This dynamic course is for practising musicians keen to explore performance, composition, production and music technology in our industry-standard recording studios and rehearsal spaces.

Course description

This course is designed for practising musicians who want to understand the technical environment within which commercial music takes place.

This is one of the few courses of its type in the country and is designed to equip you with the ability to interact and innovate within a vibrant environment, nurturing a specialism in popular music and related industries. The area of popular music is a dynamic, well established creative aspect of the music industry involving sophisticated craft, technical, analytical and scholarly approaches.

You will develop a wide range of disciplines through performance, composition, technology, media production and musicology. You will also develop an in-depth appreciation of the increasing significance of popular music in economic and professional terms.

How you will learn

The timetable contains around 12 hours of contact with staff a week, with the remainder of the academic week engaged in directed study. All modules are supported through UDo, the University of Derby Online, so you have access to essential support materials at any time of the day or night.

Careers

Our graduates are equipped for employment within the modern commercial music sector as performers, composers, producers, educators, promoters, publishers, academics, recording studio engineers and entrepreneurial freelance musicians. They also work in a range of media organisations. 

Others have gone on to further study, at MA, MSc or PhD level, or successfully completing PGCE for school of college level teaching, some gaining QTS teaching qualifications for primary or secondary education. This enables them to become teachers, entering the primary and secondary education sector, lecturing for colleges of further education and freelance instrumental teaching.