Bachelor of Music with Honours

The RNCM Bachelor of Music with Honours (BMus Hons) degree supports the education of creative, inquisitive, well-rounded musicians, complementing your passion for performance or composition with academic and professional training to the highest standard.

In addition to Principal Study, your artistic and technical expertise will flourish through group tuition, classes and masterclasses with high-profile artists, and a range of performance opportunities. You’ll also be encouraged to follow your own path, developing specialisms, connections and a personal musical style as the programme progresses. With a clear emphasis on success, fulfilment, and musical wellbeing, the course will help you master the skills necessary to build and enjoy a musical career in the 21st Century.

Course Modules

The BMus (Hons) comprises of 480 credits over four years and is made up of three complementary components: Principal Study, Career Development (including Placements and Projects), and Academic Studies. Within its core structure, students also have the chance to develop emerging specialisms through optional practical and vocational electives.

Years 1 and 2 include:

• At least one hour per week in your one-to-one lesson with your vocal, instrumental or composition tutor.
• Attending various other classes with your School, including masterclasses with visiting artists, performance classes, and ensemble training.
• Attending weekly lectures and seminars to study music from a diversity of cultural, social, and historically-contextualised perspectives, engaging with topical debates while developing core skills and knowledge by studying a wide range of music.
• Attending classes to develop your artistic identity as a creative musician, learning about and reflecting on the many tools, skills, and abilities needed for a career in music.

Years 3 and 4 include:

• Continuing with your weekly one-to-one lesson.
• Choosing specialist areas of study from a choice of electives, including options exploring education, health and wellbeing, psychology, history, theory and analysis, technology, and the music industry. You can also choose from a wide range of practical and performance electives relating to and complementing your Principal Study work, including options in conducting, chamber music, jazz improvisation, opera, and historical performance.
• Undertaking performance studies, including the option to specialise in repertoires such as brass band, jazz, and contemporary music. In Year 4, you will have the option to take an additional elective in an area of emerging specialism.
• Completing a work-based learning placement in an area such as music and health, arts administration, education, sound engineering, and recording.
• Completing an independent creative project. This can range from organising a charity concert or music competition, to staging a musical in a park, recording an EP, scoring a video game, or undertaking a tour with a musical ensemble or as a soloist. You will receive training in entrepreneurial skills, and you are assigned a mentor to advise on your project.

Along with this tuition, instrumentalists and singers join a variety of RNCM ensembles and opera casts, delivering performances throughout the year. Composers hear their own compositions for any ensemble performed in full. You many also gain opportunities to perform as part of your own ensemble(s) or as a soloist in a wide range of concerts and productions.

Assessment methods are designed to develop and evaluate various skills in all students. Feedback is provided on all assessments, enabling you to enhance your learning by acting on constructive criticism and appraisals given in the context of all modules, both formatively and in relation to summative, credit-bearing assessments. Assessment methods are diverse, and include: live performance or composition portfolio assessment, written assessment, reflective portfolio, presentation, vlog or blog, arrangements, theory tests, aural and improvisation assessment.