MMus Songwriting

4.7
3 reviews
  • Courses were good and so was the campus. I would surely recommend this place to all. It's a good place overall.
    |
  • There are always pros and cons. I had a great experience there.
    |
  • My confidence level was boosted and I am glad I joined this place.
    |

Master

In Corsham

£ 13,860 VAT inc.

Description

  • Type

    Master

  • Location

    Corsham

  • Duration

    1 Year

  • Start date

    Different dates available

Songwriting remains one of the UK’s biggest net exports and UK music is stronger than ever. Popular song is at the heart of this industry, and global demand for new songs is greater than ever. Focusing your portfolio through research prepares you to contribute to this exciting field.

You’ll develop and focus your creative song output, applying practice-based learning at our Corsham Court and Newton Park world-heritage research centres. We maintain strong links with industry professionals, guest artists and guest lecturers.

You’ll develop a range of new creative strategies, alongside a critical perspective on your songs and their relationship with their audience and industry. This is informed by a researched blend of practical, theoretical and scholarly practice – the kind of teaching and learning unique to Bath Spa University.

Having stretched the range of creative options available to you within your own artistic palette, you’ll turn your hand to research; this is your entry to the post-graduate world. You’ll identify the industrial context relevant to your songs; your knowledge of your field will become intensified through primary research, secondary research and contact with guest speakers from industry.

Collaborating with songwriters from near and far will increase your creative and networking range; ahead of your Major Project contextual and collaborative research perform the vital tasks of shaping your song outputs.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Corsham (Wiltshire)
See map

Start date

Different dates availableEnrolment now open

About this course

From day one you’ll write songs, utilising alternative strategies designed to work alongside whatever creative approach you’ve enjoyed to date.

Lyric-writing, and a fluent command of imagery, metaphor and narrative is nurtured as the chords and melody take shape around language’s mood and meaning. All the while, you’ll investigate the power and potential of various song forms, different modes of address, perspectives, time-frames and characters.

The range of professional outcomes from this course is as broad as the world of song. Our graduates now work as:

Signed artists
Signed writers
Lecturers
Researchers
Agents
Performers
Teachers
Therapists
Publishers
The course is also an excellent grounding if you’re interested in going on to a PhD.

We offer places on the basis of the student's experience, potential and commitment as a songwriter. Normally, but not invariably, applicants have a first degree (or equivalent music industry experience) plus a substantial body of recorded work, equal to that which would be obtained as part of a related undergraduate course. Applicants should submit their application together with 3 songs on a weblink accompanied with lyrics. Applications are invited from candidates with a range of academic disciplines and from a variety of national backgrounds. Where an applicant does not have a degree, he or

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Reviews

4.7
excellent
  • Courses were good and so was the campus. I would surely recommend this place to all. It's a good place overall.
    |
  • There are always pros and cons. I had a great experience there.
    |
  • My confidence level was boosted and I am glad I joined this place.
    |
100%
4.5
fantastic

Course rating

Recommended

Centre rating

Student's Review

5.0
11/05/2019
About the course: Courses were good and so was the campus. I would surely recommend this place to all. It's a good place overall.
Would you recommend this course?: Yes

Rebecca

5.0
11/05/2019
About the course: There are always pros and cons. I had a great experience there.
Would you recommend this course?: Yes

Student's Review

4.0
09/05/2019
About the course: My confidence level was boosted and I am glad I joined this place.
Would you recommend this course?: Yes
*All reviews collected by Emagister & iAgora have been verified

This centre's achievements

2019

All courses are up to date

The average rating is higher than 3.7

More than 50 reviews in the last 12 months

This centre has featured on Emagister for 14 years

Subjects

  • DJ
  • Project
  • Industry
  • Methodology
  • Songwriting
  • Performers
  • Song
  • Choreographers
  • Lyrical Perspectives
  • Producer
  • Film Directors
  • History Of Song

Course programme

· Songwriting Skills is a twelve-week ‘bootcamp’ in which you are asked to generate lyric ideas as part of a daily set of tasks and routines. You develop a feel for sensory imagery, metaphor and a facility for narrative tension. Meanwhile you apply various creative approaches to harmonic constructions and melodic devices. Of the songs generated here, many will go on to become part of your final Major Project showcase.

· History Of Song is the first of our research modules and here you are asked to investigate your own personal history of song. Lectures focus on song-form, lyrical perspectives, character and identity whilst you are asked to choose a range of your own favourite songs. You then utilise Bath Spa’s extensive international library resources to research the techniques and principles which distinguish these tunes. Research here serves to formalise your instincts for song.

· Collaborative Songwriting reflects an increasing industrial tendency towards multiple writers on the world’s most successful songs. Your collaborations are open for you to negotiate. This may be with another songwriter or team, producer, performer or DJ. Songwriters on the course have collaborated with poets, choreographers and film directors. It is open for you to decide. All we require is that you negotiate the many human and professional decisions and choices required of the collaborative experience.

· Context and Methodology is partly PhD training and partly a ‘pathfinder’ contextual study into an economic/cultural context for your future song outputs. From folk to hip-hop, indie, metal, etc each industrial context possesses a uniquely different set of venues, publishers, labels, agents, producers and performers. Each of these contexts are defined by a set of modes and approaches which ultimately reflect audience and market. You assemble a methodology with which to report on a socio-economic cultural context appropriate for your particular form of song. Along the way, you train as a postgraduate researcher.

· Major Project is where you bring all your research and preparation into focus. You are asked to present a showcase artefact representing the songs developed during your time on the course. Usually this is an album. For some it will be several projects for differing contexts, like a writer’s showcase for a publisher. Some students choose to perform live and record the performance, though most students engage with contemporary production processes. Your final showcase is up to you to define; this is your calling card and the beginning of a new journey.

Course assessment

Assessments range from simple audio sketches in the early stages to full album productions in the final stages; each of which is assessed for its quality and market focus. On the research modules, formal, researched and referenced post-graduate papers express your intellectual and analytical development.

Additional information

Course length: MMus full-time: three trimesters (one calendar year); MMus part-time: six trimesters (two calendar years); Also available as a distance learning route.
Teaching methods
You can choose to study with us at Corsham Court or alternatively you can study as a Distance Learning student. Whichever route you choose, the curriculum will be the same; you’ll enjoy the same modules, learning outcomes and criteria. At Corsham Court there are regular taught sessions running across each of the three trimesters. Lectures, visiting speakers, seminars, workshops, presentations and playback sessions work on song material and research outcomes. Songwriting circles are a particularly dynamic environment for both networking and analysis and developing the language of creative critique.

MMus Songwriting

£ 13,860 VAT inc.