Popular Music Practice

This course aims to develop you as a pop music practitioner, and allows you to develop your performance alongside study in either songwriting or production. You’ll have the opportunity to perform alongside a wider community of musicians in all styles, as well as to create your own original music.

This Master’s level course is designed for both music and music technology graduates, but also for learners from alternative industry or practitioner backgrounds who are looking to develop their popular music practical skills and knowledge, allowing everyone to explore new ways of creating and performing popular music.

Our aim is to combine the essential qualities of what it means to be a successful pop musician; adaptable, creative and not afraid to push the boundaries of current practice in the pursuit of innovative artistic goals.

Performing Arts at the University of Huddersfield has an international reputation, and hosts one of the largest postgraduate music communities in the UK. You will benefit from our regular research seminars and workshops, and will be a member of the Centre for Research in Music and its Technologies (CRMT - https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/centres/crmt/) which provides a focus for popular music research in the department.

Professional links and accreditation: Music staff are active across diverse professional contexts, including as performers, editors, and in publication. The department is actively involved with a number of ensembles such as Academy of Ancient Music, Apartment House, Boxwood and Brass, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Meiningen Ensemble and the Rose Consort of Viols, and numerous other ensembles and performers are invited regularly through each year for performances and workshops. Record labels with whom members of staff have recorded include Another Timbre, HatHut, Resonus Classics, Sub Rosa. The department also publishes on its own labels Huddersfield Contemporary Records and Pennine Records. Members of staff perform regularly at festivals and concert halls, including all the major London venues, and often feature on BBC Radio 3 as performers and guest speakers. We regularly host conferences and events in partnership with scholarly societies, such as the Performance Studies Network, and the Royal Musical Association.