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Popular Music Performance - Guitar

Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

UCAS Code: 315G | Bachelor of Music (with Honours) - BMus (Hon)

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

80

Applicants will typically have A levels, BTEC Diploma or Extended Diploma, or International Baccalaureate equivalent to 80 UCAS points, or an ICMP Higher Diploma. In addition, you should hold a GCSE Grade C or above in English and Maths, or suitable equivalent, such as Level 2 Key Skills, Functional Skills or Adult Literacy/Numeracy. We also welcome applications from mature applicants who may have no formal qualifications but can demonstrate their suitability for study through appropriate skills and experience.

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About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Popular music performance

This dynamic and distinctly forward-looking degree will provide you with the playing, performing, technical and theoretical skills you need for a career as a professional portfolio musician in today’s ever-changing music industry.

Our fast-moving and increasingly digital world has seen many opportunities for the modern music industry to evolve recently, bringing performers, musicians, audiences and music lovers together in exciting new ways. This programme embraces the context of the global music revolution, allowing you to focus intensely on your instrument of choice, while gaining innovative business and technology skills that will truly set you apart after graduation.

At the core of your BMus degree is your principal instrument – guitar, bass, drums, keys or vocals. Through research and analysis of established genres, styles and repertoire, you’ll develop a broad, comprehensive understanding of genre conventions, so you’re set up to succeed in a wide range of performance scenarios – whether live, livestreamed or recorded.

You’ll develop outstanding technical skills on your primary instrument, with regular one-on-one instrumental tuition with your ICMP tutors across all three years of your degree, plus you’ll be encouraged to explore a foundation in keyboard skills. Unique opportunities are available within the ICMP community to direct bands, ensembles and choirs, ensuring you become a well-rounded, technically accomplished musician who can work across multiple musical environments and contexts.

The degree covers a full spectrum of learning opportunities in areas such as performance, stylistic techniques, music technology, music theory, arranging and composing, session skills, recording, musical theatre, teaching and business skills. Across your three years, you’ll participate in a combination of lectures and seminars, workshops, practice-based sessions, self-directed learning and, of course, your highly personalised one-to-one tuition. A practice-as-research philosophy underpins all theoretical, practical and academic modules, with demonstration of practice-based learning and understanding in assessment tasks.

Members of our highly esteemed ICMP teaching faculty will provide you with significant knowledge of the internal workings of the music industry through the delivery of regular masterclasses, industry events and networking opportunities, along with exposure to a wide range of guest lecturers and emerging artists.

A key focus of the degree is collaboration – through live performance workshops, you’ll develop a strong camaraderie with your fellow BMus students, be inspired to network, create projects with students from other ICMP programmes, and receive personalised instrumental feedback.

By the time you graduate with ICMP, you’ll be fluent in the language of popular music, capable of working in creative and collaborative music business environments, and ready to explore exciting industry pathways to begin your professional career. You’ll also leave us with an impressive professional portfolio of work you can present to the industry as evidence of your performance talents.

Modules

Year 1 (Level 4)
- Live Performance Skills
- Theory, Technique & Technology
- Theory Technique & Technology II
- Music Business for Performers
- Performance & Identity

Year 2 (Level 5)
- Live Performance Industries
- Applied Theory & Technique
- The Reflective Musician
- Arranging and Composing
- Recording Skills

Year 3 (Level 6)
- Industry Performance Standards
- Professional Identity
- Advances Composition Skills
- Music in Education
- Music & The Stage

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

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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 performance

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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