Music degrees, help please!

Can you clarify which top unis you've been looking at for Music? Can't speak for any other unis, but I do know of (admittedly few) instances in which people who aren't Grade 5 standard on the piano have got a place at Oxford. How long it would take you to reach Grade 5 standard is something that is hard to judge, as it depends on how much practice you would do, how easy you find the piano, etc. I know you've said that you don't want to take a gap year, but I'd really recommend that you seriously think about it, particularly if the courses you are looking at have compulsory keyboard skills exams.

As for the Grade 8 thing, look carefully at the requirements listed on both UCAS and these universities' departmental websites. If it says "Grade 8 standard", then the likeliness is that if you have the Grade 7 and say in your PS "I will be taking my Grade 8 in X [month]", then there shouldn't be too much hassle. If it says "Grade 8", then that means they probs want you to have the certificate. Find the e-mail addresses of the Music admissions tutors at the unis you're thinking of and double-check with them, just to be on the safe side!

yeah my boyfriend had this problem too, he just worked seriously hard and did his grade 5 in the summer of year 12 - it doesn't matter how well you pass necessarily, just that you do!
he's just got into Cambridge by the way.

Thanks for your reply
Erm, well I would absolutely love to go to Oxford or Cambridge as I went their a few monthes ago and they were both such lovely places. KCL looks really good as well and so does York and Durham. But they all want or hint at wanting grade 5 piano.
Well I'm getting a lot better, it took me a couple of months to get from nearly nothing to grade 1 standard, but would have been sooner if I'd practiced more than a couple of times a week, for the last week or so I've been doing 20-30 minutes a day and I've found I'm really getting somewhere.
Yeah I will do that thanks, out of interest what are you planning to do once you finish your degree, as I'm worried about career prospects with a music degree. Sorry if I'm being really nosy

I really think the best thing to do in your case would be to do a gap year and apply during the gap year to these unis, or to any other ones that you later come to like the look of. It would give you more time to get to the Grade 5 standard without putting too much pressure on your or affecting your A Level grades.

That's just my opinion though. Do go on the websites, find the e-mail addresses for the admissions tutors (I can PM you the Oxford one if you like), send them a polite e-mail explaining your circumstances and ask how it would affect your application and whether they would recommend you take a gap year. Loads of people in my year for varying reasons have taken gap years. Some of them were asked by Oxford to defer their entry so they could learn harmony. So gap years are quite common, or at least they are at Oxford!

There's lots of options available to Music graduates career-wise. All the usual performance stuff (conducting, soloist, orchestral player, etc.), working for radio, arts admin, composition, teaching, etc. Equally, we can become accountants, do graduate medicine or do the law conversion course. I personally am hoping to get some funding, do a Masters and PhD and become an academic

Do feel free to PM me if you've any further questions about career stuff or the Oxford course

yes, well my boyfriend ended up taking a gap year anyway so as to get his 'cello diploma, grade 6 piano and grade done as he decided that his grades (AAAA) wouldn't stand up enough alone to apply to Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, York and Southampton. i'd personally not take a gap year, it wouldn't be beneficial to my course or application but for his music, it's hugely helped - there's no way he would have been accepted into Cambridge before! at least there was no uncertainty about his A2 grades and he had the music experience to back it up.
our school was great about doing him a reference this year. as for his personal statement, he wrote one at the beginning of year 13, same as everyone else, got it tweaked by the school and everyone as if he was applying and then that meant he had a great template to work off for this year where he only needed to add in the extra stuff he'd done...

With regard to piano, I think it's usually irrelevant. I got offers at all the unis I applied to both last year and this year (inc. KCL, Mancs, Bham) and I have only grade 3 jazz piano, and haven't played since 2003 I have a few friends who have got into top unis without piano, although generally with at least 1 grade 8 under their belt. Personally I would suggest focusing on getting your principal study exams rather than taking on a second instrument seriously.

But...learning some piano will no doubt be useful in preparation for starting at uni. Possibly would be better to learn keyboard skills like harmonising a melody/scale without sheet music, score-reading etc rather than playing pieces. That was what I was advised by my school as also Bham uni when it came up in my interview.

Good luck

Cardiff doesn't have a grade 5 piano requirement, and I was specifically told in an email that my lack of grade 8 didn't matter, as long as I was "working towards" it (I was on grade 6 at the time, still am in fact). Seriously, give their course and the uni a look, it's a great place.

However, please note that I applied for the BA, which doesn't require you to take Performance Modules, unlike the BMus, so that might have been a factor.

Cardiff doesn't have a grade 5 piano requirement, and I was specifically told in an email that my lack of grade 8 didn't matter, as long as I was "working towards" it (I was on grade 6 at the time, still am in fact). Seriously, give their course and the uni a look, it's a great place.

However, please note that I applied for the BA, which doesn't require you to take Performance Modules, unlike the BMus, so that might have been a factor.

What modules did you take for the BA?? And what can you select from??

You have the full choice of modules, except for the fact that 40 credits' worth of them have to come from elsewhere in the first year. In the second and third years, you can do 20 credits per year elsewhere, or just do all 120 in the School of Music.

In the Autumn Semester I took:
Elements of Tonal Music I (20 Credits)
Making Music History (10 Credits)
Composition 1A (10 Credits)

In the Spring Semester I'll be taking:
Elements of Tonal Music II (20 Credits)
Debussy (10 Credits)
Composition 1B (10 Credits)

In addition to that, I've taken a 20 credit French Language course which is spread out across two semesters (you have to take both parts to qualify for the credits) and two other French modules ("Modern France: Geography, Economy and Society" and "Introduction to French Politics"), one each semester.

So say if for example i wanted to take something along the lines of geography. I could possibly do that?

Yup, you can pretty much do anything that is a Humanity or Social Science as long as it isn't in the same "subject group" as Music:


See the first two documents on this page for more information on available modules.