Popular Music Performance with Foundation Year BMus (Hons)

The module is designed to give you the opportunity to:  

1. Develop an understanding of key theoretical elements relevant to the area of popular music performance.  

2. Develop a structured approach to group and independent learning.  

3. Understand the importance of understanding theoretical skills and how they can be applied to practical skills.

Performance for Recording will help students develop the required skills needed to perform in a studio recording environment to a high standard. The module will help students to develop the playing skills specific to the studio environment and increase student’s understanding to different recording and musical approaches. Performance for Recording runs in Semester 1 and is an introduction to the performance strand in the learning journey. It covers a comprehensive overview of contemporary studio practice and the specific concepts relevant to performing for the recording process.

The module will extend listening, playing, and organisational techniques required to operate as an effective session musician. The module is also s fun introduction to the recording studio facilities at UWL. This module is also supported by extra instrumental lessons so that students can continue to develop their musical skills in their chosen instrument.

Understanding Creative Industries is designed to give you an appreciation and knowledge of the development of the fundamental structures of the global creative industry structures. In doing this, you will obtain a comprehensive grounding in the key skills and knowledge appropriate to building, developing and maintaining a career in your chosen area of the industry. You will also receive a grounding in key figures within the industry and support organisations available to you to help in developing your professional careers.

The module is designed to give you the opportunity to:  

1. Engage with popular music and its place in the world. 

2. Develop scholarly approaches to both non-Western and Western popular music.  

3. Apply your own diverse musical backgrounds and creative interests in to learning and assessment activities.

After the performance for studio module, students are encouraged to explore a range of different performance styles. Situated Performance runs in Semester 2 and is designed to enhance student’s interaction with different performance environments as well as different types of audience. The module will extend listening, playing, and organisational techniques required to operate as an effective performer while considering the limitations of different performance situations. Performance for Audience will help students develop the required skills needed to perform as an ensemble no matter where they are.

Songwriting and Arranging is an introductory subject designed to give students advanced knowledge of music writing principles. The module covers three main areas relating to songwriting and arranging. These areas are lyric construction and form, arrangement fundamentals, and essential orchestration skills.

The module is broken into parts that assess both the construction of songs, as well as the digital tools that can be incorporated to enhance arrangements. During the first half of the module, students learn the skills required to understand great lyric writing and song structure, narrative themes and writer perspectives. The second half of the module is concerned with understanding fundamental instrumental arrangement. During the latter half of the module, students are introduced to skills and digital tools that can enhance the musical and textural content of their songs.

The module is designed to give you the opportunity to:  

1. Develop an advanced understanding of key theoretical elements relevant to the area of popular music performance.  

2. Develop a robust approach to group and independent learning.  

3. Understand the importance of understanding advanced theoretical skills and how they can be applied to practical skills. 

This module looks at the key skills and abilities required for entrepreneurs to develop new business ideas in the creative industries. As new technologies and media converge, the need to understand how new concepts are generated is one of the key tools for contemporary and future creative industry practitioners. Generating successful business ideas is a process of creative thinking and a critical awareness of the business landscape.

This module will focus on both the theoretical and practical aspects of initiating and developing a creative enterprise in the modern marketplace. A study of entrepreneurial traits provides the framework for the module, which includes the development of a credible business idea and the presentation of a formulated and considered business plan.

Having completed the level 4 performance subjects, students move from the practical aspects of performing in a variety of settings to the more artistic exploration of what it means to be a performer. Performance Artistry is an advanced performance subject designed to develop students' understanding of their role as a content creator and a performer. As such, the module functions in a similar manner to a record label artist development (A&R) department. This module gives performance students a deeper understanding of their relationship to the music industry.

The module offers you the opportunity to:

• engage with applied research methods using ethnographic, autoethnographic and theoretical approaches

• critically reflect on your own creative practice through a process of data collection and stimulated recall

• assimilate and reflect upon the creative practice and research activity of staff and postgraduate research students

• use these research techniques in conjunction with academic reading to develop a research question that will form the basis for your level 6 major project module

• effectively communicate ideas through a combination of verbal and multimedia presentation formats.

Through weekly lectures and breakout workshop groups, this module focuses on the area of instrumental and vocal teaching - an important skillset, and income stream, for the portfolio musician. Underpinned by an understanding of generic and music-specific pedagogic principles, each of the weekly sessions will focus on a particular topic or issue relevant to building a career as an instrumental or vocal tutor, including: constructing lesson and study plans; understanding and executing appropriate teaching methods to foster technical, creative and expressive skills in your pupils; developing effective communication skills; as well as acquiring an insight into establishing and running a successful teaching practice.

At this point in the performance journey, students have learned to adapt to various settings and investigated their own artistic voice. Having learned these skills, the students now need to learn how to lead other musicians to achieve their artistic vision. Leading in Performance is a workshop-based module designed to assist students in achieving their musical leadership goals using a combination of group management and musical literacy skills.

This module will culminate in a scenario where students will lead a performance of two songs with only one rehearsal to prepare for the concert. The aim of this module is for students to assume leadership roles and drive a small team of musicians in an experience similar to that of a late-night TV show house band.

Performance for audience is a collaborative module that encourages students to stretch their musical boundaries and develop longer thematically connected musical performances. In this module students must generate 25-minute performances that both sustain performance energy and deliver a well curated musical experience for audiences. In this module students demonstrate a mastery of performance logistics, musical organisation, and audience engagement.

The module is designed to give you the opportunity to:  

1. Develop an advanced understanding of key theoretical elements relevant to the area of popular music performance.  

2. Develop a robust approach to group and independent learning.  

3. Understand the importance of understanding advanced theoretical skills and how they can be applied to practical skills. 

Performance for industry is the culminating performance experience where level 6 students have the opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of performance to a panel of industry experts. Students will propose and design a performance event in consultation with the module tutor that represents their aesthetic journey as an artist and performer.

This module is designed to develop the level of personal entrepreneurial skills needed by a current day portfolio career musician. You will examine and investigate current social and consumer trends of the creative industries and learn how to interact with and reflect this in your commercial and entrepreneurial skills.

Through this final project module, you are provided with the opportunity to explore and critically discuss a variety of aspects of rehearsal and live performance processes.

Through stimulated video recall processes, you will evaluate your musical direction skills, focusing on the areas of interaction and expressivity, and form an understanding of the technical and communicative skills required in live, popular music performance which should be fully representative of this level of study.

These skills culminate in the planning and delivery of a live musical performance, in which you are expected not only to perform to an advanced standard, showcasing your technical and communicative ability but also to lead in the delivery of an accomplished performance which is fully representative of professional level performance.

Within this module, there will also be an opportunity to study for an additional LCME diploma qualification (LLCM) in performance, which will be directly linked to the module content but is not compulsory.