The degree is built on three fundamental elements – your music, your career and your projects. It deals with what really matters in the industry. It will expand your options and push you to create original, boundary-shifting music. And both the 3-yr and 2-yr accelerated options feature our hybrid, on-demand learning model.
Who’s it for?
Every musician has their own story to tell and their own path to follow. At WaterBear, we treat you as an individual and you can study a wide range of subject areas. This course has been specifically designed for:
- Vocalists
- Guitarists
- Drummers
- Bassists
- Songwriters and composers
- Audio producers
- Music managers
- Tour and event managers
- Technicians
All lectures and content are available online for everyone, so you can access a wide range of content across 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
3-yr full-time on-site option
You’ll spend around 8-10 hours each week on site in timetabled teaching and learning activities. You’ll also get access to all your module content prior to your class lectures via WaterBear’s dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
On-site teaching and learning activities can include:
- Lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops
- One-to-one mentoring
- Assignments, assessments and feedback sessions
- Masterclasses
- Live performances and gigs
- Peer collaboration via ‘Jam Cloud’ (VLE)
- Free rehearsal and recording time in professional studios
- Networking and industry conference events
2-yr online accelerated option
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)
- Networking and industry conference events
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’ll have a number of routes to further study available, including the MA Music Entrepreneur course at WaterBear and other postgraduate specialist programmes.
Course modules
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.
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.
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.
