Undergraduate Music 2025-2026

This course will engage students in practical music making, developing skills in performing and composing. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on genre, performance style, composing / arranging techniques, rehearsal etiquette, and stagecraft.

In groups of 5-8 performers, students attend a series of rehearsal sessions, where they will plan and manage a group creative project, culminating in a 10-minute performance as part of a mini festival in December. 

Students will be expected to attend concerts, join an ensemble, and participate in occasional workshops.

In this course you will explore ways of writing and talking about music. Lectures will focus on recent work in music studies, showcasing the kind of scholarship you will encounter later in your degree. Tutorials will provide opportunities for experimenting in a range of formal and informal styles, working both individually and in small groups. By the end of the course you will gain a deeper understanding of both established writing conventions and emerging forms of multi-media communication.

 In this course, basic concepts of Western tonal music such as primary triads, cadences, idiomatic chord progressions, and voice leading are taught using exercises in harmonic analysis, figured bass, and part writing. More advanced concepts such as secondary dominants and chromatically-altered chords are also introduced. In parallel to lectures and seminars, students will work with software designed to reinforce key concepts such as clefs, intervals, key signatures, and scale structures.

This course provides aspiring Music Educators an introduction to theoretical understandings and practical applications of models of reflective practice.

This course will examine key ideas and methodologies in music studies, incorporating approaches from a range of ‘disciplines’ such as musicology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, music education and community music. We will discuss a diverse range of topics including: cross cultural definitions of music; the role of music in society; different methodological approaches to the study of music history; how music is learnt in different places and times; and the relationship between music, economics and technology. The course will draw on case studies from musics both within the ‘western’ canon (such as European art music and popular music), as well as musical traditions from across the globe.

Building on “Performing and Composing 1”, this course will guide students to developing their own range of interests in creative musical practice. Students will work towards a portfolio of creative outputs, which can include a range of compositions and musical arrangements, and recordings of solo / ensemble performances.

Students receive 10 hours of one-to-one tuition on their chosen instrument / voice, and attend lectures and tutorials focussing variously on issues related to performance, composition, and music technology.

Combining key components in digital technology and musicianship, Digital Musicianship encourages music students to acquire basic digital skills that will help them explore a wide range of music making in the 21st century, through skill building in the applications of technology to the discipline of Music. This hands-on, project-based course introduces basic knowledge in digital music technology, and key issues related to the music making in the 21st century.

This course offers students an excellent opportunity to acquire foundational skills in music technology from sound recording for ensembles and orchestras to the technology-based compositions and sound design for games using digital audio workstation software. The course content is entirely project-based, and upon the successful completion of the course, students will become well-versed in the intermediate-level skills in music technology and well-prepared for advanced music technology courses in the 3^rd and 4^th year.

The course provides aspiring Music Educators the opportunity to explore a broad range of historical and contemporary educational theories. The course will also examine the applications of these theories in the modern classroom setting through placement experience.

This course focusses on student-led ensemble and solo performance. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on performance practice, style & genre, successful ensemble performance, practising, rehearsal etiquette, and stagecraft.

Students will be given the chance to present individual concepts for an ensemble performance project. Each successful bid will be allocated a group of 5-8 performers, who will develop each concept into a 10-minute public performance, as part of a mini-festival at the university in December.

Students must have achieved a CGS award of C3 or higher in performance at Level 1, 2HS in order to be able to progress to this course in year 2.

Students will develop a critical awareness of form and structure in music by studying various approaches to musical analysis. The course will draw on a range of analytical methods and musical genres, such as functional harmony and classical form, pitch-class set theory, rhetoric in music, and computer-aided analysis.

Music plays an important part in our daily lives and is interwoven into the fabric of human social and cultural life. This course introduces students to key concepts in the study of music, culture and society (such as identity, place, religion, politics and globalisation) through a combination of lectures summarising key topics and tutorials allowing for deeper discussion. Students will approach these topics through a range of case studies from different musical genres and traditions.

The Emerging Musical Practitioner explores the similarities and differences between a range of philosophical and pedagogical approaches to engaging people and communities in music making. The course will explore a range of practitioner styles including Community Musicians, Music Educators, Music Therapists and Instrumental and Vocal Instructors.

This course focusses on solo performance alongside the development of core classroom performance skills. Students will receive 5 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, as well as 10hrs of group tuition in Keyboard Skills, and 10hrs of group tuition in Vocal Skills.

Students will also have the opportunity to attend lectures on performance practice, interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances.

This course focusses on solo performance. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on performance practice, interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances. Students will work towards a 15 minute recital in May.

This ten-week course will introduce students to writing music. It will build upon skills learned in Performing and Composing, Introduction to Music Theory and Harmony and Writing Music I and seek to apply some of these techniques in different compositional settings. Students will learn how to write different styles and genres of music, being assessed on two pieces of written music over the half-session.

This course examines the structure and function of the global music industries within the context of the creative and cultural sectors within with they operate. Primarily focused on contemporary music activity, this course examines music as a labour practice and its associated labour markets. Within this framework, it explores a range of topics such as: live music performance and associated formats, the ongoing role of record labels and the changing nature of recording contracts, music copyright, traditional and non-traditional music studios spaces and associated technologies, music distribution models and formats, the impact (and response to) the digital revolution, and the impact (and response to) the climate crisis.

This course will explore practices and research from the fields of music, therapy, public health and medicine, to rigorously explore the relationship between music, health and wellbeing. 

The course differs from its 15 credit counterpart through its extended work in conjunction with NHS Grampians Public Engagement team in the design and implementation of music, health and wellbeing interventions.

There was an abundance of song in nineteenth-century Britain. On the street and in the home, on the stage and in the classroom, singing was by turns ordinary and astounding – a feature of everyday life and a wonder to behold. This course introduces students to some of the best-known songs and singers of the era while providing them with the tools to explore many more pieces and performers off the beaten track. No detailed prior knowledge of nineteenth-century song is required. 

This course develops individual instrumental/vocal  skills.  Students work on one-to-one basis (20 x 1 hour lessons) with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor on their principal study. Alongside instrumental and vocal lessons students are  encouraged to join one of the department's many ensembles working in weekly rehearsals towards high quality public performances. The course is assessed by a 20 minute recital, a tutor report and a performance essay.

Students must have achieved a CGS award of B3 or higher in year 2 in order to be able to progress to this course in year 3.

This course will build on knowledge and techniques studied and assimilated in earlier composition modules in order to create substantial, original new creations. Students will be required to assimilate new techniques and work them into their own emerging musical language for the assessment procedures. Students will be required to regularly critique existing works using these techniques and this will form part of the formative assessments.

This course focusses on solo performance alongside the development of core classroom performance skills. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, as well as 20hrs of group tuition in Keyboard Skills, and 20hrs of group tuition in Classroom Instruments and Vocal Skills.

Students will have the opportunity to attend lectures on performance practice & interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances.

‘Every Community Musician believes they invented Community Music’ (Imry 2013, cited in Camlin 2015)

The first part of the course course is designed to explore and challenge what community music is and can be, and what it means to each of us in our individual contexts. Using the above as a provocation as well as Kushner Walker and Tarr’s 2001 Publication Case Studies and Issues in Community Music the course will explore the practice of Community Music through academic and participatory lenses.

‘Good intentions are not enough to avoid bad results when you make art with people‘ (Matarasso 2019) 

The second part of this course is designed to situate Community Music within the broader Community Arts field exploring the role of artists in the creation of social, political and economic change.

This course will introduce students to learning and teaching in music education contexts.  Through reflection and practical engagement, students will begin to develop a range of skills essential for teaching in the secondary school.

There was an abundance of song in nineteenth-century Britain. On the street and in the home, on the stage and in the classroom, singing was by turns ordinary and astounding – a feature of everyday life and a wonder to behold. This course introduces students to some of the best-known songs and singers of the era while providing them with the tools to explore many more pieces and performers off the beaten track. No detailed prior knowledge of nineteenth-century song is required.

This course examines musical repertoire, practices and culture in Scotland from the 18th century through to the present day. Seminars will focus on a series of case studies, together exploring wider questions around identity, tradition and genre, especially the intersections between classical, folk, and popular styles, and the creation of national and regional identities through music.

This course examines popular music’s relationship with and to culture and society. Explored through the lens of cultural studies, this course examines key developments since the 1950s as they relate to contemporary music genres, subcultures, and wider socio-cultural issues and movements.

This course will entail research work which will contribute to musicological understanding (at undergraduate level). Students will research a topic of their own choice (subject to approval), demonstrating knowledge and understanding of their chosen subject matter in the form of a 10,000 word dissertation. 

This course focusses on advanced performance, working towards a 30-minute public recital in May.

Students will receive 20 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on performance practice & interpretation, style & genre, writing programme notes, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances.

Students must have achieved a CGS award of B3 or higher in year 3 in order to be able to progress to this course in year 4.

The aim of this course is to allow promising student composers the opportunity to develop their own 'voice' by giving them a degree of creative freedom in what they produce. By the end of the course students are able to compose in a variety of genres, conveying a sense of structure and form in their music as well as working independently. Assessment is via a portfolio of compositions. Lasting c.20 minutes in performance.

This course will
explore theoretical and practical aspects of sound design in a wide range of
film and media, particularly focusing on new media, such as games and
interactive platforms.

As different cultures and nations have come into contact through European colonialism and globalisation, so too have their musics. In this course, we will approach the issue of cultural encounter through the prism of music, and music’s ability to represent and to bring into dialogue different cultural identities. ‘Music, Representation and Cultural Encounters’ will adopt a cross-disciplinary approach examining current scholarship in musicology, ethnomusicology and popular music studies. In the course, we will encounter a number of familiar (and not so familiar) repertoires and genres, including opera/western art music, jazz, popular music, Mediterranean and North African genres.