My Experience: Studying by distance learning

I took part in the course from 2015 to 2017 and learnt so much! The course content had the right balance of in-depth focus and broad overview, giving me a good sense of the discipline. In particular, I very much enjoyed the course about 'music in everyday life'. For me, this is a very important area and the area of research that is relevant to big swathes of the global population (professional musicians, by contrast, being relatively small in number).

Coming from a non-professional musician background, and considering that statistics indicate that the average Spotify account holder listens for 2.5 hours a day, I was particularly interested in the relationship between music listening and everyday life.

Distance learning worked really well for me. I was working full time in London when I started the course and then halfway through the course, I moved to Amsterdam. Travelling to Sheffield every week for the on-site course would have been impossible and I couldn't relocate due to work commitments.

Doing the course was a huge confidence boost, especially after coming back to studying after a 15-year break.

The residential gave me an opportunity to build relationships with colleagues on the course and we then supported each other during the term time on the online learning and coursework. I'm still in touch with several friends I made during the course.