About this course
Music has seamlessly woven its way into games, fashion, film, television, events, and social media like never before. Today's aspiring music-makers must possess the ability to collaborate and adapt to new levels, and Nottingham School of Art & Design provides its music students with innovative, high-quality, practical degrees that reflect the needs of the modern, integrated global entertainment industry.
Developing the technical mastery of your instrument or voice is at the core of your studies. You will hone your skills as a musician through performance, recording, production, and songwriting. In addition, you will study how music has developed, both as an art form and business, into the global industry it is today.
Our exceptional staff comprises working professionals who are experts in the music and creative industries. Their extensive experience will guide and inspire you, ensuring you receive an education that is unparalleled in its depth and relevance.
Nottingham School of Art & Design has world-class, industry-approved, state-of-the-art facilities featuring incredible recording studio spaces, Mac suites, rehearsal rooms, and its own purpose-built live venue. There simply couldn't be a better environment for you to study what you love.
But the experience extends far beyond our remarkable facilities. Here, you will immerse yourself in an unrivalled network of industry connections. From engaging with our esteemed experts in your daily classes to being inspired by a diverse range of guest speakers, you will have countless opportunities to expand your horizons and forge invaluable relationships.
Nottingham School of Art & Design is the perfect platform to start building your professional network and shaping your future career.
What you’ll study
Our Music Performance degree is tailored to your musical goals allowing you to develop technical mastery of your first instrument whilst also broadening your understanding of other subject areas and ways of thinking about songwriting, composition, performance and music management.
DAW Skills (20 Credit Points)
Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) are the digital canvases you will need to navigate to put down, cultivate, and develop musical ideas throughout your career. In this module, you will learn and apply different DAW techniques to create and arrange music through a series of set tasks, thereby developing a skills portfolio that you can apply throughout your course and career. You will build upon these skills to support your song writing module, generate ideas, and understand their role in a wide range of applications.
Performance Skills (40 Credit Points)
This is what it's all about: the skill and the art of performance! This module will help develop your core instrumental and performance skills, focusing on the deployment of key areas of instrumental/vocal technique, use and application of rhythm, groove, communication and creativity.
You'll develop as a performer by learning techniques to effectively engage, enthuse and captivate an audience. You will analyse classic and contemporary material and discover the key elements that makes it work so well.
Ultimately, you'll employ your findings by performing sets of covers and collectively created compositions using the elements explored throughout this module.
Your Industry (20 Credit Points)
You will explore contexts of working in the international world of sound and music and how you might establish a career by exploring the flow of money through the industry and relevant current and emerging trends.
You'll assess your current skill set and discover what you need to do to improve your chances of success on your employable journey. You'll choose work like briefs lasting at least 80 hours to enable you to experience working opportunities in a field of interest, then reflect on your learning to set you up for the rest of your course in an employable mind set. Your future starts now!
Songwriting (20 Credit Points)
This module aims to build an understanding of the theory and context of songwriting. You will explore classic songs from the history of popular music and, through deconstructing them, discover the component parts and common techniques used to create great material!
By embracing this process, your aural perception skills, music theory, instrument, and arrangement skills will naturally develop. You will then apply these skills to recreate classic tracks and collaborate with others to write songs based on these techniques and genre-specific elements.
Throughout the module, you will study different approaches to the craft, working both individually and collaboratively on assigned briefs. This will enable you to create a body of work that demonstrates a growing understanding of music genres through your songwriting skills.
Popular Music in Context (20 Credit Points)
In this module, you'll explore key events, songs and artists that helped shape the history of popular music as we know it. You'll gain an understanding of the social and cultural contexts that have guided its development, whilst you are supported in developing your research skills to explore case studies.
Songs and artists you investigate will be analysed, and material rehearsed and performed in your song writing and performance sessions. This means you're fully immersed in a whole host of material and styles to help you be an informed, well-rounded musician.
Performance Skills 2 (20 Credit Points)
Progressing from Year 1, you will engage in playing more complex material, conducting deeper analysis of the component parts, and exploring the most effective ways of communicating them to your peers and ultimately, an audience! You will perform original material and rework classic songs, adapting them to the sound and style of specified genres.
Technical proficiency on your instrument will be further advanced and developed throughout this process. You will receive guidance in stagecraft and setlist design techniques, aiming to build performer confidence and learn how to professionally entertain and engage a live audience with a powerful performance.
Songwriting 2 (20 Credit Points)
You'll develop your songwriting skills further by dissecting more complex songs from a wide array of genres to understand what makes them successful. You'll participate in a series of workshops where you'll practice various working methodologies to write material, both in solo and collaborative scenarios.
You'll explore top line, rhythmic, melodic, and lyrical methods, equipping you with the tools you need to hold your own in any songwriting session. Effective communication of ideas is essential for any collaborative process including working with other musicians who bring your ideas to life.
You'll learn how to communicate arrangements and ideas effectively using rhythmic and harmonic notation, chord symbols, and lyric/chord guides, and apply them to real-world scenarios.
Music for Modern Media (20 Credit Points)
This module focuses on exploring the exciting world of composing for media. Building on your compositional and DAW skills from year one, you will utilise them in a variety of real-world scenarios to create music for media use. These may include jingles, genre-based library music, and music for film and other media.
You will examine and research these areas, gaining insight into how best to apply your current DAW knowledge with other tools and techniques and expand on that skillset by successfully completing example scenarios. Composing for media is a substantial part of today's industry and an area in which you should be well prepared to engage.
Industry Practice (20 credit points)
This is where the reality of being a freelance practitioner really comes into focus. During this module, you will source and manage appropriate self-directed projects of at least 20 hours in an area that aligns to your career aspiration, working individually and collaboratively, applying the research, knowledge, and skills learnt throughout the course in common real-world scenarios.
You will also be given a further 80 hours of relevant industry briefs over the year to complete and reflect on. The aim is to develop your overall professionalism and provide you with the knowledge and resources to begin a career in the creative industries which are increasingly defined by freelance and self-employed models of work.
Projects can cover a wide range of scenarios, and you must be able to adapt quickly, spinning a number of plates at once. You will need to work under pressure to strict deadlines and learn how to manage your time and resources effectively whilst looking after the wellbeing of yourself and your collaborators.
You’ll explore relevant legal frameworks such as copyright and intellectual property and examine how money flows in your particular area of interest so you’re best placed to exploit your talents for financial sustainable gain.
Contextual Studies (20 Credit Points)
Music plays an integral part in everyday life across cultures and societies. It can transcend language and cultural barriers and influence individual and social identity, politics, fashion and technology.
This module offers a deeper understanding of the contexts in which music is created, performed, received and how it has evolved or influenced social change.
You will delve into various musical genres, styles, and traditions across different time periods and cultures. The module aims to enhance critical thinking and analytical skills by examining the social, political, and artistic influences that shape musical practices.
You will also develop your research and communication abilities as you explore and present your findings on significant musical works, composers, and movements. The skills you develop in this module will help you as a working musician: broadening your musical horizons and giving you the skills to argue your ideas, understanding the role of music in the wider world.
Studio Production for Musicians (20 Credit Points)
This module serves as the recording musician's toolkit. The landscape for a recording musician is no longer limited to the traditional bigger studio 'Session' setup. Home studio setups have now become a significant part of the instrument recording business, catering to clients and session briefs that include songwriters, producers, library companies, film/TV soundtracks, content creators, as well as your own projects.
The module covers both larger studio ensemble recording and remote recording. You will learn the fundamental processes of recording and producing your own instrument or voice. This includes how to communicate properly with a client, audio file management, and selecting the appropriate gear and processes that meet the needs of any given recording scenario you may encounter as a jobbing musician.
You will also develop skills in critically comparing recording equipment across different budget points, audio engineering skills, understanding group recording etiquette, maintaining session structure and energy, effectively communicating with producers, and fostering repeat business.
We regularly review and update our course content based on student and employer feedback, ensuring that all of our courses remain current and relevant. This may result in changes to module content or module availability in future years.
How you're taught
Teaching and learning are designed around developing your practical and technical skills, whilst also enhancing your critical and analytical thinking. Classes are a mixture of rehearsals, live performances, workshops, seminars and tutorials. During these sessions you will develop your expertise, working alongside expert tutors who are active professional musicians who have performed with some of the world’s biggest artists on some of the world’s biggest stages, such as Glastonbury.
The course will involve a number of performances at a wide range of events, at both local and nationally recognised venues, such as Splendour. In some modules you’ll work on ‘live’ projects, where you’ll be required to complete work for industry clients, giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your developing professionalism and build a portfolio of work that will support your future career.
Guest lectures from professional musicians, promoters and producers will also help enhance your knowledge and experience of the music industry. In addition, you’ll have direct access to the in-house record label and artists management company Denizen who will offer help and guidance throughout your studies.
Showcase
You will be given the opportunity to exhibit your work during your time at NTU to members of the creative industries.
How you're assessed
Forms of assessment include:
- practical tests
- written research
- technical papers
- presentations
- independently led coursework
- projects.
Careers and employability
Each case will be considered individually, but upon completion you’re automatically entitled to enter into the 3rd year of our BA (Hons) Music Performance to gain a full BA qualification.
The music industry offers a broad range of career prospects for graduates. Students studying the FdA Music Performance will study subject areas that will help prepare them for the diverse nature of the industry.
You will also study the wider context of their industry, investigating working practices, legal frameworks, business models and career opportunities. In addition, the course also aims to develop your cognition, autonomy and research skills, enabling you to continue in further academic study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Work placement and internship opportunities
You will increasingly be faced with freelance and self-employed models of work upon graduation. Consequently, the course aims to equip you with appropriate skills for this type of workplace through ‘live’ client-led briefs with local and national industry partners, which will help you build a varied and distinctive portfolio of work throughout your studies.
Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on close interaction with industry in the form of lectures, workshops and seminars from industry professionals throughout the two years of study.
YouFirst – working with our Employability Team
Studying a degree at a popular university has many benefits, none more so than having access to a large employability team.
Our friendly, experienced careers consultants will work closely with you at every stage of your career planning, providing personal support and advice you won't find in a book or on the internet. You can benefit from this at any time during your studies and up to three years after completing your course.
Campus and facilities
Whether you’re a songwriter, performer, producer or someone who wants to get into the live events industry, you’ll study and learn in the heart of a world-class venue – Metronome.
By day, it’s an incredible place to study music performance, live events and audio technology. By night, Metronome transforms into a live events venue, hosting sell-out music gigs, comedy nights, theatre productions, esports tournaments, spoken word – the list goes on!
For our students, we can offer unrivalled facilities which include:
- 400 capacity live music venue
- 14 rehearsal spaces
- 10 recording studios
- Mastering, surround sound and post-production studio
- Critical listening seminar room
- Live events production workspace.
Entry requirements
UK students
- 64 UCAS Tariff points; and
- GCSE - English and Maths Grade C / 4
Other requirements:
- A related music qualification such as BTEC Music Performance or similar (eg RSL or A Level Music); and
- A Grade 5 (ABRSM, RSL, Trinity or equivalent) in Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano / Keyboards or singing
Additional requirements for UK students
We very much welcome self-taught applicants who do not have the formal entry requirements, but we need to know you're at the right level to support your ambition. If that’s you, we’ll request a video of you playing 2 songs from start to finish in contrasting styles. This can be performing along to a backing track, or solo. Once we get that, and we make sure this is the perfect fit for you, we'll send you an offer!
Other qualifications and experience
NTU welcomes applications from students with non-standard qualifications and learning backgrounds, either for year one entry or for advanced standing beyond the start of a course into year 2 or beyond.
We consider study and/or credit achieved from a similar course at another institution (otherwise known as credit transfer), vocational and professional qualifications, and broader work or life experience.
Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route. If you wish to apply via Recognition of Prior Learning, please contact the central Admissions and Enquiries Team who will be able to support you through the process.
Getting in touch
If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form.
International students
This course is not suitable for International applicants.
Additional requirements for international students
There are no additional requirements for this course.
English language requirements
View our English language requirements for all courses, including alternative English language tests and country qualifications accepted by the University.
If you need help achieving the language requirements, we offer a Pre-Sessional English for Academic Purposes course on our City campus which is an intensive preparation course for academic study at NTU.
Other qualifications and experience
If you have the right level of qualifications, you may be able to start your Bachelors degree at NTU in year 2 or year 3. This is called ‘advanced standing’ entry and is decided on a case-by case basis after our assessment of your qualifications and experience.
You can view our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy which outlines the process and options available, such as recognising experiential learning and credit transfer.
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Getting in touch
If you need advice about studying at NTU as an international student or how to apply, our international webpages are a great place to start. If you have any questions about your study options, your international qualifications, experience, grades or other results, please get in touch through our enquiry form. Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world.
Policies
We strive to make our admissions procedures as fair and clear as possible. To find out more about how we make offers, visit our admissions policies page.
