Welcome to Music Technology A Level at Reigate College.
We look forward to welcoming you to our vibrant department staffed by teachers and technicians who continue to work in professional roles in the music and recording industries and featuring four fully-featured recording studios equipped with pro-level equipment and acoustic treatment. If you want to learn how to write, record and produce records, you’re in the right place.
Due to high demand for the limited places on the course and the range of musical and technical demands, we have an audition process in place to qualify you to study Music Technology A level at Reigate, including an instrumental audition and a music theory test. If you would like to study A Level Music Technology but have not yet organised an audition, please contact admissions@reigate.ac.uk.
TO SUBMIT AUDITION OR OTHER FILES PLEASE USE THE ‘Music Tech’ LINK BELOW.
Music Tech
Please email Head of Music john.evans@reigate.ac.uk if you have any queries.
On the course you will be learning how to use industry standard Logic Pro X music production software, and we start from the basics at the beginning of the course. You may well have already used similar software at home or on another music course. Getting comfortable using any of these platforms will give you a great springboard when you come to start the Music Tech A Level course. If you find yourself enjoying making music using software then you can be sure enough you’ll enjoy the course!
Some of you may already have access to music software at home. If not, there are a number of excellent options which are totally free, and Soundtrap is the perfect place to start. It’s surprisingly powerful and runs through your computer’s browser – so it will work well on any modern computer. It is really easy and quick to create a SoundTrap account and get started, and there are excellent beginner’s tutorial videos to get you started with writing music and recording mics using the software.
A good first project to get you used to putting chords and notes into music software would be to make your own version of a nursery rhyme. You can use any software you like which allows you to draw or play in notes, and you can use any instruments that you find in the software. As long as the notes and chords are correct, you can choose instruments to make it sound as weird and wonderful as you like! We will look forward to hearing everyone’s creations in the autumn.
To succeed in music tech you will need to be comfortable with the essentials of music theory, just as much as with any other music course. You will need to interpret chord sheets and scores, work with keys, scales and rhythm, and communicate with your fellow musicians in order to collaborate, right from the beginning of the course. GCSE Music is highly recommended, but if you feel your music theory ability could do with some work then there are some excellent free online resources:
ToneGym is an online music theory course with superb free resources to boost your learning.
- In the ‘School’ section of the website there is a ‘Music Theory Basics’ course to help you with the foundations of music theory
- In the ‘Gym’ section there are listening exercise games where you can attune yourself to the sound of different note intervals, chords and chord sequences, scales, pitches and rhythms.
Duolingo is best known as a platform for learning languages, but have also launched a music theory course which will turn learning and practicing music theory into a fun and challenging game.
Ableton – Learning Synths
This is a fully interactive website which allows you to explore the techniques used to shape sounds in synthesisers, right from the most basic concepts of generating basic electronic tones, to the techniques used to shape those sounds into fascinating musical textures. These are all concepts we will cover in depth on the course and that you will be assessed on – this website is easy to dive into to give you an idea of what to expect, and start to get a feel for how we will think and talk about manipulating sound. And one thing you can definitely expect is: a lot of weird noises.
Head of Music
