The Provision in “Music Skills” for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across selected North Eastern and National Institutions (2008)
In October 2007, a report was commissioned by the CETL for Music and Inclusivity to investigate the provision in ‘Music Skills’ for students on Popular Music Programmes in Higher Education. For the purposes of this report, the term ‘Music Skills’ is defined as the collection of technical and theoretical skills that enable a student to engage with music at a fundamental level. Such music skills are designed to develop the student’s musical awareness, musical knowledge and musical theory. They might reasonably include aural training, analytic listening and comprehension, exploration of tonal harmony and common formal structures, and score reading and writing.
The report is divided into two parts. The first gives a snapshot of the quantity of popular music courses (both undergraduate and foundation degree) that are on offer to students who wish to enter Further and Higher Education across the UK. It considers the typical routes through FE and HE institutions, and highlights the structure of typical popular music degree courses. The second part discusses the types of music skills provision that are offered by selected FE and HE institutions across the North East and England. This information has been gained by visiting and talking to various heads of departments, their staff, and their students currently involved on the courses. It is worth stating that no one institution will be singled out in this part. Rather, this section will consider the provision in general, and discuss the commonalities that the author has found in the needs and practice of music skills packages. Throughout the two parts areas of good practice as employed by certain institutions will be highlighted, and suggestions will be made for a consistent and effective programme of music skills that could be offered to students undertaking a popular music degree.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across selected North Eastern and National Institutions.
Dr Paul Fleet
March 2008
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Content 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2.1 3.1 About the CETL for Music and Inclusivity About the Author Research Brief Acknowledgements Summary of Findings Overview of Institutions offering Popular Music Degrees Findings from interviews with North Eastern and National Institutions Appendix 1: Full research list of types of music courses from FE and HE Institutions; including their ratings from Google and Guardian University Guide 2008 Appendix 2: Contact List Appendix 3: Examples of Internet Resources for Music Skills 2 3 4 5 6 7
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4.1
26 37 38
4.2 4.3
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
1.1 About the CETL for Music and Inclusivity
The CETL for Music and Inclusivity officially started in March 2005 and represents a regional consortium of The Universities for the North East (UNIS4NE). This consortium comprises the Universities of Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland, Teesside and the Open University in the North, in association with the Sage Gateshead.
The aim of the CETL is to enhance musical inclusivity and this means broadening music education to maximise participation by students from diverse backgrounds and promoting all musical practices that stake a claim in contemporary culture – popular, classical, folk, traditional, brass band, new or avant garde and world musics.
Music and Inclusivity is a large CETL consisting of ten identifiably separate but interconnected projects. One of these projects is the Music Skills project which seeks to revitalise and redefine approaches to learning technical and theoretical music skills.
More
information
about
the
CETL
for
Music
and
Inclusivity
can
be
found
at:
www.cetl4musicne.ac.uk.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
1.2 About the Author
Paul Fleet was born and educated in the North East. He began his Further Education at Newcastle College, and then continued into Higher Education at Newcastle University. He played in rock bands throughout his teenage years, managed and sang in the University Choir as an undergraduate, and has performed in concerts both as a soloist and as a member of the orchestra in his postgraduate years.
He has knowledge from ‘both sides of the desk’ with respect to this report. As a student in Further Education he undertook A Levels and then a BTEC HND in Performing Arts, which are the two most typical entry routes for students who enrol upon an undergraduate music degree. As an associate lecturer in Higher Education and as a self-employed music teacher he has written, delivered and marked a wide variety of ‘music skills’ based courses for students of various ages and abilities who are on privately funded courses, access courses, foundation degrees, and undergraduate degrees in both Classical and Popular Music.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
1.3 Research Brief
In October 2007, a report was commissioned by the CETL for Music and Inclusivity to investigate the provision in ‘Music Skills’ for students on Popular Music Programmes in Higher Education. For the purposes of this report, the term ‘Music Skills’ is defined as the collection of technical and theoretical skills that enable a student to engage with music at a fundamental level. Such music skills are designed to develop the student’s musical awareness, musical knowledge and musical theory. They might reasonably include aural training, analytic listening and comprehension,
exploration of tonal harmony and common formal structures, and score reading and writing.
The report is divided into two parts. The first gives a snapshot of the quantity of popular music courses (both undergraduate and foundation degree) that are on offer to students who wish to enter Further and Higher Education across the UK. It considers the typical routes through FE and HE institutions, and highlights the structure of typical popular music degree courses.
The second part discusses the types of music skills provision that are offered by selected FE and HE institutions across the North East and England. This information has been gained by visiting and talking to various heads of departments, their staff, and their students currently involved on the courses. It is worth stating that no one institution will be singled out in this part. Rather, this section will consider the provision in general, and discuss the commonalities that the author has found in the needs and practice of music skills packages.
Throughout the two parts areas of good practice as employed by certain institutions will be highlighted, and suggestions will be made for a consistent and effective programme of music skills that could be offered to students undertaking a popular music degree.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
1.4 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the staff and students of the various FE and HE institutions who took the time to answer my emails and phone calls. I would especially like to thank those individuals who took time out of their day to meet with me, and for their honesty and openness during the interviews. Finally, a big thank you to the administrative staff of the CETL: Music and Inclusivity for their sterling work in facilitating my various journeys across the North East and England.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
1.5 Summary of Findings
• • • Potential students searching for popular music degree courses primarily use search engines, and the websites of those institutions they are interested in. [p. 7] The visibility of courses and institutions listed on search engines does not extend past pages 3 and 4. [p. 7] The attractability of a popular music degree is heavily influenced by the perceived cultural, social and domestic advantage of a local institution, and the usability and graphics of the institution’s website. [p. 9] From an internet search carried out in December 2007: there are 222 institutions that offer some form of music course; 116 institutions that offer a music degree; 28 which offer a popular music degree; and 37 which offer a foundation degree in popular music. [p. 10] The majority of students on a popular music degree are between the ages of 18 and 30, are already practising musicians, and reflect the demographic of UK University students rather than the population of the UK. [p. 19] The popular music degree student is primarily a practical musician rather than a theoretical musician, and there is a distinction to be made between the ‘disinclined student’ (one who is resistant to learning new skills) and the ‘discovery student’ (one who is willing to engage with new skills). [p. 17] A high percentage of students enrolling on popular music degrees need some form of music skills tuition. [p. 17] Private tutors are a vital supply line of music skills information for popular music degree students. [p. 19] The majority of students and lecturers on popular music degrees believe that a music skills package should be an integral and immediate part of the course structure. [p. 21] The use of ABRSM Grade 5 Theory would be a fundamental error in the construction of a music skills package for popular music degrees. [p. 19] The internet should not be used for sole delivery of a music skills package, but has value as a support tool. [p. 24] It is the conclusion of this report that the delivery of a music skills package should be, above all, a practical delivery; and use a tri-part structure that presents, develops and theorises the music skill. [p. 24]
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
2.1 Overview of Institutions offering Popular Music Degrees
There are several sites on the internet that provide lists about the Further and Higher Education Establishments that offer degrees, music degrees, and/or popular music degrees. The majority of these sites are linked to academic institutions and their information can be regarded as accurate and up-to-date, for example Palatine’s list of FE establishments that offer HE qualifications. 1 Further, these sites offer salient descriptions and hyperlinks to relevant institutions so they would have provided me with a very quick and readily available data-bank of information from which to write this first part of the report. But, they are not the starting point for a prospective student wishing to take an undergraduate degree in popular music. After asking several students how they found out about the institution they were currently studying in, I found that their enquiries began with a search engine such as Google; then moved onto the website of the institution that they were interested in; and occasionally ventured into the web-pages of the UCAS website. Therefore, it would seem logical to follow their method of enquiries and record the results. 489,000 results are produced if you type the keywords ‘pop music degree’ into Google. Whilst this might seem an incredible figure to research, the keywords from the search are not going to provide the student with the exact information they require. The search will yield results that pertain to ‘pop music degrees’, but they might also contain results from sites that provide information about ‘pop music [foundation] degrees’ and ‘music degrees [with a] pop [course]’. 2 They might even contain wild-card entries that the keywords have thrown up, such as [someone’s blog who has mentioned that they like] music[, are interested in] pop [culture and took a] degree [at university]. It is also worth pointing out that it is unlikely for someone – namely the prospective student – to scroll past page 3 or 4 in their search, and therefore anything beyond page 5 becomes virtually invisible. 3 Consequently, there are only forty to fifty sites that the prospective student may look at (see table 1). 4
1 2
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/themes/hefe-music/ The text in square brackets is implicit within such a simple three keyword search. 3 The source of this information was gained from a business discussion with Mary Hall, a web optimiser from Business Link (http://www.businesslink.gov.uk) 4 This search was carried out by the author in the last weeks of December 2007. The information it yielded was checked a month later, January 2008, and found to be consistent.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Table 1: Rating 1 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 28 29 32 37 38 40 43 45 48 49 Institution Bath Spa Colchester Institute University of Westminster The University of Liverpool Newcastle College Bournemouth University College of West Anglia Tech Music Schools (incl. Guitar-X, Vocaltech, Keyboardtech & Drumtech) Access to Music Newcastle University Northumbria University City College Manchester University of Glamorgan The University of Huddersfield Goldsmiths College (University of London) Liverpool John Moores University Leeds College of Music West Kent College University of Glasgow Lancaster University The University of Salford Exeter College The University of Hull University of Chester University of Derby University of Wolverhampton University of East London The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance The University of Gloucestershire UCAS ref B20 C75 W50 L41 N23 B50 W35 n/a n/a N21 N77 C66 G14 H60 G56 L51 L30 n/a G28 L14 S03 E81 H72 C55 D39 W75 E28 n/a G50
On this search, the first fifty entries have produced no wild-card results and only returned institutions that list the keywords ‘pop music degree’ in their meta-text. The Google position of each entry has been recorded in the first column, but duplicate entries have been removed from this list for the sake of clarity. For example, Bath Spa University holds both the first and second position so only the highest entry has been recorded. For a prospective student this list forms a rich -8-
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
hunting ground and their next course of enquiry leads them to chase the hyperlinks to the specific websites of the institutions that interest them. To narrow the choice down from just under fifty results, the prospective student tends to use two criteria. The first criterion is the perceived cultural, social and domestic advantage of an institution that is near their home location. The second is drawn from specific knowledge of the institution in question. There are two sources which feed this second criterion. The first is that of a friend who knows somebody that has studied on the course or has taken the course themself. This ‘word-of-mouth’ source is undoubtedly an invaluable tool in the quest for attracting more students but control of this source by the institution is, at best, limited. By contrast, the second source – the website of the institution that has been flagged on the first few pages of a search engine – is one that can be easily manipulated by the institution to attract attention and keep the prospective student within the site. The attractability of an institution’s website is of critical importance not only to keep the interest of a student who has found the site through a search engine, but also to cultivate the interest of those students who have heard about the institution from a local source. However, as Anthony Haynes has pointed out ‘the navigability of typical academic websites is nowhere near as clear’ as it could be. 5 Whilst visiting the websites that are within the prospective student’s hunting ground I have found that although some institutions use a skin [the overall look of the website] and an interface [the menu commands to web pages within the website] that is within common currency of their target market, a fair majority of the others have trapped their content within text-laden pages that have no visible menu structure. A good example comes in the form of one institution’s website that looks very like the format used by the Apple Corporation. Whilst the institution in question has not infringed upon any copyrightable material, they have immediately created a link between themselves and the members of the iPod generation whom they wish to attract. Such, a design gives an immediate impression of being part of the market that the prospective student wishes to enter, and therefore creates a sense of familiarity that they find comfortable and appealing. The prospective pop music student will often end their research at this point. After having made a general enquiry through a search engine and then virtually visited a few institutions’ websites they will begin applying to those which caught their interest. However, there is one more, although less common, starting point that was mentioned to me in order to find suitable courses. The bank of information that UCAS holds and its status as a respected source of information enters the student’s consciousness during their sixth form and college days. Its appeal is no less to the student who has left these environments and is using its information through virtual means on
5
Anthony Haynes, ‘What a tangled web we weave’, The Times Higher (9th November 2007), p. 19.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
the web. The UCAS website has a Google page ranking of 7/10, a similar ranking to that of Ford, Sony or even Google’s own website, and has 3,430 back-links which indicates that it remains a popular source of information which is not only regularly visited but is also linked to by other websites. Once within the UCAS website, specific searches can be conducted for different degrees including the various types of popular music degree. UCAS not only provide a brief description of the degree information and its related code, but also the contact details of each listed institution is easily accessible through descending web pages as each search is refined. However, UCAS does not hold a full list of every popular music course that is available in the UK. For example, the Tech Music Schools and the Access to Music courses do not feature on their lists; yet these courses are regularly advertised on Radio 1 and Six Music and are therefore within the knowledge base of a prospective popular music student. This is not a criticism of the UCAS website, rather, and as we might expect, it demonstrates that no one source is the definitive portal for someone wishing to investigate different popular music degrees. Further, this research does not pretend to present the complete and definitive list of all popular music degrees that are available across the UK. What it does provide is an overview, a snapshot if you will, and an understanding of the courses that are ‘out there’ and which can be readily found by the prospective student because the research process reconstructs the methods of those very same prospective students. By using the search engine Google and visiting the websites that it lists, and searching through the UCAS website and visiting the websites that it lists, there are 323 FE and HE establishments that are available to prospective students. 6 Out of these 323 institutions vying for the student’s attention, 222 offer music courses. These range from introductory, non accredited courses such as ‘Exercise to Music’ or ‘Introduction to Listening to Music’; through the two most popular access routes into HE (A level and BTEC courses); and on to music degrees. There are 116 institutions that offer music degrees to students. These include classical, commercial,
contemporary, folk, media, performance, popular, technology, and combined-honours courses. 28 of the 116 institutions that offer music degrees offer a popular music degree; and 37 of the 222 institutions that offer music courses offer a foundation degree in popular music. This information is presented in percentage format in the example below (see figure 1).
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This complete alphabetised list of institutions, their url, what types of music course they offer, their Google rating, and their Guardian ranking (Guardian University Guide 2008 http://browse.guardian.co.uk/education?SearchBySubject=false&FirstRow=0&SortOrderDirection=&SortOrderColu mn=GuardianTeachingScore&Subject=Music&Go=Go) is listed in Appendix 1, p. 25.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Figure 1: 7
Data taken during the Christmas Period 2007
Music All Courses Music Courses Degree Courses Pop FdA 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Non Music Degree Pop Degree Pop Fda
These graphs can be read from two perspectives. Firstly, they give an impression of the educational market place with respect to music courses at a certain point in time. Secondly, they show the relative weighting of the courses set against each other. It is important that the context in which this report is presented is grounded in such information, as the emphasis placed upon particular degrees and foundation degrees can sometimes become distorted by members of the media, the government and educational institutions themselves. Nearly 70% of FE and HE institutions offer some form of music course. This is a
remarkably high percentage for a subject that is often downscaled or, at worst ignored, by educational establishments that feed students into Further and Higher Education. From the
meetings I conducted and from talking to Secondary School teachers and Sixth Form tutors in the North East and West Midland areas, a common feeling was that the school management team did not give enough emphasis or provide enough support to their course and instead unfairly concentrated upon Literacy, Language and Mathematics. Also, many teachers and tutors knew of schools where the Music Department Staff was less than skilled or enthusiastic about their own subject. If we accept that the market can only sustain what it needs, then the sense that nearly 70% of FE and HE institutions offer some form of music education shows that, despite this concern, there remains a significant interest in studying music by students once they are beyond school age. However, with the question of quantity also comes the question of quality. Many of these courses are potential feeds into popular music degrees (these feeds are also counted within the 70%) and there is a circular problem that was highlighted by several institutions I visited. It concerned
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These graphs and the information disseminated from them give a sense of the situation and are not critical reflections. For this to have been the case, student numbers from every institution would need to be taken into account and the data would have needed to be collected and assimilated from a longer period of time. Both of these factors are out of the remit of this investigation and would actually need a separate investigation in itself. However, for the purposes of this report they ground the information well enough for it not to seem abstract.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
the standard of education given to students on courses prior to degree level. For example, roughly twenty years ago the entry requirement for music teacher training was that they had a high practical knowledge of a keyboard instrument and had a theoretical knowledge that went beyond the ‘bench mark’ of ABRSM Grade 5 Theory. These standards have slowly fallen to meet the increased demands of student numbers on courses. From being able to play the piano competently, a student was accepted if they could play the guitar to a similar standard. This requirement has continued to drop, falling through to a student who plays a musical instrument but not necessarily an accompanying instrument, to a student who is able to play any musical instrument and not necessarily to a high standard. This drop in entry requirements is also matched by the prospective student’s theoretical knowledge. Thus as the teachers know less, the information they can pass on to their students becomes less, and so on in a loop until we reach the present day where there are cases of music teachers in the classroom that cannot read certain elements of music notation or who do not know about the structures of tonality. It is important to stress that the fault does not lie solely at the teacher’s feet, or at the foot of the teacher who taught the teacher. Rather, it lies within the pressure from management and government to adjust the entry requirements to fill the places on courses. This is not to say that the problem is epidemic, but we must be aware that although the percentage of courses looks healthy the content within them is not always so, and not all of the courses will suitably prepare the student to competently progress onto degree courses. Out of the 70% of music courses on offer in FE and HE establishments, roughly half are dedicated degree programmes. When you consider the sheer range of courses on offer this is still a remarkably high number. For example, a quick trawl through the internet will catch courses not only on music but also those which include music and another, not necessarily, related discipline. Therefore there is still a strong presence of degree courses on offer, and their value should not be weakened by the perceived popularity of other courses that may receive more media based attention. The split between popular music degrees and other music degrees is less balanced. Just over 20% of degrees courses are popular music degrees; these institutions and a hyperlink to their degree information page are listed in the table below (see table 2). Table 2: University of Chester University of Derby Doncaster College University of East London University of Glamorgan - 12 hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
The University of Gloucestershire Goldsmiths College (University of London) UHI Millennium Institute The University of Huddersfield The University of Hull The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance University of Leeds Leeds College of Music The University of Liverpool Liverpool Hope University Liverpool John Moores University The Manchester Metropolitan University Napier University, Edinburgh Newcastle University University of Northampton Northumbria University University of the West of Scotland The University of Salford Southampton Solent University Tech Music Schools (incl. Guitar-X, Vocaltech, Keyboardtech & Drumtech) Thames Valley University University of Westminster University of Wolverhampton
hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information hyperlink to degree information
Whilst this may seem a low percentage as a statistic, it is a remarkable figure given the history of popular music degrees. Classical music degrees have been part of university life since universities were founded, whereas popular music degrees have a history of just over fifteen years. Out of these 28 institutions that offer popular music degrees: 23 are HE institutions, 2 are FE institutions, and 3 are independently run music centres. The majority are therefore under the control of HE
institutions, but a new breed of modern music centres – such as the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance and the Tech Music Schools – are successfully marketing themselves and increasing their numbers of students. This feed away from typical FE and HE institutions could continue to grow if their advertising strategies and cultural popularity continues at its present rate. However, this is not a totally negative position for HE institutions. A good example of positive redirection comes from an institution who has forged links with Access to Music (http://www.accesstomusic.co.uk). Access to Music follows a similar pattern and format to the successful (by that I mean regularly subscribed and rated) music courses that have been delivered in - 13 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Barcelona and California. It is a music training company that promotes a highly transparent connection between music education and the music industry by employing professional musicians to run and develop their courses. As such, their appeal to a prospective popular music student is enhanced not only by supporting comments on their website from influential figures such as George Martin, Jools Holland and Nitin Sawhney, but also from the promotion that students will be taught by current practitioners in the music industry: recent guest tutors at Access to Music have included Basement Jaxx, Goldie and Snake Davies. This institution not only validates some of the Access to Music courses, but they also offer exit routes into their own courses. Although this is not a new idea (it is the same link that already exists between FE and HE institutions), by establishing a link between themselves and this new breed of music centres at an early stage in their development they have tapped into this new market and ensured a supply of students from a fresh and increasing source. This increasing interest in popular music degrees is also matched by the number of popular music foundation degrees. Just under 20% of all FE and HE institutions offering some form of music course offer a foundation degree in popular music (see table 3). Table 3: Access to Music Bath Spa Bournemouth University Buckinghamshire New University Canterbury Christ Church University Chichester College University of Chichester City College Manchester City of Sunderland College Colchester Institute University of Cumbria University of Derby East Riding College Exeter College Farnborough College of Technology The University of Huddersfield Hull College West Kent College Leeds: Park Lane College Leeds College of Music The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - 14 http://www.accesstomusic.co.uk http://www.bathspa.ac.uk http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk http://www.bucks.ac.uk http://www.canterbury.ac.uk http://www.chichester.ac.uk http://www.chiuni.ac.uk http://www.ccm.ac.uk http://www.citysun.ac.uk http://www.colchester.ac.uk http://www.cumbria.ac.uk http://www.derby.ac.uk http://www.eastridingcollege.ac.uk/ http://www.exe-coll.ac.uk http://www.farn-ct.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk http://www.hull-college.ac.uk http://www.wkc.ac.uk http://www.parklanecoll.ac.uk http://www.lcm.ac.uk http://www.lipa.ac.uk
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Loughborough College Mid-Cheshire College Newcastle College Northbrook College Sussex Norwich City College of Further and Higher Education University of Plymouth University of Cumbria South East Essex College South Tyneside College Stockport College University of Sussex Thames Valley University Truro College College of West Anglia University of Westminster West Suffolk College
http://www.loucoll.ac.uk http://www.midchesh.ac.uk http://www.newcastlecollege.co.uk http://www.northbrook.ac.uk http://www.ccn.ac.uk http://www.plymouth.ac.uk http://www.cumbria.ac.uk http://www.southend.ac.uk http://www.stc.ac.uk http://www.stockport.ac.uk http://www.sussex.ac.uk http://www.tvu.ac.uk http://www.trurocollege.ac.uk http://www.col-westanglia.ac.uk http://www.wmin.ac.uk http://www.westsuffolk.ac.uk
The first institution to offer a foundation degree in popular music was Colchester Institute in 2001. Over a period of seven years the number of courses has grown to 37, an incredible rate of over five new popular music foundation degrees each year. The foundation degree was designed to provide a vocational education that would prepare the student for a working life during and after their education. Further, it could offer a route into Stage 3 of a BMus degree course; a route that might otherwise be perceived as unattainable to a prospective student. 8 A foundation degree in popular music is therefore a reliable and critical feed into popular music degrees. However, after talking to several HE institutions, the education that the student leaves with is anything but reliable. A few institutions stated that they regularly receive students from their governed foundation degree who, after two years of education, were still unable to engage with notated music to an acceptable level – a level that would enable them to deal with the material that needs to be presented to them on a popular music degree. Whilst the blame for this can lie at many doors, not least of which being the institute and the students themselves, it is a common concern across establishments that the meteoric rise in the number of foundation degrees has not been matched by an equally rising quality of education. Therefore, before we enter the second part of the report it is worth remembering that the majority of the findings and the concerns raised have their basis in the quality of the education that is provided by foundation degrees. However, this is not the whole picture. Foundation degree
8
For more information on the role of a foundation degree in popular music see, ‘Assessing Popular Music – The Foundation Degree Experience’, http://www.palatine.ac.uk/events/viewdoc/195/.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
students are not the only students who undertake a popular music degree; intake on popular music degrees can range from the teenager who has left school, gone to college and now wants to take a degree to the mature student who has been an active musician for many years and wants to develop their skills. Therefore, any music skills provision that a popular music degree offers needs to be able to deal with the levels of differentiation across their student intake. Rather than suggesting that foundation degrees need to place more emphasis on music skills, although this would undoubtedly improve the situation, this report will go on to suggest that such difficulties facing tutors and lecturers on popular music degrees can be faced in-house by means of streamed modules/packages that are offered and directly controlled by the institution offering the popular music degree.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
3.1 Findings from interviews with North Eastern and National Institutions
Between December 2007 and February 2008, I contacted several North Eastern and National Institutions to ask them about their concerns over the provision in music skills on popular music degrees. Some interviews were conducted through email, some via the telephone, but most were made during arranged visits to the interviewee’s institution. The interview was kept informal and lasted between one hour and half a working day, depending upon the time offered by the person I was meeting. Further, rather than keep a set pattern for each meeting I was more concerned with the interviewee leading the discussion and therefore getting to the nub of their concerns. That is not to say that the meetings were unstructured. I prepared a set of questions that could be asked at relevant moments of the interview and which would be specifically asked if we had not covered them in the course of the discussion. These questions covered four key areas that I needed to discuss in order to gain a sense of consistency within the report and the other questions pertained to the information promoted on the institution’s website regarding the style/type of music skills packages that they offered. My opening question to the interviewee was ‘Within the intake on your popular music degree programme, how many students do you identify as needing supplementary training? In other words, they do not yet have the skills to engage fully with course structure’. The response to this question was either that it was a high percentage of students or that every student on the course needed some form of music skills tuition. Most institutions recognised that the majority of popular music degree students are primarily practical musicians rather than theoretical musicians. Whilst this can be accounted for within a music skills package what compounds the problem is the varying levels of engagement by the student. Institutions are having difficulty in accounting for the
differentiation between students who come to the course with a predefined set of music skills and have a resistance to learning new skills, and those who come to the course with a desire to improve on their theoretical skills. This two-way split then becomes a four-way split as these two groups once again divide into those students who engage only with the information presented to them and those who engage with the material beyond the educational environment. Therefore, at one extreme a ‘disinclined student’ can be present on the course and be resistant to the music skills that they perceive as having little value to their vocational education and nominally engage with the educational material during the lecture/seminar session. However, at the other extreme a ‘discovery student’ can be present on the course and be willing to engage with new music skills and practice the techniques beyond their presentation during the lecture/seminar. - 17 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
To combat this problem some institutions, more commonly the new music centres, market their music skills course as a product that will help them in their route into the music industry, rather than as a technical course that is reminiscent of classical degree programmes. This ‘selling’ of the course is not a bluff; it is a restructuring of the idea of music skills. Rather than presenting music skills as theoretical tools that can be used to improve the cognition of music by the students; the student’s musical development – whether that is performance, song-writing or production – is enhanced by the application of such tools. For example, instead of teaching the relationship between tonic, subdominant and dominant chords within tonality; the use of twelve-bar-blues patterns is explored in musical examples from the 1950s onwards, and the development and relation of its three chords are analysed. In essence, the same material is being explained to the students but the emphasis has shifted from a theoretical perspective to a practical engagement with material that the students are most likely already familiar with. This shift in perspective may seem obvious, but the problem has arisen through the design of popular music degrees that start with the question ‘what do we need to teach students about popular music’ rather than the more supportive question ‘how can we teach students to understand popular music’. There are popular music degrees that do not teach music skills as a module or package at all. They regard the teaching of harmony or aural as ‘old school’ and not appropriate for the student who wants to enter the commercial music industry as a recording artist. That is not to say that they ignore such skill, rather these institutions locate the theoretical skills within one-to-one or small group tuition so that when a theoretical issue is raised by the student it can be dealt with on the student’s own terms. This alleviates the problem of the disinclined student but it does require a large emphasis on, often costly, small group tuition and it also requires careful governance of the skills to make sure that nothing important is overlooked. Such institutions are successful and well thought of by the students who attend, because they are not getting ‘the dry as dust stuff’. They are taught the necessary skills in order to create, produce and discuss their popular music to a level that will enable them to be part of the music recording industry. Their music skills package is therefore not ignored by the institution but flies under the radar of the student’s attention, yet is taught openly when required. Such practice will not work for all institutions, particularly those who regard a popular music degree as more of a contemporary music degree. For these institutions, a music skills package needs to be transparent to both the disinclined and the discovery student. As such, a bench mark standard needs to be reached by the student at the end of their first year. This means that a student should be able to enter the course with little to no music skills knowledge and end their first - 18 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
year with a practised knowledge of basic and intermediate music skills. A common bench mark across music degrees that has bled into popular music degrees is the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music Grade 5 Theory exam. This exam remains a standard in music education, and demonstrates that the student who passes this exam has an ‘understanding of the fundamental elements of western music…[, are able] to identify, use and manipulate conventional music symbols, complete musical extracts and to answer questions relating to the elements of music’. 9 However, the relevance of the ABRSM Grade 5 Theory Exam needs to be questioned for a popular music degree student. During the construction of popular music degrees, some features of the classical music degrees have been imported into its structure. Whilst this works in certain aspects, I believe that the use of ABRSM G5 Theory has been a fundamental error in the construction of popular music degrees. Ideally, an equivalent standard that is constructed by those members running the popular music degree course needs to be set. It should be consistent with the aims and objectives of the course itself, whether that is a popular/commercial music degree or a popular/contemporary music degree. Whilst time constraints might not allow for independently written modules/packages to be constructed, the default setting should not return to a predominantly classical model for there are popular alternatives. One example is the London College of Music Popular Music Theory Exams. They aim ‘to offer a structured and comprehensive method of studying the theory of popular music which is relevant to the practical needs of the modern day musician’. 10 The structure of the course is clearly based upon the ABRSM model but the content of the course is firmly based upon the theoretical knowledge that an experienced popular musician, rather than a classical musician, puts into practice. From this initial question the route of the conversation often varied, so the next three questions are not in any specific order. ‘What are the entry routes and requirements for such students?’. The majority of students on a popular music degree are between the ages of 18 and 30, are already practising musicians, and reflect the demographic of UK University students rather than the population of the UK. Most have undertaken either the ‘A’ level or BTEC HND route into their chosen degree programme. The ex-‘A’ level students tend to be more aware of the theoretical nature of music, and have a working knowledge of music skills. However, it is important to point out that the music skills information that the ex-‘A’ level student possesses is not always from the ‘A’ level course itself. From speaking to students on popular music degrees, their knowledge is more commonly gained from the private tutors they have employed to either teach them
9
Paraphrased from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, ‘Theory of Music’, complete syllabus, http://www.abrsm.org/resources/theoryComplete06.pdf. 10 For more information see, http://www.popularmusictheory.org/aims.htm.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
instrumentally or increase their knowledge in readiness for the popular music degree. Such teachers appear to be a vital supply line of information for students prior to them undertaking a popular music degree, and the associative link between the knowledge they possess and the one-to-one contact is perceived by the student as a reliable and trusted source that if maintained will help them through their course. Consequently, whilst the university might employ a guitar tutor to increase a student’s instrumental skills, the tutor is more likely being tapped for theoretical knowledge during their instrumental lesson. One-to-one teaching is undoubtedly a valuable method, but it is also the most costly. However, one department I visited carefully blends the role of the private tutor with the information that is presented during lectures. It uses the one-to-one lessons with tutors not only to provide instrumental information but also theoretical information. For example, they employ a guitar singer/songwriter to teach instrumental lessons rather than an instrumental guitarist so that the guitar students can receive a lesson on arrangement whilst also learning more about their instrument. The role of private tutor is therefore acknowledged and integrated into the student’s experience whilst at university, it costs no more than if the student was receiving an instrumental lesson, and has the benefit of supporting the student’s theoretical needs in a way that has more departmental control. In contrast, the ex-BTEC HND students tend to have a lot more practical knowledge, are already competent musicians, but really struggle with this theoretical element of musical education. Having said that, a paper delivered at the Leeds International Music Technology Education Conference 2007 by Julie Winterson stated that it ‘was clear from the survey that students who followed the BTEC route were better prepared for their degree than those who had taken the A level in Music Technology.’ 11 Whilst this report was dealing with music technology students rather than popular music students, there are similarities in its findings after talking to lecturers and tutors on popular music degree programmes. Therefore, and as might be expected, the two entry routes are by no means clear paths into a popular music degree and the ability of the student, with regard to music skills, from their paper qualifications can vary so much that it is not until the student is on the course that they can be properly assessed. That is not to say that their prior qualification are worthless, more that they are no guarantee of ability and therefore the requirements that the student is expected to come with are not assured by either an ‘A’ level or BTEC HND certificate. To counter this problem most of the departments I visited relied upon an entrance test and a one-to-one meeting with the student. The entrance test often consisted of a short performance, a
11
Julia Winterson, ‘From school to university: how well prepared are today’s music technology undergraduates?’, Leeds International Music Technology Education Conference 2007 - Progression Routes in Music Technology Education (2007).
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
written paper, and an aural paper asking questions about a selection of four or five pieces that they heard under exam conditions. However, most lecturers gauged the ability of the prospective student after the interview, and often accepted those that were keen and eager to learn with a moderate ability over those that seemed resistant to new knowledge but were competent musicians. The playing field therefore becomes level and the prior convention of a student needing ‘2 As and a B’ to enter a university course is no longer workable or applicable to a popular music degree. Further, requirement indicators such as ABRSM or London College of Music or Rock School Grades are not assured replacements. What most departments find workable is a prima facie meeting followed by a recommendation to the student that they undertake an intensive learning programme before the term begins (this programme is either offered by the department, a related education centre, or the student is asked to go away and improve their knowledge by private means); or that they should take a popular music foundation degree at the University’s accredited institution; or that the student is ready and able to begin the course without any additional help. A question that was deemed as difficult to answer and often involved much brow furrowing was ‘If you were part of a utopian environment, how would you structure a music skills course that would take into account the manifold of student’s abilities on a popular music degree?’. Surprisingly, for such a loaded question, there was a consistency across the answers I received from different institutions and from both sides of the desk. All parties believed that a music skills package should be an integral and immediate part of a popular music degree course structure and, at some level, should not presume any prior knowledge. Further, it should have transparent
assessment criteria, be a compulsory part of the course, and be directly linked to the practical values of a performing musician. Whilst the terminology changed between institutions, most split the ideal teaching of music skills into three parts. The first would be a creative aspect of a skill: students would explore a particular piece of theory through practical demonstrations by the lecturer/tutor and through recorded ‘real world’ examples. The second would be the production aspect of a skill: students would recreate that skill in examples that came from the students’ imagination and then be tailored/crafted by the lecturer/tutor. The third and final part would be the critical aspect of a skill: students would receive information about the methodological, cultural and historical implications of the skill. By doing this, the levels of differentiation could be recognised and the need for streaming the course according to the students’ prior abilities could be avoided. Those students who have no prior knowledge of the skill do not feel as if they should have known about it, and those who have some knowledge of the skill would be able to expand their knowledge and tap the lecturer/tutor for more information. The embarrassment factor is something that needs to be recognised in the - 21 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
instruction of music skills. The practising musician can feel as if they have come a long way without such knowledge and feel inadequate going back to what can sometimes be couched as basic music theory. The disinclined student will remain confrontational about the teaching of music skills, but the discovery student greatly benefits from this model by being able to bring their own musical examples to the table and also displace the potential embarrassment factor. This method also removes the ‘dry as dust’ approach, a purely theoretical delivery which some students described in various terms as a disengaging non-practical, and therefore non-valuable, presentation of a music skill. Although this was a utopian question, the status of a music skills course was regarded in a more regimented manner. All believed that it should be a compulsory module/package and not an option presented to the students. There is a common concern about the attendance of students on degree courses. It would seem that the 21st century student regards their studying time at university as something which only occurs during contact hours with a lecturer. Although this is a
generalisation, it is nonetheless a problem encountered by each institution I interviewed. Noncompulsory modules are only attended by the most keen, and work which does not carry a mark is rarely completed. Given the importance of music skills on a popular music degree programme it would therefore seem logical to give it compulsory status and ensure that its assessment criteria feed directly into the student’s final marks. Finally, and perhaps the most important point to reinforce is that the delivery of any music skill should come from a practical viewpoint and be delivered by a practitioner of that skill. The student who enrols on a popular music degree is, by their very nature, a practical learner. Most of the skills they have learned prior to the degree course have come from practical exploration. If a new skill is presented in a purely theoretical manner then, no matter how valuable that skill is, its presentation and therefore its content will seem alien to the student. By embedding the music skill(s) in a tri-part structure that introduces, explores and evaluates the skill in a co-interested manner (both the student and the lecturer/tutor explore the skills together) it gains value to the student as something which they can take outside of the learning environment and use to become a better musician: the primary reason why most student’s undertake a popular music degree. After discovering the need for, the requirements pertaining to, and the desired structure of music skills provisions the fourth and final question to be asked was ‘Would a musical skills package work only in the environment of a lecture/seminar presentation, or would an internet-based package offer a workable alternative?’. There is already a wealth of online resources available to popular music degree students. These resources can be divided into two categories. The first - 22 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
constitutes
a
free
service
such
as
http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.info
or
http:///www.mibac.com/Theory/Main_Theory.htm (MiBACTM is an acronym for Music Instruction By A Computer). These are in effect dictionary/encyclopaedias whose content has been broken down into theoretical lessons. The pages of these sites generally begin with knowledge pertaining to basic notation, move through harmony, transposition, counterpoint and historical periods, and conclude with basic aural exercises. The second constitutes a paid service such as
http://www.music-theory.com/index.html which presents a set of lessons that can be taken at the student’s own pace. The big difference between the first and the second service is that the paid service usually involves human interaction through email, as each student is assigned a personal tutor to advise and mark questions answered by the student. From a pessimistic viewpoint, both of these services are critically flawed. They rely upon the ‘honesty’ of the student to not only regularly engage with the material in their own time, but also complete the work by themselves. Further, however well meaning a private tutor may be, their input into the completion of such unpoliced exercises renders them worthless. There are other issues with internet related courses. Firstly, they rely upon a student’s complete engagement with the technology. Many of the lecturers I spoke to report that there are a high percentage of students who suffer from a form of technophobia when it comes to completing assignments and tasks through purely online means. Secondly, if a student does completely engage with the technological delivery of a course they tend to remove themselves from the human contact as a reaction. For example, the advent of the podcast heralded easily accessible information that could be downloaded at the student’s discretion. Many universities experimented with uploaded lectures as podcasts so that student could ‘listen again’ to their content. However, this practice has not become widespread as the institutions in question quickly found that student attendance began to drop radically; the students did not ‘listen again’ but listened for the first time in the comfort of their own homes. Such a removal of the student from the learning environment of the
lecturer/seminar room also removes their contact time with other students, and this in turn removes a sense of spontaneity which is also linked into the practical element of the course. As has been regularly stated in this report, the practical element of a popular music degree is one of the most critical elements and if a student is removed or removes themselves from this environment then the learning experience is dramatically weakened. For example, an aural skill such as listening for cycles of fifths in a song structure is best presented through the tri-part delivery mentioned above. If they are presented with the skill in a practical demonstration where they can not only see and hear the movement but also ‘feel’ its structure through the presence of not only the lecturer/tutor walking - 23 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
them through various interpretations but also with various student interactions then it becomes a much more embedded, repeatable and valuable skill. The student on a popular music degree is commonly used to performing with other musicians and this can be used as a source of comfort in their learning experience. The importance of group learning should not be underestimated on a popular music degree. It would be hard to envisage such a level of engagement if the only elements are the student and a computer. An analogy can be made with the guitar tutor videos that many students buy when they first purchase a guitar. Whilst they can be a good starting point, most students go on to seek a private tutor because they realise that, no matter how good the video is, it is not a two-way interaction: the video cannot tell the student that they have their fingers in the wrong place and that is why it does not sound the same as the demonstration. Such evidence against the use of the internet as a teaching package is compelling and nearly all of the lecturers I interview expressed strong feelings against its usage as the sole medium of delivery. However, they did not discount its value as a support tool. The reinforcement of a music skill is equally as important as the delivery of the skill itself. Once a skill is presented it needs almost daily practice for it to become a repeatable and understood tool. Contact time to monitor the reinforcement of the skill is costly, and this is where an internet package could be useful. If audio/video files are carefully embedded within a structured learning programme then they can be used by the students to reinforce skills that have been presented to them both during the lecture/seminar and afterwards. For example, one institution videos the usage of its studio time by internal and external users, and snippets from this footage are used (with permission from those in the video) to explore and reinforce studio skills that have been presented to the student by the lecturer. The student then not only has the professional and practical value of the skill reinforced by visual and auditory means, but they also get to see and hear its usage in differing settings. In summary, the answer to the original question of whether a music skills package should be lecture based or internet based is neither, and instead becomes part of the other three questions. The delivery of music skills is a costly and time consuming subject. Most, if not all, of the students undertaking a popular music degree need to be introduced to and explore a set of music skills that will enable them to progress through the course and prepare them for the professional environment which they hope to enter. This is because their entry route into a popular music degree has not adequately prepared them for their chosen course/vocation and they are often left floundering at the first hurdle. It is the conclusion of this report that the delivery of a music skills package should be above all a practical delivery; and use a tri-part structure that presents, develops and theorises the music skill. However, its reinforcement is equally critical and an internet package is useful only if - 24 -
The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
it successfully links into the course structure itself: a course structure that is delivered by lecturers/tutors in a group environment with multiple interactions between students, and between students and lecturers.
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
4.1 Appendix 1: Full research list of types of music courses from FE and HE Institutions; including their ratings from Google and Guardian University Guide 2008 12
Institution List The University of Aberdeen University of Abertay Dundee Aberystwyth University Access to Music ALRA (The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts) The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise American InterContinental University - London Anglia Ruskin University Askham Bryan College Aston University Bangor University Barking College Barony College Basingstoke College of Technology University of Bath Bath Spa City of Bath College University of Bedfordshire Bedford College University of the West of Scotland The University of Birmingham Birmingham College of Food, Tourism & Creative Studies Bishop Burton College Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln Blackburn College
Web Address http://www.abdn.ac.uk http://www.abertay.ac.uk http://www.aber.ac.uk http://www.accesstomusic .co.uk http://www.alra.co.uk http://www.cafre.ac.uk http://www.aiulondon.ac. uk http://www.anglia.ac.uk http://www.askhambryan.ac.uk http://www.aston.ac.uk http://www.bangor.ac.uk http://www.barkingcolleg e.ac.uk http://www.barony.ac.uk http://www.bcot.ac.uk http://www.bath.ac.uk http://www.bathspa.ac.uk http://www.citybathcoll.a c.uk/ http://www.beds.ac.uk http://www.bedford.ac.uk http://www.paisley.ac.uk http://www.bham.ac.uk http://www.bcftcs.ac.uk http://www.bishopburton. ac.uk http://www.bishopg.ac.uk http://www.elihe.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
11
40
49.8
1
42.9
44.2
12
http://browse.guardian.co.uk/education?SearchBySubject=false&FirstRow=0&SortOrderDirection=&SortOrderColu mn=GuardianTeachingScore&Subject=Music&Go=Go
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Blackpool and The Fylde College The University of Bolton Bournemouth University The Arts Institute at Bournemouth The University of Bradford Bradford College: An Associate College of Leeds Metropolitan University Bridgwater College University of Brighton Brighton and Sussex Medical School Bristol, City of Bristol College University of Bristol Bristol Filton College University of the West of England, Bristol British College of Osteopathic Medicine Brooklands College Brunel University British School of Osteopathy Brockenhurst College The University of Buckingham Buckinghamshire New University Burton College Buckswood St George's University of Cambridge Canterbury Christ Church University Capel Manor College, Enfield, Middlesex Cardiff University University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Castle College Nottingham Carmarthenshire College Birmingham City University
Web Address http://www.blackpool.ac. uk http://www.bolton.ac.uk http://www.bournemouth. ac.uk http://www.aib.ac.uk http://www.bradford.ac.u k http://www.bradfordcolle ge.ac.uk http://www.bridgwater.ac. uk http://www.brighton.ac.uk http://www.bsms.ac.uk http://www.cityofbristol.a c.uk http://www.bristol.ac.uk http://www.filton.ac.uk http://www.uwe.ac.uk http://www.bcom.ac.uk http://www.brooklands.ac .uk http://www.brunel.ac.uk http://www.bso.ac.uk http://www.brock.ac.uk http://www.buckingham.a c.uk http://www.bucks.ac.uk http://www.burtoncollege.ac.uk http://www.stgeorgesengl and.com http://www.cam.ac.uk/ad missions/undergraduate/ http://www.canterbury.ac. uk http://www.capel.ac.uk http://www.cardiff.ac.uk http://www.uwic.ac.uk http://www.castlecollege. ac.uk http://www.colegsirgar.ac .uk http://www.bcu.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
8
44.9
52.8
35.1
22.8
64.4 30.5
44.6
43.5
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List University of Central Lancashire Central School of Speech and Drama (in London) University of Chester Chesterfield College Chichester College University of Chichester City University City College, Birmingham City College Coventry City College Manchester City of Sunderland College Cleveland College of Art and Design Cliff College Colchester Institute Cornwall College Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) Coventry University Craven College Croydon College University College for the Creative Arts University of Cumbria Dartington College of Arts Dearne Valley College De Montfort University University of Derby Dewsbury College Doncaster College Duchy College Dudley College of Technology University of Dundee Dunstable College Durham University Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College
Web Address http://www.uclan.ac.uk http://www.cssd.ac.uk http://www.chester.ac.uk http://www.chesterfield.a c.uk http://www.chichester.ac. uk http://www.chiuni.ac.uk http://www.city.ac.uk http://www.citycol.ac.uk http://www.covcollege.ac. uk http://www.ccm.ac.uk http://www.citysun.ac.uk http://www.ccad.ac.uk http://www.cliffcollege.ac .uk http://www.colchester.ac. uk http://www.cornwall.ac.u k http://www.courtauld.ac.u k http://www.coventry.ac.u k http://www.cravencollege.ac.uk http://www.croydon.ac.uk http://www.kiad.ac.uk/ http://www.cumbria.ac.uk http://www.dartington.ac. uk http://www.dearnecoll.ac.uk http://www.dmu.ac.uk http://www.derby.ac.uk http://www.dewsbury.ac.u k http://www.don.ac.uk http://www.duchy.ac.uk http://www.dudleycol.ac. uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk http://www.dunstable.ac.u k http://www.durham.ac.uk http://www.wlc.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
27.6
38
28.7 48.2
14
3
33.9
40
23.2 29.4
55.5
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List University of East Anglia East End Computing and Business College University of East London East Riding College East Surrey College (incorporating Reigate School of Art, Design and Media) Edge Hill University The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh College of Art The University of Essex European Business School, London European School of Economics Exeter College University of Exeter University College Falmouth Farnborough College of Technology University of Glamorgan Glamorgan Centre for Art and Design Technology University of Glasgow Glasgow Caledonian University The Glasgow School of Art Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology The University of Gloucestershire Goldsmiths College (University of London) University of Greenwich Greenwich School of Management Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education Guildford College of Further and Higher Education Halton College Harper Adams University College Havering College of Further and Higher Education
Web Address http://www.uea.ac.uk http://www.eastendcbc.co .uk http://www.uel.ac.uk http://www.eastridingcoll ege.ac.uk/ http://www.esc.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
17.4
45
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk http://www.ed.ac.uk/ http://www.eca.ac.uk http://www.essex.ac.uk http://www.ebslondon.ac. uk http://www.eselondon.ac. uk http://www.exe-coll.ac.uk http://www.ex.ac.uk http://www.falmouth.ac.u k http://www.farn-ct.ac.uk http://www.glam.ac.uk http://www.gcadt.ac.uk http://www.gla.ac.uk http://www.gcal.ac.uk http://www.gsa.ac.uk http://www.gloscol.ac.uk http://www.glos.ac.uk http://www.goldsmiths.ac. uk http://www.gre.ac.uk http://www.greenwichcollege.ac.uk http://www.grimsby.ac.uk http://www.guildford.ac.u k http://www.haltoncollege. ac.uk http://www.harperadams.ac.uk http://www.haveringcollege.ac.uk 49 18 46.3 23 29.2 16 53
32
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Hereford College of Arts Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh University of Hertfordshire Hertford Regional College Highbury College Heythrop College (University of London) UHI Millennium Institute Holborn College Hopwood Hall College Huddersfield Technical College The University of Huddersfield The University of Hull Hull College Hull York Medical School Imperial College London The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance Islamic College for Advanced Studies Keele University Kensington College of Business The University of Kent West Kent College King's College London (University of London) Kingston University Lakes College - West Cumbria The University of Wales, Lampeter Lancaster University Leeds: Park Lane College University of Leeds Leeds Trinity & All Saints Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds College of Art & Design Leeds College of Music University of Leicester
Web Address http://www.hca.ac.uk http://www.hw.ac.uk http://www.herts.ac.uk http://www.hertreg.ac.uk http://www.highbury.ac.u k http://www.heythrop.ac.u k http://www.uhi.ac.uk http://www.holborncolleg e.ac.uk http://www.hopwood.ac.u k http://www.huddcoll.ac.u k http://www.hud.ac.uk http://www.hull.ac.uk http://www.hullcollege.ac.uk http://www.hyms.ac.uk http://www.imperial.ac.uk http://www.icmp.uk.com http://www.islamiccollege.ac.uk http://www.keele.ac.uk http://www.kensingtoncol l.ac.uk http://www.kent.ac.uk http://www.wkc.ac.uk http://www.kcl.ac.uk http://www.kingston.ac.u k http://www.lakescollegew estcumbria.ac.uk http://www.lamp.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk http://www.parklanecoll.a c.uk http://www.leeds.ac.uk http://www.leedstrinity.ac .uk http://www.leedsmet.ac.u k http://www.leedsart.ac.uk http://www.lcm.ac.uk http://www.le.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
33
17 37
30.6 32.8
48
21 54.2 42.3
28
48.4
32.3
20
31.5
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Leicester College University of Lincoln The University of Liverpool Lincoln College Liverpool Community College Liverpool Hope University The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Liverpool John Moores University Coleg Llandrillo Cymru London Metropolitan University London School of Commerce London School of Science and Technology London School of Economics and Political Science London South Bank University Loughborough College Loughborough University Manchester College of Arts and Technology The University of Manchester The Manchester Metropolitan University Marjon - The College of St Mark & St John Matthew Boulton College of Further and Higher Education Medway School of Pharmacy Coleg Menai Mid-Cheshire College Middlesex University Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Myerscough College Napier University, Edinburgh Nazarene Theological College Neath Port Talbot College
Web Address http://www.lec.ac.uk http://www.lincoln.ac.uk http://www.liv.ac.uk http://www.lincolncollege .ac.uk http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk http://www.hope.ac.uk http://www.lipa.ac.uk http://www.ljmu.ac.uk http://www.llandrillo.ac.u k http://www.londonmet.ac. uk http://www.lsclondon.co. uk http://www.lsst.com http://www.lse.ac.uk http://www.lsbu.ac.uk http://www.loucoll.ac.uk http://www.lboro.ac.uk http://www.mancat.ac.uk http://www.manchester.ac .uk http://www.mmu.ac.uk http://www.marjon.ac.uk http://www.mbc.ac.uk http://www.msp.ac.uk/ http://www.menai.ac.uk http://www.midchesh.ac.u k http://www.mdx.ac.uk http://www.mountview.ac .uk http://www.myerscough.a c.uk http://www.napier.ac.uk http://www.nazarene.ac.u k http://www.nptc.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
6
30.8
27.5
19
55.3
41.8
36.8
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Newcastle University Newcastle College New College Durham New College Nottingham Newham College of Further Education New College Stamford Newman College of Higher Education University of Wales, Newport University of Northampton The Norwich School of Art and Design Northbrook College Sussex NESCOT New College Telford The North East Wales Institute of Higher Education North East Worcestershire College North Lindsey College Northumbria University Northumberland College North Warwickshire and Hinckley College Norwich City College of Further and Higher Education The University of Nottingham Nottingham Trent University Oxford & Cherwell Valley College Open University Oxford University Oxford Brookes University University of the West of Scotland University of London Institute in Paris Pembrokeshire College
Web Address http://www.ncl.ac.uk http://www.newcastlecoll ege.co.uk http://www.newdur.ac.uk http://www.ncn.ac.uk http://www.newham.ac.uk http://www.stamford.ac.u k http://www.newman.ac.uk http://www.newport.ac.uk http://www.northampton. ac.uk http://www.nsad.ac.uk http://www.northbrook.ac .uk http://www.nescot.ac.uk http://www.nct.ac.uk http://www.newi.ac.uk http://www.neworcs.ac.uk http://www.northlindsey.a c.uk http://www.northumbria.a c.uk http://www.northland.ac.u k http://www.nwhc.ac.uk http://www.ccn.ac.uk http://www.nottingham.ac .uk http://www.ntu.ac.uk/ http://www.ocvc.ac.uk http://www.open.ac.uk http://www.admissions.ox .ac.uk http://www.brookes.ac.uk http://www.uws.ac.uk http://www.ulip.lon.ac.uk http://www.pembrokeshir e.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
12 7
48.8
36
13
59.8
66.7 25.5
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry The People's College Nottingham Peterborough Regional College University of Plymouth Plymouth College of Art and Design University of Portsmouth Queen Margaret University , Edinburgh Queen Mary, University of London Queen's University Belfast Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication The University of Reading Regents Business School London Richmond, The American International University in London Riverside College Halton The Robert Gordon University Roehampton University Rose Bruford College Rotherham College of Arts and Technology Royal Agricultural College Royal Academy of Dance Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Northern College of Music Royal Veterinary College (University of London) Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Ruskin College Oxford Scottish Agricultural College The University of Salford SAE Institute Salisbury College Sandwell College
Web Address http://www.pms.ac.uk http://www.peoples.ac.uk http://www.peterborough. ac.uk http://www.plymouth.ac.u k http://www.pcad.ac.uk http://www.port.ac.uk http://www.qmu.ac.uk http://www.qmul.ac.uk http://www.qub.ac.uk http://www.rave.ac.uk http://www.reading.ac.uk http://www.RBSLondon.a c.uk http://www.richmond.ac.u k http://www.riversidecolle ge.ac.uk http://www.rgu.ac.uk http://www.roehampton.a c.uk http://www.bruford.ac.uk http://www.rotherham.ac. uk http://www.rac.ac.uk http://education.rad.org.u k http://www.rhul.ac.uk http://www.rncm.ac.uk/ http://www.rvc.ac.uk http://www.rwcmd.ac.uk http://www.ruskin.ac.uk http://www.sac.ac.uk/lear ning http://www.salford.ac.uk http://www.sae.edu/ http://www.salisbury.ac.u k http://www.sandwell.ac.u k
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
65.3
38.8
35.4 50.2
71 48.1 65.2 70 58.5
29
40.6
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) The School of Pharmacy (University of London) The University of Sheffield Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield College Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology University of Cumbria Solihull College University of Southampton Somerset College of Arts and Technology South Birmingham College Southampton Solent University South Devon College Sparsholt College Hampshire Southport College University of St Andrews Southwark College South Cheshire College South Downs College South East Essex College South Nottingham College South Trafford College South Leicestershire College St George's, University of London St Helens College South Tyneside College St Mary's University College Stephenson College Coalville Staffordshire University Staffordshire University Regional Federation Stratford upon Avon College The University of Stirling
Web Address
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
http://www.soas.ac.uk http://www.pharmacy.ac. uk http://www.sheffield.ac.u k http://www.shu.ac.uk http://www.sheffcol.ac.uk http://www.shrewsbury.ac .uk http://www.cumbria.ac.uk http://www.solihull.ac.uk http://www.southampton. ac.uk http://www.somerset.ac.u k http://www.sbc.ac.uk http://www.solent.ac.uk/ http://www.southdevon.ac .uk http://www.sparsholt.ac.u k http://www.southportcollege.ac.uk http://www.st-and.ac.uk http://www.southwark.ac. uk http://www.scheshire.ac.uk http://www.southdowns.a c.uk http://www.southend.ac.u k http://www.snc.ac.uk http://www.stcoll.ac.uk http://www.slcollege.ac.u k http://www.sgul.ac.uk http://www.sthelens.ac.uk http://www.stc.ac.uk http://www.smuc.ac.uk http://www.stephensoncol l.ac.uk http://www.staffs.ac.uk http://www.surf.ac.uk http://www.stratford.ac.uk http://www.stir.ac.uk
59.2
46.2
27.3
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Stockport College Stourbridge College The University of Strathclyde Stranmillis University College University Campus Suffolk University of Sunderland University of Surrey University of Sussex Sutton Coldfield College Swansea University Swansea College Swansea Institute Swindon College Tameside College University of Teesside Tech Music Schools (incl. Guitar-X, Vocaltech, Keyboardtech & Drumtech) Thames Valley University Totton College Trinity College Carmarthen Truro College Tyne Metropolitan College Trinity Laban University of Ulster University of the Arts London University College London Uxbridge College Wakefield College Walsall College Warrington Collegiate The University of Warwick Warwickshire College
Web Address http://www.stockport.ac.u k http://www.stourbridge.ac .uk http://www.strath.ac.uk http://www.stran.ac.uk http://www.ucs.ac.uk http://www.sunderland.ac. uk http://www.surrey.ac.uk http://www.sussex.ac.uk http://www.sutcol.ac.uk http://www.swansea.ac.uk http://www.swancoll.ac.u k http://www.sihe.ac.uk http://www.swindoncollege.ac.uk http://www.tameside.ac.u k http://www.tees.ac.uk http://www.guitarx.co.uk/ http://www.tvu.ac.uk http://www.totton.ac.uk http://www.trinitycm.ac.uk/ http://www.trurocollege.a c.uk http://www.tynemet.ac.uk http://www.trinitylaban.ac .uk http://www.ulster.ac.uk http://www.arts.ac.uk http://www.ucl.ac.uk http://www.uxbridgecolle ge.ac.uk http://www.wakefield.ac. uk http://www.walsallcollege .ac.uk http://www.warrington.ac. uk http://www.warwick.ac.u k http://www.warkscol.ac.u k
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
43.8
24.5 56.5
10 23.2
100 50.8
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
Institution List Welsh College of Horticulture College of West Anglia West Cheshire College West Herts College University of Westminster Westminster Kingsway College West Suffolk College West Thames College Wigan and Leigh College Wirral Metropolitan College Wiltshire College University of Wolverhampton University of Winchester University of Worcester Worcester College of Technology Writtle College The University of York York College York St John University Yorkshire Coast College of Further and Higher Education Ystrad Mynach College
Web Address http://www.wcoh.ac.uk http://www.colwestanglia.ac.uk http://www.westcheshire.ac.uk http://www.westherts.ac.u k http://www.wmin.ac.uk http://www.westking.ac.u k http://www.westsuffolk.a c.uk http://www.westthames.ac.uk http://www.wiganleigh.ac.uk http://www.wmc.ac.uk http://www.wiltscoll.ac.u k http://www.wlv.ac.uk http://www.winchester.ac. uk http://www.worcester.ac.u k http://www.wortech.ac.uk http://www.writtle.ac.uk http://www.york.ac.uk http://www.yorkcollege.a c.uk http://www.yorksj.ac.uk http://www.yorkshirecoas tcollege.ac.uk http://www.ystradmynach.ac.uk
Music Courses
Music Degree
Popular Music Degree
Popular Music Foundation Degree
Google Rating
Guardian Score (100)
9
5
45.5
43
22.1
60.6
28.7
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
4.2 Appendix 2: Contact List
After the meetings which were conducted as part of this report, the following people agreed to have their contact details listed at the close of this document to increase cooperation between institutions. The wishes of the other staff and students of institutions who want to remain anonymous but have contributed towards the finding of this report have been respected.
Institution Access to Music Bath Spa University
Name Luke Hannam Joe Bennett Adam Powell
Durham University Huddersfield University
Bennett Zon Geoffrey Cox Julia Winterson
Newcastle College Newcastle University
Danny Porter Kirsten Gibson Bennett Hogg Claude Werner Mick Wright
Sunderland University Teesside University
Judith Hills Jay Chapman
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The provision in ‘Music Skills’ for degree students on Popular Music Programmes across North Eastern and selected National Institutions.
4.3 Appendix 3: Examples of Internet Resources for Music Skills
Free online resources: http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.info http:///www.mibac.com/Theory/Main_Theory.htm http://www.musictheoryminute.com/index.htm http://www.wmich.edu/mus-history/TheoryHelp/TheoryHelp.html http://67.117.214.227/megill/skilltests/skillTests.html http://www.musictheory.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory http://www.8notes.com/theory/ http://cnx.org/content/col10208/latest/ http://library.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/mtheory.html http://members.aol.com/chordmaps/ http://numbera.com/musictheory/theory/ http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/
Subscription online resources: http://www.music-theory.com/index.html http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/ http://www.emusictheory.com/ http://www.murraystate.edu/qacd/cfac/music/MUS109entry.htm http://www.happynote.com/music/learn.html
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| percentage Google "internet search carried out" | via Google |
| percentage Google "internet search carried out" | via Google |
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