Introduction
As I am on the second year of the Level 3 course, I am finishing in May which means that I need to look at potential options for the years ahead of me. One of these options is further education and over the course of this project I will need to attend a few interviews and auditions at Universities that I am interested in going to.
How does it benefit me and Mother Fungus?
Although Mother Fungus is my main project at the moment, I also need to plan ahead in order to continue to develop as a musician. A university or conservatoire course would give the resources and support that I need to develop over the next few years. There are so many great Universities and institutions for music that I will be applying to multiple different ones and this tab will document my interview process and the offers that I have got from them. Many of the top musicians in the world and on the jazz scene at the moment have attended university or conservatoire courses and they allow musicians to collaborate with one another as well as move to different cities. By moving to somewhere like Manchester or Leeds for example, there would be more of an opportunity to gig as there are more music venues as well as a bigger scene for gigging. Therefore hopefully going to a University would allow me to develop more as a musician and bring more ideas to projects like Mother Fungus in the future.
Leeds Arts University – 16th February
Life On Mars –
Leeds Arts University required me to play one of either life on mars by David Bowie or pinball wizard by The Who and Elton John. I chose to play life on mars as I have always been a huge fan of David Bowie and was interested in the challenge of playing life on mars. After inquiring about whether I needed to play the chords to a backing track or arrange the piece, they replied that I could play either. I therefore decided to create a solo arrangement for life on mars. Here is the sheet music that I used.
Autumn Leaves –
I was also required to perform another song that could be of any genre. I decided to perform a solo arrangement of Autumn Leaves so as to show off my knowledge of extended chords and improvisation.
Here is my version of Autumn Leaves.
Interview Process –
I was being interviewed by the two heads of the music course at Leeds Arts University. The format of the interview consisted of me introducing and playing my two audition pieces. I was then asked to play a range of technical exercises including scales, modes, arpeggios and chords.
The next step was the interview which was more like an informal chat about the course and music in general. The course leaders asked a range of questions including why did I pick those audition pieces, what I was currently doing musically and interestingly the question of if I was to describe myself as a jazz standard what would I be? They then allowed me to ask them any questions which mainly focused around the course structure and whether there were opportunities to go abroad.
Overall this was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable interviews that I ave had and it was really interesting to be able to chat with the course leaders in this way. I think that Leeds Arts is a great place for music and will certainly be near the top of my choices when the time comes to pick my University. One of the major appeals of the course is the fact that they have a limit of 36 places and a set of 6 keyboardists, meaning that it would be a much smaller class to be a part of and therefore there would be more opportunity to learn. It also struck me as a very tight community and that there were many opportunities to collaborate and learn new skills such as music production.
Course Offer –
Leeds Arts got back to me about a week after my interview to offer me a place on their music course for September 2019. The offer was conditional on me getting grade 5 theory and a merit on my current course.
Newcastle University – 13th March
For my application at Newcastle University, I was looking to do a popular music degree with year abroad, meaning that overall it would be a four year course. A year abroad was something that I found very appealing and they also offered addition language classes to the music course in order to prepare for whichever country you had chosen. Year abroad choices ranged from between Universities and Conservatoires meaning that if I didn’t go to a Conservatoire in the UK, then I could still get some of the experience by applying to one abroad.
Interview Process –
The interview process was part of a whole day experience consisting of a sample lecture, tour and Q and A. The lecture was about the history of Jewish music which was really interesting overall and provoked a lot of ideas in my mind that I hadn’t thought of before. Even before the interview , I got the feeling that Newcastle University was very focused on the academic side of music.
My interview was a very similar format to the Leeds Arts interview in that I performed Autumn Leaves and Life on Mars before talking to two of the heads of courses. The interview process was a lot more formal than Leeds and I was asked a lot of questions about my personal statement as well as different books that I had added onto my personal statement such as possibilities by Herbie Hancock. When I asked about how many hours per day , I was expected to practice they answered with as long as I kept my reading and assignments up to date as much as I wanted. Newcastle was a much bigger course than Leeds Arts as there are popular music, classical music and music production courses. Meaning that a year group could consist of one hundred people.
Overall the interview gave me a lot to think about. I really enjoyed exploring Newcastle as it was time I had been and it was great city. The different between here and Leeds Arts was that Leeds is a newer course whereas Newcastle is much more established. Overall Newcastle felt like a great place to learn and will be a big consideration when I come to choose my University place.
Course Offer –
Newcastle offered me a conditional place. This depended one me getting a high merit on my course as well as grade 8 or a distinction on my current course.