David Shingler's Stream of Consciousness

The 26th January 2019 was the first day of five years, five months and 28 days of doing something that I should have done twenty-two years ago. It was the first day that work commenced on a feet first decision that I made just a few short months earlier, the decision to obtain a music degree.

For context – I finished school in the year 2000 with ten GCSE’s at grades A to C with one of them being an A in music. I was all set to go on to sixth form to study music at AS-Level (back when an AS-Level was coupled with an A-Level) but I ran into the roadblock that I imagine so many people back then ran into….. the lecturer telling me I simply would not be good enough and I wouldn’t be accepted on his course as I couldn’t read music and wasn’t classically trained. No other options were given, no advice, no help on what I could do to stand a chance of meeting the criteria. Just a plain and simple no. As luck would have it I had the support of teaching staff at my school and my headmistress who showed me an alternative. I was able to continue in music education but never really shook the feeling of not being good enough and after four years of scraping my way through a BTEC ND and HND (purely through lack of effort) my music education days were over along with the thought of ever using that HND as a stepping stone to get a music degree.

Roll on 14 years and a change in circumstances, along with an over ambitious mind and the urge to change my path in life, I started to look into studying once again. The obvious and pretty much only choice was The Open University. I wasn’t in a situation to study full time in a bricks and mortar university so distance learning seemed like not only the best option, but the only option. I had about four weeks to enrol and sort out funding, but I did it!

I instantly had a huge sense of being in over my head when all the course materials landed. You see, the first module in an arts and humanities degree with the OU is exactly that, arts and humanities! You sign up for Music but find yourself studying English, History, Art, Art History, Religion, Philosophy…… the list goes on. You do get a choice of modules in the second year but they recommend continuing on the arts and humanities path. For me, the entirety of level one was a jumbled up mix of several subjects and once I’d settled down I really got into it, almost to the point of changing my subject! I didn’t think I would be able to write academically or get my head around course materials but I had a couple of great tutors over level one which gave me a solid foundation to take into the core subject of my degree.

Music started at level two and over the course of four years/modules focused on theory, science, social and historical context and music making. Level two was great. I was learning as I went along as I didn’t have the advantage of having a solid foundation of music theory like some of my peers and had never dived into the science behind music. I found it all fascinating and worked along side some great students, bouncing ideas and questions off each other in tutor group forums which helped along the way. Level three was a different story. I really despised my first module at this level. I just couldn’t get into the course materials and felt like I wasn’t learning anything about music, just how to write essays and pass assignments. It got to the point where I had simply lost all motivation by the time it came to the exam, didn’t revise and scraped through it. I was lucky to have achieved excellent marks for my assignments meaning my exam didn’t affect the overall module result.

For the music making module we transferred over to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Just as I was really comfortable with how OU learning worked, I had to start over with a new system. I got used to it though but unfortunately my lack of motivation from the previous module had followed me into this one. There were so many times when I could have dropped out and really wanted to but I was on the final stretch. Luckily I had the support of my fellow students in a WhatsApp group that I should have joined years earlier! The residential (see my earlier blog here) was a game changer, life saver and gave me a new lease of life.

So here I am, all modules finished and roughly twenty-six hours away from officially graduating from The Open University. My classification has been awarded and I have accepted it. I’ve been invited to book a place at a graduation ceremony and my certificate will be with me in around six weeks. So what is the point of writing this all down? I guess it’s just to say that it’s never too late. On reflection, maybe I wasn’t ready for A-Level music when I was 16, maybe he was right, maybe this is exactly what I needed. Life turned out pretty well so I can’t complain. But for others it may have been different. I was blessed and still am blessed with an amazing support circle but others are not as fortunate. Would I recommend the OU to others? Most definitely. And no matter how you feel you must never give up. You can do it. It can get really hard and sometimes it feels like too much but you will come out of it the other end if you just keep swimming and my goodness, you will feel so proud of yourself.

One final thing – thank you. Thank you to everyone that has helped and supported me through this whole journey. The old friends that kept me going, the new friends I’ve made, tutors past and present, you’ve all been amazing.

David Shingler – BA (Hons) Music (Open)

(That will be the first and only time I put that after my name. It’s so pretentious!!)

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash