sorry this is a long post, but please read it!

Hey, I've recently applied and received offers from various unis to study music - I originally wanted to apply to music college for trumpet performace, but an embouchure change prevented me from auditioning on nov/dec 2006 because my standard was not there...

Now I'm planning to accept two uni places, but I've always had this feeling of disappointment because my dream before was always to go to music college... and I don't know whether I should risk and take a gap year and reapply for music college on the off chance that I might get in - or just carry on with the uni route and maybe take postgrad at conservatoire > however having had a uni 'education' I wouldn't have had the concentrated training on my instrument that people who'd have done an undergrad at music college (and therefore my potential 'competition')... plus the fact that a more academic degree in music would probably stand me in better stead should things not work out in music performance...

is there anyone who is/has been in a similar situation? anyone got any ideas?

thanks
x

It varies with which uni you go to. The uni that I am at teaches music performance at the Royal Academy of Music, therefore the instrumentalists are getting just as good performance lessons as the conservatoire students, and as many lessons. Chamber music and orchestral experience is more limited in the universities.

I dont think conservatoires focus only on performance. You will still be doing essays on music history and will have modules on composition, conducting etc. The probable only difference will be there are more playing opportunities in conservatoire and the playing standard is very high therefore you are always pushing your practice to keep up with the standard.

If i were u i would choose to study music at a university. However, i don't really know in great details of what the differences are.

Conservatoire courses now have so much more than the '4 hours practice a day and nothing more' myth. Though perhaps that was a myth I made up in my head - I'm good at those.
There are so many different modules now that make sure that if you don't become a soloist/orchestral performer then you have enough skills to get a career in another musical area. At my RCM audition one of the teachers on my panel commented that his pupils leave better qualified than him! I went to an Open Day at the RNCM on Tuesday, and I was so surprised at how much more there is than just Principal study. Something they have now brought in is a 'pathway' approach whereby in years 3 and 4 you have a wide range of electives, or you can follow a designated pathway instead, like Jazz, Chamber Music, or Teacher/Performer (which means you come out with Qualified Teacher Status). By the time I'm at the stage where I would choose that, they hope to have even more options availible. I don't think they have all that on the website yet - I found it quite exciting as I never had an up-to-date prospectus either!

As a head of department, I've been faced with this question so many times. My advice has been as follows:

1. If you have a really, really, really good reason for wanting to go to conservatoire, ie you have your heart set on being a performer among others, then go to conservatoire. If you're undecided, pick a music course that has a reasonable amount of performance, and one in a big city that gives you lots of opportunities in and out of university music. (eg Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc).

2. You'll meet friends with a much wider circle of interests at uni.

3. Conservatoires, for all their excellent practical teaching, are incredibly competitive, especially if you play an instrument where there will only be a handful of you.

4. I know a lot of kids who went to uni, and then did a postgrad at one of the colleges afterwards. Its the best of both worlds!

Hope this helps.

Remember the main difference between a conservatoire and a cni is that conservatoire can give you degree credits for different aspects of performance, counting as different modules - ie Ensemble playing (20) and a solo recital (20) might be worth 40 credits towards your degree but academic degrees are only allowed to give a certain amount of credits for the final classification of your degree.

This doesn't mean that you won't get the same performance opportunities as those at conservatoires, you just can't be marked for it.

The above paraphrased from a senior lecturer at University of Manchester.

guilmant, you've pretty much summed up my experiences. I did (briefly) consider music college but in the end settled for university. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do (I'm still not, but that's another matter!), and felt, rightly or wrongly, that music college would close off a few options, whereas if I had a burning desire to perform I could do a postgraduate performance course (which some of my contemporaries did). Competition was stiff enough amongst the clarinettists at university, so would have been far more so at any music college.

I met alot of people with a broad range of interests, both in and out of the music department. Some of my contemporaries were heavily into jazz (culminating in one crazy evening where virtually our whole year group went to Ronnie Scott's to hear Julian Joseph); whilst jazz isn't my overwhelming passion, I thank them for opening my ears to it. There were a few members of the choir who weren't studying for a music degree - some were studying for a BEd, others were reading English, a couple were actually members of the university's administrative staff - and it was refreshing to meet people from different backgrounds. I also did quite alot of trampolining in the first two years, and some of my fellow trampoliners wouldn't know a crotchet if it came up and introduced itself. I may have had these experiences if I'd gone to music college, although I'm not certain I would have ended up trampolining with chemists if I had!

These are, however, just my experiences. University doesn't suit everyone; conversely there are some who don't like the hot-house atmosphere of music college.

A surpringsly large number of performers actually studied music at a university and then went on to an intensive postgrad performance course. This allowed them to be sure about what sort of music career they wanted and importantly, come to a conclusion about whether their playing would be good enough to get them a performing job.

University gives you a more rounded education for a variety of music careers, but conservatoires don't just concentrate on performance classes - not when you consider how diverse a music career is these days. There's academic modules, plus teaching and outreach work. Fitting in enough hours of private practice is usually the hardest part!

If you play an endangered species instrument, ie. most brass (especially French horn, trombone, bass trombone), bassoon, oboe or double bass, even as a second or third study, you might very well get a place at a conservatoire based on the fact that they actually need those instruments to fill the relevant orchestral/ensemble seats. There's simply not enough funding for them to bring in paid professionals for rehearsals or performances.

I was in this situation a couple of years ago and opted for the university option as I felt this was best suited to me. Don't feel that just because you go to a university rather than a music college your a worst player. As I have found in our music department we have some of the best teachers in the country and many have had lots of very successful students that have studied with them at the uni. The decision is yours and obviously you have to do what is right for you. But I made this decision as I didn't know what I wanted to do once I had finished my degree. (and still don't!)

Oh, I forgot to say! at uni you get a certain amount of lessons paid for by the department on your main instrument. they will often pay for you to have lessons with teachers who also teach at conservatoire anyway. I know that Nat, who used to frequent these boards a lot, is studying at Bangor Uni but is getting sax lessons from one of the tutors who teaches at RNCM. Birmingham uni students often get instrumental lessons from teachers at the conservatoire. Manchester uni offer a scholarship to music students who get Grade 8 distinction, where they audition at RNCM for instrumental lessons there. Don't feel like if you go to Uni you get instrumental teaching of a lower standard as this is not true! Ask around... sometimes they just don't say in the prospectus.

Well don't forget that conservatoires offer more than just performance! And Universities aren't worse than conservatoires. I think as you're not sure what you would like to do perhaps go to Uni and then you have all your options open ie performer/musicoloigist or whatever and perhaps do a post grad course at a conservatoire - it's the best of both worlds! I've chosen to go to a Uni which offers a lot of instrumental tuition and they offer almost as much as conservatoires do I think.

It really is up to you though - good luck!