Popular Music Performance and Songwriting BA (Hons)

Course overview

This is a practice-based, ‘outward-facing’ course that seeks to prepare you to be versatile, flexible and adaptable within the 21st century music industry.

• We are looking to create critically astute musicians who are confident performers and songwriters, working with today’s technologies to make, reproduce, and disseminate music, and who understand the different income streams available to them in the profession.

Why you should study this course

• Focus on creative-based music skills in performance and songwriting in a vibrant and creative environment which gives you access to professional practices, new research and outstanding graduate support.
• Engage with a range of technology in the creation, performance and recording of music, including recording studios and live performance. Develop your own personal website which by the later stages of the course, is intended to be a professional-looking, outward-facing website that demonstrates the breadth of your learning and professional experience.
• Visiting masterclasses are embedded within the course and have included: Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi, singer/songwriter Emma McGann, guitarist John Connearn, award-winning gospel vocalist Lurine Cato, the Ben Holder Jazz Trio, award winning gypsy-jazz guitarist Remi Harris, songwriter Hannah Wilson, Orchestra of the Swan and jazz keyboardist and music production composer, Andy Quinn. Masterclass visitors are subject to availability and may change each year.
• There are opportunities to showcase your performing and songwriting talent in a public context throughout your studies. On-site performance spaces include a large room with two grand pianos which is suitable for small recitals, and The Hub’s Square One, a large performance space kitted out with PA, amplifiers, drums and a grand piano⁴. You may have the opportunity to perform in one of the city's live music venues (subject to availability), which has previously included: Studio 54, The Herbert Art Gallery, Kasbah, The Phoenix, The Cross, Drapers, The Cottage, The Tin, The Litten Tree, Ego Arts and Nexus.
• You will have access to our extensive specialist facilities⁴ such as our music seminar room which houses a grand piano, PA, amplifiers, a drum kit and a 5.1 surround sound system directly linked to a control room for recording. Other facilities include music practice rooms with pianos, drums and PA, three band rooms, a 5.1 studio and live room, instrument storage, an iMac music tech suite and modern recording studios where you can access Pro Tools, Logic, Live, Max and Sibelius on Apple macs.

Careers and opportunities

On successful completion of this course you will be able to:

• demonstrate a professional approach to music making in the areas of performance, songwriting and music production in an international context
• evaluate and utilise established and experimental approaches to music-making within an international context
• demonstrate professional competence in a variety of performance, music-creation, re-creation, and presentation modes and contexts, both conventional and unconventional
• apply analytical, reflective and critical skills to the evaluation of your own work, and to that of others in the global music industry
• manage your own professional development and profile in the music industry
• demonstrate that you are an enterprising, creative, innovative, and flexible practitioner, able to work with diverse communities within a global context
• work in a professional manner so you can effectively function in a range of roles and responsibilities.

There is a strong emphasis within the course on future career paths. This is to help you explore what your chosen career path might be while developing a professional level of business skills and knowledge.

Having developed a broad range of skills and knowledge across the spectrum of music performance and songwriting, this degree prepares you to carve an exciting career in a dynamic and creative industry, where passion meets profession. Our students have gone on to successful careers as performers, sound designers, composers and lyricists across the spectrum of the performance industry. Imagine the possibilities...