Undergraduate Course: Creative Musicianship (MUSI08077)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offers a holistic introduction to being a creative musician, focusing on skills inherent to making, performing, and listening to music. The first semester focuses on creative practice group work, ultimately putting together a performance, with other musicians, of newly created works. The second semester focuses on some approaches to putting together the various 'building blocks' of music (both in a written and an aural sense) especially from a harmonic and rhythmic perspective. |
| Course description |
This course provides building blocks for music students who will go on to study at level 10. The first semester is intensely practical, focusing on creative collaborative practice, which ends in a group performance of newly created material. The teaching comprises fortnightly lectures and tutorials.
The second semester focuses on acquiring written and aural skills which feature in many of the kinds of music that students will study later through their degree, including (eg.) introductions to 4-part harmony (song arrangements, chorales, barbershop), arranging jazz standards, working from leadsheets, approaches to rhythm and metre, and aural dictation. This semester offers weekly lectures and tutorials.
The learning experience brings together a number of different approaches. Music analysis will be taught and examined in both a literate and aural manner, alongside creative musicianship through performance and composition. Performance and listening will be a continuous part of the course, even for those sessions that focus on traditional analytical approaches, allowing students to engage with the music studied through performance at keyboard, with the voice, or on their own first-study instruments.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | The first semester of this course runs concurrently with MUSI07001 Fundamentals of Music Theory, depending on prior qualifications. See MUSI07011 Fundamentals of Music Theory course requirements. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have the equivalent of Grade VI Music Theory. You must contact the Course Organiser for the course to seek their permission to enrol in the course, then send that written confirmation to the Visiting Student Office for consideration. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 70 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 17,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
157 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has two assessment components.
- Creative Project (5-7 minutes), 50%, semester 1, around week 11;
- A take-home exam (24 hour), 50%, May exam diet.
The first involves the creation and performance of a group composition and score in groups of 6-8. To be performed in Week 11 of Semester 1.
The second is a take home exam given over a 24-hour period, comprising harmony exercises (for example: lead sheet, chorale, backing vocals, and harmonic/rhythmic dictation. To be taken in the exam period of Semester 2. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback:
Verbal formative feedback for the creative project will be given throughout tutorial sessions with each group in Semester 1.
Students will have the opportunity for feedback weekly, especially during tutorial sessions (verbal) and in response to online quizzes during Semester 2 (written/generated by the software).
Summative Feedback:
For the group composition, verbal feedback will be given directly following the performance, followed by written group feedback in accordance with university regulations. For the take home exam, feedback will be written and returned in accordance with current university regulations. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 0:05 | | | Resit Exam Diet (August) | | 0:05 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Aurally discriminate various harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic structures
- Demonstrate an understanding of compositional techniques across styles and genres, and explore these techniques through the creation of their own work
- Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of harmony, rhythm, and voice leading across a number of genres and periods
- Work effectively in a group with other musicians to realise a musical event
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Reading List
Anna Butterworth, Harmony in Practice. London, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1999 plus reprints
Owen Swindale, Polyphonic Composition. Oxford, 1962 plus reprints.
Eric Taylor, The AB Guide to Music Theory, Part I & Part II. Published by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
Connie Mayfield, Theory essentials: an integrated approach to harmony, ear training, and keyboard skills. California & London: Thomson Schirmer, 2013
Joel Phillips, The musician's guide to aural skills. New York & London: W.W. Norton, 2005 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Graduates will have specialised musical skills relating to ensemble performance, composition, and written and aural practices of analysis. They will be able to use this knowledge to work creatively and independently to develop and implement original and creative responses to musical problems.
Graduates will have skills in personal and intellectual autonomy, and be adaptable, resourceful, reflective and effective, contributing to the ability to work in a range of professional areas relating to making and responding to music.
Graduates will be effective and responsible and have an appreciation of the collaborative nature of many musical projects, and the ability to work independently and in peer relationships that require organisation, decision making and individual initiative in managing time and prioritising work tasks.
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| Keywords | musicianship,composition,listening,analysis,harmony,melody,rhythm,counterpoint,form |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Neil Smith
Tel:
Email: nsmith16@Exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Rowan Paton
Tel:
Email: rpaton5@ed.ac.uk |
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