Apart from the Open University, are there many other places that offer courses via the internet/post in music history and theory?
I'm more interested in the history side myself, being fascinated by instrument design and also how society shaped music and vice versa.


I found this one:
http://www.musicentre.co.uk/www/index.pl

Any more?

Steve

Not a direct answer this.

If you're interested in any courses, I find it best not only to imagine the course will be teaching me, but also to scrutinize the course for whether it will provide what I'm looking for.

Many courses are general music courses which require composition, harmony, maybe performance - it looks like you want something more specific to music history, but even then not the history of orchestra size (for example), but the relationship between music and culture.

Musical instrument design is unlikely to be on a normal music history course (I'd think). I did it only as I chose to do a dissertation on the Viol in my degree at university, otherwise - little mention.

If I've got you right, then it's quicker to do some research about what you want to do, than get hooked into a course that is not what you want, or skims the surface or is piecemeal. Better to do the research finding books that get into what you're looking for, and may well go deeper than a course, particularly if you get 5 or so books. You could always find an appropriate MA or PhD to do if you have a degree (don't overestimate these - lots of people do them!, but it does take persistence as well as thought - but if you're interested in the topic.....).

If you're wanting to do this for the knowledge rather than for the qualification, then don't get a qualification at the expense of not really getting the knowledge - or if you do find the right course, then get both.

If you want to get a job in it afterwards, think what job, contact some people in that job, or thoses jobs, and ask what they'd suggest, particularly books to read, as well as what's needed to get into the job.

Well I've rambled a bit - hope some of it sparks some useful thoughts.

QUOTE

as well as what's needed to get into the job.

DomRUK

These days usually some sort of qualification (first degree) which is bound to include courses you feel are are not relevant.

The point is, it's all very well studying one part of subject without another, but the study of music should broadly incorporate a whole rather than just odd bits of it - which are usually linked somewhere along the line to the parts you do want to know. For example, how many times does the "practical student not wanting to study theory" crop up in these forums? More times than I care to remember. Theory backs up the practical, the two are linked.

There is a section the the OU course AA302 From composition to performance: musicians at work, which goes into the history and development of instruments, but this is so inextricably linked to the rest of the studies, it would be hard to put this as a single entity.


Stevensfo,

I would imagine if you want to soley study the development of musical instruments then the majority of courses would be at postgraduate level. As far as I'm aware no such distance learning courses exist.

A friend of mine is the curator of The York Gate Collections at the Royal Academy of Music, and she studied for a BMus followed by a PhD before getting a general curating postion at the V&A. She has worked her way up from there. If you'd like to get in touch with her, let me know and I'll send you her email address. They don't take on students in this area, but I'm sure she'd be very happy to give some advise on the best route to take in your studies.

Yes indeed - it all depends on whether what is wanted is a course just for amateur interest, or for something specific, or a fuller course for some purpose.

Best wishes,

DomRUK

I have recently come acrossa 3 year composition course with the OCA, I wonder if anyone has had any experience with the course or with OCA itself?

http://www.oca-uk.com/distance-learning/composing-music-1

It does look interesting, though I've never heard of the university that accreditates the course.

Steve

If you have no special desire to get a certificate you can do plenty by starting with what you already know on Wikipedia and keep clicking the links when it talks about something you don't know - I can lose hours that way! Then work your way through your county library service. Instrument construction - why not build one? Obviously a bit easier with a violin than a clarinet because of the metalwork, but you can start with a kit fiddle then build one from scratch, and I bet you'd learn more about instrument history and design than you would from a book. A guy in the midlands offers violin-making courses of varying lengths, from total beginner to more advanced, so you can go down and use his workshop and get his experienced input. I can't remember the link but he Googles pretty easily. I know you mentioned correspondence courses, I just mentioned him because he tends to do a single weekend here and there so you can do most of it on your own through exploration and then the odd bit in a group of like-minded folk.

It gets trickier if you need certification, but many universities of the "new" variety offer flexible learning courses where you can pick a module here and there to interest you and get a "certificate of unit credit" for your attendance.

Open College of the Arts has been around for a goodly while; the Open University did used to allow credit transfer for some of the OCA courses (I don't know if that is still the case).

Bucks New University who accredit are based in High Wycombe. They became a university in 2007, having previously been 'Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College', and a HE college since at least 1975.

Actually, one of my local colleges did something similar - it was official Anglia Higher Education College. Then it became Anglia Polytechnic. Then all the polys changed to unis, so it became Anglia Polytechnic University. Now it is Anglia Ruskin University.
My brother was a Plymouth Polytechnic for his first year; Polytechnic South-West for his second year; and graduated from the University of Plymouth

I think they do it deliberately to confuse people