Music Performance & Vocal Artist (Level 2)

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Our Music Performance courses are renowned for their exciting content and opportunities. They are perfect for any musician looking to develop their skills.
The Level 2 course is:

• Centred around artist and band-based rehearsals in fullyequipped rehearsal rooms.
• Ideal for young musicians aged 16+. We work with guitarists, bass players, keyboard players, drummers, vocalists, singer/ songwriters, percussionists, horn players, string players. Whatever, you play we can help you develop your skills!
• For musicians into creating and performing any style of popular music, from metal, indie and alternative to folk, funk, soul, jazz and blues.
• Based around real-world projects with opportunities to record and perform. Performances include gigs in local venues to opportunities to perform at festivals such as Sundown and Latitude. Our students also get to perform at industry showcases, such as the Island Records talent showcase.
• Designed to give you more than music in that you will also gain valuable job skills and life skills.
• Linked to nationally-recognised music qualifications.
• Taught by musicians at 8 UK locations and graded ‘Good’ by Ofsted.

This is a one-year GCSE-equivalent full-time course for musicians and singer/songwriters with limited prior experience.The course covers musicianship, songwriting, rehearsal, repertoire development, recording and performance with technology, business awareness and promotion.

Delivery is focussed around practical rehearsal sessions in fully-equipped band rehearsal rooms with opportunities to perform at college events in the local community.

You will focus on developing the skills needed for successful live and recorded performance. On the Level 2 course you will be doing preparatory work in the following areas:

• Musicianship: this is about developing your technical and theoretical knowledge to enable you to achieve better performances. You will work in groups on your instrumental skills, both solo and ensemble, and on their application. You will also develop your understanding of how music works and systems of notation to record musical ideas. There is no formal requirement to read conventional music notation, but an understanding of it is important.
• Repertoire: you will work on developing a body of work which will include cover songs, original compositions and arrangements. It is important for aspiring musicians to encounter all these elements. Playing cover songs accurately helps you to understand how other artists create and play their music and is a useful skill for session playing and tribute band work. Writing original material is an essential creative process for artists, but you will be involved in the process in different ways depending on your instrument. Arranging other people's songs is an interesting and instructive activity, such as creating a heavy metal version of an acoustic song or vice versa.
• Rehearsal: this is where the hard work of refining your repertoire in preparation for performance takes place. Effective rehearsals require clear planning and preparation as well as structure to ensure best use of time. You will learn how to organise constructive and progressive rehearsals with clear targets. These will take place in fully-equipped band rehearsal rooms usually in groups. You will work on improving/editing songs for performance as well as formulating performance skills and image.
• Promotion: it is important for artists to create channels to promote their repertoire - this is essential if you are to generate money from your music. You will look at creating a fanbase through effective communication via social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Soundcloud. You will look at developing an electronic press kit via organisations such as Sonicbids, releasing music digitally via online distribution companies and looking at publishing options. You will also look at image and graphical/video representation via posters, flyers, album artwork etc.
• Live Performance: this is one of the goals which drives the whole process. Access Creative College provides a wealth of performance opportunities from in-college events through to gigs in local venues and national opportunities with Atom Live. The aim is to hone performance/audience skills, showmanship and professionalism when dealing with venues, crew and promoters.
• Recorded Performance: this is a very different skill to live performance. Recording a track in a studio requires technical skills and precision, such as playing accurately to a click track. You will learn how to prepare and deliver is such situations fostering valuable skills both for original artists as well as those seeking session work.

Our main criteria is an ability and passion for music and a dedication to gain skills. You will be invited to an audition/interview where we will assess which course is best for you.

As a guide, this course is for musicians and singers with some skills and experience. You are likely to be more of a bedroom musician, probably with only limited experience of performing and working with others. If you have done Rockschool grades then you may have acheived a standard between Grade 2 and Grades 4-5.

Progression from the Level 2 course is to further study at Level 3. This may be to the Music Performance Level 3 course, or our other Level 3 courses such as Music Production or Event Production.