Do Not Uni To LMA For Music Performance

Disclaimer - I am rounding up my first year in this university and this has been my experience so far - I have also spoken with 2nd & 3rd years who can back up whatever it is I am about to say.

If you’re thinking about going to LMA for music performance (particularly) - don’t. It is a complete and utter waste of your time especially if you’re moving from far away, the effort isn’t worthwhile for the university and education not to mention the money you’ll spend and debt it will leave you in for a lacklustre “university” course.

The facilities are awful and as for any actual teaching there’s a lot left to be desired (by this I mean there is no lessons as such and if for any reason you are being “taught” something, then you will be sat on the floor of a practice room - not that you will particularly learn anything of great use anyway.)

Being in a band all of the time sounds promising and exciting but I promise you that you will soon get bored if you’re looking for something with a little more substance and something above a GCSE level of education, which is funny cause I learned more then than I am now at 20 years old in university, then go anywhere else. If you are looking for an experience in bands constantly + being exposed to performing (for maybe even a first time) this may just be the place for you, however, you won’t gain much more than that + the aforementioned terrible facilities. By the way these include -

1. Everyone has to put cheap, usually broken, headphones into a mixing desk which are confusing and unreliable.

2. There are no amps or PA systems in the practice rooms + the fact the practice rooms aren’t even sound proof so you can hear every other band as well as your own.

3. Drummers have to use an E-Kit, which usually isn’t a complaint from me as they do the job perfectly fine, however they are incredibly cheap Roland kits with Bluetooth high hits and broken toms which is a lot less than you’d expect from a university you’re paying thousands for.

You could get the same experience with a much broader understanding of performing live for the same amount of money in another university.

If you’re like I was and your dead set on coming to Liverpool then I highly suggest going to literally any other of the universities that are here that offer the performance side of things as well as much more + much greater facilities and opportunities. Examples would be LIPA, University Of Liverpool and Hope University.

They pretend to be a big advocate for the mental health of their students across the entire university - this is simply false. As far as tutors go I’ve personally and am friends with people who have experienced the opposite with our course tutors alone, one experience with the head of the music course.

You’ll find a great group of friends and be around musicians all of the time which is greatly helpful for your social life as well as your musical life, but, you can also find that very same thing in a university where 9000 pounds a year will actually guarantee you a useful degree.

There are some fun events such as U-Fest which happens in the M&S bank arena which you can attend for free. This includes fairground rides and a large stage with performances all through the evening. At the end of the first year you do get to perform in a big venue and you are given 4 free tickets to give to family and friends. These kinds of things, personally, are just things used to keep us hopeful and stay in the course.

Now I will mention the attendance and drop out rate, especially amongst first years. I’d realistically guess that about 30% of the course have dropped out so far for all the reasons that I’ve mentioned thus far which should give you a pretty good idea how good this university is.

Robbie Williams has absolutely nothing to do with the university. He may be plastered on the building and he may be in every promotional video you see but he quite frankly has nothing to do with us whatsoever, he just draws you in as if you’re going to soar into this world of every one of our dreams and it’s a complete let down and waste of time.

I am leaving after this first year is up and switching to ICMP, a brand new university opening in Liverpool if you wish to have a look. (Despite the fact it’s new in Liverpool it has been an established university for 30 years and there’s much more positive reviews about it) it has a much larger variety of just music related courses. These include music business, song writing, performing, music production or a specialised course in your chosen instrument.

In conclusion, this course first of all isn’t what it promotes itself as at all and isn’t as grand as they make it seem. The course itself is lacklustre and the teachers are unqualified. They are established members of the professional industry. We have tutors from famous and accomplished bands and they sell it as if you’re going to learn the ins and outs of the industry and with how my first year has gone and the many 2nd and 3rd years I’ve spoken too, this just won’t happen. It’s been openly said by a tutor that LMA is just a business that runs just about well enough to keep generating money. Save yourself a lot of time, and money, by not coming here.