Access to Music has established an exciting partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. The College will become the first traditional conservatoire to open up to musicians playing popular music styles.

From September 2008, the Royal Northern will be running the Popular Music Practice (Session Musician) Foundation Degree which has been designed by Access to Music to cater for musicians training for professional session work.

The Royal Northern College of Music is an international conservatoire, with a broad mix of students from many countries. However, they all have one thing in common: they have come to study at the RNCM because they know they will receive a world-class musical education, delivered by a highly committed and professional staff in facilities that cannot be surpassed by any other UK conservatoire.

Snake Davis will share career advice with students studying on the course. Snake the “sax man” is widely known for his solos on tracks such as Lisa Stansfield's Change, M-People's Search For A Hero and Moving On Up and Take That's A Million Love Songs. He has played and recorded with artists ranging from James Brown to Paul McCartney, The Eurythmics to Amy Winehouse – having recorded on more than 400 tracks in recent years for over 60 artists and played live with dozens more.

About the course, Snake says: 'Back in my younger days there was nothing like this! It was generally assumed that if you were outside of classical music you had to sort it out for yourself. Searing rock guitar solos, sensitive sax fills, just how to make that rhythm section groove like they were joined at the hip, those things couldn’t be taught. Nonsense!'

'The business side of music was a dark mysterious impenetrable black hole, no advice was to be had. I slipped and fell a few times. I was lucky, I somehow eventually made sense of it all, figured it out and landed on my feet, not without making many mistakes along the way though.'

'I firmly believe that this stuff can be taught, and that all musicians going into the music business should receive business advice. Therefore I whole-heartedly applaud and welcome the arrival of this course.'

For more details and to apply visit click here