Did you know that the harmonica is the most popular instruments in the world, one of the oldest and one of the most diverse? China, the United States and Hong Kong already have professors in the instrument, but there were no students of the harmonica in the UK at all until mature student Steve Lockwood came to study at APU.
After years of singing vocals and playing the harmonica in a variety of bands (contributing to over 30 albums) Steve felt that he had accomplished as much as was possible with self-teaching, the time had come to make the jump from touring musician to academic. Amazingly and with the help of private lessons from Ken Ford Powell, during the first 3 months of his degree he reached grade 5 theory, having never read music before. Steve says that his BA Hons "Introduced me to the world of classical music, technology and music production. It opened up a whole new level of communication in music for me." He says of his degree "I financed myself through the course and my degree has brought me huge returns".
You may not think that you've yet heard Steve play, but his current work includes a diverse variety of performance and songwriting for TV and Radio ranging from supporting Jools Holland to familiar adverts, reworking the soundtrack to the film, ‘The Italian Job’ to training a contestant for Stars in their Eyes! In addition he has been asked to contribute to a wide variety of albums, including blues, folk, traditional, classical and even dance music. Although he spends a great deal of time playing all over the world, Steve hopes to study for an MA in Performance at APU next.
Whilst studying for his degree, Steve obtained full sponsorship for the provision of his instruments, a great help for a self-financing student using more than 60 instruments a year! Steve says of the music department "Paul Jackson and all the team offered me tremendous support during my degree". The music department worked with Steve to obtain lecturing from 3 times world champion and president of the American Harmonica Association, Douglas Tate along with Brendan Power (from Riverdance). Steve’s degree also brought old maestro Larry Adler to play at the Mumford Theatre, though we are still wishing for a visit from the subject of his dissertation, Stevie Wonder!
Steve with Larry Adler
Steve is currently teaching at Cambridge Regional College and working with APU to develop new modules, including Studio Performance Skills.
Spring Issue 2001
THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE FROM
A N G L I A P O L Y T E C H N I C U N I V E R S I T Y
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