Hi!
I have only just started my first year at college but my college tutor has been encouraging us all to think about what we want to do when we finish college. I have been thinking about this and I want to be a music teacher when I'm older.

First I'm gonna do a degree in music. I'd really like to go to the Royal School Of Music in London, but to stand a good chance of getting in (since my first instrument is flute and its very competitive) I would need to take my grade 8 at the end of the "school" year before summer because that is when they audition.

I think I would be capable of doing grade 8 but I'd like a grade 8 distinction and that might take me longer to achieve. I'm not sure what to do. I think I'd be more likely to get in with a distinction rather than just a pass and also if I don't get in it would give me more points to get into another competitive university.

Does anyone have any advice on gaining a grade 8 distinction?

Or any advice on what it takes to get into London's Royal School of Music?

And lastly can anyone recommend some other good universities for studying music?; I still want to keep my options open incase things don't go to plan!

Thanks!

Bangor has a good music department. (My wife studied history there!)

The best university is whichever one suits your requirements best. What do you want from a course - alot of performance, composition, anything else? The institution itself is one thing: consider the quality of teaching, what happens to its graduates, its location (central London is great for getting to loads of concerts but rubbish if you want the peace and quiet of the countryside).

Probably best not to ask here though, as everyone will sing the praises of their own alma mater.

I'm quite confused now, been looking at course and stuff. Whats an undergradute and post graduate. Which one will I be doing?
I'd like to teach music so which course would be best to do?
Uni is really confusing!
Thanks thou!

I don't know how old you are at present, but in order to get started, I'd take a visit to your careers information office/teacher at school/college. There you can get all the information about what going to University entails, before you worry about which University and course you want to do. We'll all give you lots of advice here, but you need proper careers advice first.

I did all this many years ago, but hope this helps!

An undergraduate is someone working towards their first degree, eg at University.

A graduate is someone who has completed their degree course, and passed it.

A postgraduate is someone doing a further degree ie, after their first one.

When you say you want to teach music, do you imagine yourself in one particular school, maybe a secondary school, teaching 'class' music, or do you imagine yourself as a freelance, teaching private pupils in your home, visiting schools as a peripatetic etc. Once you have decided which you think you'd prefer, you could start to narrow down the options, and we can all offer more specific advice.

In any case, you may prefer to keep all your options open for as long as possible. Doing a music degree as an undergraduate, followed by a postgraduate course in teaching may be one route, taking the AB teaching diploma at some stage may be another.

I agree, it's all very confusing. Let us know if you think you have any preferences at this stage.

Thanks sarlec,

Obviously I would like to keep my options open but I am thinking at the moment of secoundary school class teaching. I have heard that you can do a degree in the subject you want to teach (music in my case obviously) and then doing the teaching bit afterwards. As you said there are lots of different ways of getting there that I have not yet discovered. Just I got the information booklet for teh Royal School Of Music and when I looked at the courses it was like it was in a foreign language with the different letter by each course and I didn't have a clue which one would be best for me.
I am in this academic academy at college and our tutor has said that other the next few weeks we are gonna be looking into what we want to do when we leave college. Hopefully he will be able to give me lots of advice and help me to understand it more.
Also this whole points thing and different uni's that rejected certain subjects which has been a current topic on the news confused me even more!

Your advice is really useful, thank you so much. I'm a really determined person and I want to do well and I think if I understand what I need to achieve to get to my goal it will motivate me more!

As someone else has said, it would be best to speak to your tutors who can offer the most up-to-day information. Doing a music degree first would seem to be a good idea - a postgraduate course is only one extra year, or at least it was in my day . . . Sorry I can't help with the points system etc - I'm of the wrong generation! Hopefully someone younger who has just been through the system, or who understands it will be able to help.
Good luck, anyway.

With the points system, some universities offer a points offer instead of grade. See http://www.ucas.ac.uk/candq/tariff/

However, many of the higher universities, still do grade offers e.g AAB instead of X amount of points

Ask what things you like from a course like a higher content of theory/history/performance.

If you want to teach music (i.e GCSEs) you'll need a PGCE, which'll be an extra year at university.

Don't necessarily go to the highest placed university but what suits you best.

Look at the tutors at the different places, this might influence your decision

Not doing Music but, am in year 13 at the moment and know people who are applying, so PM me if you want any help

You want to do the same as me I'm a year ahead, so feeling well and truly sucked into the system by now (applying for the first course in a few weeks!)

There are two options - either doing a music degree (BA/BMus) followed by a PGCE course, or doing a joint music and education course. I was advised to do the first one, because that way you have a degree if you decide you no longer want to teach.
I was also given some very good advice to think about what I would need in a classroom - yes, the royal schools of music may look great, but if I go into a classroom without having studied anything other than classical, then I'm going to struggle basically, because if you're planning on teaching in a state secondary school the majority of the teaching won't be straight classical music, and its good to have a knowledge of other genres and styles too.
The other piece of advice was to think about the cost of doing them separately - if you can afford and want to do a 4 year course, then go for it, but bear in mind that there is also the year long PGCE course afterwards, so it would be a bit cheaper to do just a 3 year course.
There are loads of different courses to choose from - try ucas.com's course search and type in 'music', it should come up with quite a variety. There is also cukas.ac.uk for the conservatoires, and then the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall have their own separate application system, so you just have to go on their individual websites.
Good luck, sorry for my rambling, just relating the advice I've been given - I think it's very good advice and it's helped me a lot thinking about what exactly I want out of a course, which has helped a lot with narrowing courses down!

xxx

I'm totally biased, but Leeds is a fantastic place to do music- all my teachers went there and I'm starting one week today Theres an open day coming up, so go and see it! Manchesters also good for music but I think the grades offer is very high (AAA/AAB)- Leeds was only ABC. If you still want to become a teacher at the end of your degree, you go to do a PGCE. A good place to do a PGCE is Roehampton Uni.

For conservatoires, it not necessarily about having the grades on paper (although its nice to have anyway!) but about how much potential you show and your standard of musicianship. Technically you should be at least a grade 8 distinction but also have something a bit extra... so your teacher should be able to advise you on that.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Yeah Bangor Uni has a very good music department. I have just graduated from a 3 year Music degree there, and the course was just perfect for what I wanted to specialise in etc. Different uni's suit different people though, just keep that in mind, although recomendations are always good!

Hi,

Has anyone graduated from / is currently studying in any Music Conservatory in Adelaide? Can you provide more info on the uni?

Btw, is it necessary to do the dip in music in a uni, then a degree in music straight after grade 8? As the cost is pretty steep... I would like to find out whether it's enough to just get a degree straight after grade 8.

Thanks!