UK: HARMONICA PLAYER BECOMES HEAD OF MUSIC AT CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE

Record ID: 636423

  • Title: UK: HARMONICA PLAYER BECOMES HEAD OF MUSIC AT CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE
  • Date: 12th September 2002
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARDING TALKING ABOUT BEING A PROFESSIONAL DIDGERIEDOO PLAYER SAYING, "There's not many of us and there is work, it;s good stuff, I do performances for corporate work. I do workshops, I teach young adults with learning difficulties, I do private lessons, I'll even sit outside shops and play if you'll pay me."
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAMBRIDGE, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Education
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NJL5AOQ17UFTNFD3VE9LAZG0
  • Story Text: A professional harmonica player has started a new career as head of music at a Cambridge College. He is teaching a course intended to help rock and pop musicians survive in a cutthroat industry.
    Not exactly the average College head of department, Steven Lockwood, a multi-instrumentalist and specialist harmonica player has been a professional session musician for two decades, recording 37 albums, touring the world and running his own record label in that time. But now he has a second string to his bow. While still recording and performing he has taken on the job of running a full-time popular music course in Cambridge. The two year Higher National Diploma course at Cambridge Regional College is attracting students from all over the world, including already successful professional musicians. Students can choose the subject modules that interest them, from titles including Production Techniques, Sound Storage Systems, Music for Media and the Music Business.
    Steve says he pushes students to learn about the industry they want to work in. his goal is to train the to a standard that ensures they will be employed in the area of music that they want to work in. he rejects the idea that "showbiz" can not be treated in the same way as a career in engineering.
    "What part of it is showbiz? Oh yeah, you get up there and you have got your Pop Idols and your Rivals, now that's your showbiz. here we're talking about honest working musicians going out there and doing a job, working for the BBC or whoever they may be working for, they are much more likely to get a job straight away from leaving here."
    Some students currently on the course have contracts to write music for television advertisments. while another is working on his third album. Mark Russell, drummer with the band "Horace X" says he hopes the course changes the way people think about studying music.
    "I certainly hope so, It's about thirty years out of date, really the music establishment is perhaps maybe two centuries behind. It is well timed for this sort of thing to come to the fore I think."
    Another student is managing to earn a living with a much less popular instrument, Tom Harding played the congos in the student jam session, but is a professional didgeriedoo player.
    "There's not many of us and there is work, it;s good stuff, I do performances for corporate work. I do workshops, I teach young adults with learning difficulties, I do private lessons, I'll even sit outside shops and play if you'll pay me."
    And shops have paid for the privilege. his party trick is to create a didgeriedoo with his hands - much easier to carry around he says."
    An important part of preparing a musician for the industry is advice on the pitfalls of contract negotiations, something the tutors have first hand experience of .
    "There is an awful lot of people out there trying to make that extra 5 percent, that extra 10 percent and we are wary of that and we won't let our students make the same mistakes as some of us have made in the past." says Steve.
    The harmonic player says he understands some students might question his qualification to teach people about the international music industry.
    "What usually happens is as soon as I give them a lecture on the do's and dont's of international touring they think ah, yes, he does know what he is talking about."
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