Course Summary
We believe we’ve designed the ideal course for any performer, songwriter or composer who wants to work in music. There’s room for everyone with creative ideas on our course, even if you haven’t gained a formal music qualification. We’re interested in anyone who feels compelled to make music in some way.
We don’t want to dictate your musical path. You’ll tell us where you want your music to take you. Then our teachers – all producers, composers, theorists and performers themselves – will help you find your way there.
We’ll develop your specialist skills in music production, songwriting, performance and sound design. We’ll give you the facilities and equipment to create with and the stages to perform on, and we’ll underpin all this with a thorough examination of the history, culture and business of music.
Not only will we equip you to land a music industry job, we think you may just end up being the job!
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
To us, music is a broad church. It could mean the creation of a top-40 pop song, an experimental sound installation at Tate Modern or a viral track online. So we’ll offer you a broad spectrum of studies, too.
In your first year, you’ll learn basic skills in areas such as musical arrangements and solo and group performance. You’ll become more professional about your music.
In your second year, you‘ll pursue your own identity as a songwriter or performer. You’ll also think more about how you’re going to produce your music.
Over the three years, your theoretical studies will include music history, investigations into how technology affects the composition and consumption of music and explorations into how sound connects with the body.
By the third year, you’ll bring all your knowledge together to fashion a professional portfolio in your chosen field ready to present to the music world.
HOW YOU'LL LEARN
You'll be taught by a range of staff, all of whom are practitioners in the area they teach. The majority of the assessments focus on practical skills and are presented as ‘live or simulated briefs’. This ensures that the practice-led teaching is relevant to industry and practice. Our staff are well placed to take advantage of a range of professional networks and industry contacts. Each module is designed with practical components and a reflective component, with the intention that students develop an ability to comment on and justify their creative process.
When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, specialist music facilities, such as edit suites, rehearsal rooms, the equipment store, the library, full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.
Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas – including learning and disability support.
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.
Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.
The approximate percentages for this course are:
Year 1: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 2: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 3: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 30 plus students a year. Lecture sizes are normally 30 students.
In parctical work you will be taught in groups of 4 or 5 students. However, this can vary by academic year.
Who will teach on this course
Yumi Hara Cawkwell, Guy Harries, Helen Reddington, Tim Lawrence, Sonke Prigge, Jeremy Gilbert, Steve Betts
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.
YOUR FUTURE CAREER
Our course is designed to turn our students into highly employable modern music professionals. The pathways that lead from our course into the industry are varied and stimulating.
You could forge a career in contemporary or experimental music. Or you could choose to stay in the pop world. Or write film soundtracks. You could end up composing music for computer games.
Anything would appear possible when you consider the range of careers that just a small cross-section of our students gone into since leaving us.
Some go into the recording business, like Joe Power and Stephen Peeling, who are signed up to an independent record label with the post-rock band, Codes in the Clouds.
While some graduates go on to work as music producers, sound designers and DJs, others opt for the business side of the industry in areas such as music journalism and music teaching.
Others choose to continue their studies, like Tomas Peckys, who’s doing a PhD in Lithuanian dance culture.
One of our alumni now even boasts a double musical life. By day, Phoebe Osborne is a music teacher but she moonlights as a singer-songwriter for the alternative folk band, Penniless Cove.
You see, we can help give you the best of both worlds.
Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal
How you'll be assessed
To fit the particular nature of this course, all assessment is carried out through coursework. There are no exams.
Professional practice, innovation, enterprise and engagement will be modelled and applied in live projects and assessed through the development of an online creative portfolio. Each piece of coursework will be presented as a digital portfolio.
Students with disabilities and/or particular learning needs should discuss assessments with the Course Leader to ensure they are able to fully engage with all assessment within the course.
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