BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship

You’ll work to industry-relevant stylistic briefs during this module, composing and performing collaboratively with other musicians. This will develop your ability to compose and arrange original music, perform in a live professional environment, collaborate, understand genre conventions and how they can be manipulated/reimagined for contemporary audiences. You’ll also be able to apply the skills gained from your other modules, thus reinforcing and expanding your skillset.

This module explores a range of creative processes, both collaborative and independent. You’ll learn how to develop and articulate your creative consciousness, understand how your own creativity fits into a wider intellectual, academic, and music industry context, and create ongoing works in progress. As there are no “mistakes” in creativity, you’ll be free to push beyond your comfort zone and learn from your experiments. You’ll also be able to share your works with peers and tutors, and reflect upon your discoveries.

In conjunction with Exploring Creativity, this module will show you how to capture and develop creative ideas using a range of professional tools and methods. You’ll also learn how to construct melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns while exploring structural forms, considering how those forms relate to the content of musical works, and producing your own portfolio of original material.

This module will cover theoretical and practical approaches and strategies you can use when making music. You’ll look at compositional components, technical and creative writing methods, technique (and how it informs your creative practice), and the application of theoretical concepts within a practical context. By learning to integrate musical language and technique into your own creative process, you’ll become a highly effective and authoritative musician.

The music industry contains three main interconnected sectors (recorded music, live music, and publishing). This module explores the above in detail, including revenue streams, artist management, A&R, marketing, promotion, sales, distribution, copyright, royalties, collection societies, membership organisations and trade bodies. By understanding these key areas alongside current industry practices, the evolution of the music business, and predicted future developments, you will be able to develop a durable, long-term portfolio career.

In order to increase your collaborative confidence, you will apply your understanding of styles and genres to broader, more conceptual industry-relevant briefs, and learn to justify your creative choices. As well as covering composition, arrangement, the application/manipulation of musical conventions, collaboration, developing your “voice” as a musician, and individual and group performances, this module also explores performance technology and lighting/video – allowing you to apply the skills you’ve developed through other modules to new challenges.

During this module, you’ll learn to further develop and articulate your creative process, enhance your critical listening and mixing skills, and incorporate non-musical ideals into your process. This will enable you to place your creative process within a wider music industry context, discern links between process and outcome, and integrate theoretical processes into your own practice.

Building on the topics covered in Creative Application, you’ll develop your production skills and learn how to turn your ideas into completed tracks. This module covers editing (and its relation to the creative process), mixing, mastering, analysis, ear training, critical listening, studio orchestration, and how to justify your production choices.

This module covers an advanced range of practical, conceptual, and theoretical approaches to music-making. You’ll create a portfolio of original music, explore advanced compositional components, apply music theory in a variety of practical contexts, analyse your musical ideas, and enhance your ability to make decisions during the compositional process. You’ll also be able to effectively communicate musical ideas through writing, in the form of an essay.

Success as a freelance musician depends on your ability to sell yourself and your services. With that in mind, this module covers fundamental marketing principles, traditional marketing theories, and contemporary marketing approaches and tools. This includes branding, advertising, promotion, pricing, distribution, PR, positioning, consumer behaviour, social media, competition, innovation, audience-building, viral marketing, building an online presence, market research, analysis, and product development and life cycles. At the end of this module, you’ll develop a fully assessed marketing plan.

During this module, you will develop your creative and commercial skills to the professional standards required to plan, develop, and manage a convincing and cohesive catalogue of original works. Topics covered include songwriting, composition, setting and developing your creative direction, critical reflection and discussion, A&R practices, and academic, commercial, and cultural frames of reference. You will be assessed using a portfolio of original music, and a critical commentary that places your work in an appropriate context.

Using the skills you’ve developed throughout the Creative Musicianship programme, you’ll identify and plan a career-focused project of your own, and complete it to a professional standard. To do this, you’ll study collaborative practices, planning and pitching skills, project management, research methodologies, and how the relevance, influence, and impact of your project relates to its audience and wider context. Module assessment will involve a 12-minute project pitch, and the creation of a full project portfolio.

An understanding of key entrepreneurial concepts, principles, and strategies is essential for success in music. These include research, analysis, evaluation, ideation, strategy, creating and communicating value, distribution channels, business models, marketing concepts, and successfully acquiring funding and other resources. This module covers all of the above, culminating in the presentation and assessment of a “real-world” business pitch to a potential backer/investor.

You will design, structure, and execute the process of launching a new creative industry business during this module. This will involve writing a fully assessed business plan, and exploring legal considerations, ethics, ownership structures, intellectual property, time management, industry regulations, financial planning, funding options, costing and budgets, marketing and implementation strategies, professional presentation, and project management. By developing an advanced understanding of the above, you will be fully prepared to launch your own creative business.