Posted 19 December 2019

Liverpool is one of England’s most productive musical cities (The Beatles, anyone?) so what better university for Wakefield College to attend for a music experience than The University of Liverpool.

The students had an early start, arriving at 7am to travel to Liverpool. Upon arrival, their Liverpool tour started at the university with an opportunity to look at the music facilities and learn what it would be like to be a Music student in the city.  Students engaged asking questions and myths were busted around the cost of going to university and the added value it has on your employability within the Music sector.

Our second stop was to the Beatles Museum. The impact of The Beatles on the Music industry is undeniable, and led us to stand side by side with our American friends. The city has really adopted their musical heritage and offer lots of themed attractions as a result. We visited The Beatles Story, which is an interactive tour of the career of the band, with students finding this very educational and informative as it directly links to their understanding of different music styles and composing styles units.  It also helped them to realise how much the industry has changed in terms of contracts, buying and selling music and how artists push the boundaries of musical composition.

Our final stop was the British Music Experience, which is a dedicated museum of the UK’s most famous musical exports. The students were able to see a timeline of British music and its trends, see such incredible items such as handwritten lyrics by Adele and Oasis, Roger Taylor’s drum kit from Queen and a collection of David Bowie’s outfits, guitars and artwork.  Students were quite surprised how much British music was evidenced here and even helped some students realise that ‘George Michael wasn’t American’! One of the students went so far as to say that ‘one day people will be looking at her in this museum’! It was a very humbling and inspirational visit to show students just how vibrant and economically important our own country’s music industry is and the diversity of the acts that made it that way.

Exhausted by the entertainment and knowledge gain about the music industry and the wealth of opportunities that it offers, students finally returned to college at 8pm.  Many students commented on how they never thought about going on to HE after their studies, but that this trip gave them other options to explore and HE was now seen as a valuable and viable choice after Level 3.

 

Donna Shaw, Wakefield College