Music and Sound Technology

With state of-the-art music and sound facilities, high success rates, and impressive learner satisfaction, there has never been a better time to study to be a performing musician at Leicester college.

The department has access to professional grade teaching facilities, including four acoustically soundproofed practice rooms, three professional recording studios and over 60 Apple Macs and iPads.

Our performing musician courses are suitable for both school leavers as well as older people and/or those with a bit of experience in the industry already. The appropriate level for you will be decided based on your prior qualifications and work experience – many learners stay with us for two or more years to develop their skills to the required level for employment. If you are aged 16 to 19 and don’t yet have your English and maths at grade C/4 or above, these subjects will be an essential part of your study programme. All courses are designed to give you the skills and knowledge needed to work as a professional in this industry .

Our Performing Musician courses are available at levels 1, 2 and 3. On our level 3 course our learners will receive small group tuition on their main instrument, as well as studying the history of popular music; music business; music technology; musicianship and composition. Our other lower level courses are designed to give learners the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a career in the music industry. They are highly practical in nature and centre on rehearsal, performance, instrumental skills and developing your academic skills.

The technical theatre courses we offer are level 3 – Production Arts BTEC Extended Diploma and a Level 4 Foundation Degree in Technical Theatre. During these courses you will cover things such as: backstage technical theatre; concert production; stage and theatre lighting; live sound and stage management; and you’ll also get the chance to help run shows at our professional city centre venue, the Sue Townsend Theatre.

Our sound technology courses range from Level 1 to Level 4/5. Level 1 and 2 are courses suited for learners wanting to understand the behind the scenes aspects of music recording, creation and production. Whereas our Level 3 Music Technology BTEC Extended Diploma offers a modern approach to traditional recording and computer music production, working on things like studio-based sound engineering. Our Level 4/5 course is a Creative Sound Technology Foundation Degree providing learners with the skills for a career in the music business, this course also offers the opportunity to focus of individual work-based learning.

Learners will have the opportunity to engage in a dazzling array of guest lecturers and masterclasses. All courses involve a mixture of practical and theoretical assessment. We also offer a lot of work experience opportunities.