Music Technology and Composition BMus(Hons)

This module will introduce you to relevant techniques and technologies for computer-based music production, including sequencing, sampling, arrangement, and a variety of other sound processing techniques. A range of practical work - both technical and creative - will develop your critical listening and production skills, and seminars will support you in applying these techniques to your own creative work.

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 module aims to provide you with an overview of the technologies found in a modern audio recording environment. The module will introduce you to audio principles such as signals, acoustics, hearing and digital audio. These principles will be used to develop an understanding of audio technologies found in music production, such as studio spaces, microphones, mixing desks, amplifiers, audio processors and speaker systems.

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.

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 explore a variety of techniques, resources, and notational skills to enhance and extend your work as a composer, including guidance on writing creatively for voices, mixed ensembles, percussion, invented instruments and electronics. With support provided by classes, tutorials, and workshops in a range of musical styles, you will work towards the production of a unique coursework portfolio of compositions.

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.

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.

As an increasingly confident and independent musical researcher and creative practitioner, you will add breadth to your expertise by choosing an additional topic to explore from a range on offer. Using research to underpin and inspire both scholarly and artistic activity, you will engage with current debates within musicology, discover new repertoire and methodologies, and investigate music as a cultural text.

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.

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.

You will be introduced to advanced concepts, theory and practical use of a broad range of equipment used for recording, editing and mixing sound. You will gain practical experience of sound recording in analogue/digital recording studios, in a concert hall and on location. Your ability to edit multitrack audio using advanced post production techniques will be developed, as will the skills required to capture accurate stereo and multichannel recordings in a concert hall environment.

You will work individually, or in small groups (of normally no more than six), devising, managing, delivering and evaluating your project. You will be assigned an individual tutor, to whom the project proposal is submitted for approval and who is responsible for supporting your independent work through the module, and overseeing the assessment of your project outcomes.

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.

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 research to underpin and inspire both scholarly and artistic activity, you will engage with current debates within musicology, discover new repertoire and methodologies, and investigate 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 research to underpin and inspire both scholarly and artistic activity, you will engage with current debates within musicology, discover new repertoire and methodologies, and investigate music as a cultural text.

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'll 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.

This module permits students to select an additional project option to broaden their study alongside the Composition Project module. Please view that description for further details.