Popular Music Performance

This dynamic and distinctly forward-looking degree will provide you with the playing, performing, technical and theoretical skills you need for a career as a professional portfolio musician in today’s ever-changing music industry.

Our fast-moving and increasingly digital world has seen many opportunities for the modern music industry to evolve recently, bringing performers, musicians, audiences and music lovers together in exciting new ways. This programme embraces the context of the global music revolution, allowing you to focus intensely on your instrument of choice, while gaining innovative business and technology skills that will truly set you apart after graduation.

At the core of your BMus degree is your principal instrument – guitar, bass, drums or vocals. Through research and analysis of established genres, styles and repertoire, you’ll develop a broad, comprehensive understanding of genre conventions, so you’re set up to succeed in a wide range of performance scenarios – whether live, livestreamed or recorded.

You’ll develop outstanding technical skills on your primary instrument, with regular one-on-one instrumental tuition with your ICMP tutors across all three years of your degree, plus you’ll be encouraged to explore a foundation in keyboard skills. Unique opportunities are available within the ICMP community to direct bands, ensembles and choirs, ensuring you become a well-rounded, technically accomplished musician who can work across multiple musical environments and contexts.

The degree covers a full spectrum of learning opportunities in areas such as performance, stylistic techniques, music technology, music theory, arranging and composing, session skills, recording, musical theatre, teaching and business skills. Across your three years, you’ll participate in a combination of lectures and seminars, workshops, practice-based sessions, self-directed learning and, of course, your highly personalised one-to-one tuition. A practice-as-research philosophy underpins all theoretical, practical and academic modules, with demonstration of practice-based learning and understanding in assessment tasks.

Members of our highly esteemed ICMP teaching faculty will provide you with significant knowledge of the internal workings of the music industry through the delivery of regular masterclasses, industry events and networking opportunities, along with exposure to a wide range of guest lecturers and emerging artists.

A key focus of the degree is collaboration – through live performance workshops, you’ll develop a strong camaraderie with your fellow BMus students, be inspired to network, create projects with students from other ICMP programmes, and receive personalised instrumental feedback.

By the time you graduate with ICMP, you’ll be fluent in the language of popular music, capable of working in creative and collaborative music business environments, and ready to explore exciting industry pathways to begin your professional career. You’ll also leave us with an impressive professional portfolio of work you can present to the industry as evidence of your performance talents.