Music

Studying music at York St John University, you will join a vibrant and welcoming musical community, where the emphasis is on practical engagement in music making.

This course prepares you for professional music making: performing, composing, and facilitating. Through collaborating with your peers, staff members, and other creative practitioners, you will develop into the artist you want to be.

When you join our music course, you choose to embrace the challenges of modern employment in music. In order to be prepared for whatever opportunities come your way, you will explore different ways of creating music, different instruments, different genres, different contexts of music making, and different ways of thinking about music. This course helps you explore how you can most effectively react to a rapidly-changing creative world.

You will take a practical approach to your learning, as we believe you learn best by doing. Receive one-on-one teaching in your specialist instrument, individual support in devising large-scale projects, and learn from your peers and external professionals through workshops. You will perform regularly in different venues across the city, from local pubs and independent venues, to York Minster and beyond.

Alongside your practical learning, you will also explore the theory of music - not just notes and chords, but also the many ways that music intersects with other fields such as psychology, philosophy, and cultural studies. Working alongside your classmates, postgraduate students, and your lecturers, you will develop skills in researching and critiquing ideas.

The course will introduce you to key areas of modern musical study, including topics such as:

Music’s impact on society Advanced and experimental techniques of making music Techniques for leading ensembles Ethical dilemmas around music and justice Collaborating with creative practitioners across the arts How to best market yourself as a professional musician

Our enthusiastic and supportive team of experienced music tutors include performers, composers, teachers and community musicians. Their musical interests include everything from jazz and metal to choral music and brass bands. A large group of instrumental and vocal teachers who cover all instruments and musical styles will also support you through your studies.