Paul McCartney says he believes that study courses cannot create great musicians. He also states that popular college music study courses with a focus on The Beatles are "ridiculous, and yet very flattering."

While taking part in a Q&A via his official website, McCartney responded to a query from a student studying for an MA in Popular Music who had asked how he felt about the existence of such courses, according to NME. 

"For me it's ridiculous, and yet very flattering," responded McCartney. "Ridiculous because we [The Beatles] never studied anything, we just loved our popular music: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, etc. And it wasn't a case of 'studying' it. I think for us, we'd have felt it would have ruined it to study it.

"We wanted to make our own minds up just by listening to it. So our study was listening. But to be told - as I was years ago now - that The Beatles were in my kid's history books? That was like 'What?! Unbelievable, man!' Can you imagine when we were at school, finding yourself in a history book?!"

The 72-year-old singer-songwriter went on to note that he doesn't believe studying popular music can make a person a great or popular musician.

"To think that you can go to a college and come out like Bob Dylan? Someone like Bob Dylan, you can't make."