BA Music - Popular Music (Hons)
Leeds College of Music
Key Information
Campus location
Leeds, United Kingdom
Languages
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Study format
On-Campus
Duration
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Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
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Application deadline
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Earliest start date
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Scholarships
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Introduction
BA Music - Popular Music (Hons)
Why Leeds?
Making it as a pop musician in today's fast-moving industry takes more than just having a good body of work – you'll need to be innovative, adaptable and business-minded.
Built around a mixture of one-to-one tuition, small-ensemble work and seminars, Leeds College of Music's BA (Hons) Popular Music pathway is geared towards finding and refining your musical identity, and giving you the tools and experience required to sustain a career as a working musician.
You can specialise in Pop, widen your portfolio by choosing the Combined degree – mixing Pop with Classical, Jazz or Music Production – or, if you're keen to qualify quickly and get a headstart in the industry, you can opt for the two-year Accelerated course.
Your Tutors
Our BA (Hons) students receive 120 hours of specialist tuition across three years, allowing you to work closely with active musicians who know their industry inside out.
Led by Danny Cope and Dr Andrew West, your tutors are experts in everything from improvisation to theme music, dance and house to country, and work as – among other things – vocal coaches (Dane Chalfin), string arrangers (Katie Chatburn), solo artists (Alistair Jowett) and session musicians and DJs (Andrew Hickey).
They are joined throughout the year by visiting professionals who offer you invaluable insights into the pop world: recent visitors include Jeremy Lascelles, former head of A&R at Virgin and ex-CEO of Chrysalis, who signed Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes; Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Iain Archer, who has written for Snow Patrol and Leona Lewis; and Radiohead, Paul Weller and Kasabian producers Charlie Russell and Brad Spence.
Curriculum
The Course
As a pop musician, you'll naturally want to share and develop your ideas with others. With access to the Conservatoire's ensembles and Classical, Jazz, and Production communities, your opportunities to collaborate, perform and get your own material heard and produced are unlimited – and with industry professionals from successful songwriters to promoters and record label representatives regularly visiting the Conservatoire, your networking opportunities are unbeatable.
As you develop your core skills – theory and harmony, arranging, historical and cultural studies, etc. – you hone in on your strengths and choose from options as varied as Electroacoustic Composition, Music and Ideology, Composition and Production for the Moving Image, and Indian Composition, to name a few. In your third year you work towards a major final performance or significant portfolio of compositions.
The music industry is constantly changing, so you'll spend time looking at how it works, and how to carve out your own place within it. You'll expand on your business and marketing skills and enhance essential personal skills such as project management, and your final year sees you undertake a substantial independent project in Community Music, Music Journalism or Events Management.
Career Opportunities
Your Future
Whether you find yourself as a performing artist, writing for others, working in education or the creative industries and beyond, the contacts you make and solid industry experience you earn at Leeds College of Music will last you long into your career.
Students regularly have the chance to meet and present to A&R from labels as high profile as EMI, Decca, and 19 Entertainment. Following a visit from Island Records in 2011, pop student Steph Fraser signed a recording deal with the label, while at just 19, past student Luke Fitton was headhunted by Xenomania Entertainment, eventually joining Kylie Minogue's band as her lead guitarist.
Recent alumni have been voted Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2012 British Blues Awards (blues guitarist and singer Chantel McGregor), supported Joan as Policewoman and Julia Stone on tour (Paul Thomas Saunders), and performed at Glastonbury, Green Man, and Bestival (Ellen and the Escapades). Others have taken up positions with the Arts Council, as peripatetic/freelance music tutors/vocal coaches, and in PR and communications.