Free online learning for adults: click here

Nescot’s Music students held a listening party for their new compilation album at college on Thursday, with students from other courses providing feedback on their tracks.

First-year students on the Level 3 qualification each made their own track, as well as creating cover artwork and a press release about their song.

The group’s compilation album will be pressed into a vinyl record and framed at the college, with copies held in the college’s musical library for future students to sample in their own projects.

“We set this project to be as close as possible to a brief that students would be given in the industry,” said Harry Fairclough, Tutor Demonstrator for Music Production and Technology. 

“The students had a challenging deadline, and they had multiple assignments they needed to juggle, as well as being organised about booking time in our professional studio facilities.

“We were clear from the outset about the creative and professional standards we expected, and that only tracks which met those standards would make it onto our compilation album.

“The students have taken the project seriously, and learnt a lot from it. They have listened to the brief, worked hard and produced an excellent standard of work, so they should be proud of themselves.”

The students were given two weeks to create, record and mix a new track, in a genre of their choosing and to a length that would fit their genre.

They are also working on other units focussed on evaluating and improving their live performance, as well as creating music to fit a scene from a film.

People from programmes including Creative Media, Art and Design and Foundation Learning attended the listening event, and gave qualitative and quantitative feedback on each track.

“I’m happy with how my track turned out, and I’m looking forward to getting feedback,” said first-year student Ryan, who studied Level 2 Music at Nescot last year.

“The teachers push us with every assignment we do, but it’s a good way of finding out what we’re capable of, and they’re there to support us with anything we need.”

Nescot offers Media and Music at Level 1, and Music Technology at Level 2 and Level 3. You can read more on our website here.