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Songwriting

Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

UCAS Code: W3W8 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

80

You may also need to…

Perform an audition

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Popular music composition

The BA (Hons) Songwriting course is a practically focused, industry-aligned course designed for those looking to become a professional songwriter. 

Songs are the lifeblood of the music industry. To become a success, the modern songwriter needs to be courageous, creative, collaborative and enterprising. On the BA (Hons) Songwriting course, we’ll support you to develop each of these attributes.

As a specialist music industry education provider, we don’t attempt to ‘teach’ you how to write songs but, instead, guide you through a structured and personalised journey that enables you to develop your own individual writing ability and creative style. Whether you’re a writer–performer with your own artist project, a writer–producer most at home in the studio, or a songwriter looking to co-write and pitch on the projects of others, we’ll support your individual journey within a collaborative setting.

Each week, you’ll explore the art and craft of contemporary songwriting, and will write at least two songs to brief which cover a range of topics, styles, genres and approaches. You’ll collaborate with other ICMP London students to develop your material and will engage in small group ‘A&R-style’ feedback and critical discussion with your songwriting tutors and talented peers, regularly critiquing each other’s works-in-progress across all three years of the degree.

Our core aim is to nurture your creative individuality and independence as a songwriter and empower you with the knowledge, skills and understanding required to establish and maintain a songwriting career, in whatever form you choose. You’ll achieve this with the help of our impressive teaching faculty, made up of highly experienced songwriters and music producers, all of whom have active careers in both the music industry and the higher education sector.

Our songwriting course offers many opportunities for collaborative work, both within ICMP and with the wider music and creative industries, providing excellent opportunities for building your showreel and networking within the music business. The final year sees a research-based creative project and frequent interaction with established industry professionals, allowing students to leave ICMP ‘career-ready’.

By the time you graduate from your songwriting degree course, you’ll have a deep understanding of the discipline; an impressive creative repertoire of work; a grasp of the history and culture of songwriting; solid production and recording skills; and expertise in musicianship, business, entrepreneurship and live performance. You’ll also have gained a working knowledge of the way the music industry operates, thanks to regular songwriting-specific masterclasses and events and visits from industry specialists. 

Modules

Year 1 (Level 4)
- Creative Songwriting: Exploring Songcraft
- Creative Songwriting II: Establishing Songcraft
- Theory and Musicianship for Songwriters
- Fundamentals for Writer-Performers
- Fundamentals for Writer-Producers
- Music Business for Songwriters

Year 2 (Level 5)
- Applied Songwriting: Extending Songcraft
- Applied Songwriting II: Embedding Songcraft
- Songwriting and Communities
- Creative Performance Project
- Contemporary Practice for Writer-Producers
- Marketing Strategies for Songwriters

Year 3 (Level 6)
- Advanced Songwriting: Creative Identity & Repertoire
- Professional Practice
- The Enterprising Songwriter
- The Enterprising Songwriter II

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£10,250
per year
International
£15,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

For students to be eligible for SLC funding, they must be studying a designated course. Courses at the ICMP are designated each year by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

We have developed together with valued partners several scholarships and bursaries which supplement our outreach and widening participation activities and enhance access to our courses. Please contact our admissions team for more information.

The Uni


Course location:

Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

Department:

Music

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

74%
Popular music composition

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Music

Teaching and learning

80%
Staff make the subject interesting
92%
Staff are good at explaining things
83%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
80%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

78%
Library resources
81%
IT resources
83%
Course specific equipment and facilities
67%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

After graduation


We don't have more detailed stats to show you in relation to this subject area at this university but read about typical employment outcomes and prospects for graduates of this subject below.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Music

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£14k

£14k

£15k

£15k

£20k

£20k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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