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#ImproveYourSoundOutput is the hashtag we’re using for this Summer’s set of blog posts about YSJ Music Production. We’re hoping that those students who have accepted their UCAS place with us, can learn about SoundOutput.co.uk and through these blog posts learn more about what their first year will be like with us, but also what it’s like to be a student with us. We hope some of you who might still be deciding might choose us too…

Not all Music Production Courses are the same!

    • A difference? Some courses will have modules that are all self-contained and may not have much interactivity. That’s not the case at YSJ Music Production. Every module feeds into the main portfolio every student works towards all year. The learning for these portfolios take place through weekly supervisions:
    • Supervisions – students receive weekly supervision sessions in small groups where their music is scrutinised and used as the teaching material. That level of peer review and interactivity is where the main learning takes place. Consider this akin to mentoring or a form of apprenticeship. This is the truly valuable aspect of YSJ Music Production. Now you might see why we maintain small cohort sizes!
    • Nobody is just a number! Small is beautiful. We know all our students by name, and not just that, we have the ability to understand their musical identities, personas and plans for the future. Knowing this allows us to tailor their learning experience and assist them to building their musical or business profiles (depending on which flavour of course you’re on).
    • Approachable – because we’re small, the lecturing and support staff are equally approachable and happy to build discussions with students about their practice. This has been centred around the Microsoft Teams platform this past year or so, and we look forward to getting into Wilmott (our building) and have impromptu chats about new gear and techniques in the corridors and studios once more. We hope that’s September 2021 (but don’t quote us!).
    • Creative Business is integrated. We’ve been integrating (not just a separate module here and there) creative business into all our programmes since 2010. Students engage in business generation concepts and practice from week 1 of the first year. Students are encouraged to understand the wealth of options available to them (as discussed a little here in a previous p
      1st Year  Students (during Pandemic) working with external artist Heather Findlay on a pop release project

      1st Year Students (during Pandemic) working with external artist Heather Findlay on a pop release project

      ost) whether that be employment, self-employment, or what we commonly call a portfolio career. Many current students and graduates set up businesses and not always in audio either – here are a few examples. Commuter Films (Luke and Adam) / Mantality Magazine (Dom Smith) / Faith Benson Productions (Faith pictured at Abbey Road above)
    • Experience the real world – needless to say, many parents ask us whether we offer sandwich years or ‘work experience’. We respond no! There’s a good reason for this. Sandwich years are difficult to arrange, and we cannot be sure of the learning students will experience. Equally work experience (that idea of a week or two somewhere), will just be ‘making tea’ in the studio or similar. What do we do? Well we first bring the industry in with our annual Industry Day Conference, but also each year group gets to work with several external professionals, but producing music for them or with them (and not just a simple guest lecture – although we do tons of those too!).
    • Abbey Road! Sorry to this year’s graduates. Due to the pandemic we were not able to continue our decade-long annual residency in Studio 2 at Abbey Road (we are hoping to make it up to them when it goes). But once the pandemic is over, we hope to resume this, so that every third year student works in the studio on a project like Smoke Rainbows with Help Musicians UK and our partner Karousel Music
    • Options aplenty! – we might not have
      3rd Year Students recording in Abbey Road Studio 2

      3rd Year Students recording in Abbey Road Studio 2.

       a vast amount of what are known as option modules to choose from, we do have a large amount of flexibility built in to the modules and assessments to allow students to specialise as they proceed through their time with us.
    • Fun – Lastly it would be wrong not to suggest why you should really join YSJ Music Production. Fun, yes fun! We make the learning fun, enjoyable, interactive. Remove any notions of hundreds of people in a lecture theatre without the ability to talk, interact and engage with peers and teaching staff. Our sessions are interactive, workshop-like in the main and learning is done through exciting and innovative methods that work.

Join us for an Open Day soon or contact us – [email protected]