Looks like this year will be a cracker. A load of Jazz concerts / talks / sets. Plus the opening of their new facilities.

I reckon even if your not planning to go there it would be worth a look

I'm sure SaxLad won't mind me mentioning that this is the 26th June.

Not at all Barry. You there?

Afraid not : I'll be chez pianocelloflute rehearsing for my diploma. Hope you have a good time!

I'm not sure yet - it's a long way to go, and it may be better for Musicstand to go to the woodwind open day, but I'm not sure whether he's going to apply to there.

He's going to the Birmingham open day again - this time with his friends from school.

Woooo Birmingham open day!!

Ok.

THAT WAS AMAZING!

I take it you liked it then!

I was there with my son, and we came away with mixed feelings. Loved the new building, we have been at the college lots in the last couple of years and have watched it 'grow up' so it was great to be there.

I have been to open days there in the past and always been impressed. Their audition process is great too, nearly everyone I know who auditioned last year rated Cardiff as one of the best days, they really take the time to get the best out of the candidates. The students we know there really love it.

However, while we enjoyed the jazz day yesterday, with all the sets and concerts going on, we were less impressed by the actual bits about the course. The bit in the welcome pack looked good, the descriptions of what is actually in the curriculum were good. We were less sure about the 'studying jazz at RWCMD' talk, somehow both my son and myself came away feeling a little disappointed. I also wasn't sure whether the tiny size of the course is a plus or a big negative - 6-8 undergrads a year is tiny and I wonder how that affects the experience.

We went to the open day at Birmingham last week too, and my son's comment yesterday was that on the basis of the two open days so far Birmingham is a straight winner. We shall see - he won't be applying until 2012 so has lots of time to visit more places and to change his mind several times!

Glad you had a good day, I'm going to book for the woodwind day there now. Musicstand didn't go to Birmingham again, he went to the RSAMD one in Glasgow on Wednesday instead. He still prefers Birmingham, though.

Whoops! Just found out it's fully booked now

Is it the woodwind bit that's fully booked, it looks a bit ambiguous to me - we thought the asterisk only referred to the voice bit being booked rather than the whole day.

We were thinking of going to the woodwind day, but since we're back in Cardiff for the composition day next week, 3 open days at one place in a week and a half seemed a bit much! Son seems to have just about discounted classical now anyway, and is veering towards jazz but with a toehold in the composition camp!

good for him has he decided where he wants to study?

[quote name='SaxLad' date='Jun 27 2011, 06:32 PM' post='1069964']


[/quote]

good for him has he decided where he wants to study?
[/quote]


No not yet, it's early days really, we're just trying to get some of the open days done and dusted now that GCSEs are over.

There aren't really that many places that do a full jazz course, so options are limited...

[quote name='serendipity' date='Jun 27 2011, 06:44 PM' post='1069969']
[quote name='SaxLad' date='Jun 27 2011, 06:32 PM' post='1069964']


[/quote]

good for him has he decided where he wants to study?
[/quote]


No not yet, it's early days really, we're just trying to get some of the open days done and dusted now that GCSEs are over.

There aren't really that many places that do a full jazz course, so options are limited...
[/quote]

There are quite a few actually,

Leeds College Of Music
Trinity
Guildhall
Birmingham
Middlesex Uni
Royal Welsh
Royal Academy

There are a few more I think that mix contempory music with Jazz. Im sure someone will add a few more for me

Thanks, it was just voice that was fully booked - have booked it now.

[quote name='SaxLad' date='Jun 27 2011, 09:12 PM' post='1069987']
[quote name='serendipity' date='Jun 27 2011, 06:44 PM' post='1069969']
[quote name='SaxLad' date='Jun 27 2011, 06:32 PM' post='1069964']


[/quote]

good for him has he decided where he wants to study?
[/quote]


No not yet, it's early days really, we're just trying to get some of the open days done and dusted now that GCSEs are over.

There aren't really that many places that do a full jazz course, so options are limited...
[/quote]

There are quite a few actually,

Leeds College Of Music
Trinity
Guildhall
Birmingham
Middlesex Uni
Royal Welsh
Royal Academy

There are a few more I think that mix contempory music with Jazz. Im sure someone will add a few more for me
[/quote]


I meant there weren't many compared to the number offering a classical course...
Even amongst the conservatoires, there are a few where they don't offer a course which is 100% jazz, but do offer some jazz to a greater or lesser degree either as a compulsory option or as elective modules. Even at Guildhall for example, you follow the general BMUS course and specialise in jazz. My son is more drawn to the full-on jazz courses such as the BMUS (Jazz) offered at Birmingham, Royal Welsh and (from September) Academy.

To be fair though, there is enough choice - time and money mean that realistically he will only be looking at applying to 5-6 conservatoires, that's what we did with my eldest and it was about right - any fewer and you aren't giving yourself enough chance at it, any more and it costs (even more of) a fortune and makes the whole process even more tiring and stressful. We know people who applied to as few as 2 and others who went for the maximum 8 and neither strategy seemed appealing!

RSAMD run a jazz course - the director is Tommy Smith. It's only been running for a couple of years.

Yes, we have looked at the website. I'm a bit put off because we weren't very impressed by RSAMD's audition process last year, although that was woodwind not jazz. It was a shame because that was one of the ones we were most impressed with 'on paper', really had good feelings about the course, loved Glasgow, and then the audition just seemed so rushed and as if they couldn't be bothered.

My eldest was the last audition of the day (the last one for her instrument we think), just before the scholarship round, and she was in and out of her audition so fast it was unbelievable, I honestly didn't think it was possible. She didn't feel they were very interested, were only going through it for form's sake. We later met someone who had auditioned earlier on in the day on the same instrument, who had been offered a place there and then. This girl had been somewhat taken aback and had actually queried whether they should be doing this before they had heard the rest of the candidates!

She in turn later met someone who had been offered a place a day or two before her. I know some places do offer on the day if they really want someone, but my daughter really felt they weren't really auditioning her, just going through the motions.

That was one of the most interesting things about the whole audition process, seeing how different places handled things. When it came to deciding where to go, how she was treated during auditions definitely had some influence!

Interesting - Guildhall is one of the best regarded jazz courses, with some fantastic young players coming out of it. It used to be Guildhall / Academy as the top 2, but I think Trinity is rapidly moving up there these days.

Yes, we've heard good things about the Trinity course, and have heard a couple of their recent jazz graduates, they certainly sound good.

Don't know much about the Guildhall jazz course, but I know it's great for other courses and we know several students there who love it. Certainly, their audition day for woodwind was just fab, my daughter's favourite audition day! Would highly recommend it on those grounds alone!

Interesting to hear about the audition process at RSAMD. I was talking to a girl I know who had auditioned there for clarinet, and she said exactly the same thing. She said it seemed as though they had already decided in advance they didn't want her. It's strange, because I thought the staff seemed nice at the Open Day.

I've heard that Trinity is good for jazz too - son's just started playing in a jazz band, and quite a few of the players from there seem to go to Trinity. My son wants to do classical rather than jazz, but may want to carry on with jazz as an option.

Serendipity - which instrument does your daughter play and where did she audition? We are in the process of thinking which ones to apply to at the moment.

She's a flautist. She applied for Royal Northern, Royal Scottish, Royal Welsh, Royal College, Trinity and Guildhall. That's all (more than!) the budget and nerves could stand.

Son is a sax player like yours, but will probably go for jazz. I think your son is applying this year isn't he, we've still got another year or so before the big decisions have to be made...

Yes, he's applying this year - auditions in November/December. He's applying for classical, as he hasn't had a lot of jazz experience. He only recently started having jazz lessons, but will be starting at music centre jazz band in September. I think he'd like the chance to carry on with jazz if he gets into a conservatoire.

It's an expensive business going to open days and auditions. My son has changed his mind about going to the Royal Welsh Open Day, he realised he would have to miss a jazz lesson for it, so decided he would just try and get an impression of it at the audition.

Where did your daughter go in the end?

I'd rather not say, if that isn't too precious - most of the colleges take so few of her instrument that it could make her very identifiable and I don't think that's for me to do when it's me posting here and not her!

Suffice to say that of the 6 she applied for she ended up with 2 rejections and 4 offers/reserves (including a 1st reserve we know would definitely have ended up as a firm offer), and is off in September to her top choice. So all panned out well.

Shame your son can't make the Cardiff woodwind day, we found that was a good day. However, the audition day was brilliant, everyone single person we know who auditioned there found it a great experience. The audition/interview lasted ages, but in a good way, they were so friendly and my daughter thought they were really giving her every chance to do well and show what sort of person she was and what potential she had.

That's fine, I have started to realise what a small world the music world is.

It's a shame we can't get to Cardiff, I would have been interested to see it, and it would have helped us to narrow down places to audition. However, I think he gas decided to apply there anyway, because he's not so keen on going to one in London.

Daughter (ASax) did these auditions last year and said Guildhall and Trinity were definately top two. RAM was incredibly difficult to get into even though she was in the Jazz JD there! The RAM style of audition didnt help either. She was very dissappointed with Leeds and also feels that Cardiff is too small. Birmingham didnt inspire her. Middlesex (on the edge of London) is getting better and anyway the tutors do the rounds of all the Music colleges at Masterclasses so you still get access to good teaching. However she auditioned for Berklee (first time they auditioned in London) and got massive scholarship, so that settled it .

Well done to Asax - what a fantastic opportunity

Thanks. Berklee have a completely different style of audition but they "respect" the Grade 5 theory, (Panel "so how's your theory" ... "I have Grade 5", Panel "Ah ha THE Grade 5"...) and are real big on solfege.

The big difference was the fact that they allowed her to audition with her band instead of a backing CD or a designated accompanist. Her mates (2 undergrads from Guildhall and one from Trinity) were so excited that they all gave it their best although the panel did ask, as they trucked into the room with all their instruments, if they were ALL auditioning for places at Berklee.

All of the UK Jazz courses refused to allow her to bring her own band into the audition. Plus Berklee immediately offered her a place and told her how much she would get as a scholarship. Her second choice was Guildhall.

We found out about Berklee totally by accident so she auditioned in Paris two years ago for the Summer School and was again given a full tuition scholarship to attend (we had to pay for accomodation, fares and visas). Then she jumped at the opportunity to audition again for the undergrad when we heard they were coming to London this year. They just dont have that "quota" of x saxs, x guitars and 1 drummer per year, so thats an additional pressure off the students back.

But, and I repeat but, without the scholarship it would have been a total non starter. The fees are ludicrous!

Does she like it? I had wondered about auditioning onto the jazz course there.

She hasnt started the undergrad yet, (on gap year) but she did the summer course (5 week) in 2009 and totally fell in love with the place. It is predominately jazz based but you have the opportunity to do rock, classical, folk etc. Over a thousand students doing Music, (of which about 30% are overseas students), of all sorts and everyone works together. Random students come up to you in the canteen or street and say "want to jam with us tonight/tomorrow/now!

The emphasis is on playing TOGETHER, so you can be in about seven or eight bands/ensembles outside of your elective group - so you play all day and night. Whenever we rang her, it was "cant stop off to jam with xyz". Although her main instrument is the sax, she also got roped in with a bass guitar and her viola Plus the facilites are second to none. She said work on your piano, music tech and solfege, the little aural you do for AB exams is just nothing in comparison, and much to her disgust she had to sing, but her good sight reading was always noted. She was also overwhelmed at just how good the students were but they all support each other.

Hi, I'm new to the site and it's taken a while for my account to be validated but I've been reading this thread with interest! My eldest has just graduated from RAM and I would like to say that the jazz departments at all of the London colleges are very friendly and the students very supportive of each other. Bands tend to form across the colleges, not just from within each department - if a student is good they soon get a reputation and are asked to play in all sorts of events including performance assessments at other colleges and the all-important fee paying gigs to supplement loans.

Whats the living cost like for London then?

Obviously more than other places, but if you don't hit the drink/clubbing scene it seems possible to survive on student loans - the main problem has been that tenancies tend to have to cover the long summer break so you need to find extra money for that. Budgeting for travel with student oyster cards saved a lot (took son a year to figure that one out!) and halls in the first year worked out expensive as the food was awful so we were supplementing that. But, for the contacts he made, work etc., it was worth it.

Trinity might be slightly cheaper.

Because it isn't Central London there are reasonably priced places to live that don't involve commuting into / through Central London to get to college - so you could either save on living expenses or travel expenses or both. The other week we had a bass player from Trinity who's just finished his 3rd year playing with us because our regular bass player was ill (and very good he was too), he said that one of the things he appreciated was not having to drag his double bass into the centre of town on a regular basis.

That said I would tend to agree with Ayshah's view that the advantages of London probably outweigh the living expense disadvantage, provided you're the sort of person who can get on with big cities.