Music degree/qualification

Axe_meister

Education has not been my son's strong point being Autistic. State schools and specialist school have failed him. 
He is currently at college redoing his GSCEs (he currently has functional skills level 1) and doing a level 2 production and performance course which he finds boring as he's been playing with Draws all his life and the other students have no real interest and just want to make beats.
He's a good drummer, play guitar well and can even play some complex piano pieces. The trouble is other than drums where he had official lessons and can read drum music, his guitar and piano learning has been guitar hero style with no theory (and won't let me reach him).
He desperately wants to carry on with music, but has been put off by bad reviews of contemporary music schools such as ACM/BIMM/ICMP and obviously won't get into a normal uni.
He want's to specialise in Jazz Guitar and do production on the side.
Can anybody think if any other options, he wants to go studio musician route rather join a band.

Snap

What about Leeds Conservatoire? They do tons of courses of which some will be up his street. 
I would try to get him to go visit BIMM - Brum or Manc maybe. Seeing it in the flesh might help.

My daughter has applied for Music & Tech, but wants to go the uni route, Liverpool and Salford being top of list. 
My brother went to the Leeds Conservatoire 20 odd years ago when it was Leeds College of Music. He did Jazz, then went to Berklee to do a masters in jazz composition.
The Conservatoire is small (1200 students I think), but very focused on what it does. I believe the entry is strongly driven by audition. Strong record in jazz.

meltedbuzzbox

I think Nottingham Trent does a music degree via Clarendon college in Nottingham.

I am not sure how much a qualification would help in getting session work to be honest.
My understanding is that it's a fiercely competitive world. The main points are usually punctual behaviour for arriving at session, Two guitars and two small amps, friendly attitude and the ability to play by ear or read music.
I think the hardest bit is getting a foot in the door initially. Once you are in you just need to turn up on time and deliver (obviously decent chops and skill are a prerequisite too)

Danny1969

One of the best guitarist I ever gig'ed with was a young autistic girl, Aspergers same as my son. She knew f#ck all theory but incredible ear. 

I know a lot of session muso's because I ran a profession recording studio for 5 years and did sessions myself on keys, guitar and bass. 

I can't think of one single occasion where any artist or producer ever asked about any kind of musical qualification.

Now music tech is different, I had 2 interns doing tech at uni working there. 

Axe_meister

Snap said:

What about Leeds Conservatoire? They do tons of courses of which some will be up his street. 
I would try to get him to go visit BIMM - Brum or Manc maybe. Seeing it in the flesh might help.

My daughter has applied for Music & Tech, but wants to go the uni route, Liverpool and Salford being top of list. 
My brother went to the Leeds Conservatoire 20 odd years ago when it was Leeds College of Music. He did Jazz, then went to Berklee to do a masters in jazz composition.
The Conservatoire is small (1200 students I think), but very focused on what it does. I believe the entry is strongly driven by audition. Strong record in jazz.

Thanks for that, alas I don' think he will qualify for leeds as he will not have the A'Levels to get the required UCAS points

Snap

@Axe_meister ;
maybe BIMM is the best route if you can persuade him to be open to it?

Jalapeno

Axe_meister said:

Snap said:

What about Leeds Conservatoire? They do tons of courses of which some will be up his street. 
I would try to get him to go visit BIMM - Brum or Manc maybe. Seeing it in the flesh might help.

My daughter has applied for Music & Tech, but wants to go the uni route, Liverpool and Salford being top of list. 
My brother went to the Leeds Conservatoire 20 odd years ago when it was Leeds College of Music. He did Jazz, then went to Berklee to do a masters in jazz composition.
The Conservatoire is small (1200 students I think), but very focused on what it does. I believe the entry is strongly driven by audition. Strong record in jazz.

Thanks for that, alas I don' think he will qualify for leeds as he will not have the A'Levels to get the required UCAS points

Ring them up and ask, they should all have discretionary admittance policies. Best of luck for your lad !

Teetonetal

I went to the Guitar Institute of Technology in Acton in the mid 90's for 3 years and did their Popular Music Performance degree.

a few things.

• I loved it
• I got to meet some amazing players and lecturers
• Opened my eyes up to how much there was to learn and how good you could get
• I dedicated myself to it and improved dramatically
• I don't think I fully appreciated how hard it would be to make a living from music

Whilst I have made some money from music, it's generally been from Teaching, playing covers and Deping - I struggled to really get good enough to land any of the auditions I went for. I got disillusioned pretty quickly after leaving and 5 years later gave up completely.  Being a musician can be a grind!!

I then moved abroad, did an open university degree and have a career I now really enjoy. It took me a number of years before I started playing for fun again, I went back to teaching part time and rejoined bands and these days it's a lot of fun.

I am glad I went, but the question really is how to build a career from it...

Blaendulais

If he wants to be a studio guitarist he really does need to read the dots we all ignore i think.  

Jason

Axe_meister said:

Education has not been my son's strong point being Autistic. State schools and specialist school have failed him. 
He is currently at college redoing his GSCEs (he currently has functional skills level 1) and doing a level 2 production and performance course which he finds boring as he's been playing with Draws all his life and the other students have no real interest and just want to make beats.
He's a good drummer, play guitar well and can even play some complex piano pieces. The trouble is other than drums where he had official lessons and can read drum music, his guitar and piano learning has been guitar hero style with no theory (and won't let me reach him).
He desperately wants to carry on with music, but has been put off by bad reviews of contemporary music schools such as ACM/BIMM/ICMP and obviously won't get into a normal uni.
He want's to specialise in Jazz Guitar and do production on the side.
Can anybody think if any other options, he wants to go studio musician route rather join a band.

Happy to talk BIMM Brum if you need any info, I do a lot of the open days and lecture a couple of days a week.

We only have 1000 students max so it is all quite small lectures and lessons.

One of my proudest achievements is helping a severely autistic student to succeed with a 2:1. We are pretty good at that, Unis like BIMM have a proportionally higher than average because it's arts-based.

If you want to chat, send me a message.

Stratavarious

Def. don’t discount a Uni.  Visit a few at open days and speak to the staff directly to learn more.   They recognise talent and passion not just qualifications and a good covering letter can assist. 

Skills of reading charts & dots and some solid theory would underpin any serious work or communication with other professional musicians. 

EricTheWeary

My son is at the Northern Film School but his house mates all at the Leeds conservatoire. I don't know what they do in lectures but they seem to play mostly country music and do a reasonable number of gigs alongside the academic stuff. So my impression is there is some capacity to pursue your own thing. 

Supportact

Agree with those who say qualifications might not be the main requirement for session work. I know some session players, and aside from being very good and versatile players, the thing that gets them bookings is reputation/word of mouth. 

The thing they have in common is a helpful attitude and a lack of ego. If producers know they are easy to deal with and professional then they get booked again. I guess it comes with experience but I think some people are more suited to it by their personality. 

guitars4you

meltedbuzzbox said:

I am not sure how much a qualification would help in getting session work to be honest.
My understanding is that it's a fiercely competitive world. The main points are usually punctual behaviour for arriving at session, Two guitars and two small amps, friendly attitude and the ability to play by ear or read music.
I think the hardest bit is getting a foot in the door initially. Once you are in you just need to turn up on time and deliver (obviously decent chops and skill are a prerequisite too)

This in abundance - Over the years I've had quite a few customers who have gone down the 'hired hand' route - They would all endorse these points - The issue many will also endorse is that there are so/to many good players coming out of uni/college now that it is a young mans game especially regarding wages - Fine when you are single/young, but as you get older, have a wife/kids/mortgage then fees often don't rise - Yet it can be so much fun

Just as bad, if not worse, for fully qualified orchestral musicians in one of the UK's leading orchestras - Pay is very poor and most will subsidise 'gigging' wages with teaching 

Axe_meister

My son needs guidance. He is under the impression he can learn everything off youtube. He needs that interaction with other students, especially people who are dedicated to help him flourish, what happens afterwards is another battle. @Jason I might take you up on your offer

octatonic

There is no ‘studio’ session work, in any real sense.

There used to be, I was part of the last generation of players to do it, for decent money.

Now if you want to be a studio musician you also have to be a live musician, a teacher, maybe (definitely) have a YouTube channel, do gear reviews, promotion etc and frankly you will make more money working in a bank.

There are shitloads of people doing it and only the most focussed, dedicated and ruthless get anywhere.
Most people get nowhere at all.

There is a bit of ‘work’ if you want to play for free, but it is an expensive hobby like that.
Doing the wedding circuit does pay ok but kiss goodbye any social life or being being able to go away in the summer.

Almost all of the people I know from music school are working outside music (and we’re glad to get out).
Those that are not are not are teaching.

You can do it without uni, but uni is a shortcut to getting some things under your belt that you might struggle with.
It isn’t easy though, and doesn’t set you up for anything and you really still need 3-5 years after uni of constant work to implement things you’ve learned.

I knew I wanted to do music, I studied privately (with teachers and then self guided) for years, went to music school, never stopped learning. 

Never will stop learning. 

You have to be crazy to do it, really, willing to put up with unreasonable conditions, periods of no work where you hunker down and develop, loads and loads of side hustles, just to get by.

So I’d be cautious here, it might do well for him, he might flourish but almost no one ends up in the place they thought they would and it is getting harder every year.
My advice is always ‘don’t do it’ knowing that for some that will always be an unsatisfactory answer.

octatonic

Oh and there is a reason I gig mostly as a drummer now.
A lot more work but it is still quite competitive.

Jason

Axe_meister said:

My son needs guidance. He is under the impression he can learn everything off youtube. He needs that interaction with other students, especially people who are dedicated to help him flourish, what happens afterwards is another battle. @Jason I might take you up on your offer

Anytime, we can phone or zoom, happy to help.

Lestratcaster

I went to ACM a decade ago and enjoyed it but the institute has gone downhill. For studio playing I think its more about having the ear for what your instrument can provide to the song, understanding tone and equipment and the usual turning up on time with fully working gear, being easy to work with etc etc.
Many of the studio/session musicians I know don't have any degrees or anything they just know how to make their instruments work for the specific project, and a great ear. Sight reading can help, but you don't need to do a 4-5 year slog at a uni to learn to do this.
I'm a guitar tutor and teach online if he ever wanted theory help (or any general guitar playing area). I do the LCM (London College of Music) Grades 1-8 and also the Rockschool syllabus if you're looking at the academic route.

DefaultM

I'm autistic and I really enjoyed doing a BTEC and HND in music performance. They had the matching tech course as well that my friend did and enjoyed.
There was also a guy with heavy aspergers in the year below me and he did great as well.
I applied for Leeds College of Music but they wanted me to be able to sight read so I wussed out and cancelled the audition, not sure if it's still the same.

I hated University. I got distinctions all through college, ended up with a 2:2 after the top up year because the set up didnt suit me at all.

Danny1969

Axe_meister said:

My son needs guidance. He is under the impression he can learn everything off youtube. He needs that interaction with other students, especially people who are dedicated to help him flourish, what happens afterwards is another battle. @Jason I might take you up on your offer

What about the things like Ready to Rock school ..... these basically get kids of all ages together and get them working as a band with public live performances, for an example see this link.

https://www.readytorockschool.com/ ;

Sight reading is good for pit work at the theatre but generally in most studios there isn't any dots to read as no one makes any proper scores. Most of the bands are recording their own music they wrote with chords and lyrics, riffs etc and lyrics written by hand. 

Being able to chart a song quickly is a useful skill as it means you are ready to play it in any key. For a simple song you chart the interval and add little embellishments .... like underlining an interval means half bar, 2 intervals side by side means share a bar etc.  If you have a good ear then this makes dep'ing a lot easier in terms of learning songs quickly. 

What gets any musician the furthest in my experience is a good friendly attitude combined with solid skills and a great ear. It's important to be able to communicate in the correct terms and it's kinda rude not to really when you are working with other muso's  ...... so a reasonable understanding of theory is a great thing to have combined with a solid understanding of where every note and chord is on the guitar. For this reason I don't think anyone will flourish the most just using Youtube as most of the big guns like to show riffs and how to play things using tab and this is a defo no no for anyone who wants to really understand their instrument. 
Once you are experienced and know your theory then Youtube is superb as you get to watch some great players and at that point you only need to watch because you can see what they are doing.