Music and Sound Production

The BA (Hons) Music and Sound Production is a one-year top-up course that provides students with the creative experience and technical knowledge required to build and enhance a career in music production. The course primarily engages the student with technology but is intended to provide opportunities for any suitably qualified candidate with an established interest in writing / producing / collaborating in music production.

This Level 6 programme is an advanced course that moves beyond the FdA content covered at Levels 4 and 5, encouraging you to become owners of your own academic and career journey culminating in the curation of a significant body of assessed work. You will be expected to produce work that is finished to a professional standard, presented in the appropriate formats, and meets the needs of the objectives set.

You will begin your year in the unit ‘Arranging’. Here you will consider the relationships between mixing and orchestration. You will study the ways in which musical elements are balanced against each other to create specific music effects and styles and practice re-arranging / re-mixing music to create new versions. Such practice relates to the frequent requirements of music publishers for different versions of material. In addition to this area of study the unit will teach you how to create parts for session musicians. It is not uncommon for a producer to enhance the work of an artist through the addition of parts such as counter melodies, harmonies, brass and string pads etc. To this end you will learn to create basic parts, fit for modification by the professional musician, using music notation software to meet the needs of the reader and assessment.

You will simultaneously undertake Unit 2 ‘Research Project’. In agreement with your tutor, you will choose an area for close study and develop a full dissertation on the subject in question. The dissertation may be presented in a variety of forms, written work, verbal presentation, audio, visual production etc. This major piece of work may utilise practical skills and experimentation but must conform with the notion of academic rigour. It should be substantial, draw on authoritative research sources (referenced using the Harvard system) and meet the objectives established with your tutor at the start. To this end the student will need to propose a detailed plan, prior to commencement.

Following these two units you will carry out the final unit ‘Final Major Project’. This will be a substantial project of your own choosing which must be agreed with your tutor. It should lead to the creation of your highest quality, exemplar work. The unit will begin with taught sessions on project planning and will incorporate sessions on business planning, event management, rights management, and budget planning. The student’s projects may involve members of the external music community, collaborations with peers, private clients etc, or be completely directed at their own aims for future employment. Delivery will therefore move from the initial model of taught sessions in the early part of the year to regular 1:1 support through tutorials.