Undergraduate Course: Music and Human Communication (MUSI10067)
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 | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | How valuable is music for human communication? Given that words and speech can provide such rich and specific modes of human interaction, what role does music play in communicating and coordinating social action? By focusing on musical performance and interaction - studying music as something people do together - this course introduces students to music as an embodied, social form of communication. Students develop practical skills in observing, analysing and interpreting musical interaction, providing foundations for empirical research in music and related fields. |
| Course description |
This course helps you to read and interpret a broad and cross-disciplinary range of scholarly and primary sources in order to deepen your understanding of music and human musicality as communicative, artistic practice. During the course, you will consider such questions as: What are the materials of musical communication? How should we understand the relationship between music and language? How do therapists and community practitioners use music to alleviate communication challenges? You will read scholarship in ethnomusicology, music psychology, communication studies, and the cognitive sciences to learn various answers put forward to these questions from different disciplinary perspectives, from mid-twentieth century to current day research. The course places a strong emphasis on empirical observation and analysis of musical interaction. Students work with video recordings of live musical performance, learning to identify and describe interactional phenomena using basic observational and analytic frameworks, and reflecting on ethical and methodological issues associated with working with audiovisual data.
On this course you learn by engaging in weekly reading, writing, and practical tasks that are designed to support your critical integration of the content. This approach provides a supportive introduction to interdisciplinary research, based in creative reflection. The course is taught through regular 2-hour teaching events, and a single 1-hour practical workshop early in the semester.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Priority will be given to Music students in the first instance.
This course does not require any additional costs to be met by the student. |
| Additional Costs | This course does not require any additional costs to be met by the student. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
21/09/2026 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 1,
Online Activities 1,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
170 )
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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 2 components of assessment:
1. Video case study (group task) based on guided analysis of musical performance, 30%, weeks 5-7, assessed against Learning Outcomes 2 and 3. Group assessed, with peer-moderation informing individual mark adjustment.
2. Structured empirical report, 2,000 words, 70%, end of semester, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3. Individually assessed.
The musical communication video case study component involves supported group work. The assessor assigns the group submission grade; this mark is individually adjusted through peer-moderation.
Resubmission Information
The resubmission arrangements for this course are as follows:
1. Resubmission for the Video case study: Slide-deck and script, 30%, assessed against Learning Outcomes 2 and 3. Individually assessed.
2. Resubmission for the Structured empirical report follows the original brief. 2,000 words, 70%, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2, and 3. Individually assessed.
Students will receive further resubmission information as per University regulations as necessary. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
Formative feedback on weekly tasks are provided by sample answers and seminar discussion. You may choose to share writing samples in Week 4 for individual feedback. Guidance on the structured report is delivered during class time from in weeks 8-10. Individual feedback is offered on short essay plans submitted by Week 10.
Summative Feedback
Verbal and written feedback on the Musical communication case study component is delivered during class time, by both staff and peers. Written feedback is provided on the final submission by academic staff. Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the key theories and concepts that inform the study of music as human communication.
- Analyse musical interaction through sustained engagement with observational evidence.
- Communicate complex ideas about musical action, performance and social interaction clearly, coherently and appropriately in both collaborative and independent academic contexts.
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Reading List
Bauman, Richard (ed.). Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments a Communications-Centered Handbook. Oxford University Press, 1992.
Clayton, Martin, Byron Dueck, and Laura Leante (eds). Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Finnegan, Ruth. Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Communication. Second edition. Routledge, 2014.
Miell, Dorothy, Raymond MacDonald and David Hargreaves (eds.) Musical Communication. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Nachmanovitch, Stephen. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1993. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Communication. Through the opportunity to engage deeply with scholarship on interpersonal and artistic communication, and the in-class experiential learning opportunities, you may gain considerable insight into the value of interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills. For example, you will be sensitive to the need to use a range of communication styles in different contexts, and ways in which effective communicators command different modes (verbal and non-verbal) to achieve understanding through dialogue with other people.
Research and enquiry. By engaging with the interdisciplinary course material, you learn more general skills about how to interpret ideas and knowledge effectively, to abstract meaning and apply this across different domains.
Personal and intellectual autonomy. In the weekly creative ¿grounding¿ exercises, you are offered techniques to develop skills of self-awareness and reflection. In the group project, you are invited to take responsibility for managing the creative process in yourself and in others, and supported to take risks that may help you develop inventive thinking and feel confident in managing complexity.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Nikki Moran
Tel: (0131 6)50 2423
Email: n.moran@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Laura Duff
Tel:
Email: lduff4@ed.ac.uk |
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