Shadowing Dan, a final year music student, provided me with an opportunity to attend a music seminar as well as find out about life in the music faculty, including a tour of the faculty’s music facilities. Dan attended one of our Senior Manager Meetings and we also had lunch in the Courtyard. We discovered, among other things, that we are both fans of League Two football, although with my team, Bristol Rovers, suffering the indignity of relegation to the Football Conference just weeks later it may be some time before we meet again at Bootham Crescent.
While I completed a part time masters after my psychology degree, my music seminar was my first undergraduate class in 25 years. Not knowing much about musical theory it was an interesting step into the unknown. Gone were the OHPs of my youth, replaced with on-line music clips which were used to bring to life musical scores that I suspect the students were playing along to in their heads. Writing this a few weeks after the seminar, and without taking notes, I’m afraid I can’t recall exactly what I learned about the music, but I did learn that seminars were much as I remembered them. One or two students seemed comfortable asking questions and responding to the tutor’s prompts for information and insights from the music he played, generally though most of the class seemed happier listening. Dan told me that because it was right at the end of term this seminar wouldn’t be examined, which is presumably why I wasn’t the only one not taking notes.
Following the seminar Dan and I went for a tour of the Armstrong Building and then the music studios to find out where the students spend time between classes and the facilities available to them. With the bland exterior of the studios giving little away in terms of what goes on inside, I am sure I’m not alone in being oblivious to the talent being nurtured on our campus. Having walked in and out of student rehearsals I made a pledge to make sure I go along to listen to some of the weekly concerts in King’s Hall, to listen to our students to perform, or even one of the visiting professionals who use this as a warm up venue for their evening performances in the city.
Walking into the music common room, meanwhile, felt like stepping onto the set of ‘Kids from Fame’, so much so that I expected one of the students to jump up at any moment and start playing the piano, setting in motion a mass dance and sing fest. Sadly with Bruno Martelli not around everyone seemed happier to eat their lunch instead, although the informal and friendly atmosphere of the common room made it a nice place to be.
What I did learn is that for music students this was their base, not the Students’ Union or the library. It wasn’t a glamorous or even a tidy room, more a school hall after a Saturday morning jumble sale, but very comfortable and a place where you couldn’t help but feel at home. Everyone seemed to know each other and there was a sense of unity among the students, whether classical students or folkies or whatever their preference. And, while Dan and I talked a lot about student life and the subtle differences between the students and who was who, as a career professional it was a timely reminder that engaging students in thinking about their career development means we have to go to them, and not wait for them to come to us. For many the comfort of their common room, and the dedication to their music, means we won’t see them otherwise.
Marc Lintern.