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The Confident Musicianing Podcast
How To Write A Standout UCAS Personal Statement For Music School
It's happening... we are reading my UCAS personal statement that got me into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Join me as we reflect on my personal statement and I show you how you can make yours stand out.
This episode is available as a blog post. Click here to read.
Writing a personal statement? Make sure you are ready for your auditions! Get your copy of The Confident Musician's Audition Guide by clicking here!
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I said, I read this book, I learned this thing, and now it has changed this specific aspect of my playing. Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I'm your host, eleanor, and after countless practice sessions, a ton of broken reeds and seven different music school acceptances in three different countries, I have learned a thing or two about savoring your practicing. I have learned a thing or two about savoring your practicing, becoming your best practice companion and actively working towards your musical goals, and I want to share this with you because I want you to become your best musical self. Are you with me on this? Let's get started. Hello and welcome back to Confident Musicianing.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to be reflecting and reading my personal statement, my UCAS personal statement for music school. Let's get into it. So, for all of you who are applying to music college in the UK, the UCAS personal statement can very much be daunting. So today we are going to be reading mine and analysing what I liked, what I didn't like, what worked, what didn't work, etc. And hopefully that will help you have a bit of inspiration and encouragement when you are writing yours. With this UCAS personal statement, I applied to the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I got into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Speaker 1:So I think, before we kind of dive into the actual personal statement, I just want to say, like the personal statement is about talking about your achievements, talking about the amazing things that you have done, and personally I find that a bit unnatural. I feel like you know, I think you probably agree with this kind of having your personal statement be like oh yes, I did this and I did this and I'm amazing at this and this really was amazing and etc. Is kind of like I don't want to toot my own horn, but that's exactly what the personal statement is for. I personally am British but I'm also an American, so I have two different cultures and I feel like British. The British culture is to tend to be like to play down your achievements and to be a bit humble and not, as you know, out and loud about your achievements. And in America it's more about, you know, talking about your achievements and being comfortable, like selling yourself. And so when I wrote this personal statement, I personally had like two cultures battling against each other. I'm like, should I say this personal statement? I personally had like two cultures battling against each other. I'm like, should I say this or should I not say this? And so I think you know it's important to remember. The personal statement is something to share your achievements, share your accomplishments. It might feel a bit uncomfortable talking about all the things you have done, but that's exactly what it's for. Okay, let's dive in. Communicating what words cannot express drives my dedication to music. It is the rush of performing for others, seeing faces light up in the audience and feeling the shared experience of music that ignites me.
Speaker 1:As a British expat living in the US, I am eager to further my studies in the UK and follow my dream of becoming a professional orchestral oboist. I have played in youth orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, one of the oldest and most advanced youth orchestras in the US. There I have worked with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to gain valuable orchestral performance skills. Valuable orchestral performance skills. Connecting with other musicians has sparked my curiosity in small ensemble playing and led me to join a chamber ensemble coached by a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Working with fellow musicians at this level has enabled me to take initiative with my collaboration skills as well as improve my own playing and individual potential. To further that, I study under Max Blair, the associate principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony, from whom I also learned reed making.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is a bit of a big first paragraph. Let's look at it so off the bat. I have created a story. I'm saying communicating what words cannot express drives my confidence or drives my dedication for music. I'm talking about the things that I find really important. So that is a story basically why I want to do music. I started with something a little more abstract and then after that I went right to the concrete ways that I have done this. So I am saying communicating what words cannot express drives my dedication to music. And then I am talking right into how it drives my dedication. So I am, you know, I played with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony. I study with the Associate Principal Oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Speaker 1:Like all of these things, I took this idea of yes, you know, this is what's important to me and I showed how it's important to me and kind of what I did to have all of these things. So you know what I did with the thing that I find important and in each little reason so, in each thing that I'm like I did this, I did this, I did this. It's not necessarily a laundry list of things that I did. I in between, put how it has helped me grow as a musician. Because if you just like dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk all of the things that necessarily or doesn't necessarily like, I mean it's kind of just a list of things that might be a bit boring, to be honest like, but I put how it has helped me to grow as a musician. So just the reasons weren't necessarily enough. I needed to create the why so. For instance, working with fellow musicians at this level from the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony has enabled me to take initiative with my own collaboration skills as well as improve on my own playing and individual potential. So it shows how and why.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's move on to the next paragraph. The correct resonance has made me reflect on my own tone quality. I integrated his ideas into my own routine to gain more control of my sound and tone overall. So this is kind of going over the top. I'm saying not only am I in orchestras, am I doing this, that and the other, I am also in my own time reading about the topic. Okay, so, and in this this, I put an example from the text and it explained how it concretely affected me. So I didn't just say I read this book. I said I read this book, I learned this thing, and now it has changed this specific aspect of my playing. So with this I have gained a better understanding of how precious a beneficial warmup routine is, and then I put those ideas into my own warm-up routine to gain more control of my sound and tone overall. So I put a like specific thing to show that, yes, I not only read this book, but I took this idea and now it is in my practice.
Speaker 1:Notice as well how I didn't use a direct quote. I know UCAS looks for plagiarism and, to be honest, I don't really know how they look for plagiarism, like what their method is. But I didn't want to risk my personal statement being flagged for that, so I didn't put a direct quote. I just said something that he talked about. I gained a better understanding of how precious the beneficial warm-up routine is, rather than putting quotes in about how he's talking about, how you know precious the beneficial warm-up routine is. So I made sure that that is not necessarily a quote from the book, rather just my impression of it. Okay, let's move on to the next paragraph.
Speaker 1:So I have also expanded my daily practice and readmaking with additional listening Through Eugene Isatov's Sound in Motion. I became increasingly fascinated with how his playful sound captures that of a ballet dancer performing. I pictured a pas de deux between the oboe and the piano and, taking my observation into the practice room, I experimented with making my own sound more delicate, leading me to strategically improve my playing. So this is the whole formula. Again, just like with the reading, I have something, whether that is reading a book or listening to an oboe recording, I was fascinated by one aspect of it. I took it into the practice room and it helped me grow as a musician. So that is really, really important. It's like four steps I look at something, I like, a specific thing about it, and then I take it into the practice room and then it has helped me grow. So that is kind of the formula for these last two paragraphs talking about that.
Speaker 1:So, just looking back on this first part of my personal statement, if you want to, you can get into a youth orchestra, whatever that is, or if you've like done a competition or if you've like done a competition or if you've done you know whatever is auditions, things like that gotten into different groups, even if you start a chamber group with some friends, like literally anything, just to show that you are passionate about this. Because this personal statement is about how you fit with the course and we're talking about music schools. So basically just music. How you fit with the course and we're talking about music schools. So basically just music. How you fit with performing in music. Now, my personal statement is performing. If you were doing a maybe a teaching personal statement, like if you want to become a music teacher, it might look a bit different, but for me it is performing and kind of I wanted to show how I have already put performing into my musical life and how I can take that into a university or, you know, music college situation.
Speaker 1:Okay, the next two sections of my personal statement are quite personal, hence the word personal, so I won't be reading them. But basically I explained how a medical situation made it so that I wasn't able to participate in something, and then I went on to explain how I used this opportunity to create something that gave me even more experience than my first opportunity. So this was kind of something that I worked on. I had a medical reason that I couldn't participate in something, and so, instead of doing that something, I took this opportunity of having time from not doing that something to do something different that I was able to do. But actually it ended up benefiting me in different ways and personally, I felt more valuable than the first opportunity. So that is what is about this In this section.
Speaker 1:I also dropped my Instagram handle and at this point I had been posting practice and performance videos on Instagram, and so the schools, if they wanted to, could look at my Instagram to have an idea of who I am from. That as well, because we all know a 15 minute audition is, I mean, that is your time to shine. But if you really want to show the schools, kind of, who you are, having a portfolio on Instagram is really, really, really helpful for that. Because it is your portfolio, you can literally post things that you want to. So if you have, you know, practice things or audition videos, like I took my audition videos and I just you know, I obviously sent them to the schools, but I also spliced them up and put them on Instagram to help my portfolio. Now, obviously you don't necessarily want to share your Instagram that you know has pictures of you know you with your friends or something like that. This needs to be professional and music focused, but that is something that is really helpful as well. So I definitely recommend just popping an Instagram you know handle in there for your portfolio, because people want to see that.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go to the next paragraph. So I maintained a 4.5 GPA, boosted above the maximum 4.0 by my honours classes. I have performed on the Heinz Hall stage alongside Pittsburgh Symphony musicians through their side-by-side program, solidifying my resolve to study music at a higher level and pursue my dream as a professional oboist. So with this I was talking a bit about school stuff. Now, obviously in the UK they do not have GPA. I went to an American high school, so I have a GPA and that is a grade point average, and so I kind of explained that a bit, because obviously UCAS might not a GPA and that is a grade point average, and so I kind of explained that a bit, because obviously UCAS might not necessarily know what that is and you know the schools might not know. So I said I maintain a 4.5 GPA, boosted above the maximum 4.0 by my honours classes. So if you happen to be someone who did high school in the US and is applying to a UK school, you might want to explain that just a bit so that they understand what that is.
Speaker 1:The next paragraph is as well as pursuing my music at this level, I am a hard-working and well-rounded student. I study four languages seriously and converse easily with my friends in Germany and Japan. Last year, I won a statewide contest sponsored by the Japan America Society of Pennsylvania and Temple University, where I researched, wrote and performed a speech entirely in Japanese. I have accumulated five years worth of school credit hours in my first three years of high school through taking additional classes due to my natural love of learning. Now these paragraphs or this paragraph and the paragraph before are where I talk about academic things. Now I have touched on music. Right, I've told them all about my music, but at the end of the day, this music college is still a school and I want to show them that I am good at being a student. So I talk about my GPA, which we kind of touched on, and then I talk about other things that I have done, like my languages. I am very passionate about languages.
Speaker 1:Languages don't necessarily have much to do with music, although they kind of do if you think about it, but that's something else, um, but I kind of talked about okay, this is what I can do outside of music. I study, I do these things, I enjoy learning and that's kind of what I wanted to talk about. I, I study, I do these things, I enjoy learning and that's kind of what I wanted to talk about. I fit your course because I love music, but I also enjoy learning. My last sentence of the personal statement is I have the drive, curiosity and work ethic to study oboe performance at a higher level. Bam, that is like I was so proud of that sentence. I was like, yes, that was that is the end sentence. The last sentence is to round it all off. It is the final statement of I can do this, I fit your course and you want me like, you want me, um, so that is my personal statement.
Speaker 1:Now, when you are crafting your personal statement, what I personally found was I had a lot more to say than I realized that I did. I didn't, you know. When I started my personal statement, I didn't think oh, I'm going to talk about languages at the end, or I didn't think, oh, I'm going to talk about you know this specific thing or that specific thing. Oh, I'm going to talk about you know this specific thing or that specific thing. So when you are crafting your personal statement, I recommend just starting with a list of all the things that you can do, or all of the things that you have been in, even if they don't necessarily have something to do with music, and then choosing them, because you might not realize the stuff that you have done. It you know it has like you do things and even though, like with my languages, I study, you know these languages and some of them I studied through school, but also some of them I studied on my own time. So if you have something you do on your own time, it might be worth putting that in your statement as well.
Speaker 1:Now you don't want to put too much in your statement, but kind of just think about what are the things that you do, what's, what is the experience that you have and that is really good to kind of think about for your personal statement. The thing is, the personal statement is not necessarily enough alone. Right, we have to write the personal statement. This is a thing for getting into music school in the UK, but you also have to do an audition and through my music school audition process I applied for 12 schools and I auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries. It was a roller coaster ride. I collected strategies for all aspects of my audition and I put it into a guidebook just for you. Because, guess what? You have the confidence inside of you already, already, right now, to achieve all your musical goals that you want, including auditioning, because if you're watching this and you're doing a UCAS personal statement, you probably are going to be doing an audition in the future. So how do you hone that confidence that my friend is with the Confident Musicians Audition Guide.
Speaker 1:In this guide we talk about absolutely everything, including planning your practice, which is chapter one. Working with accompanists, which is covered in chapter three. Getting into the zone in auditions because, let's be honest, that is so important. That's in chapter five. Mental practice in chapter two, setting up mock auditions and actually learning how to audition is in chapter four. Audition nerves is throughout the whole book and there is so much more in this guide. Seriously, this 43 page guide is my baby Like I have worked so hard. I have poured my heart and soul into this to make sure that it is the guide for you for your auditions.
Speaker 1:The audition process might be a short process For music school it is about a few months to a year or so but the effects can be life changing. This is your chance to get into that school you want to, so let's invest in you. I dare you to invest in you and make this your audition season, your confident audition season, because I know that you can do it. Let's get you auditioning with confidence. Check out the show notes for the link to your copy, or visit confidentmusicianingcom. Let's get you auditioning with confidence. Check out the link in the description box below or visit confidentmusicianingcom. Seriously, this guide is something that I've been working on for so long and I'm so excited for you to see it and to use it for your auditions, because this is an amazing time. You are about to go through a really cool process. All right well, I hope that that was helpful for your UCAS personal statement. I hope you're feeling inspired and encouraged to get writing, and I wish you the best in your journey.
Speaker 1:If you are doing auditions, the Confident Musicianing Podcast literally is for you, because we dive into tons of stuff about auditions and, yeah, the audition process is starting, so I hope you have a fun time with it. It is, it is. You know it can be nerve-wracking, but it can be fun and I dare you to find that fun. All right, that's about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. As always, the links will be linked in the show notes from the blog post that goes with this episode all the way to the Confident Musicians Audition Guide. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you give the podcast a follow and I will see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.
