Music through Arts??

coffeelover

Hi

In 5th year at the moment and just wondering what music is like? Don't know what subject I'd do with it though . What would the career prospects be like? I've heard a lot of people dissing arts

Léan

Hi, I might be of some help, i'm in final year music and arts.


Important info:
Firstly Music & Arts is quite different to a general arts degree. There are a lot of subject limitations e.g. you're not able to take French or Spanish, this is really important to remember if you're considering taking a language.
The music dept. have some sort of arrangement with the Italian and German department to help with their student numbers, so I think they're the only languages that you can currently do with Music and still do a year abroad (maybe Chinese as well, i'm not 100% sure).

The other thing is, with a general Arts degree you do four subjects in first year and keep two. With Music and arts you do Music plus two other subjects. You keep one of those subjects on with music.

Secondly the major and minor study options really effect the Music and arts degree.
This won't effect you until after first year in your course, but it's worthwhile baring in mind. Basically it works like this. You do not qualify for the extra year to do the BMUS unless you take Music as your major study, so you cannot get accepted into the BMUS course if you're taking music as part of a joint honours or as a minor subject. This seems fair enough, except if you're doing say Italian and Music and you want to do the year abroad in Italy, that means you'd have to be doing a joint honours degree to qualify for the year abroad... As a result the possibility of doing the BMUS is ruled out.

I'm stressing this because they don't really explain it on the Music website or UCC website, it's important info if you're particularly interested in furthering your music studies or language studies.

The Course itself

First year:
In first year the course is extremely general (like most first year courses I guess). Most people (me included) hate first year music. You study a bit of musicology, a bit of ethnomusicology, modern music, classical, opera etc... This is divided up with different lecturers teaching different aspects of the course. So for the first 6 weeks you might have someone covering Opera in the 17th cen, the next 6 weeks Irish music tradition etc... This all falls under the class titled 'Music & Ideas'.
You also have a performance class once a week, this can be a bit of fun, again there is a variation with lecturers over the course. You exam performers, types of performance e.g. computer performance vrs full band. You get to do in class performance also (don't worry if you're not that keen on performing it's not compulsory).
The next class you have is called Listening & Literacy. This is probably the most important class you'l have in first year, it's about understanding harmony, analyzing music, different types of composition etc... They make this class as accessible as possible as not everyone who takes Music can read music trad players etc...
Finally you have more performance classes, you'l have a Gamelan class for one semester. This is something people either love or hate, it's traditional music from Java.
You also choose a performance option e.g. jazz/pop/classical ensemble, shape note singing etc... You do this for just one semester. The students are put into small classes and are examined based on an end of term performance.
Similarly you'l have an end of year performance exam based on whatever your discipline is e.g. piano, voice etc... This is just to demonstrate that you're stil working hard and getting lessons in your discipline outside of college (External tuition).

That's pretty much it for first year, like I said a lot of people hate it, it's generally not what people expect. There are no exams except for performance exams so all your marks are based on attendance and essays. You'l have a lot of essays and reading material in first year.

Second year onwards:
Ok so it sounds a bit crap so far tbh, but... it gets waaaay better!
From second year onwards you have a huge amount of subject choice, you can take up instruments like bodhran, harp, sitar or African Ewe drumming. You can study anything from gender and sexuality in music, to music and the arts, film music, women in opera, sound art, minimalism, Vivaldi's impact on music, Jazz and Pop etc... There are also really cool tech options like the Midi class, where you learn to use music programs like Cubase, there's a sound synthesis class and also a MaxMaspJitter programming class. The list goes on!

Career Prospects:
Speaking in terms of my year, about 30-40% are hoping to do the HDIP and teach afterwards, this is extremely popular with Music & Arts, a lot of people study Music and English or Music and Irish with a hope of teaching.
Teaching is probably the most obvious choice.

Of Course there's so much more! Lecturing, music therapy, music tech, conducting, professional musician, composition...

Big companies like Google also specifically look for music students as they demonstrate skills that other graduates don't have, abstract thinking being the biggest one, negotiation and advertising are some others.

Huge sums of money are being pumped into the creative arts industry at the moment and it's tipped to be the next big employment sector; something worth thinking about.

But of course by no means does your study have to stop at a bachelors degree. There are soooo many MA and PHD programs available to music students (and funding for doing them abroad too!). So if you're really serious about music it's valuable thinking more long term about your education. Doing an MA alone can add up to 5k to your salary.
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As for myself, a final year student, i'm hoping to do the MA in composition next year here in UCC and then hopefully a PHD in electroacoustic composition .

Hope this helped!

coffeelover

That post is sooo helpful. Thank you so much
Ya I was thinking of doing Music with French but then realised you couldn't do that Thinking maybe english now if I do end up doing the course. So if I did music and english it would be better to do music as a major study?

For the performing class do you get private tuition?

From second year onwards it sounds brilliant

As regards career prospects I had thought of being a teacher but to be honest I think I'm too quiet and wouldn't have the confidence . Don't think I could see myself back in a classroom.

Big companies like Google also specifically look for music students as they demonstrate skills that other graduates don't have, abstract thinking being the biggest one, negotiation and advertising are some others.

Would you have to do another degree for this?

Huge sums of money are being pumped into the creative arts industry at the moment and it's tipped to be the next big employment sector; something worth thinking about

Wow :eek: I didn't think the career prospects would be great!

But of course by no means does your study have to stop at a bachelors degree. There are soooo many MA and PHD programs available to music students (and funding for doing them abroad too!). So if you're really serious about music it's valuable thinking more long term about your education. Doing an MA alone can add up to 5k to your salary.

Just wondering how long would it take to do a MA or PHD? I'd love to go abroad

electroacoustic composition

Just wondering what this is?
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Thanks again this has been brilliant help