Christopher Barry
“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.”
“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!”
"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!”
“We learn to work with tools such as Pro Tools, 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.”
