MusM Music (Performance Studies) / Course details

This course unit prepares students for careers as professional musicians and music educators, based on the understanding that performance, learning, and teaching are intrinsically connected and underpinned by a variety of values, approaches, and practices. The course develops students' understanding of the contemporary cultural, economic, institutional and technological contexts in which professional musicians operate, covering aspects of a critical, healthy, and self-sustaining practice, and guidance in the editing and production of a promotional video.    

Various approaches and practices of education and Music teaching are explored,  including theories and methods of instrumental and vocal pedagogy, developing an understanding of different learning and teaching styles, and the capacity to evaluate and enhance their own communicative and educative skills.

Towards the end of the course, practical one-to-one teaching is explored in workshops, with staff and peer feedback and discussion. Students produce a case study based on a chosen approach (scenario), which includes video documentation of an example lesson, a critical reflection, and the formulation of personal artistic and values statements.  

Free Choice: Available to ICP students

• to develop understanding of the cultural, educational, and technological contexts in which professional musicians operate
• to develop knowledge of various approaches to Music Education, including vocal and instrumental pedagogy
• to equip students with knowledge of a range of approaches to the values and principles of teaching and learning
• to enable students’ contextual awareness of their performance practice  

Weekly seminars and workshops 

Weekly office hours 

• demonstrate understanding of the contexts in which contemporary professional musicians operate
• display their knowledge of the principles of concert, festival and event programming
• show a practical knowledge of a range of skills essential for professional musicians, including stagecraft and recording techniques
• show critical understanding of current vocal and instrumental pedagogy
• demonstrate the ability to describe, analyse and evaluate a range of teaching styles and methods, and an understanding of the personal qualities necessary for effective teaching 

• demonstrate the ability to describe, analyse and evaluate different teaching approaches in theory and practice
• articulate their ideas cogently both orally and in writing
• contribute to discussions and defend their viewpoints effectively  

• communicate effectively in a learning and teaching context
• demonstrate a practical knowledge of professional stagecraft and presentation
• record, edit, and upload a promotional video  

• demonstrate a practical and realistic knowledge of working environments
• respond flexibly to rapidly changing professional and pedagogical environments
• work with confidence, self-assurance, and sensitivity as performers and teachers, possessing the capacity for reflection and self-awareness 

Bauer, William I., Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing and Responding to Music (Oxford, 2014) 

Browning, Birch, An Orientation to Musical Pedagogy: Becoming a Musician-Educator (Oxford, 2017) 

Hallam, Susan, Instrumental Teaching: A Practical Guide to Better Teaching and Learning (Oxford, 1998) 

Rink, John (ed.), The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation (Cambridge, 2005) 

Rutter, Paul, The Music Industry Handbook (2nd edn Abingdon, 2016) 

Technical support for video editing will be provided. Media equipment and rooms are available to book and use for recording examples.