On Tuesday the 14th July I had my graduation ceremony! It was a lovely event to share with my friends and family and a very proud moment but I can’t help but feel so sad!

It seems only a short time ago that I came to City though it was back in 2012. I know people always say university will change you and I do think I am a very different person. I think all you potential City students will find the same happens to you when you begin your journey at uni! It’s not just about increasing your knowledge and getting a great degree. It’s also a chance to discover who you are while making a great bunch of friends and really enjoy yourself!

As potential music students there’s lots of opportunities ahead of you! Make the most of it! Join as many ensembles as you can because they are great! They have brought on my musicianship and opened my eyes to new types of music I hadn’t given much thought to before. They are a chance to not only improve you as a musician, but also make new friends and have a lot of fun!

You’ll have a great range of modules to pick from during your time at city, try as many as you can and make sure at the end of the day you pick what you want! Take any opportunities the department gives you and remember to make the most of London! It’s a fantastic place to study music!! Go out there and make the most of it experience London’s music culture and dive head first into any opportunities you can – you never know where they may lead!!

Overall my time at city has been amazing I am taking away not only a great degree from a great uni but also new knowledge, new friends and a great bunch of memories. The time’s flown by and as exciting as it is to have graduated I’ll really miss City! Good luck to you all with you’re A level results and I’m sorry I won’t still be there to see you when you start in September!!

Even though it was a back in May I thought I would post a few clips of this term’s choir concert. It was held at St Clement’s, the same church as the Christmas concert, which is a beautiful old church near Old Street tube station. We sang Fauré’s Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine along with The Beatitudes by Arvo Pärt. Here are a few clips I thought I would share with you all.

It was a lovely concert and my last one with the City University chamber choir. It has been a pleasure to sing in and I am very sad to be stopping but was happy to be able to take part in it during my time at City.

Watching these clips of my last choir concert made me reflect on my time at City and reminded me of some of the great things I’ve taken part in.

I have some great memories from our Christmas Cabarets, the annual Christmas party the music department has. It’s a great event, with food, drink, people making music and our famous staff v student quiz! The best thing about it is everyone from the department gets together so is a really good chance to spend time with your friends and get to know others in the department even better!

Another thing I’ve loved about City is the diversity of the modules. It’s a really good chance to not only choose all the aspects of music you are really interested in but also to try out new things you wouldn’t always go for. When I came to uni I had never done any music technology or even spent time in a recording studio but after having a taster of it in first year I decided to take studio composition in my second year, I debated whether to take it as I really didn’t know how I’d find it but it was a really great module to take. It gave me a great grounding in different music software (I learned so much about Logic which I had never even used before uni) as well as opening my eyes to other ways of composing and how to take my own recordings and manipulate sounds. To compliment this module I took Sound Recording and Studio Techniques which gave me a good grounding in how to use the recording studio.

This module was the probably the biggest surprise to me as I had never done anything like it before but I think my favorite module has been Sound, Music and the Moving Image, I have always found film music very interesting so I really enjoyed this module and found myself looking forward to every lecture – a cool opportunity we had along with this module was the chance to see a screening of the silent film “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” with live accompaniment from Neil Brand (who did a great series for the bbc called The Sound of Cinema, watch it if you can!) and who has accompanied silent films for nearly 30 years.

I enjoyed the module so much I decided to have an attempt at composing myself so took Composing for the Moving Image in my third year which was great and I had an added bonus chance of attending a live Q&A talk with the acclaimed film composer Patrick Doyle.

I also have some great memories from performing, especially all my concerts with Gamelan and also African Dance and Drumming, a highlight of which was playing Samba at the London Marathon which had such a great atmosphere. Of course, I have also loved having the opportunity to take performance which has meant having a series of solo performances on flute, my main instrument, throughout my three years at City.

Overall I feel lucky to have had the opportunities to try out such a range of new things and experiences. I’m really going to miss City!

Here are my top ten tips for surviving uni…

1. Be open minded! Make sure you go into everything with an open mind you may be surprised! City’s music course has a huge range of ensembles and modules for you – pick something different, try something new. (I didn’t like composition possibly because I found it difficult so lacked confidence with it but when I had to take it in first year I really enjoyed it and ended up doing it all the way through my degree!)

2. Get involved. City offers you a lot of music making opportunities. Join as many ensembles as you can – it all helps develop a great overall musicianship so even if you’re not playing your main instrument it still helps loads. (You’ll also have great fun, make friends and play at some cool events – in my first year we played Samba at the London Marathon)

3. Keep an eye on your expenses – don’t spend all your money at the beginning of the term and run out as the term goes on, remember deadlines fall in the second half of a term so you don’t need the added stress of money troubles whilst writing essays and revising for exams!

4. Save the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves! Okay so you’re moving to London obviously rent isn’t going to be cheap and let’s face it you’ve picked one of the most expensive places to live so it may be tricky but be sensible and save money in the places it’s easy to save in – for example make your lunch everyday, you don’t need to spend £3 every weekday on that meal deal! – say you spend £3 on your lunch everyday, that’s £15 a week….£60 a month…£720 a year! Okay maybe you won’t be buying lunch every weekday of the year but think how much you could save by getting up 15 minutes earlier and make your own lunch!

5. Start essays and revision earlier than you think you should! Okay I know this is a boring one and it’s probably one we all tell ourselves anyway but in all seriousness it’s important. Maybe you could get away with doing an essay the night before the deadline for A-levels but I would advice STRONGLY against that at uni!! You will need to spend lots of time reading up and researching your topic thoroughly to have lots of great references for a good essay. Don’t submit several papers before realising the importance of good researching and planning for your essays. As for exam revision – after a lecture, write up your notes neatly into something that you can easily revise from in the future. Doing it a second time after learning it will help when you come back to it later and it stops you from looking at your scribbled notes later on and realising you can’t read your own handwriting! If you’re a performer don’t leave your practice late do it as you go along – regular practice really does make perfect! I know all this because I didn’t follow my own advice in the beginning but once I started to do it it made a huge difference. I actually don’t know how I would have met my deadlines if I hadn’t begun starting sooner than I thought I needed to (the time flew). Obviously don’t skip lectures, it’s easy to do but you’ll find it’s easy to fall behind and ends up being more work to catch back up rather than just go to the lecture in the first place. Another extremely important piece of advice is back up ALL your work! I had a big scare when I thought I lost my memory stick and realised I didn’t have the work backed up – luckily I found it but it taught me a big lesson – ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK!!

6. Uni work! You don’t need to go get a part time job in a supermarket. There are loads of opportunities for work right at uni! Also when you hit that crazy deadline patch if you’re picking up uni work you can be more flexible, taking on as much or as little as you want unlike jobs with weekly shifts that are tricky to rearrange or get cover for and can give you a lot of extra stress. City has loads of work opportunities –look out for student ambassador work at the Fresher’s Fair – it’s great pay, great for your CV and you may even make some friends along the way. – http://www.city.ac.uk/current-students/careers-and-work-experience/student-ambassador-scheme. (I’ve loved being an ambassador)!

You can also find out about lots of part time/one off job opportunities if you sign up to unitemps – just ask at the careers office and they’ll give you all the info you need to know.

7. Student discount! Make the most of it while you have it!! Loads of shops offer student discount especially if you sign up for an NUS card – http://www.nus.org.uk/en/nus-extra/. Make sure you sign up for a student oyster card if you’re traveling around London a lot as it can work out cheaper to buy a weekly or monthly travel card as you can get up to a third off with an 18+ oyster card. In general keep an eye out for any student discount, and remember if your buying sheet music plenty of music shops give student discount – I didn’t realise this until my second year!

8. Work experience! Make the most of any work experience type opportunities that come along – uni isn’t just about getting a degree. It’s also all the opportunities that not only give you things to write about on your CV but will also give you great transferrable skills.

9. Eat healthy! It may be cheap and tempting to buy that 24 multipack bag of Walkers but 1- it won’t fill you up and 2- your health won’t thank you! If you don’t eat properly and you’re like me your blood sugar will be all over the place resulting in some not so pleasant mood swings – which won’t help you or your flat mates! So try and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and try and keep eating fruit and veg, it’ll stop you feeling to stodgy and sluggish.

– check out this site – http://www.studential.com/university/student-cooking. It’s got tips on budgeting, healthy eating and recipes.

10. Enjoy yourself! Above everything make sure you really enjoy your time at uni because it’s great! It goes by so quickly. I can’t believe how fast my 3 years have flown by. It’s your chance to make loads of new friends who you can make great memories with because even though it sounds cheesy at the end of the day that’s going to be the best thing to take away from your time at uni!

I can’t believe it’s the end of my three years at Uni. It’s gone by pretty quickly. I’ll be really sad to leave. It’s been a really busy last term. I’ve had so much on.

There have been a few big milestones this term including finishing my dissertation. It was really hard work and has taken so much time so it was very strange to finally finish it and hand it in! Since you can choose to write your dissertation on whatever you want I decided to go for something a bit unusual and unexpected and most importantly something I was really passionate about. In the end I wrote mine on the significance the voice plays in helping to develop anthropomorphic characters in Disney animations. It was really interesting to look at the way the human voice can be used as a musical tool in order to build characters so even though it was a really big piece of work I was constantly finding out interesting things!

Another big milestone this term was my final recital for my third year performance. Performance is always the last module to be assessed. Requirements vary depending on what year you’re in as the higher you take performance the more that is expected of you. The Performance module for the third year includes a 20 minute lunchtime concert, a lecture recital which consists of a talk accompanied with some playing of your instrument and a final recital which is 25-35 minutes! It can be a bit pressured but as well as having the opportunity to invite family and friends to see you perform it is also a great chance to go and hear all of your fellow students too. For my final recital I had to choose a variety of pieces – including at least one piece from the last 30 years. I played Handel’s Flute Sonata in B Minor, the first two movements from the Benjamin Godard, Suite de Trois Morceaux, Sylvia Eichenwald’s Recitativo and InTime from one of Claude Bolling’s Jazz suite for flute. The great thing about performance is it’s up to you to choose your own repertoire so you can be creative and really showcase what you’re capable of doing.

In third year you have to do at least one major project from performance, composition and dissertation. I did two as I did performance and dissertation. One of the things I have really loved about my course is the fact that after first year your choice of modules is completely up to you, so you can choose the areas you want to specialise in, or if you’re like me you can do a mix of everything, which I found really worked for me.

– to see an example of the modules on offer check out this page -http://www.city.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/music#course-detail=1

All in all our course really lets you discover who you are as a musician. When I started my course three years ago I thought I had a pretty good idea of the sorts of things I was into musically but now three years on two weeks before my graduation I realise how much that has changed! My eyes have been opened to so many new types of music, ways of playing and studying, and just completely developed me as a musician and a person!

Hi all,

I thought I’d tell you what it was like to do the work placement module that City offers. The module was a chance to prepare yourself for getting a job after Uni. It was full of lots of tips as well as the chance to prepare your c.v. and most interesting of all, the chance to do a work placement. I did this module in my second year at City. At the time I’d been thinking I might like to become a music therapist or maybe do something with musical theatre.

In our work placement module we were responsible for contacting organizations about placements and our lecturer would give us advice on doing this. I started looking into lots of different music therapy associations. I ended up getting a placement at the Richmond Music Trust. This is a nonprofit organization that offers a range of musical activities including: arranging music lessons through schools, a youth concert band and a youth symphony orchestra – and of course their music therapy center. I had been involved with many of these activities throughout primary and secondary school and thought they might be able to help with finding a music therapy work experience. They were great and put me in touch with their music therapists. I did a 56 hour placement over the course of a month and got to observe and be involved in a range of music therapy sessions. It was a great learning experience for me and a real eye opener; but I actually discovered that maybe this wasn’t for me after all. Music therapists are very strong and dedicated people and I completely take my hat off too them. I found my placement fairly emotional and whilst there were some really uplifting moments I found some of it quite tough as it was upsetting to see how disadvantaged so many of the people were. Even though the therapy was an enjoyable time for many, it was often only an hour of their week and I found it hard wondering how life was for them outside of music therapy. It was great to have this experience though and discover this early on rather than train for it and discover it much later.

Now to musical theatre! I have always loved musical theatre since I went to my first West End show, The Lion King – what a show! When I heard that a girl in the year above me had done work experience at Les Miserables I knew I was going to do everything I could to get some work experience at a show myself, I got talking to our work placement lecturer who helped line up some contacts for me. I ended up having a meeting to discuss what I could try and get involved in. Well I was lucky enough to end up with an evening back stage at the new West End show ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ which I have to say was incredible and one of the highlights of my time at Uni.

The stage manager showed me what goes on behind the stage during a live performance (and on a Friday night at that – so there was a full house!) I sat up in the box where all the monitors and action is being coordinated with the stage manager so saw loads!

The person who arranged this for me also arranged a visit back stage at ‘The Pajama Game’ too. There I got to go around shadowing two different stage managers so got to see a range of things that were going on. Both experiences were fantastic and I loved every minute of it! I’m still not sure what I’ll do after I graduate in July but I found this a really useful and interesting module to take and I would really recommend it to others. Even if you aren’t able to take part in this particular module I would recommend getting involved in any potential work placements or internships, they are such a valuable insight into the world of work and a fantastic opportunity, and as I found out they can also be such great fun!!

Hey guys,

As my time at City University will soon be coming to an end I thought I would do a blog talking about all the extra curricular activities that are on offer. I’ll start by telling you about the Student Union Student Awards Evening I went to on Thursday the 9^th April.

I was invited because I’ve been acting as the Media Operations and Coordinator for the Student Union Media Team. I applied for the role last year because I thought I’d like to help promote the things the Student Union does as well as it being a good experience and one that would be good to add to my c.v. too. It’s also turned out as a nice way to meet people because we have a few media outlets such as our radio station, Uni magazine and onscreen video team as well as our City online website!

The Awards Night was a nice way to finish off the year. We had a lovely drinks reception (with complimentary Prosecco!) and then a great Awards Ceremony which featured various performances from different student groups like the Dance, Bhangra, Treble Clef and Beatboxing societies, some singers and more!

I think students would be surprised to learn how many societies City University has so I thought I’d list them – and remember there’s always the opportunity to form your own.

Actuarial Society

African Caribbean Society

AhlulBayt Society

Alevi Society

Amnesty International Society

Arab Society

Azerbaijan Society

Baking Society

Band Society

Beatboxing Society

Believers Love World Ministry Society

Bengali Society

Bhangra Society

Business & Law Society

Canadian & American Law Society

Chinese Society

Christian Union Society

City Insurance & Risk Management Society

Computer & Games Society

Dance Society

Debating Society

Drama Society

Eastern European Society

Economics Society

Electronic Music Society

Enactus Society

Engineers Without Borders Society

Erasmus & International Society

Expressions Society

Extreme Sports Society

Feminist Society

Film Effects Society

Film Society

Fitness Society

First Love Pentecostal Society

French Speaking Society

Hellenic-Cypriot Society

Hindu Society

Iranian Society

Islamic Society

Jewish Society

Labour Students Society

Law Society

LGBT Society

Krishna Consciousness Society

Malaysian Society

Mauritian Society

Model UN Society

Mountaineering Club

Nepalese Society

Optometry Society

Pakistani Society

Palestine Society

Politics Society

Radiography Society

R Movement Society

Romanian Society

Russian Speaking Society

Sikh Society

Singapore Society

Smart Start Society 

Somali Society

South Asian Society

Speech & Language Society

Storyheroes Society

Tamil Society

The Appreciation of Science Society

Trading & Investment Society

Treble Clef Society

Turkish Society

UNICEF On Campus Society

Vietnamese Society

While I’m at it I should mention our great new sports facility which opened this year! There’s a fantastic gym with lots of great equipment and which also runs lots of exercise classes. There are also loads of sports teams on offer like: American Football, Badminton, Basketball, Climbing, Cheerleading, Cricket, Fencing, Football, Golf, Hockey, Netball, Squash, Table Tennis and Tennis. There’s so much on offer and it’s great value as well as a good way to meet others. If you’d like to find out more about our sports teams check out – http://www.city.ac.uk/sport-and-leisure/represent-city-in-sport.

Anyway back to the Awards Ceremony, it was a fun evening and a chance to celebrate all the great achievements there have been in the Student Union this year.

After all the awards had been given out, all the tables were pulled back to create a dance floor for the after party to dance the night away!! It was a great evening – You guys have so much to look forward to starting Uni!

Hi all!

As promised here is a blog all about the Gamelan concert I was in on Tuesday 7th April!

It was a really great concert. There were three Gamelan groups playing in total. Two were Javanese Gamelan and one was Balinese Gamelan. The Javanese Gamelan had one group made up of all first years and the second group a mix of all three years including me! The Balinese Gamelan group consisted of second and third years.

Well, the day all started at about 1pm when we had the challenge of moving all the instruments from the lower floor in the music department up two flights of stairs to the great hall! It was quite a work out! Luckily we did have lifts to use for some of the really heavy stuff but all in all we spent an hour transporting instruments! But we managed it and it looked great.

After we had managed to move everything and set them all up each group rehearsed in preparation for the concert.

The concert was split into two halves: Javanese and then Balinese. The first Javanese group played some cool stuff and a couple of really relaxing pieces. Check out a few of the clips! –

My group followed with a few lovely pieces including one written by our teacher Andy Channing. It finished with a piece written for Gamelan and trumpet (which is a bit more unusual and not an instrument which would normally play in a gamelan group setting) but it sounded really good. I was playing in these pieces so it was a bit hard to film and play at the same time – but here are a few audio recordings.

The concert finished off with the Balinese Gamelan group.

It’s a totally different sound so was really neat hearing it after having played Javanese; it created such a different atmosphere! Some of their pieces stared some guest dancers, which was awesome.

– instead of me trying to describe to you how fantastic it was check out these clips for yourself!

All in all it was a fab concert! It was so enjoyable both playing and listening to it. Learning how to play Gamelan was something totally new to me and I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to learn it whilst doing my degree. Not only have I had such a fantastic time playing each week but it has also helped me develop as a musician. I’m used to relying on sheet music but in Gamelan there is none, it’s more a case of learning your part by ear and listening to the others to see how your part fits in. In Gamelan no one just plays one instrument, instead you learn new parts for each new piece, so it has improved my listening skills a lot. It has taught my ear to listen to music in a completely different way and helped me loosen up and not be so reliant on sheet music. I would definitely recommend giving Gamelan a shot – you won’t regret it!

Well, it’s hard to believe we’re in the last week of term. There’s a bit of running around like headless chickens revising for exams and essay deadlines looming however end of term time also means it’s concert time!

Since everyone takes part in at least 4 ensembles over the course of their degree (many students do more just for their own enjoyment. I have tried out pretty much everything now!) It means come end of term there will be lots of concerts!

We have loads of ensembles to choose from like Gamelan, African dance and drumming, Latin, jazz, chamber music and choir along with ones students organise themselves like big band and experimental music ensemble.

Today at lunchtime in the pub across from Uni, the Jazz Ensemble had their end of term gig so I popped along and it sounded great! They have a range of instruments – for some people their main instrument of study, whilst for others it’s a chance to jam on one of the other instruments they play! They played some really awesome pieces not just your jazz standards but some really cool sounding stuff! I’m posting a couple clips so that you can hear it for yourself instead of taking my word for it! – Enjoy!

It was great to hear jazz band play but I can’t help but feel a little sad! It’s starting to hit me that I’m getting closer and closer to graduation and taking part in ensembles and hearing everyone play is one of the things I have really loved the past three years and I am really going to miss it! We all have such fun playing in our ensembles weekly and the end of term concerts are not only great fun but really satisfying to see everyone’s hard work paying off. In the meantime I’ve got the Gamelan concert next week but this time I’m playing not listening. I’ll tell you about it on my next blog.

I’ve had a particularly busy patch at Uni at the moment. I’m doing lots of composition work for an upcoming workshop for Composing for Moving Image next Monday. Workshops are something that all students in every year have. In a composition workshop each person bring the composition they are currently working on and has their piece played so that everyone gives and receives feedback. It’s really useful as it gives us a chance to get valuable feedback on our pieces and means we can develop them further ready to submit in our portfolios at the end of the year. Sometimes a person’s piece is actually played live by professionals and in others it might be based on the computer, like my current work for a short film. My whole Composing for Moving Image class was given the same 12-minute film which we have all been hard at work building a soundtrack for – so it’s going to be really interesting to hear the different interpretations.

To start the week I attended The Annual Saddlers Dinner at Saddlers Hall. It was hosted by the Worshipful Company of Saddlers which is one of the oldest of the City of London Livery Companies. They have a longstanding relationship with City University. Saddlers Hall where the dinner took place is a beautiful building right by St Paul’s Cathedral. We were given a tour and talk and learnt a bit about the history of the Company and their longstanding relationship with the University. We were shown some of the beautiful silver and gold treasures that are kept at Saddlers’ Hall and saw some historic and beautifully made saddles. It was quite a privilege. There was a lovely three-course dinner and we all sat next to past or current members of the Company. It was very exciting to be part of it and to meet so many interesting people. I was very proud to be selected as a student to represent the University at this event.

Earlier this week I was also performing in a lunchtime concert with the Chamber Music ensemble I am part of. We have been rehearsing a whole term, so now it was time for our lunchtime concert. I am one of two flutes, in this ensemble, along with two clarinets, two violins, a cellist and soprano. We performed some Berlioz along with a piece from Bizet’s Carmen and some pieces for string trio and wind quartet. The concert went really well so everyone’s hard work paid off!

I’ll be finishing this week with a Performance Workshop which is for students doing Solo Performance. Those of us that are doing Performance each have to play our instrument for 5 minutes after which we each get feedback – good and bad! These workshops are really useful not only do you get a chance to hear constructive feedback on your playing but you also get critiqued on your performance etiquette too, which is such an important element! You can get feedback on your posture, your entrance/exit on stage, the way you hold yourself and also things like your position on stage and bowing. All of which can make quite a difference both positive or negative to one’s performance. It’s also a nice chance to hear your peers play!

I may be coming to the end of one busy week but I’ve got plenty more on the horizon!

Hi! My name’s Eve, I’m in my third and final year here at City Uni. I’m on the BMus music degree and hopefully through this blog you guys can get a real idea of what life at City’s like, what we get up to in music and what it’s like to be a student here in the heart of London!

As 2015 gets underway and I’ve met my last few deadlines for term one, it gives me a chance to look back at last year. There was so much going on at the end of term! We just finished up a bunch of modules. For one of them, Popular Music Now, part of our assessment was to give presentations on a current issue in the popular music industry. Each person had to think of a topic themselves that they wanted to do. Their were some really interesting ones like: Does The X-Factor promote real talent, or is it merely public entertainment? Are digital releases destroying the physical album? Is accessible technology integral to the survival of underground hip hop in the UK? and YouTube and the ‘illegal’ music download. This is just one of the huge range of modules we can take. This term there are loads of different modules being offered like: ‘Music, Fascism and Communism’, ‘Music Therapy’, ‘Music Traditions of the Far East’, ‘Sound Art and Technoculture’ to name a few!

We also have loads of different ensembles that run throughout our year and at the end of last term we had our Christmas Concert for choir. I have been taking part in choir since my second year at City and I really enjoy it. It’s a nice group of girls and guys and we do a variety of music each term. For the concert we sang a range of pieces everything from Bruckner Motets to Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary, as well as plenty of traditional Christmas Carols! We sang in St Clement’s Church where we’ve sung before. It’s a lovely old church with really great acoustics and it’s just down the road from uni. See a clip of the concert.

Just before we broke up in December, we had the Music Department’s Christmas Cabaret (an annual event organized by the staff and students). It’s on the last day of term and all of the students get together with our lecturers for food and drink and a range of musical acts. We had everything from a few songs from our lecturers, some Hawaiian Christmas songs on the ukulele and even a staff against student rap battle! We also had our student vs staff annual quiz! It’s a really fun way to end the term. We all had really good fun and it was a great way for first, second and third years to all hang out together and wind down after a busy term!