Music and Sound for Screen BA(Hons)

This module will introduce you to a range of approaches to studying music and music technology. You will develop research, source-handling, evaluation, and critical-thinking skills and apply these to repertoires, cultures, and issues appropriate to your degree course. Linked lectures and seminars will increase your knowledge of key themes and concerns in music studies, give you opportunities to debate your ideas with others, and develop your confidence as an increasingly independent researcher.

You will gain hands-on experience of a variety of key musical skills: improvisation; aural awareness; ensemble performance; and evaluating your own and others' performances. A wide range of styles and genres will be explored, and you will work with musicians relevant to your specialism as a pop, classical, or jazz performer.

You will be introduced to the core concepts, theory and practical principles involved in producing, engineering and mixing popular music. You will gain practical experience in an analogue/digital recording studio, developing your ability to record and overdub a variety of sources. For the mix stage of the production process, you will then review the fundamental approaches and techniques involved in effectively processing these signals.

This practical module will develop your key skills in screen composition, arrangement, and orchestration, including the art of creating quality mock-ups using sampled instruments. Classes will examine a range of approaches to composition for film, videogame, television, animation, and music video, and will work towards a portfolio of your own original compositions.

The module is intended to enable you to develop your compositional abilities, through the exploration of a range of compositional techniques, with particular reference to acquiring a better understanding of rhythm, timbre, melody/contour, harmony, texture, form and notation. You will also explore the basics of instrumentation. Your creative aural imagination will be stimulated by studying and employing a variety of expressive musical languages.

Building on the skills and knowledge acquired in Desktop Music Production 1 or AFM1208 Technology for Music, this module will provide further study of the techniques of computer-based music production. Techniques examined in-depth will include synthesis, sequencing, sampling, editing, processing and mixing techniques, as well as their creative application. Issues of pre/post production and arrangement will also be explored. You will also continue to study musical arrangement within a computer-based production context. You will explore these topics through practical technical and creative work that will improve your techno-fluency and abilities in detailed critical listening. Seminars will support the application of production techniques and ideas.

Inside the Music Business will introduce you to a range of issues relevant to the current music industry, from copyright, contracts and economics through to the role of the media in marketing, reviewing, and representing music. You will explore the production, distribution and revenue models of the global music business and develop the critical and analytical skills to understand these working practices and the ways they relate to your own practice as a musician. On completion of the module, you will have created the assets to represent yourself to industry as a musician and have a digital portfolio of activity related to your chosen aspect of the music industry.

This module will provide a strong understanding of methods for creating, processing and integrating audio into games. You will be able to apply these techniques to a variety of simulated games environments. Generative techniques will be applied to produce music tracks, sound effects associated with objects within games and environmental sound (such as water, wind etc). You will also gain understanding of software commonly used in this area.

This composition module equips you with the skills needed to write original scores for film, television, and videogames. Working towards portfolios of original compositions, you will receive tuition in the technical practices of soundtrack composition: spotting cues, creating live soundtracks for film, arranging and orchestrating pre-existing music, and working with technology to create realistic instrumental sounds and effects.

Working towards a coursework portfolio of your own creative work, you will learn about a range of a range of approaches to orchestration from the Baroque to the present day. Classes will explore the characteristics of individual instruments and strategies for combining them, including issues of balance, voicing, doubling, and effective control of orchestral textures.

Further developing your skills as a researcher of music and musicianship, you will undertake an in-depth exploration of an area of music by choosing one specialist topic from a range on offer. Focusing on theoretical, analytical, and critical approaches to the study of music in society, you will engage with current debates within musicology, discover new repertoire and methodologies, and learn to approach music as a cultural text.

Building on the technical skills and knowledge acquired in Desktop Music Production 1, this module will develop your ability to work creatively with sound, as well as your knowledge of electronic musical practices and thinking. You will be introduced to a broad range of new electronic music and models for thinking about sound as a creative medium. You will listen to, and practically explore, electronic music from a range of contexts, including electronica, EDM, IDM, acousmatic music and sound installation work. Drawing on ideas and music explored in class you will create your own original electronic compositions, showing an awareness of contemporary and historical thinking and techniques.

The placement year is designed to consolidate the skills and knowledge from the first two years of your studies and to enhance your professional skills by giving you the opportunity to do a significant period of work in a graduate-level work environment. The aim of the module is to encourage you to develop personal and professional development planning skills and to appraise your own performance in the workplace. It will also enable you to develop an analytical approach towards your role within a working environment and encourage you to develop real world experience and skills through learning opportunities in the workplace. Completing this module will assist you in clarifying your possible career options will improve your employment prospects upon graduation. You will normally spend a total of 48 weeks, with a minimum of 36 weeks (excluding holidays/sickness) between the end of year two and the beginning of your final year in a suitable work placement(s). The placement will be monitored and you will be assessed on your performance during the work placement upon completion.

This module will provide you with the skills, facilities and support to enable you to set up and run your own business during your sandwich year. It will enable you to develop and apply your knowledge and skills, both technical and personal/social, as developed in your studies to date. It will give you experience of working in a self-employed capacity in an industry appropriate to your course and it will provide you with opportunities for personal development in a self-employment situation, especially in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship.

After an initial lecture and seminar programme covering aspects of professional practice, you will complete a work-related project. Typical work-related projects include: documented placement work (for example, as a classroom assistant in a school; membership, administration or promotion of a non-university music ensemble; assisting in concert management; work as a music copyist and/or editor; music journalism; studio management etc.); researching and building a professional work-related website; releasing music commercially with associated promotion or an industry showcase event . Although there is no requirement for the work-related project to be music-specific, it should provide the student with sufficient opportunity to develop graduate and transferable skills for the workplace and must be agreed with the module leader prior to commencing assessment work.

You will build on the experience you have gained previously in composition, production, and/or songwriting modules to produce a sophisticated piece (or small set of pieces) of music based on a set of staff-led options relevant to your compositional practice. Examples might include multichannel audio composition, instrumental composition, songwriting, music production, and audiovisual composition. Tutorial support for this creative work will be provided. You will be introduced to relevant techniques such as spatialisation, the use of complex orchestration/arrangements, advanced studio production, video, interactive or mixed media work. You will develop your ability to work with such techniques creatively.

This module will introduce advanced concepts, theory and practical skills in the use of a broad range of equipment used for recording and mixing sound for Film and Television. The focus will be on Sound Design, Foley, Sound Effects, Dialogues recording and editing, track lay, and mixing in stereo and surround. Practical experience of location sound recording will be gained and will form an integral part of the module and its assessment. It aims to develop your ability to track lay, synchronise and edit audio along with video in a DAW and develop advanced post-production editing and mixing techniques. Discussions of the theoretical, philosophical and creativity aspects of the area will underpin the module content in lectures.

As an advanced and increasingly independent researcher of music and musicianship, you will undertake an in-depth exploration of a particular area of music by choosing one specialist topic from a range on offer. Focusing on theoretical, analytical, and critical approaches to the study of music in society, you will engage with current debates within musicology, discover new repertoire and methodologies, and learn to approach music as a cultural text.

As an advanced and increasingly independent musical researcher and creative practitioner, you will undertake an in-depth exploration of a particular area of music by choosing one specialist topic from a range on offer. Using musicological study to underpin and inspire artistic activity, you will engage with current issues in practice research, discover new repertoire and approaches to creativity, and reflect on research as an element of your own creative practice.