Selection of Student Blogs

As  part of the Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship course that I have blogged about many times before, the students have to document a blog which discusses their perspectives on areas of the music industry. I thought it makes sense to feature specific blogs every now and then. So – this week there are blogs on subject areas as broad as tribute bands, Steve Jobs, Music and Dance,  the Future of the Music Industry and DJ Technology.

I am sure I wont remember to do this every week, but I will try and remember some of these posts every now and then. Lot’s of interesting discussion.

Read Full Post »

Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepeneurship: Session 1

It was the first session of the Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship today. We covered Study Skills: namely an 800 word essay on a topical area of the music industry, a 10 minute presentation on the music industry (using screen capture software), and the setting up and documentation of a music industry related blog. The 2^nd half of the session was related to teaching the students how to claim accreditation for the experience and qualifications they already have. This will be followed up by weekly tutorials supporting students to do this. All of the students  come from a  wide range of backgrounds in the Welsh music industry, and I am really looking forward to helping them work through the course. In the coming  weeks I will share RSS feeds of what students are blogging about, in addition to other bits and pieces. Watch this space.

On another note, for those of you that have time, I have a radio interview tomorrow at 11.00 with Scott Travers. Catch it online live at http://www.newusb.co.uk/

Read Full Post »

Foundation Degree for the Music Industry in Wales

Well, my European Social Fund Foundation Degree for the music industry in Wales is due to be launched officially in a few days. In the first year, the funding will enable 15 people who live or work within the Welsh Music Industry Convergence Areas a potential free place. The first year is aimed at the industry in South Wales, and will be followed by places in the North and West over the next few years. As most of you will know, a Foundation Degree is the same as the first two years of a degree, so when one considers the current price of higher education – this represents an excellent opportunity.  The course is mainly taught through distance learning, and already has a 3rd year top up written – although students have to fund this themselves if they want to do it. The dedicated website for the qualification can be found here, with an online application form here.

The unique aspect of this course, is that in enables practitioners to gain credit for the experience they have gained in the industry thus far – plus the work they do in the work place once the course starts.

By all means drop me a line if you require more details.

Read Full Post »

Free Foundation Degree in Music For Wales

I got some good news this week. Over the last couple of years or so I have been working on developing a Foundation Degree that facilitates  anyone working within the music industry to gain credit for the skills they already have, in addition to building on their skill base weaknesses in both the classroom and the workplace.

Well – that qualification is now a reality (subject to validation)! I have recently obtained funding from the European Social Fund that basically provides the finance for a select number of Welsh based musicians to undertake this qualification, providing they comply with the following criteria.

1. They live and work in one of the convergence areas of Wales
2. They have enough experience within any area of the music industry – that would enable them to gain at least 60 university cat points. (See * below) via Accreditation for Prior Learning
3. They are prepared to study part time on the Foundation Degree for around a  year and a half – at the same time as working.

Once your studies are finished, you will have the qualifications to move on to the final year of a degree, or simply use the qualification to improve your current working practices. After a degree is finished, you can also progress onto a post graduate qualification such as a Masters or PhD, or even a teaching qualification!

As stated, these places are free and the course is designed to be undertaken at the same time as working, saving successful candidates a great deal of money. The first 15 places will commence in South Wales in September 2011. Places are very limited and will be offered progressively over a three-year period.

This is just an initial post to inform interested parties of the qualification, but I will post more information over the next few months when it becomes available.

Can I suggest the following

• You ‘like’ this Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FoundationDegree). I will use it to keep interested parties up to date with progress
• If you are interested in a place, or would like to discuss specific details – get in touch with me on pcarr@glam.ac.uk
• Share this information with anyone you think may be interested (please).

* This programme is designed for any occupation in the music industry – including, but not limited to, self-employed musician, instrumental teacher, music retail, small record labels, technicians, promoters, managers, etc, etc, etc.

So in short:

• The qualification will cost the company/employer nothing!
• Up to 50% of te qualification can be gained based on previous experience.
• 25% of the qualification is based in the workplace.
• The taught units focus on music industry knowledge and entrepreneurship.
• Provides the basis to progress onto the final year of a degree, but this aspect has to be paid for.
• You must live and work in a convergence area (see map above)

Read Full Post »

How Relevant Are Foundation Degree’s To The Music Industry (Part 1)

The research I have been doing recently for the Welsh Music Foundation into live music over the last few months has made me think – how relevant and important are Foundation Degree’s to the music industry? This is part of a two-part post, where I will address ‘relevance’ first.

I have written a number of Foundation Degree’s over the last 10 years (For both Bournemouth University and Glamorgan University), and I think the original idea behind these qualifications was theoretically sound. The concept of a qualification reflecting the skill requirements of the music industry is useful, and although Foundation Degree’s have worked well in other sectors, there have always been  factors that prevent this qualification from being relevant for music.

For example, an important ingredient of all FD’s is the work placement. As the qualification is vocational, it makes sense to facilitate practitioners to obtain part of their credit via the work place.The vast majority of institutions teaching FD’s find this difficult with music, something which results in many devising ‘work related assignments’, where students are accessed via ‘real life’ scenarios. Although this is the next best thing, like myself,  many lecturers find it difficult to keep up with current industry practice (How can you do both?). Although it may be easy to organise a work placement to a local builders firm or Tescos (who now have their own FD), it is far more difficult to enable students to work as part of a successful touring act, or a major publisher.

It seems to me that this has resulted in the music industry (whatever that means) generally not relating to the qualification. Having being part of this process over the last 10 years, I recently decided to develop a Foundation Degree that is not aimed at school/college students, but at people already in the industry. This leads me to the 2nd part of my post – how important are qualifications to the music industry.

More on this later ……………………..

Read Full Post »

End of year review

As I am so new to the business of   blogging, I thought it would make sense to make the final entry of the year a review of the 2008 year regarding my various activities. These are not in any specific order, but just as they arrive in my head through the Xmas haziness. Anyway – here goes.

The first important event of the year was to officially launch the Music Academy at the ATRiuM in Cardiff in partnership with Roland UK. This event took a great deal of planning, as in addition to the various VIPs that were present, Roland Founder Mr Ikutaro Kakehashi was awarded an honorary professorship for his contributions to music. During his key note speech it became apparent how humble he was – a lesson to us all! The academy is now 8 months old and is beginning to have an impact on music education in South Wales and beyond – more of this later.

As part of a number of widening participation events I have been organising, the Academy hosted a Battle of the Bands competition the day after the launch. This is to become an annual event, with the 2009 event already in the diary. We were lucky to have Both Roland UK and Rockschool sponsoring the event, so the winners of the competition received some outstanding prizes in addition to gaining a great deal of media coverage. Widening participation is something that is very close to my heart and I am currently in the process of setting up a Junior Music Academy that finances local school children to access the fantastic facilities and expertise we have at the ATRiuM via a Saturday Morning Summer school. The initiative has the support of Cardiff Council, Roland, Rockschool, First Campus, and Gates and will be implemented for the first time in April 2009. Will report more on this later.

I have recently become very interested in Knowledge Exchange/Transfer, and am currently completing a research project in partnership with Roland Uk which is examining how Glamorgan University can assist the organisation to better train both their own workforce via accredited training. This is primarily being implemented by designing a Foundation Degree for the music retail sector, and I am currently writing a journal article on the most appropriate way of going about this. My discussions with industry indicate this will potentially lead into consultancy work next year – so watch this space. Alternativelly, if you’re interested – please get in touch. On the subject of my research, I have lucky enough to have papers presented at the Sibelius Academy in Finland (on Electric Guitarists fusing Jazz with other music forms) Copenhagen University (On Frank Zappa), in addition to a number of visiting lectures/workshops on subjects ranging from on-line assessment to assessing popular music performance. For more details on this refer to my Academia edu homepage. My various activities have affected my publication output, but I have secured a chapter in a forthcoming book by Cambridge Scholars Press. This is related to my work on the impact of guitarists on the jazz canon – so again watch this space for more details.

I have worked as an external examiner for a number of years now, and am currently monitoring the undergraduate music awards at both Bath Spa University and Leeds University. This is always a great opportunity to both learn from colleagues and offer advice on the most appropriate ways of ensuring academic quality is maintained within our university buildings.

One of the most interesting aspects of my job is related to working with colleges in both Wales and England on developing franchised HE qualifications. Having been involved in HE for a number of years now,  it is gratifying to have the opportunity to share my experience in order to develop pedagogical developments outside of my own institution. Again – more on this as some of the projects develop in 09.

In addition to all of this, I have actually managed to do several gigs in Cardiff and the Brecon Jazz festival, although I must admit it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a standard I am happy with on guitar. It is hard to believe that someone who was an obsessional practicer in his teens and 20′s can devote so little time to the guitar. I suppose this is part of growing older and developing in other areas.

The early part of next is already filling up. In addition to the research activities outlined above, I have recently been awarded some money by the Beacons Public Engagement Fund (Via HEFCE and HEFCW) to conduct research in selected schools in SE Wales. The main focus is to examine various ways we can work together and how both teachers and pupils can influence the research being conducted at The Music Academy. As this project actually involves some of my own students – I am particularly looking forward to it. I was also heavily involved with the SWN festival in Cardiff last year, basically hosting the conferences at ATRiuM. This event was a real success and we are already planning next years event. As stated in a previous post, I will be uploading podcasts of all the music related panels over the next month or so. It was also fantastic to have the opportunity to work with the Welsh Music Foundation, and an academic conference is on the agenda for the early part of next year. This will be music industry related, so I will keep everyone posted on developments.

Anyway, I have reached my half hour time limit to document this post, so can  I wish everyone a great new year. If I have missed anything, I will amend at some point.

Paul

Read Full Post »