Undergraduate Course: Creative Musicianship and Teaching Practice (MUSI10120)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will enable you to expand and deepen your creative musicianship while allowing you to develop ways of communicating this practice to others. The first part of the course centres on building knowledge and skills within a chosen specialist area of musicianship practice (e.g. harmony, keyboard skills, contemporary or historical performance styles, improvisation) through a series of focussed tutorials and group sessions. In the second part of the course, you will contextualise this expertise by designing a short curriculum to share your knowledge and skills with others. |
| Course description |
Many practitioners and educators have suggested that an effective way to deepen your knowledge and understanding of a topic is to try to teach it to others. In this course, you will explore this idea as it relates to your musicianship. Over two semesters, you will have ample time to develop new skills as a creative musician and to consider ways of teaching these skills to other people.
In semester 1, you will take on specialist skill development in an area of creative practical musicianship that is offered in the year the course runs. This could be in harmony, counterpoint, keyboard skills, group singing, jazz improvisation, free improvisation, arrangement, historical or contemporary performance styles, etc. In semester 2, you will continue to develop your practical skills but will also begin to explore methods of teaching them to others. For example, what teaching strategies, and what kind of curriculum and materials (e.g. classroom lesson plans, online videos, written material, website), would be effective in sharing your particular specialist skills with others?
By the end of the course, you will have built up your specialist creative musicianship skills and consolidated what you know about these by developing a short curriculum to help others to learn.
In semester 1, there will be a series of six 1-hour foundational lectures. These will explore key concepts in creative musicianship and professional development. You will also participate in eight 1-hour small-group tutorials led by a tutor with knowledge and experience relevant to your chosen area of creative musicianship. The first half of semester 2 will introduce various approaches to music pedagogy in a series of six 1-hour lectures. 1-hour small-group tutorials will continue through semester 2, as you develop your understanding of curriculum design and delivery.
You will be expected to build up your skills by developing a regular personal practice to develop your fluency and creativity in your chosen area of creative musicianship. Tutorial sessions will help guide and support you, providing ongoing feedback, but much of your learning time will be managed and lead by you outwith class time.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course can only be taken by Year 3 students enrolled on the BMus Music or BSc Acoustics and Technology programmes.
You are required to have an established musical practice (broadly defined - can include musical instruments, digital musical instruments, singing, etc). |
| Additional Costs | This course requires additional costs to be met by the student.
The course incorporates aspects of practical musicianship, for which each student is expected to have a personal specialism, whether a musical instrument, digital musical instrument, or voice.
Where your musicianship focus is a musical instrument, you will be expected to have ongoing access to your own instrument, other than where such instruments are available through the Reid School of Music (e.g., pianos).
You will be expected to cover costs associated with the maintenance and ongoing use of your instrument (e.g., replacing strings, new mouthpiece reeds for woodwinds, rosin, etc).
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 12,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 14,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has three components of assessment.
1. Skills Portfolio, 25%, Semester 1, Week 10; relating to Learning Outcomes 1 and 2
2. Reflective Essay, 1800-2000 words, 25%, Semester 1, Week 10; relating to Learning Outcomes 1 and 2
3. Learning Resources, 50%, Semester 2, Week 11; relating to Learning Outcomes 3, 4 and 5
Further information:
Skills Portfolio: A concise skills portfolio relevant to the development of your creative musicianship practice across the semester. Examples include (but are not limited to): one or more audio recording projects; a series of keyboard arrangements; a set of original counterpoint pieces; a portfolio of improvisation methods and exercises.
Reflective Essay: A reflective analysis on how your practice has developed during the first semester of the course. This assessment will demonstrate and critically reflect upon the development and refinement of your practice across the semester.
Learning Resources: A short set of lessons or other learning resources (length and format to be determined in conjunction with Course Organiser), which form a short curriculum. These will be submitted digitally and can be presented in any appropriate format. They will be designed to connect with the people you are seeking to reach in your teaching practice. Examples include (but are not limited to) a series of short videos; text-based documents; a website. This submission will enable you to demonstrate your skills as a creative music teacher. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback
This course includes a creative musicianship focus, for which formative feedback is delivered verbally in individual or small-group tutorial sessions by the relevant tutors and, where appropriate, by the Course Organiser. This feedback will be provided in response to specific tasks and themed sessions, reflected through the area of music practice you choose to focus on during the course. Semester 1 formative feedback is designed to refine and develop your chosen creative musicianship skills, and may refer to conceptual approach, quality and character of work, technical issues, and/or other elements relevant to your chosen practice. Semester 2 incorporates a specific formative assessment task, in which you will present your developing learning resources to your fellow students and Course Organiser and/or tutor, and receive formative feedback. This formative feedback will be directly relevant to the second summative component of assessment (Learning Resources).
Summative feedback
Summative feedback is delivered as written feedback to students individually, by either the Course Organiser and/or relevant tutors (depending on the specialism and the nature of the submission). For most students, feedback from the first and second summative components of assessment (Skills Portfolio; Reflective Essay) will influence the development of your final summative component of assessment (Learning Resources). Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a range of newly developed skills in their chosen area of creative musicianship practice
- Apply a critical understanding of specific concepts and theories that underpin their chosen creative musicianship practice
- Design accessible learning resources drawn from their own musicianship practice and contextualised with relevant theory
- Create and deliver a formal presentation to convey the content and structure of learning resources to an informed audience
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Reading List
Barrett, Margaret S., and Heidi M. Westerlund. 2023. Music Education, Ecopolitical Professionalism, and Public Pedagogy: Towards Systems Transformation.
SpringerBriefs in Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45893-4.
Clauhs, Matthew, Bryan Powell, and Ann C. Clements. 2020. Popular Music Pedagogies: A Practical Guide for Music Teachers. 1st edition. New York: Routledge.
Cleland, Kent, and Paul Fleet, eds. 2021. The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy: Before, In, and Beyond Higher Education. 1st edition. New York: Routledge.
Shevock, Daniel. 2020. Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy. 1st edition. New York: Routledge.
VanHandel, Leigh, ed. 2020. The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy. 1st edition. New York: Routledge. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry
In semester 1, the focus on students' specialist practice will develop and refine problem-solving, analytical thinking, and the application of acquired knowledge Micro-curriculum project briefs (assessment 2) will require students to develop their own independent research, and to explore and apply practical solutions to real-world teaching circumstances. The knowledge gained here will promote further self-directed development in students' chosen specialisms and could also form the foundation of future teaching practice.
Personal and intellectual autonomy
Working closely with specialist tutors, students will develop and refine their ability to critically evaluate technical and theoretical methods and concepts. Coursework projects will require students to demonstrate original and independent thinking, and will develop their ability to be adaptable, reflective and inventive in working with people, musical techniques, and theoretical and practical concepts.
Personal Effectiveness
The development of a specialist portfolio in semester 1 helps students make appropriate use of project tools, plan effectively, and gain confidence in the application of their learning and skills. The course helps students become more resourceful by developing their ability to tailor information to specific pedagogical requirements, and helping them to adapt different strategies for different people and different environments.
Communication Skills
The course will develop students' ability to effectively communicate information to a diverse range of potential recipients. The presentation aspect of assessment 2 also provides a framework for students to become more effective communicators of their own ideas to specialist audiences. |
| Special Arrangements |
This course can only be taken by Year 3 students enrolled on the BMus Music or BSc Acoustics and Technology programmes.
You are required to have an established musical practice (broadly defined - can include musical instruments, digital musical instruments, singing, etc). |
| Keywords | Music pedagogy,creative musicianship,musical skills development,specialist musicianship |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Philip Alexander
Tel:
Email: Phil.Alexander@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Laura Duff
Tel:
Email: lduff4@ed.ac.uk |
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