The 2-year accelerated online (distance learning) version of the BA (Hons) Career Musician degree is perfect for musicians who don’t want to put their lives on hold to go to a traditional university, but still want the qualification.
You’ll get a £750 bursary to invest in music or studio equipment, so you can learn on your own gear. You’ll also get a Protools subscription and Slate All Access software bundle included in the course fee.
Who it’s for
Every musician has their own story to tell and their own path to follow. That’s why at WaterBear, we treat you as an individual and you can select to study a wide range of subject areas. Your main interest may be:
- Vocals
- Guitar
- Drums
- Bass
- Production
- Songwriting
- DJing
- Tour management
- Event management
- Technical / events support
Everything is online, so you can mix and match different subjects. You can design your own path through the degree, and make it your own.
You’re a drummer who also wants to sing better? Or a songwriter who needs to improve your recording and mixing skills? Or just want to stay fully focussed on your main interest? No problem. How and what you study is completely up to you.
All musicians at WaterBear will make, record, mix and master their music. We provide a supportive, safe environment to experiment and create. You’ll also develop a personal career plan to support your ambitions.
How you will learn
You’ll get access to all of your course content via WaterBear’s dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). You’ll also be able to participate in tutorials, discussions and meetings using video conferencing.
Online teaching and learning activities can include:
- Lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops
- One-to-one mentoring
- Assignments, assessments and feedback sessions
- Masterclasses
- Virtual performances and gigs
- Performance and peer collaboration via ‘Jam Cloud (VLE)
You’ll also be invited to attend regular events, masterclasses and other activities happening at the WaterBear campus in Brighton, which is optional.
Career pathways
This course is designed to develop careers in:
- Music performance and composition
- Audio/visual production
- Studio recording
- Music production and engineering
- Live sound engineering
- Digital marketing and PR
- Digital content creation
- Tour, artist and events management
- Artist, label and publishing services
- Technical support
- Music education
Further study
After graduating, you will have a number of routes to further study available, including the MA Music Entrepreneur course at WaterBear and other postgraduate specialist programmes.
Course modules
Year One (Level 4)
Module title: Your Music
Creating original work or interpreting cover versions that represent you as an individual. Making music that tells your story as an artist. This is me today, and this is where I am going.
Module title: Your Music Industry
The music industry, past and present. Exciting case studies of artists that have made an important contribution to music. How did they do it? How can you employ these insights into your own music projects, right now?
Module title: Your Musical Development
Expanding your skills and abilities. Pushing the boundaries of instrumental or vocal technique, producing lo-fi experimental work, or writing a hit pop song. The direction you take your music is controlled by you.
Module title: Your Strategy
Creating your individual career plan, with careful design and thorough testing. Here we develop knowledge of current music industry practice to create career plans that are a). realistic and b). achievable.
Year Two (Level 5)
Module title: Who Are You?
Time to Stop and reflect. Who exactly are you? Competent musicians can play, sing and write well, but an artist stands for so much more. Loads of music creation, production, performance and soul searching will help you become the best possible version of you.
Module title: Making Things Happen
Now’s the time for the rehearsal and practice to stop and for you to show the world what you’re made of. Working as a team to put on shows and events. From live streams, to solo acoustic shows, to a fully-fledged national tour. It’s all fair game.
Module title: Innovation in Music
Expanding your music into new and ground-breaking environments. Different methods of recording. Innovative playing techniques. New ways of writing songs or performing. You’ll use this as inspiration to create a wide range of original or creative covers.
Module title: Innovation in Music Business
Just because it’s about the ‘music business’, doesn’t mean this module is dry. No way. You’ll bring all your creative faculties to the table to create innovative new business models for the future music industry.
Year Three (Level 6)
Module title: Dissertation
A dissertation isn’t just a long essay. It’s so much more than that. Yes, you’ll be honing your academic chops as you undertake formal research. But you’ll also be preparing the ground for your ambitious final project (Destinations). This is where you do the prep.
Module title: Journeys
Having thought about what to do for that final project, you’ll now need to prepare for it. A lot. This is where we will do that work together, and document the process. You’ll be getting plenty of mentoring and guidance too, so don’t worry.
Module title: Destinations
The big one. The final project. The springboard into your creative future. You are encouraged to be practical and realistic, but also ambitious and to challenge yourself. There is no limit to where you can take this or what you can do. Anything is possible.
