BA (Hons) Music: Interactive Music and Studio Production

This module develops both your individual and ensemble instrumental ability. You will receive weekly one-to-one instrumental tuition from a specialist tutor, focusing on technique and its application across a broad range of repertoire. You will also join one of the many Ensembles within the Directorate, including Popular Music Choir, Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band and Classical Choir.

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This module aims to provide the theoretical foundations for all further areas of study. You will learn to recognise and confidently use fundamental theoretical terms in your work, notate all perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished intervals, and identify and notate a range of basic chords and progressions. The assessment requires you to compose idiomatic music incorporating all these elements. You will also develop your Aural and Transcription skills with focused ear training tuition.

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This module will equip you with the necessary analytical skills, IT skills and research techniques to complete written academic assignments. You will analyse a broad range of musical styles within the Popular, Jazz and Classical idioms. It will provide you with the appropriate reference framework from which to critically evaluate examples of these styles, as well as the use of harmonic and analytical terminology within the discussion of music.

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This module consolidates and expands the instrumental skills developed in semester one, with a continuation of the weekly one-to-one instrumental tuition with your specialist tutor. For your assessed Ensemble activity you will have the option to form your own Popular Music group, or join Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band or Classical Choir.

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This module builds upon the theoretical knowledge from within semester one, introducing more advanced concepts and techniques including extended chord progressions, notation and recognition of diatonic melodic lines, moving bass lines, and complex rhythmic patterns, and SATB scoring. You will also receive further ear training within the Aural and Transcription tuition.

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This module introduces software based solutions for recording and composition. You will learn to notate musical ideas appropriately with respect to instrumentation and genre and to identify appropriate software pathway to communicate musical ideas effectively. You will work with notation, sequencing and recording interfaces and interrogate the relationship between them.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module focuses on your instrumental proficiency, developing your skills across three different assessed activities. Individual Performance consists of weekly one-to-one tuition with a specialist tutor, based upon an instrumental syllabus (pieces, technical exercises and sight reading). The Ensemble component requires you to join either a Latin Percussion group (Rhythmic Awareness), Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band or Classical Choir. Students will also choose an Associated Study, either Session Musicianship (a tutor led group rehearsal focusing on a broad range of Popular Music styles) or Classical Conducting.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module provides core skills and knowledge necessary for composing and arranging music in a variety of styles. You will gain a working knowledge of the key aspects of instrumentation voicing, score layout, formal design and the manipulation of texture. The module also provides an introduction to location recording techniques, appropriate sequencing software, musical acoustics and their relationship to music technology.

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Available in the IMSP and M pathways, this module engenders a sense of history and an awareness of significant cultural epochs and the music associated with them. It relates performance styles, compositional techniques and musicological discourse to particular historical periods.

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Available in the PMR, PM and IMSP pathways, this module provides an overview of the history of English-language popular music and interrogates the concept of genre in popular music. You will develop an understanding of music style analysis and improve your aural skills.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module is a continuation of the work undertaken in Semester 1 Musicianship skills, consisting of Individual Performance (weekly one-to-one instrumental tuition), Ensemble Musicianship, and an Associated Study (either Session Musicianship or Classical Conducting). Within the Ensemble component, you will have the opportunity to form your own Popular Music group (writing and rehearsing original material to be presented at a concert at the end of the semester), or join Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band, or Classical Choir.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module establishes knowledge of advanced diatonic harmony, melodic writing, fundamental musical forms, and practical skills concerned with rhythm as applied to the broad field of composition. You will explore the creative uses of a range of microphones in relation to musical instruments and acoustic environments, and be introduced to techniques of sound synthesis using a range of hardware and software based synthesisers.

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Available in the M and IMSP pathways, this module explores the continual interaction between “art” music and “popular” music. It demonstrates the relationship between musical techniques/practices, ideology and historical contingency. You will be introduced to a broad range of repertoire and explore the historical development of competing canons in relation to social class, available technologies and prestige.

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Available in the PMR, PM and IMSP pathways, this module explores the social, political, and economic contexts impacting upon the production of popular music. It presents key ideas from Culture Theory, Critical Theory, and Postmodernism in order to understand popular music in these various cultural contexts. You will be introduced to a systematic and rigorous method by which to critically examine popular music and develop abstract thinking.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module introduces you to the creative use of sound produced using a range of hardware and software interfaces. It instils a flexible and considered approach to musical interface by introducing a range of studio composition techniques, (synthesis, sampling, interactive and generative) and various sonic installation possibilities.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module introduces you to the creative use of sound and music within a range of media. You will explore techniques for recording stereo drama in a recording studio; sound and image synchronisation techniques; and how to apply and develop audio digital editing techniques.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module explores the ways in which the needs and demands of technology and of performing artists can best be reconciled. It develops facility in the use of sound mixing consoles, audio recorders, signal processing equipment, Digital Audio Workstations and software audio applications. You will develop strategies for analysing existing recordings in order to appreciate (and then utilise) the technology involved in the recording process.

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Core to all pathways, this module provides an in-depth examination of the UK creative economy, focusing on current economic and professional structures and potential development. You will explore concepts of copyright, authorship and ownership and gain an understanding of the processes involved in successful personal development planning.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module instils a flexible and considered approach to musical interface. It aims to develop fluency across a range of studio composition techniques, (synthesis, sampling, interactive and generative) and a range of sonic installation possibilities. The integration of live sound, live instrument recording, and signal processing within studio composition is also explored.

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Available in the PMR, M and IMSP pathways, this module explores the ways in which the needs and demands of technology and of performing artists can best be reconciled. It aims to develop confident, genre-appropriate mixing, mastering and signal processing skills. You will develop a range of detailed recording strategies in relation to acoustic considerations.

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Available in all pathways, this module is designed to enhance an artistic skills base in two areas of specialist study. It assists the realisation of creative work that will feed into the negotiated major project and encourages the exhibition of a high level of individuality, versatility and confidence within the chosen fields.

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Available in the IMSP pathway, this module provides a theoretical understanding of live sound and informs a creative interpretation of musical material and situation. You will gain practical experience of rigging, sound checking, and be exposed to a range of setups, instrumentation and problematic scenarios.

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Available in the IMSP pathway, this module explores the organisation of multi-media elements into electronic form for online delivery. It explains how an online broadcast / music site is designed, constructed and managed. You will gain experience of web construction, planning and delivery, and work with a variety of online media formats.

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Available in the IMSP pathway, this module provides an understanding of the management of programme production and the key creative and technical posts. You will gain experience of programme construction, planning and execution in television, audio or video.

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Available in the IMSP pathway, this module develops the necessary skills required to coordinate a wide range of creative and technical expertise in the production of a music video. It introduces the methods of organising the production processes from planning to final delivery. You will gain knowledge and understanding of production and technical basics, technical language and communication of requirements.

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Core to all pathways, this module enables the completion of a comprehensive project encompassing two areas of specialist study. It assists the realisation of creative work (practical and/or written), encourages the development of a personal style within the chosen fields of study, and hones your artistic and academic skills base.

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