I applied albeit unsuccessfully to the RCM for BMus course, but too be honest am not bothered, cos it is not where i wanted to end up. Anyway, i sent them an email, asking for the comments sheet, so i can hopefully learn from my mistakes there, and got told they dont do comments sheets

excuse me???

how can they not do comments sheets. how can they remember from candidate to the next how good they are, where, how musical they played etc. This to me suggests that they have made up their minds about who they want to let in before they start the auditions....ie all people who went to specialist music schools, or who have parents that are in the profession....

what do you all think

cheers

Arnold

They probably do make notes, they just don't release them.

Poor you. What a ridiculous thing for them to say! You must be feeling really mad at them. Of course, they make notes/comments. You must have noticed this during the audition. It's just that they are not transparent about the fact of non-disclosure in that they don't release them for fear of the potential / messy repercussions. Really, they ought to have told you simply the truth, that, as a matter of policy, these are confidential.

how frustrating for you.

however, when I got turned down from the Royal Northern without audition, I wrote to them to ask them what I would have needed to improve on in order to have secured an audition for their course. I pointed out my academic and practical qualifications, and my experience in orchestral and chamber music playing and solo performance... I just wanted to know what more I'd have needed...

their reply was something like "yes we can see you are academically able and no doubt a talented musician but the course you applied for only has 8 places etc. and we selected the students that we felt were most suited to the course"

(I applied for the joint course with Manchester University and the RNCM, where you get a BA and a BMus at the end of it).

so I can sympathise, and sometimes music colleges can be very unhelpful!!!

If you really want to read the comments, you might be able to insist they give them to you under the data protection act. For £10 they are obliged to give you a transcript of all the personal data they hold on you if you produce two forms of identification. There are some exceptions, but if you ask for a copy of their Data Protection policy - legally they must have one - and it's not mentioned there, it's one possible avenue to explore.

cheers for your replies....

after 3 emails, which i suggested that if they did not make any notes or anything, then their preconceptions must have been what got people a place......(i.e. wether anyone had been to a music school or junior department) They seemed to fall over themselves to tell me that they do write remarks down but dont have "Comments sheets" which i could get for £10 under the data protection act.

Wheras the academy politely sent me an email which said i could get a comment sheet for a tenner with no bother....

so it just goes to show the RCM are completely obsessed with their own self inflated egos, and is their bassoon department that good??? their first year just left to go to guildhall, and despite asking for 20 years, they still have no bassoon room.......