good choice of modules and there was always plenty of extra curricular music going on.

However you had to pay for your own lessons unless you did a couple of performance modules forwhich i think lessons were provided.

I had to give up music as it was the only person in my uni studing computing and music at the time, nearly all the modules i wanted to do had clashing lectures..



pink
x

That was my opinion! (I only have G7) AND I wasn't sure if that was current or prospective students. It was a very nice department, building wise, and the city is good!

i would really want to go to RNCM(i love manchester!!) but i don't think i could get in. also i would really want to go to the best music college in my home country, hong kong academy for performing art.

Julliard's not bad

I didnt get that at all! Everyone was so friendly when

Sorry about that, my computers getting veeeeeery cranky.

What I meant to say was, that when I went to visit, everyone was so friendly. In fact I got the 'nasty competitive' vibe from the conservatoires I visited... in fact everyone who I met at Leeds were under grade 8 when they started (for the BA course at least).

But go to Leeds anyway

Jen xXx

If you arent applying to a music college and want to go to a proper uni i would say go for Kings College London. They are linked with the Royal college of music!!!
Its one of the best unis in the UK too.

Bangor, like Nat said, is good, you get a wide choice of modules even in your first year, from talking to other people who do/have done music at other uni's youget much more choice, esp in first year.
I have managed to get 50% of my modules in this year, my final year, in performing, 30%ish for my dissertation, and the rest smaller enjoyable modules.
When I was applying I was really impressed by Hull and Huddersfield.
With regard to instrumental lessons Bangor bend over backwards to get you a great teacher, and you dont have you pay, even if you travel, you dont have to pay for your travel. I travel to the Birmingham Conservatoire for my lessons, and get it all paid for, and Nat has to travel for her lessons, so I understand too. So if it is instrumental tuition you are looking at... you know you will get good tutition at Bangor...I sound like an advert....oh dear!

I'm in my second year at Keele University studying Music and Geography and I think it's awesome
Here you can study almost any subject with Music so that meant for me I didn't have to choose between Music and Geography, instead I get the best of both worlds! Because we only do half our degree in Music it means you can pick and choose the bits you enjoy (ie. performing) and ditch the bits you don't like (ie. composing ). The music department here is really small (I think about 40 of us started the course and now there's around 30 - a few people are repeating their first year and a few people decided it wasn't for them) and the staff really go out of their way to help you as much as they can. We get 12 hours of instrumental tution a year paid for (which works out at about an hour a fortnight) and the department find us teachers. If they can't find one to come here then they pay your travel expenses too
And as if all that wasn't enough, Keele is really pretty and the music department is the prettiest building of them all

Cardiff and Canterbury look really good and there is such a wide variety of courses related to music as well

London is absolutely brilliant although I ain't going anywhere near it coz I wouldnt even stand a chance of walking through the door let alone playing my instrument

My suggestion is just keep looking around coz there are some great universities around that no one has looked at and the lists are endless

Annetta

Ok I was trying to stop myself but what the hey everyone else is boasting about their uni so I'll boast about mine! If your at all considering coming to scotland seriously give Napier some thought. A beuatiful campus fantastic course and good leacturers. You get first study lessons payed for and recieve 24 lessons over the year. And most instrumental teachers come to the campus I think I might be right in saying all of them do actually! Plus Napier has some of the best instrumental teachers in scotland. Although I would say the course is fairly practical based although there are lots of options to do other things as well!

Hi Lucy,

I am especially looking at Cardiff because it has so much to offer and both my music teachers went there and said it was absolutely fab

With grade 8 piano and others under your belt you'll have no probs

Annetta

I know it's hard, but try to look at the factual evidence (modules, practical/theory weighting, whether you specialise in one area, if so how much, facilities, teaching) from prospectuses (prospecti? ), websites, current/former students etc RATHER than looking at statments such as 'it's great'... Everyone will tell you how fantastic their own Uni is, and remember nobody has been to more than one Uni! (with the exception of transfers - see nocturne's post).

But it's also a wonder why YSTCM does not accept ABRSM gradings. Does anyone know why?
I always thought that ABRSM gradings are the golden standard.

Are you willing to cross the pond?