Popular Music Performance - Keys
About this course
The ICMP BMus (Hons) Popular Music Performance degree is for students who aspire to reach the highest levels of musicianship, while building a successful, sustainable career as a portfolio musician in today ’s modern and diverse music industry. A dynamic, challenging and relevant programme, this course will provide you with the playing, performing, business, technical and theoretical skills necessary to prepare you for the real world of the career musician. The study of established genres, styles and repertoire sits at the core of the BMus degree, and you’ll develop a wide and comprehensive understanding of genre conventions through study of your principal instrument, aimed at enabling you to succeed in a wide range of performance and music-making contexts. The course covers a variety of learning activities in subject areas such as; music theory, music technology, music production, aural perception, technique and sight reading. While you’ll be challenged to achieve outstanding technical skills on your primary instrument, you’ll also be encouraged to explore a secondary instrument, which may include backing vocals, keyboards or vocal arrangement, all with the aim of guiding you towards becoming a well-rounded, technically accomplished musician. Over the three years of the degree, you’ll receive tuition from our world-class teaching faculty, made up of highly esteemed musicians, all of whom have active careers in the music industry and higher education sector.
Learning will be achieved in small groups, where collaboration is encouraged to enable a melting pot of ideas, experiences and influences to be explored. Via live performance workshops, you’ll develop a strong camaraderie with your fellow BMus classmates, and will also be inspired to network and create projects with students from other ICMP programmes. You will receive feedback individually, in small groups and as part of larger ensembles. Your tutors will also provide you with a working knowledge of the way the music industry operates, thanks to regular masterclasses, industry events, visits by special guest musicians, and ICMP’s connection with the wider London music industry. 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, ready to explore exciting industry pathways to begin your professional career, and will have an impressive and professional portfolio of work to present to the industry. You can progress directly from this course to a career in the music industry in areas such as session recording, international touring, musical theatre, function bands, library music and music education, or you can progress your studies with an ICMP Master's degree.
Modules
Year 1 (Level 4)
Live Performance Skills
Theory, Technique & Technology
Theory Technique & Technology II
Music Business for Performers
Performance & Identity
Tuition fees
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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
Institute of Contemporary Music Performance
Music
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.
How do students rate their degree experience?
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Music
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
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
£15k
£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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Higher entry requirements
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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:
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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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