Manchester Music Mooch explores music culture in the Oxford Road Corridor.

It's not just a bus-spotters dream...

Oxford Road Corridor (branded as the knowledge quarter) is historically steeped in music and counter-culture, and contains good stuff at every corner: The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, Manchester Poetry Library, and with various venues, bars, shops and theatres dotted along the stretch of road from Rusholme to Central Library, it's almost a city within a city.

On the corner of Oxford Rd you will find the famous Royal Northern College of Music - one of the world's greatest conservatoires. For over 50 years the RNCM has been attracting some of the greatest young musicians from around the globe and helping them hone their art.

Does RNCM deserve to be called a 'grassroots' music establishment? We think so, and multi-million shifting local songwriter and all-round good lad JP Cooper agrees...

RNCM's Collection of Historic Musical Instruments

Below the pavements of Oxford Rd. lies an incredible subterranean museum of instruments, musical ephemera and, errr... body parts.

RNCM's Body Parts Explained

It's not under investigation as a murder scene you'll be relieved to know - the body parts are meant to be there. The RNCM collection holds a lock of Felix Mendelssohn's hair, as well as a human thighbone flute, and Chopin's death mask.

Amongst the hundreds of objects, there is also a collection of amazing percussion instruments, of which we have been busy creating digital 3D models for your edutainment, like this work-in-progress, 3D scan of a beautiful goblet drum from the end of the 19th century.

And maybe, if you download the Manchester Music Mooch app and hit the trail, you will get a chance to play the goblet drum and other instruments from the RNCM collection, using digital magicary (is that a word?). Who knows?

Anyway, have a look here to know more.