This programme is the ideal choice if you want to focus solely on music. It will allow you to specialise and develop your own musical interests and strengths whilst acquiring a solid, broad-based education in music theory and analysis, composition and performance studies, music history and culture, ethnomusicology, studio production and the business of music (including the opportunity to undertake a work placement).

Our BMus in Music offers the most in-depth study, allowing you to spend all your time specialising in music, with core and elective core modules in year 1 to provide you with a strong foundation upon which you will build your academic studies in future years. You also have the exclusive opportunity to take the major project Recital module in year 3 (comparable with Dissertations in other subjects), a variant of which is available only as a minor project on our BA programmes.

As well as studying a range of academic modules, you will also be encouraged to take full advantage of our school-led core ensembles, representing a wide range of musical repertoires and traditions, such as the Jazz Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, Symphony Orchestra, Gamelan Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Chamber Orchestra, Lanyi (West African Ensemble), Symphony Chorus and the Pop Collective.

You’ll spend the third year of this 4-year course studying abroad, taking modules in music and other subjects where available. At your host university, you’ll learn different perspectives and approaches to studying music. You’ll complete your studies in Cardiff in the fourth year.

Career prospects

The skills developed within a music degree help our students to progress to a wide range of careers, both within and beyond the music profession.

Graduates have gone on to careers with the BBC, Arts Councils, Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, universities, Oxford University Press, the National Trust, and London Symphony Orchestra, along with a range of other industrial, commercial, educational, and charitable organisations.

Employability skills are embedded in our modules so that you will learn both music-specific and academic skills that are transferable to other domains, especially the workplace. Our second-year modules on the Business of Music are designed to help you better understand different branches of the music profession and provide an opportunity to undertake a short placement in a music-related or arts-related area.

Our annual series of talks on Careers in Music offer a great chance to meet professionals active in a range of fields such as performance, music education, music journalism, arts and artist management, production and licensing, and composing for media.

Placements

Year two modules on the Business of Music I/II give an opportunity for a short placement, either in one block or as a series of regular workplace visits