BA (Hons) Music

The first Creative Industries module will introduce you to the strategies and tools to set you on the right path toward pursuing a successful career. Whether focused on a particular career goal or considering several future possibilities, you will broaden your knowledge of the opportunities available to you as a future creative industry professional.

Summary

Developing foundational skills is essential for musicians mastering their craft and creating meaningful and impactful music. Specific techniques and rudiments provide the building blocks for more complex musical ideas and allow instrumentalists and vocalists to perform with precision and accuracy. Harmonic and melodic elements are the backbone of music and understanding them is essential for creating interesting and engaging compositions. Practice methods/routines help instrumentalists and vocalists develop their skills and maintain consistency in their playing or singing. Efficient hand, foot, and vocal techniques enable musicians to perform with ease and without injury, allowing them to focus on their musical expression. Familiarity with core popular music styles and genres helps musicians create music that is relevant to their audience and stay up-to-date with current trends. Lastly, understanding timbre and tone allows musicians to create a unique sound and style that sets them apart from others in their field.

Module Aims

By focusing on developing core skills and techniques, this module aims to provide you with the tools and knowledge needed to develop your creative practice and instrument skills. Through this module, you will learn specific techniques and rudiments, practice routines, and explore popular music styles and genres.

It is important to identify areas for development in your creative practice as this enables you to continue growing and evolving as an artist. By identifying areas where you need improvement, you can focus your efforts on developing those skills to create more polished and refined work. Additionally, by expanding your technical skills and knowledge, you can open up new creative possibilities and develop your own unique style and voice.

The techniques module enables you to explore songwriting through a carefully constructed programme of practical creative tasks. The course is delivered by a teaching team of established, published contemporary songwriters. Career planning, research and freelance skills are embedded in the curriculum, and you will also benefit from opportunities to collaborate with production and performance students.

Further study will be the building blocks of songwriting: chord theory, melody, harmony, lyrics and rhythm. The module involves aural perception, giving you the opportunity to develop your musical ear and recognise intervals and chord sequences by listening.

The module will take a traditional view of songwriting as well as contemporary, by exploring how approaches have changed over time. There will be writing partnerships, giving you the ability to collaborate effectively. Chord theory, structure and writing intuitively will be the focus of the module, as well as an introduction to lyrical and poetic devices.

Summary

In this module, you will learn sequencing and arranging techniques to facilitate your development as a producer and composer. There will be a focus on the use of foundational music theory concepts which underpin the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic aspects of composition.

The module positions arrangement as the main lens through which the selection and application of tools and techniques are viewed- where the study of song form and structure will guide your choices of DAW programming and sequencing approaches used for achieving a coherent arrangement.

Module Aims

• Utilise midi protocols in a DAW
• Apply fundamental sequencing techniques
• Develop listening and arrangement skills using fundamental music theory to underpin creative choices

In this module, you will further develop your investigative skills, exploring relevant underlying concepts and principles and interpreting these within the context of your area of study. You will explore the nature of creativity, the wider context of the industry and practice reflective techniques.

You will also evaluate sources and consider issues such as potential biases and cultural diversity. This evaluation will contribute to developing an enhanced awareness of your creative identity and greater insight into the topics that inspire and motivate you. In addition, you will improve your understanding of how your area of interest intersects with the wider creative industry.

Using academic enquiry, you will develop a reflective journal to evaluate your strengths and areas for self-development in relation to your studies, careers and personal aspirations. This investigative work will help establish a connection between the skills you have identified concerning specific careers and areas of the industry, enhancing your understanding of what is required to be a successful professional practitioner.

In this module, you will explore performance in its many forms, drawing not only on classic and contemporary musical performances but also taking inspiration from the broader arts such as theatre and contemporary art to create your own artistic vision. You’ll go from simply playing your songs, to researching ideas for inspiration, to collaborating through improvisation and planning a unique ensemble performance either as a songwriter/performer or as a songwriter/ musical director. In either instance, it is necessary for you to contribute to the songwriting aspect of the composition performed for your assessment.

Throughout, you’ll be supported by a team of experienced lecturers in experimenting with fresh arrangements, stagecraft, and sound and visuals; all helping to bring your ideas to life while building your confidence and independence as a songwriter and/or artist.

Summary

Developing skills in Digital Audio Workstation recording, arrangement and mixing techniques are essential for songwriters to create polished and professional-sounding compositions. Additionally, arrangement techniques are crucial for songwriters to give shape and structure to their musical ideas and to create a cohesive and compelling musical expression. By developing these skills, songwriters can effectively express their creative ideas and communicate a creative vision with greater precision.

Module Aims

This module will allow you to build your music theory, arrangement, and aural perception skills and use these to support a more in-depth study of mixing and arrangement techniques using a (DAW).

Summary

This module introduces composition techniques and music theory as they apply to contemporary music production as a key part of the modern producer's toolkit. Through developing critical listening skills and researching practitioners, you will apply these ideas to your own creative work.

The module develops critical listening skills and encourages students to actively analyse and deconstruct different musical genres. Students will learn contemporary music theory by identifying compositional elements like harmonic progressions, melodic structures, and rhythmic patterns.

The module encourages students to research influential practitioners and their work. Students will learn about composition's many possibilities by studying these artists' methods. This practice-based research-driven approach allows students to expand their creative horizons and apply their newfound knowledge to their own production. They will also gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the art of composition itself.

The module empowers students to become confident and skilled self-produced artists by exploring influential practitioners' work, expanding creative horizons, and applying new knowledge.

Module Aims

• To facilitate the development of your competence and confidence in using music theory to support your composition
• To build awareness of the impact of your compositional choices on the music you make

Summary

This module will build on the skills you developed in your first year. In The Creative Industries and You module, you utilised concepts and principles to explore the nature of creativity, developing a short and longer-term plan for your personal and professional practice.

In this module you will carry out an individual investigation, utilising secondary research to investigate the lineage of your creative practice. You will directly apply ideas to your own discipline and development, selecting an area of investigation relevant to your own practice, and communicating your argument in writing or via a narrated slide presentation. The concepts you explore in this module, including your positionality and identity, are themes you will encounter frequently as a creative professional.

Module Aims

By examining existing case studies and undertaking a research case study you will further develop secondary research skills and contextualise your professional identity. The research methods and study skills you develop throughout this module will prepare you for next year’s Final Project, in which you will self-direct a significant piece of academic, creative and/or professional practice. Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Global Awareness
• Self-awareness
• Intellectual curiosity
• Professionalism

Contextualised Performance is the culmination of styles, repertoire, genre-specific knowledge, music theory, composition, arrangement and live performance.

Each week you will work in a specified context, composing, arranging and performing as part of an ensemble to a specific creative brief. These briefs will vary in context and requirements, such as interpreting lyrics and songs, rearranging songs incorporating electronics and live production, co-writing and arranging to visual footage.

Discipline-specific preparation classes will allow you to explore options and develop musical ideas that will inform your performance strategy.

This module will familiarise you with the fundamental issues in music publishing, including key concepts of music copyright, collection societies, music publishing companies, and the royalty streams that they administer.

By placing publishing within the context of releasing music you will gain insights into the industry. Playing live to support a release will raise your development in a real-world context, and success on the module will allow you to interpret key terms used in management, recording and publishing contracts.

Musicians will be shown the impact that the various agreements can have on their careers, and you will develop an understanding that will enable you to make decisions, and to communicate with professional advisors in an effective and informed manner.

Summary

In the Defining Your Practice in Context module, you evaluated the lineage and traditions of your creative practice, investigating how it connects to artistic and industry practices. This module will require you to utilise your acquired knowledge to plan and create, collaboratively, a piece of work that links to your practice. Collaborating with others can help you develop new and innovative ideas and can also help you develop confidence as a creative practitioner whilst practising your communication, project management, reflection and feedback skills.

Module Aims

• To develop collaborative working practices.
• To plan and execute a creative project.
• To document your creative process including the nature of your collaboration.
• Seek and use developmental feedback.
• Evaluate the nature of teamwork, communication and collaboration.
• Appraise your professional values, ethics and goals.

Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Employable and Entrepreneurial.
• Creative, Collaborative and Connected.
• Socially Responsible.
• Self-awareness.
• Professionalism.

This module presents you with the opportunity to develop your songwriting, arranging and performing skills as you embark on a creative journey, where you will be writing, rehearsing and performing an original set for your assessment. Your songwriting and arranging skills will be addressed in the prep lessons and expanded upon in the weekly workshops as part of an ensemble performance.

During the weekly prep lessons, you will examine songwriting and arranging techniques, such as subject writing, core values, toplining, melody, harmony, form, structure, conceptual development, collaborative writing and basic orchestration. Arrangements, instrumental/vocal proficiency, rehearsal skills and communication will all be covered during the weekly workshops.

The second assessment will take place after the first, whereby you will sit a viva voce, evaluating the processes involved in crafting, rehearsing and performing your set.

In this module, you will study the advanced techniques of music production and creative practice necessary to create genre-specific tracks in areas of electronic music. Key genres will be compositionally analysed, such as Hip Hop, Microsound, Synth Pop, Grime, Ambient, IDM and many others.

You will be introduced to relevant contextual theories situating the works historically, culturally, socially and politically. The creative and technical elements will also be examined, covering industry-standard software, hardware and production processes, affording you the skills to both create and contextualise a track of your own, relating it to a specific electronic music genre.

In this module, you will undertake a significant project of your own choosing. It’s your chance to explore your passion within the industry and creative arts: experiment, take risks, strengthen your skills and create a product/cohesive portfolio of work that you are proud to showcase at the end of your degree.

This module will support you in consolidating the broad learning and development from the course so far, building a bridge into the industry, the workplace and future opportunities. You will be supported to self-direct your own learning through a series of lectures, seminars and 1:1 tutorials with expert supervisors.

This module will focus on successfully answering a creative brief in a wide range of possible industry areas. You will experience real-world case studies and complete practical exercises in areas such as moving image, production libraries, video games, theatre, interactive exhibitions, and music production. The aim is to provide you with the skills needed to explore your own creative voice within the artistic constraints of professional-client commissions.

This module is designed to equip you with the skills required to develop an initial musical idea or creative concept through to a final live performance. If you’re interested in developing your skills in electronic music composition, you will be able to explore electronic instruments in the creation of an engaging performance using tools such as Ableton Live. Or if you’re interested in a more traditional band performance, you will discover how to integrate music technologies into your set to enhance arrangements and to explore new sonic possibilities.

You will also be encouraged to explore forms of creative performance (poetry/scripted segments/dance/spoken word) and mixed media (immersive sound/visual media) ) as part of your project – and you can choose to involve fellow performers – however, the material presented in the performance must be entirely composed and curated by the students being assessed.

Module Summary:

This module will enable you to apply the skills and knowledge that you have gained during your studies at BIMM
University and produce an extended piece of work exploring your creative practice. You will generate a project idea then extend and develop this project through to completion.

You can choose from three approaches:

• Practice research
• Enterprise work
• Extensive text-based output

You are advised to consider the approach for your project choice carefully and think about how It aligns with your personal and professional objectives. Please refer to Final Project: Glossary of Terms and Definitions

Module aims:

• You will be able to deliver an extended piece of work that explores your creative practice
• You will be able to contextualise your project with reference to previous practices and existing literature.
• You will be able to link your work to a methodological framework.
• You will be able to critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your work.
• You will be able to share your work and ideas in a supportive and inclusive environment.

This module is the final step in your journey and will support you as you look to enter your chosen field as a creative professional. Drawing on evidence from throughout your time here. you will critically self-evaluate your personal learning journey and industry engagements to date. You will explore concepts and theories of personal and professional development to support, challenge and test your assumptions, to determine your readiness for work in the creative industries. You will have the opportunity to discuss this with your peers and learn from your collective experiences in both small degree path groups and large mixed discipline sessions.

With this position in mind, you will then be challenged to create and consolidate creative assets to give you the edge over the competition in your chosen field. Specialist workshops will be offered throughout the module, informed and delivered by our wide-reaching connections and specialist lecturers in the creative industries. This culminates in the creation of a portfolio which tells the story of your personal and professional journey so far, communicating your unique professional identity and future career plans in the creative industries.

Mastering is the process of taking final mixes and preparing them for delivery to potentially multiple formats. The “Art” of mastering is in successfully meeting both the technical and aesthetic requirements to deliver the artist’s vision to the highest possible level.

In this module, we will build upon your knowledge of equalisation, dynamics, stereo, noise removal and assorted saturation tools from previous core modules and refine this to enable the delivery of high quality, aesthetically appropriate masters for a variety of genres and formats.