I know someone who is now in her third year, and doesn't really hav access to a piano during term, and her piano playing has, understandably, suffered hugely. I really don't want this to happen for me. I've got the best part of two years before i start at uni, but i can see this causing quite a problem if i leave thinking about it till the last minute.

So, basically, i was wondering what people have done/are planning to do/ are doing about carrying on playing the piano while at uni, if you're not doing a music degree. Is it possible for you to have a piano/clavinova/keyboard in your room etc.

I'd have thought the easiest thing would be to speak to the music department. Although most will give priority to students in the subject i think most would be willing to give you time to practice particularly if it were in the evening/quite early.

Things will no doubt have changed since I was at university twenty years ago. At the university I went to, any student could have a key to the practise rooms if they paid a sum of money each term. Practise rooms were open something like 9.00 am to 11.00 pm (slightly shorter hours at weekends) which certainly on paper seemed a fair amount of time but in reality I discovered that it was virtually impossible to get a piano as a non-music student. Only music students could book a room in advance, as a non music student you just had to turn up and hope a room was free and even then if a music student, who hadn't booked, turned up and wanted the room you had to vacate the room for them. On a good week I managed maybe an hour spread over four days, on a bad week I didn't even get to touch the piano despite numerous trips at all hours of the day to the music room. In the sixth form I had been playing at least two hours a day.

Don't panic about this yet, Sarah - you don't even know which universities you'll end up applying to. I'm sure some unis make more provision than others in the the way of practice rooms etc, and if it's something that's very important to you, when you're deciding where to go you will take that into account. Prospectuses always give you a contact e-mail address, so you'll easily be able to make enquiries.

At most universities, at least half the year is spent at home anyway, so you can always catch up on your playing, and organise some lessons, then. It's unrealistic to think you will be able to play as much during term-time as you do now, as unless you are reading Music there will be lots of other work to drag you away from the piano.

Not quite the same - I play flute! I know it's more portable (!), but I still have flute lessons despite not doing music as a degree. It was quite a simple procedure.

I am sure you will be able to carry on playing and/or having lessons. For example, my college I am in has 3 (?) pianos and one practice room which you're allowed to play on. I am sure if you contacted the music department they'd let you play theirs. I do also know people who have pianos (digital) in their room.

I'm definitely going to carry on with music next year. But I'm hoping to commute to university, so practice won't be a problem I hope. But all the places I've applied say that there are practice rooms for everyone to use, and that you can even have a piano in your room! So I wouldn't worry about it

I dismantled my clavinova and took it with me. I wouldn't have survived without it.

When I was at university, all but a handful of the practice rooms had pianos in them. Some (not all) of the practice rooms could be booked in advance; students could book in advance, use one of the non-bookable rooms or just turn up on spec regardless of their course. A few of my contemporaries had Clavinovas or similar in their rooms in halls as well. A word to the wise - they're really awkward to carry up and down flights of stairs.

I lived in lodgings throughout, and the house where I lived had a piano which I was allowed to use. The piano had a really stiff action, which made playing the departmental Steinway D really easy! The stiffness was possibly in part due to under-use - landlady's daughter was nominally learning, i.e. piano practice consisted of playing through a couple of favourite pieces every evening for two years

You don't say where or what you hope to study, but try contacting the universities to establish the practice room situation for non music students. Ask lots of questions at open days as well - policy may differ from reality (see kerioboe's reply). Make friends in and with the music department.

An electronic piano in your room is another option if you don't live somewhere where there's a piano.

Is there a local music shop or showroom with practice rooms? (although this might be chargeable). Will there be friends, family or tame forummers nearby? Try sweet-talking a local school or church or other venue with a piano.

Think creatively - the more ideas you have, the more likely you are to have access to a piano

My Halls of Residence had a music room with a nice Grand Piano in, so for first year I was alright. In second and third I've had to survive using my stage piano and frequent trips to my parent's house (which is alright because they mlive in the same city as my Uni, and that's where my teaching is based anyway).

Well it was 1965 when I went down to Nottingham to study Chemistry, on the back of getting ALCM on piano and narrowly failing ATCL organ. Anyway the music department, had a number of practice rooms available, and whilst music students got priority, there never seemed to be a problem with availability. Later my Hall of Residence ( Lincoln) bought a small grand, but it had to be put in the library, normally a quiet place. So it was only allowed to be played at certain times. In Lincoln hall I met a good violinist from Hong Kong (studying physics) , and we formed a duo. Eventually Hall concerts took place at which we performed.
Much of the repertoire we played I now play with my daughter. I am still in touch with him, he lives in Vienna.
So i was never short of musical activity despite studying for a chemistry degree.
Oh and of course I joined the Uni choir. My best experience was singing War Requiem (with two other Nottm choirs) in 1966, when the work was only 4 years old.

The simplest option is to get an electric piano. And that has a lot to recommend it. No extra travel to practice for one thing. Something like a Yamaha P70 can be had second-hand for 300 GBP or less, possibly much less, and you'll get a lot of that back when you come to sell it. I would recommend an instrument that is primarily intended as an electronic piano, and NOT a general purpose MIDI keyboard. Not so versatile, but much simpler, and probably with better piano sound and piano-like action. As for practising on a real piano, provision varies from place to place, but my experience, as an itinerant IT consultant, is that you can always find suitable practice facilities if you are determined enough.

Right now I am working in Utrecht as a computer programmer, but for a very modest fee (I would happily have paid much more) I have use of the practice rooms at "Parnassus"... Utrecht University's music department. Facilities are also available at the conservatiore. This is amazing. I am not a music student, not even a student ... just a failed concert pianist that is a visitor to the town. I am told that the situation is similar in Maastricht, Amsterdam, and other Dutch cities.

Only teachers and staff can pre-book rooms, but that is not a problem. They have a lot of rooms, mostly Yamaha uprights (very nice pianos) but also several Yamaha and Steinway grands. The system is that once you have a room, you are guaranteed one hour. If no rooms are available when someone arrives, the person that has been there the longest has to vacate their room. No-one is asked to vacate until they have had an hour.

In practice it is rare that anyone is asked to leave, and then only on the busiest nights (Mon and Tue). I typically manage between 2 and 5 hours practice a day, 6 days a week (with the occasional weekend off to visit home or play in a chess tournament).

This is exceptional, but I always managed to find somewhere to practice wherever I might be temporarily based ... Ipswich, London, Hinckley, ... The key is to find other musicians (the web is good), wherever you happen to be, get in touch with them, and ask them about practice facilities.

Good luck
Tom