A very creative college, full of artistic development, innovative and a great environment to be a part of. My experience so far has been great and I would recommend this college.

Facilities are good though more room availability would be great. I would suggest having dedicated teaching rooms to free up space for practice rooms, at the moment they are integrated and it’s hard to find rooms for your own practice when half of them are taken up by teachers during the day. We are the only all Steinway conservatoire in the UK – though bear in mind that most of these are only designed by Steinway and not produced by them!

There is lots of support provided: counselling and finance help is definitely provided.

Do we have a students’ union?! I guess this proves that they have not really made much of a presence in the college which is disappointing.

There are superb places to go drink and see live music.

There is a lot of artistic development in LCM because of the creative practitioners who work one-to-one with you on your individual, creative needs. The teaching is first-rate as the tutors themselves are well established jazz and classical musicians. They are all so experienced so you can really tap-in on their knowledge. You are not just restricted to one teacher, you get such a varied range of teachers and you have access to all of them. There are also people who visit LCM from the States and Europe who come and do masterclasses with us. I would say the teaching is second to none.

The chances of getting a job are really difficult, but that’s what being a musician is like.

My experience at university so far has been very profitable for me as a musician and I have learnt a lot about being a better performer. I have become more professional and more capable on my instrument. In short I have improved a lot as a musician and I have become far more self-reliant and hope to keep improving. Studying in Leeds at Leeds college of music has been one of the best decisions I have made and I would recommend any amateur musician to come here and study music.

Very good university facilities for me as a pianist as there are plenty of good quality pianos and some grand piano rooms that can be booked out for use. The university would benefit from expanding the amount of rooms available as during the day it gets very busy and unless you book a room every day you often can’t get one. The university is often expanding and improving however and the whole entrance is currently being renovated.

There is plenty of support for things such as stress and anxiety and I know that they have been very helpful to lot of student. However, I have not as of yet required any help from student support. The lecturers and stuff at the university are very approachable as well and they are all willing to help. It is easy to email any of your lecturers any questions you have using the college email on Space.

I know nothing about this area which means they need to do a better job of publicising their presence as a student body.

The night life in Leeds is very expansive and varied and the clubs and bars have a lot of different music depending on your taste. I have not had a problem finding nice places to go and I have family members and friends studying outside of Leeds who come to Leeds to visit me and also love the night life in the City.

I have not joined any societies but I have joined several extra-curricular bands out of university lecture hours and also big bands and more recently a musical direction band that play for the students to direct. These are all excellent things to be a part of and provide good experience for me as a performer.

I think that the course that I am on is extremely useful for me as a musician as I have already learnt so much more about music generally and the theory of jazz harmony and jazz improvisation. This mainly stems from the excellent teaching given in the one to one lessons on your instrument (piano) and in the musicianship theory lessons. I wouldn’t say that anything needs to be changed about the course as it is very well balanced and teaches every aspect of music theory and performance and helps you to become the best performing musician you can be. You are pushed very hard on the course and the lectures help you to strive for perfection.

The university promotes a lot of jam nights and encourages nights where students can get up and play at venues such as sela bar. These provide excellent experience for jazz players and the university also regular email you with opportunities to play as a musician or more frequently as part of a band and earn some money playing your instrument.

My current student accommodation is not very good value but it is one of the nicest accommodations to live in in the city of Leeds and it is very well situated. This means that it is quite expensive and I had to pay a lot less last year to live in a much nicer place in a large house as opposed to halls but I had to travel 30 minutes every day to and from university which quickly became an annoyance. Next year I will be living with course mates and so it should be the best of the three year course in terms of accommodation.