Hi,

I hope I have posted this in the right place, but i not I apologize to the moderators.

I am a classically trained pianist and have recently begun to setup a home recording studio. I am currently coposing with a iew to go into film scoring / writing jingles / backing / etc...

Is there any school or college that is recognised that anyone could recommend in the UK? I came across the following but would like to investigate other options too:

www.londonschoolofsound.com (this one looks good in terms of its program for music production etc, but its price tag is very high)

www.musicforthemedia.com (this is more of a correpsondence course for more experienced music programmers)

I dont wan to study a music degree, but would specifically like to go into a two year (recognised) degree or diploma course in music production / film scoring

Any advice,

Many THanks

Bournemouth or Southampton Uni
or go to Berklee in Boston, US.
or USC in California -

Practice by composing music to clips from films, get in touch with whatever film community that's close to you and offer your services for free.

Ok, first thing's first.

A 2 year degree is not exactly a university degree, and I doubt if it's recognised anywhere as a degree. Bachelors are 3 years, or 4 with honours, Masters are 1 year full time, or 2 years part time and PhD go further. Diplomas, etc, are less but are not university degrees!

London School of sound offers 1 and 2 year programs, so they are NOT uni degrees!
The other one is an online course!

From my experience, most usually degrees don't matter in the film/computer games/media business and industry! You won't get a gig because "you have a degree". If this was so, I would have the bigest gigs with a PhD almost in my hands! Sadly it's not so. (It may help however to show how dedicated, etc, you are).

Regardless of the above.

What exactly are you looking for from a school for media? I do think that everything taught in such a school (except the music part, and without wanting to seem offending anyone) can be self taught, with the help of the Internet, etc.

The two main parts are:

I. Midi. since you get the tools you need at your home (I can help with suggestions if you want, I do this all the time for other people, when they ask), you can actually go down, get dirty (no pun intended ) and see for yourself. It's not immensly difficult to start making your first mock-ups. And most sample libraries have whole projects released, tutorials, official help, forums, etc where you can get help! You don't really need anyone to teach you a program! You can just sit down and try your best! Or ask questions. If it is Cubase, I can answer them, if not... I probably can't exactly! :p etc...
II. Scoring for picture. There are 1000s literally public domain clips, animation shorts, ads, etc online. Find them and start working on them. Then post here! If you buy VSL products, VSL has their own forum. Pianoteq, their own forum, EW their own forum. All forums have "listening rooms", where you post your work and people provide feedback. Pick up and learn then! As Chris mentiones get in touch with your local schools. In royal holloway, university of London, where I studied, when I approached the departement of media, I got 10s of mails wanting to work with me... We were 4 composers in the MMus and 20 in the Masters in media, or whatever it's called! Just find people to work with!