Introduction
Music at Aberdeen is the wonderful opportunity to learn, compose and perform with world-renowned composers, conductors, musicologists and researchers working in all genres, styles and periods. You will benefit from first-class facilities and instruments and unrivalled opportunities to grow as a musician and performer, be part of the vibrant musical scene in north-east Scotland and have options to specialise in teaching music or working with music in community settings.
Study Information
At a Glance
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Degree Qualification
- BMus
- Duration
- 48 months
- Study Mode
- Full Time
- Start Month
- September
- UCAS Code
- W300
Aberdeen is the ideal environment and location to study music, with 500 years of musical history and heritage and a vibrant cultural identity, which celebrates the traditional while embracing the modern.
When you enter our highly-regarded BMus programme you might already have specific career aspirations including editing, writing and presenting music, composing and performing. If you are still considering your music career however, our degrees are specifically designed to give you the time to explore and develop your interests with a broad foundation in music before choosing your specific programme. You will study performance, composition and theory, musicianship and a broad overview of music history which serves as the foundation for future study and specialising in subsequent years.
You may wish to continue honing your skills as a musician and specialising in composition, performance and musicology, especially in your final year. Alternatively, you can specialise in teaching in the BMus (Education) programme.
Your studies will prepare you for a wide variety of careers, not only in music but applying your skills in education, in the media and in business and there are Aberdeen graduates working in music agencies and in the management of London and Scottish orchestras.
You will thrive in our friendly and vibrant international community, on our beautiful medieval campus with great facilities for learning, sports and leisure.
We also offer various opportunities for students, staff, and community members to perform together at our music ensembles. From folk to classical, we have a range of genres to suit your musical interests.
What You'll Study
Music at Aberdeen offers a range of diverse courses and the performance and composition skills that you will develop will help you prepare for an exciting career in music. Some of the topics that you will explore throughout the programme include musicianship, digital musicianship, music theory, harmony and analysis, composition, music history and musicology, performance, composition, conducting, harmony and ethnomusicology.
- Year 1
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Compulsory Courses
- Academic Writing for Language & Literature (AW1008)
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This compulsory evaluation is designed to find out if your academic writing is of a sufficient standard to enable you to succeed at university and, if you need it, to provide support to improve. It is completed on-line via MyAberdeen with clear instructions to guide you through it. If you pass the evaluation at the first assessment it will not take much of your time. If you do not, you will be provided with resources to help you improve. This evaluation does not carry credits but if you do not complete it this will be recorded on your degree transcript.
- Getting Started at the University of Aberdeen (PD1002)
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This course, which is prescribed for level 1 undergraduate students (and articulating students who are in their first year at the University), is studied entirely online, takes approximately 5-6 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across a number of weeks.
Topics include orientation overview, equality and diversity, health, safety and cyber security and how to make the most of your time at university in relation to careers and employability.
Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Enhanced Transcript as ‘Achieved’.
- Introduction to Music Studies (MU1026)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Performing and Composing 1 (MU1027)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Digital Musicianship: Music Making in the Digital Age (MU1058)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Writing About Music (MU1528)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Performing and Composing 2 (MU1527)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Introduction to Music Theory and Harmony (MU1557)
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15 Credit Points
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.
Optional Courses
In addition to the above, select a further 30 credit points from courses of choice.
- Year 2
-
Compulsory Courses
- Introduction to Musicology (MU2023)
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15 Credit Points
Students will explore a range of elementary issues in musicology relating to some of the following: music history, theory and analysis, sociology of music, psychology of music, aesthetics, ethnomusicology, world music, early music, opera, concert music, jazz, popular music, music in film and television, musical performance, composition, music technology and the economics of the music business.
The course will consider a range of music taking into account the kinds of methodologies and discourses in which this music is discussed.
- Analysing Music (MU2523)
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15 Credit Points
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.
Optional Courses
Select AT LEAST TWO courses from EACH of the following groups:
Group 1
- (MU2029) Composition I: Fundamentals
- (MU2054) Performing 1
- (MU2028) Music and Technology
- (MU2038) The Emerging Musical Practitioner
Group 2
- (MU2529) Composition II: Realisations
- (MU2554) Performance 2
- (MU2527) Introduction to Ethnomusicology
- (MU2535) The Emerging Musical Practitioner 2
Plus, select 30 credit points from courses of choice.
- Composition i: Fundamentals (MU2029)
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15 Credit Points
This ten-week course will introduce compositional skills that are of importance to contemporary composers. These important skills are grouped into five key areas: Tonality, Melody, Texture, Rhythm and Timbre. Students will learn these skills and techniques and assimilate them very quickly, being assessed on two pieces of compositional work over the half-session.
- Performing 1 (MU2054)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- Music and Technology (MU2028)
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15 Credit Points
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 3rd and 4th year.
- The Emerging Musical Practitioner (MU2038)
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15 Credit Points
The Emerging Musical Practitioner is open to, and relevant for any musician who would like to explore wider vocational options in music; whether as a composer, educator (formal or informal), musicologist or performer.
- Composition II: Realisations (MU2529)
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15 Credit Points
This ten-week course will introduce compositional skills that are of importance to contemporary composers. These important skills are grouped into five key instrumental areas: Woodwind, Brass, Percussion, Strings and Electronics. Students will learn these skills and techniques and assimilate them very quickly, being assessed on two pieces of compositional work over the half-session.
- Performing 2 (MU2554)
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15 Credit Points
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.
- The Emerging Practitioner 2 (MU2535)
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15 Credit Points
This is a fully interactive course designed to develop students' musicianship skills whilst examining the pedagogy and resources required to transfer musicianship skills to participants in a diverse range of settings regardless of starting ability, thus equipping students to become emerging musical practitioners in a range of education and community music settings. Participatory music making, socio-cultural learning and experience of working in groups will be explored in this course.
- Introduction to Ethnomusicology (MU2527)
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15 Credit Points
This course offers students an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology, including the historical development of the field, how to conduct fieldwork and some of the field’s key theoretical perspectives. The course will introduce students to a range of musical traditions from around the world through case studies that demonstrate the close relationship between music, society and culture (topics include nationalism, colonialism, identity, race and globalisation). Teaching will take the form of lecture-seminars, reading group sessions and tutorials. The course also has a strong practical element where students will have the opportunity to conduct ethnomusicological fieldwork including ethnographic interviews.
- Year 3
-
Optional Courses
Select 90 credit points from courses in Music, that may include:
- Beeps and Blips
- Conducting
- Aesthetics of Music
- Film and Music
- Music, Health and Wellbeing
- Music and Place
- Performing
- Composing
- Community Music
- Music Now
Plus 30 credit points from courses of choice
- Year 4
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Compulsory Courses
- Dissertation in Music (MU4049)
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30 Credit Points
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.
Optional Courses
Select a further 90 credit points from courses in Music, that may include:
- Composing
- Public Recital
- Community Music
- Composing with Sound
- Literature and Music
- Global Musical Modernism
- Music, Representation and Cultural Encounters
With a minimum of 60 credits from level 4.
We will endeavour to make all course options available. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page.
How You'll Study
Teaching is delivered through a mixture of lectures, seminar groups, tutorials and individual instrumental and vocal tuition. Methods of assessment take the form of submitted coursework (essays and compositions).
Learning Methods
- Group Projects
- Individual Projects
- Lectures
- Tutorials
Assessment Methods
Students are assessed by any combination of three assessment methods:
- Coursework such as essays and reports completed throughout the course.
- Practical assessments of the skills and competencies they learn on the course.
- Written examinations at the end of each course.
The exact mix of these methods differs between subject areas, years of study and individual courses.
Honours projects are typically assessed on the basis of a written dissertation.
Why Study Music?
- Academic staff who are internationally recognised experts in composition, performance, musicology, music in schools, community music and many rising student stars.
- The flexibility to study music alongside a wide range of other subjects at Honours level.
- Specialist facilities including three state-of-the-art Electroacoustic Composition studios as well as Music Technology workstations.
- Wonderful collection of historic instruments including a 1771 Kirkman harpsichord, also full Balinese Gamelan, Steel Pans and Samba/Salsa instruments.
- Instrumental/vocal courses available in all years of the programme, with tuition costs normally covered by the University.
- University Symphony Orchestra, Chamber and Chapel choirs with growing international reputations, Choral Society, String Ensemble, Viol Consort, Recorder Consort, New Music Group, Baroque Ensemble, Concert Band, Big Band, Opera Society, chamber groups and many more.
- Excellent performance opportunities with the early sixteenth-century Chapel often used for services and performances of sacred and concert music.
- Our Chapel boasts an all-mechanical pipe organ built by the French builder Aubertin – the first by this builder in the UK.
- Opportunities to perform at University ceremonies, graduations, recitals, VIP visits, formal dinners and festivals.
- The prestigious Ogston Music Prize and a range of scholarships and special support for outstanding students.
- Aberdeen city is known as a lively centre for music and links with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Aberdeen City Music School, North East of Scotland Music School, the Sound Festival and other organisations continue to develop.
- Opportunities to take part in master classes led by visiting musicians.
- A packed campus programme of student and public events, exhibitions, seminars, invited speakers and the annual May Festival which welcomes internationally acclaimed musicians, choirs and orchestras to campus every spring.
Aberdeen Global Scholarship
The University of Aberdeen is delighted to offer eligible self-funded international on-campus undergraduate students a £6,000 scholarship for every year of their programme.
View the Aberdeen Global ScholarshipEntry Requirements
Qualifications
The information below is provided as a guide only and does not guarantee entry to the University of Aberdeen.
General Entry Requirements
- 2024 Entry
-
SQA:
Applicants who achieve ABBB in four distinct disciplines are encouraged to apply. We do not double count a Higher and Advanced Higher in the same subject. Music Higher preferred.
A Level:
Minimum of 3 A Levels at BBB. Music A Level at minimum Grade B.
IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE (ILC)
Three subjects a Higher minimum, with 3 at H2. Music at Higher preferred.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB)
Minimum 32 points including at least a Grade 6 at Music at HL
Please Note: Candidates for the BMus Music (honours) are required to demonstrate a strong interest in the study of music as well as significant attainment in one or more of a range of disciplines including performance, composition, music technology, musicology, and community engagement. Entry to the programme will be assessed on the strength of the candidate's academic record and personal statement. Graded qualifications on instrument or voice are welcome but are not essential. Candidates may be invited to interview.
- 2025 Entry
-
SQA:
Applicants who achieve ABBB in four distinct disciplines are encouraged to apply. We do not double count a Higher and Advanced Higher in the same subject. Music Higher preferred.
Foundation Apprenticeship: One FA is equivalent to a Higher at A. It cannot replace any required subjects.
A Level:
Minimum of 3 A Levels at BBB. Music at A Level preferred.
IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE (ILC)
Three subjects a Higher minimum, with 3 at H2. Music at Higher preferred.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB)
Minimum 32 points including at least a Grade 6 at Music at HL
Please Note: Candidates for the BMus Music (honours) are required to demonstrate a strong interest in the study of music as well as significant attainment in one or more of a range of disciplines including performance, composition, music technology, musicology, and community engagement. Entry to the programme will be assessed on the strength of the candidate's academic record and personal statement. Graded qualifications on instrument or voice are welcome but are not essential. Candidates may be invited to interview.
The information displayed in this section shows a shortened summary of our entry requirements. For more information, or for full entry requirements for Music degrees, see our detailed entry requirements section.
English Language Requirements
To study for an Undergraduate degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:
IELTS Academic:
OVERALL - 6.0 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 5.5; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0
TOEFL iBT:
OVERALL - 78 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 18; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21
PTE Academic:
OVERALL - 59 with: Listening - 59; Reading - 59; Speaking - 59; Writing - 59
Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency:
OVERALL - 169 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 162; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169
Read more about specific English Language requirements here.
Fees and Funding
You will be classified as one of the fee categories below.
| Fee category | Cost |
|---|---|
| RUK | £9,250 |
| Tuition Fees for 2025/26 Academic Year | |
| EU / International students | £20,800 |
| Tuition Fees for 2025/26 Academic Year | |
| Home Students | £1,820 |
| Tuition Fees for 2025/26 Academic Year |
Additional Fees
- In exceptional circumstances there may be additional fees associated with specialist courses, for example field trips. Any additional fees for a course can be found in our Catalogue of Courses.
- For more information about tuition fees for this programme, including payment plans and our refund policy, please visit our Tuition Fees page.
Scholarships and Funding
UK Scholarship
Students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who pay tuition fees may be eligible for specific scholarships allowing them to receive additional funding. These are designed to provide assistance to help students support themselves during their time at Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Global Scholarship
The University of Aberdeen is delighted to offer eligible self-funded international on-campus undergraduate students a £6,000 scholarship for every year of their programme. More about this funding opportunity.Funding Database
View all funding options in our Funding Database.
Careers
Our music programme is specifically designed to enable students to pursue a career in music or a related field. The performance and composition skills, coupled with the deep knowledge and understanding that you will gain of the subject, will help you prepare for a variety of careers. Previous graduates of our Music programme now work in teaching, community music, editing, writing and presenting music, composing and performing.
Our Experts
Information About Staff Changes
You will be taught by a range of experts including professors, lecturers, teaching fellows and postgraduate tutors. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page.
World Class Facilities
The Music department at Aberdeen has access to large lecture halls with pianos and audio playback equipment as well as the usual data projectors and IT facilities expected of a modern music teaching facility. Our dedicated computer lab contains 30 audio workstations and we also have a dedicated Percussion Studio. As an undergraduate, you will also have access to instruments, performance rooms and collections whenever you need.
Discover Uni
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Get in Touch
Contact Details
- Address
-
Student Recruitment & Admissions
University of Aberdeen
University Office
Regent Walk
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX