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Popular music Degree courses uk

Suppose you live in the Uk and are an aspiring musician who wants to take your music career seriously and qualify as a professional musician with a professional music degree. In that case, you must check out the best popular music degree courses UK.

This post will answer questions such as:

  • What are the most popular music degrees?
  • What are the most popular degree courses in the UK?
  • What is the best music production course in the UK?
  • Which courses are popular in UK?
  • What degree should I get if I like music?

I have two music degrees, so I will share with you the music degrees I completed, my opinion of them, what I learnt overall, and my experience at the university.

Popular music degree courses uk

So what are the popular music degree courses uk?

Bangor University has a music degree course.

It Began at Bangor

Bangor has a massive range of music degrees. It honestly made me wish I had applied here for my undergraduate degree. You can combine more than one passion. For example, you can do music and creative writing as an undergraduate degree which would’ve been the dream for my younger eighteen-year-old self.

Here is a book I recommend if you are interested in Bangor University. The book is called Bangor University, 1824 2009. I have left a link above under the heading ‘books I recommend’.

The university is in North Wales, so it’s good news if you live there. If not, then we continue our journey of recommendations of popular music degree courses UK.

PointBlank Music School – Popular music degree courses uk

Popular music degree courses uk london

Point blank music school is located in London, and they do all sorts of music courses from foundation to masters. They also do a music production degree, so if you are looking in that area, then I would check out their courses.

Music Production Degree Programmes at Point Blank

If you are interested in Music production, I have linked above under ‘book recommendations’ a book about music production if you are new to music production and want to give it a go.

University of South Wales – The best and easy way to find popular music degree courses uk

popular music degree courses uk graduation

The University of South Wales is in the centre of Cardiff in South Wales. They have music courses such as the Popular and commercial music undergraduate course. The MA Songwriting and Production course. The music engineering and production masters course. There are a few different options at the University of south wales, so I recommend this university as a good option.

The courses I took and my experience of them – Popular music degree courses uk

My graduation

I attended the University of South Wales at eighteen to start my professional music education. The undergraduate course I took was the Bmus Contemporary Music Performance degree. Unfortunately, the course doesn’t exist anymore as not enough students were applying for the course to keep it running. My year was the last one to take the course. The course lasted for three years, and the three years were organised into different modules.

The first year we would have a live performance workshop where we would once a week learn a new song and then take turns performing it in our bands. We would also have sight reading sessions where we are given a song on the day and would have to perform the song. We were allowed to practice the song for only forty-five minutes. This was my least favourite workshop as I found it so stressful. I am more of a person who likes to practice songs over a few days and feel prepared and ready for a performance.

The first year of uni also included music theory which I found enjoyable, and I even had my free vocal lessons.

In the second year, we were introduced to music production, where we learnt about using Logic Pro X. This platform is used to mix and create music digitally. This was one of my favourite modules, and It was my highest-graded module, so I was pretty good at it.

In the third and final year, we had to record our live performances, and we did our dissertations which I enjoyed because you could choose a subject that you were passionate about, so I picked how women are treated in the music industry. Researching how women are treated in the music industry was enjoyable as I found lots of topics to write about and discovered loads of stories of women being sexually harassed by their managers and the pressure to look skinny and flawless all the time when they should be focusing on creating great music.

We also did an entrepreneurial module where we got the chance to make a dummy music business idea. We had to create a website and a name for our business and what are we selling, services or product. This module is actually what inspired me to create writevegan. Back then, however, the business was just an image consultancy business specialising in musicians.

Overall, my undergraduate course was the best course for me, and I do hope there are courses out there that are just as good.

My Masters course – popular music degree courses UK

I decided to take my Masters at the University of South Wales again because the location was right for me. I took the MA Songwriting and Production course. This course is still running. I chose this course because I enjoyed the production side of music from my undergrad course, and my grade has proven that I was also good at it. The songwriting side of the masters was appealing to me because I have had a personal interest in learning how to write my music. So I went into this course with lots of performing live experience and some digital music production experience but with no songwriting experience or skill whatsoever.

So this course was a massive challenge for me. Everyone on this course was much older than I was (I was twenty-one), and they had years of songwriting experience behind them. This was difficult for me because when we had to team up and do group projects, I would feel embarrassed as I had nothing to make a significant contribution to. My strength when starting was writing words; I enjoyed lyric writing. So I hid behind this whenever I had to work in the group. I would always ask can I write the lyrics and then sing them in the final project completion.

To combat the embarrassment of not knowing correctly how to write a whole song. I would rush home and use all the resources and books the course provided to try and teach myself how to write music.

Despite the struggle, I learnt so much from the course and recommended this course if you are interested in songwriting and production as a future career.

The course is only for a year if you do it full-time. I have left a link above to one of the songwriting books I used when trying to learn about songwriting.

What are the most popular music degrees? – popular music degree courses UK

the best popular music degree courses 2023

A really popular option is perhaps to take an online music course. Burkee online is a good option for a music degree at any level. Universities aren’t for everyone, and education should be for all ages.

If I were going to return to education, I would opt for an online course. You can do it in your own time, which is great if you live a busy life.

The most popular music degrees are the Bachelor of Music (BMus) or a Bachelor of Arts (BFA).

What are the most popular degree courses in the UK? – popular music degree courses UK

For music, the most famous music degree is a bachelor’s degree. Any bachelor’s degree is a good degree. Cambridge University has a good music bachelor’s degree, and also Durham.

Point blank music schools came up the most in my research for the most famous music degree so they may have a lot of applicants for their music courses.

What is the best music production course in the UK? – Popular music degree courses UK

the best music production course in the uk

London appears to be the best place for the top music production courses. However, these courses will be pricy as the best producers and engineers tend to be based in London. A lot of students I worked with in Cardiff ended up going to London to do their music masters degree uk courses.

When I searched for ‘music degree london’, the ICMP website came up, which seemed appealing. The website helps you search for music degree courses in london that suit your skill level.

If you are looking for a huge challenge, then the goldsmiths popular music might be for you. You need three B-grade A-levels, which I could never do. I overall had three C-grade A-levels. The goldsmiths are in London, so if you want to be a London student, go for it.

Remote music degree courses – popular music degree courses UK

remote music degree courses

If University isn’t for you, you still have the passion for learning about music, whether music production or songwriting. The best place to start is on Udemy. They have many music subjects, such as music theory and audio engineering.

I like to use Udemy myself; You get an entire course of videos that take you step-by-step through whatever you want to learn. The beauty of this is:

  • pause anytime
  • Watch the tutorials when it’s convenient for you
  • rewind the videos and start them again as many times as you need to
  • You can message the expert in the tutorials for help and advice.
  • You can revisit the course content anytime you need to

Udemey often has sales and discounts on their courses; as I’m writing this post, they currently have a sale on the mixing and mastering music course, which is now sixty-seven per cent off. I’m pretty tempted.

Udemey also means that you can study remotely and you do not need to live in student accommodation, and it also means no more student debt.

Popular music courses Scotland-popular music degree courses uk

I would start by checking out the University of Glasgow as they have forty different music degree courses. Most music courses are combined with other subjects, such as literature. This is a great idea so you can study more than one interest at a time. I would’ve loved to have studied creative writing and music personally.

There is also the University of Aberdeen which has thirteen different music courses.

Conclusion – Popular music degree courses UK

We now know what are the Popular music degree courses uk and where to find them. We know to start with the Bachelor’s degree and pick a music degree course that covers your area of interest. You should have a good knowledge of what to start searching for and what courses are going to suit you the best. I would advise applying to more than one course and more than one university to avoid disappointment.

My Advice to young students looking for popular music degree courses uk

Also, if you are an A-level student who is looking to go straight from school to university, then I would suggest living in the university student accommodation. I have lived in student accommodation from the age of eighteen-twenty-one, and I have also commuted for a year for my master’s. Commuting causes you to miss out on social events and activities and spontaneous band practices; it’s also hard to plan group projects when one of you isn’t living in accommodation in the area.

Thank you for reading my post, I hope you have gained from this information, and I hope it is enjoyable as I enjoy writing these posts.

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