Christopher is On Song Thanks to SERC Courses

Christopher Barry, from Newtownards, is determined to pursue his passion and work in the music industry, and he says his five-year career at SERC has set him on the right path.  Christopher, who is 21, says he has developed personally and professionally as he has progressed through SERC from further to higher education. He says, 

“I left school and went to SERC Newtownards Campus to study essential skills, then went on to the Level 2 Diploma in Music, followed by Level 3 and now I am on the Pearson BTEC HND in Music.

“I chose SERC at first as it was just a bus ride away from where I lived at the time, in Comber, and I had seen it promoted in the area. My experience at Ards was great, so I was happy to stay with the college and travel to SERC Bangor Campus for my music courses. Moving from Essential Skills to levels 2, 3 and 4 – it’s been smooth and gone so quickly! Stepping up from FE [Level 2 and Level 3 courses] to HE was a good preparation to progress to university – you work a little more independently at each stage of learning. It’s up to you to come into class and learn.” 

Christopher says music has been his passion for a while, having played guitar for four years and started singing about a year ago. He explains, 

“It all started because of The Weekend, when I was doing the essential skills course, I was in love with his song Save your Tears and it made me want to make music like him. I realised I had to start with a first step, so I decided to start learning the guitar and then it has been a passion ever since. I even played at the SERC graduation ceremony at the Waterfront Hall this year, for staff, fellow students and their guests – a few hundred people!” 

Performance is Christopher’s favourite part of the course, but he says all the elements are interesting and feed into one another:  

"Getting together with other musicians, you find they favour different styles, such as metal, singer-songwriter type, pop…you get that big contrast and work together as a band and that’s important, because in the industry, you will need to be able to adapt. You can’t just stay in one genre; you need to learn to work with others.  “We put performances on every so often and it is a good learning curve for everyone. We have annual gigs at Halloween, Christmas and at the end of the year. So far, it’s been on campus, but I think we are starting to branch out to a local bar!” 

The theory element of the course has given Christopher the basis to start writing his own material and he has also benefited from the state-of-the-art facilities available at SERC: 

“We learn to work with tools such as Pro, and we use software such as Logik, Proto, Ableton - we had to make a house-style track using our own sound effects such as hitting a table, modulating that sound, and creating samples. 

“We also did music for film and tv. We were given a film clip, and we had to write music for it, for other members of the class to perform.   We then recorded it live while the film was playing.  I really got interested in that, so started looking for university courses in film composition and recording.  There is one in Liverpool, that’s what I’m hoping to progress to, though I want to continue writing songs alongside. But as long as I can work with music, I’ll be happy.

"I would recommend SERC as a place to study music; in the past five years I’ve developed as a person and as a musician. SERC as a whole is very supportive - the learning support – the canteen staff, the teachers are lovely. Even when you are doing independent projects, there is a helping hand if you need it. I would encourage anyone to come to SERC.” 

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