Music BA (Hons)
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UCAS Code: W300|Duration: 3|Full Time|Creative Campus
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
Liverpool Hope University is a core hub for studying music within a world-renowned city of music. As part of the active--and increasingly growing--popular, classical, jazz, traditional, folk, electronic and experimental music scenes within the city, Liverpool Hope University is an ideal location for pursuing the creative practice and study of music. The BA Music Programme at Liverpool Hope will offer you the opportunity to explore the many facets of performing, composing, producing, and intellectually engaging with music across a broad range of topics and genres, including popular, classical, jazz, electronic, and world music traditions.
Our music programme benefits from a unique, creative scholarly approach that features:
- An inclusive outlook towards genre that allows students to pursue their musical interests.
- A wide-ranging approach to music study that develops diverse skills in performance, composition and academic study.
- A variety of opportunities to perform in and compose for university ensembles, student-led ensembles, and other musically collaborative experiences.
- A team with multifaceted interests in music that are pursued professionally beyond the university setting.
Our Music programme is part of our School of Creative and Performing Arts, based at the Creative Campus, and housed in the purpose-built Capstone building. The School is one of only a handful of All-Steinway Music Schools in the UK and, in addition to a Steinway Model D in the Capstone Theatre, we also have a number of sound-proofed bespoke music recording, rehearsal and practice spaces. There is also a good stock of musical instruments and outboard technology to cater across all musical genres.
Our students have had opportunities to gain professional experience with a variety of professional organisations, including Liverpool Sound City, Immix Ensemble, the Liverpool Hope Metropolitan Orchestra, Ditto Music and The Vocal Booth studio, among others.
We continually establish connections within the wider industry and our programme regularly hosts music industry professionals, who provide real-world knowledge through their guest lectures. Join our dynamic creative community of music production to facilitate the next steps in your creative and professional journey.
Course structure
Our programme design 1) balances a broad range of skills with the opportunity to deeply explore specific interests, 2) facilitates exposure to a wide range of opportunities that are reflective of the current music industry, and 3) creates an environment that nurtures and promotes high level musicianship and critical engagement with music. These three main goals are underpinned by our interest in fostering a programme that is informed by diversity, accessibility, and sustainability.
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, seminars and tutorials. You have the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting with your tutor on a regular basis. All Music students receive 15 hours of 1-to-1 tuition on their chosen instrument/voice each academic year, with the opportunity for more hours if a student is a scholarship or bursary recipient.
If you are studying Music as a Single Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 14 teaching hours each week, which reduces to 12 teaching hours in your second year and 9 in your third year.
If you are studying Music as a Combined Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 8 teaching hours each week in Music, which reduces to approximately 7 teaching hours in your second year and 6 teaching hours in your third year.
On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend approximately 30 hours studying independently each week, as well as group study to prepare for any group assessments you may have. Extra- curricular musical ensembles are an important enhancement to the curriculum and it is expected that all students will be actively engaged in these activities.
Students are also expected to attend a series of compulsory concerts and events, these are intended to illustrate the musical genres studied in other areas of the course, and to add additional enhancement.
Assessment and feedback
During your studies, you will have a number of assessments, including written and practical exams, portfolios of written pieces and compositions, written reports, and essays.
Feedback on your work comes in a number of different ways. Tutors will give regular feedback in class. In Performance, you will also gain regular feedback in your individual lessons with your instrumental/vocal tutor; in Composition, you will gain additional feedback from the players who play your works in the Composition workshops. For more formal submissions such as essays, exams, and portfolios, written feedback will be available within four working weeks. If you need further clarification, you can always contact individual tutors to ask for a meeting.
Please note that ‘feedback’ is different from ‘mark’ (the numerical mark awarded on a specific piece of work) and will usually concentrate upon areas of strength, areas of weakness, and suggestions for improvement. Some feedback sessions may include a presentation to the whole group, giving a ‘global’ overview of the way a task was tackled.
Year One
In your first year, you are introduced to the disciplines within the field of music, and the fundamental technologies that underpin each of these areas, including:
- Music performance: where you will explore both solo and ensemble repertoire across a diverse range of musical styles
- Composition: designed to equip you with a set of fundamental compositional skills that are applicable across a wide range of musical styles
- Music studies: where you work to develop critical and creative listening skills with an inclusive outlook toward genre
- Music technology: where you gain fluency in the use of current softwares to record, edit and manipulate audio, as well as engage with the concepts and issues that have driven and continue to shape the development of music technology, including ethical dimensions, sustainable approaches, and the development of inventive and responsible practices.
- Music theory and analysis: where you will develop fluency skills in styles of music theory, indicatively including (but not limited to) Western art music notation, popular music theory, and jazz music theory, building toward intermediate theory and analysis skills across a range of styles.
In the single honour Music programme, students engage in further study to complement the modules listed above. Single honours students have further tuition in:
- Music performance: where you explore topics such as ensemble performance, stagecraft, improvisation, and evaluating professional performance),
- Composition: where you investigate a broad range of complementary skills and applications in topics such as arranging and orchestration, songwriting, and music for moving image
- Creative Leadership: where you are allowed to develop as a leader within the creative arts by examining contemporary issues in music, with a specific focus on professionalism and employability skills in music.
- Music Studies: where you examine case studies from drawn from a diverse range of classical, popular, and traditional music-making practices around the globe (indicatively including, but not limited to, music case studies from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Oceania, Asia, the Middle East and North America), developing your intellectual curiosity and communicative skills as a critical music scholar through cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of music.
Year Two
In your second year, you continue the development of skills attained in the first year, including further study in:
- Music performance: where you continue the development of skills required to achieve a high standard of performance
- Composition: where you continue to focus on broad concepts and processes within composition, at a greater level of detail
- Music studies: where you have the opportunity to apply with further depth conceptual approaches to music studies across a diverse range of musical styles
- Creative practitioner: where you learn more about applying your creative practice within the broad scope of what it means to develop a sustainable career as a musician, including focusing on topics such as music education, music publishing, music promotion, and events planning curation
This year of study has a particular focus on connecting students as creative practitioners with the surrounding community.
In the Single honours Music programme, students engage in further study to complement the modules listed above. Single honours students have further tuition in:
- Musical specialisms: where you will have the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of specific areas of composition or performance in which you have a particular interest, drawing on specialised areas of staff practice
- Music technology: where you will explore the interactions between musicians and technology in a live sound environment
- Music studies: where you will continue to develop your musical analysis and critical reading, writing, and thinking skills in the process of exploring different theoretical approaches to the study of music
- Professionalism & Employability: where you will receive support on professionalism, leadership, and employability skills in music
You will continue to have individual lessons in your chosen instrument or voice, and you will be expected to attend a series of compulsory concerts and events throughout the academic year to support studies in other areas of the course and to add additional enhancement.
Year Three
In your third year of Music, you will be encouraged to further hone your skills, including further study in:
- Music performance: where you will continue to explore highly-challenging repertoire for both solo and ensemble contexts, alongside regular concert practice performances that emphasise the level of performance and presentation required in a professional context.
- Composition: where you will refine your unique compositional voice, engage in assignments modelled on real-world compositional commissions and opportunities, and explore the role of the composer within a wider arts ecosystem.
- Music studies: where you have the opportunity to apply with further depth conceptual approaches to music studies across a diverse range of musical styles.
- Creative practitioner: where you can strengthen your connection to career-building skills, such as network development, articulating and pursuing career goals, and gaining professional experience.
In the single honours Music programme, students engage in further study to complement the modules listed above. Single honours students have further tuition in:
- Musical specialisms: where you will have the opportunity to develop advanced knowledge and understanding of specific areas of composition or performance in which you have a particular interest, drawing on specialised areas of staff practice.
- Music technology: where you will explore various ways in which technological tools can be used in a creative manner in order to extend and enrich the medium of live performance. You will engage with practical live performance topics such as the use of both hardware and software for live audio processing, understanding live signal chains, performing to track, as well as concepts relating and the meaningful interaction with technology during performance.
- Music studies and analysis: where you will continue to advance your musical analysis and critical reading, writing, and thinking skills in the process of exploring different theoretical approaches to the study of music. In doing so, your creative practice will be informed by interdisciplinary approaches, and you will critically engage with discourses surrounding historical perspectives and ethical dimensions of music studies.
In your third year, you will also be expected to carry out a large creative research project/dissertation based on your scholarly music interests. You will receive group and individual support for your project from faculty supervisors. In the past, students have used these projects as a stepping stone into their next professional endeavours as creative music practitioners!
You will continue to have individual lessons in your chosen instrument or voice, and you will be expected to attend a series of compulsory concerts and events throughout the academic year to support studies in other areas of the course and to add additional enhancement.
Entry requirements
| A-Levels | BCC |
|---|---|
| UCAS Tariff Points | 104 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications |
| BTEC | DMM |
| Access to HE | 104 Tariff Points |
| IB | 24 |
| Irish Leaving Certificate | 104 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
| Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
| T-Levels | Merit |
| Subject Requirements | Applications should have a relevant level 3 qualification in music, for example A' Level Music, BTEC or equivalent. The ability to read and write music is essential, and we encourage applicants to be of at least ABRSM Grade 5 theory standard or the equivalent, although they need not necessarily have taken the ABRSM exam. An audition will be required for applicants who are not studying music A Level or BTEC. |
International entry requirements
| Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
|---|---|
| IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirements page. |
Careers
You will graduate from Liverpool Hope with a broad musical education having had the opportunity to specialise in particular areas. An increasing number of our students are choosing to continue their studies at Masters’ level at Liverpool Hope on our MA Creative
Music Practice course. Many graduates also enter the teaching profession via our PGCE
courses.
Many of our students also have portfolio music careers in the private sector that includes music performance, recording, production, composition and music teaching. Music students at Liverpool Hope also go on to work in the Charity and Public sector influencing National Music and Arts initiatives and Policy. Music students are equipped with advanced music skills but also critical and reflective thinking, communication, analysis and business skills that are valuable in a range of music related careers in the public and private sectors.
Our Music degree equips and develops students’ ability to be successful within scholarship, the Music Industry and beyond. In recent years, several of our graduates have moved into the commercial and management sectors, or have set up their own specialist businesses. Music students can take advantage of enhanced career development opportunities such as work-placements, SALA and Study Abroad.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
In your third year of study, you have the opportunity to undertake a music-related work-based placement. Placements are available with a range of our partner organisations (including Wild Hope Records, the Vocal Booth, the English National Ballet, the European Opera Centre, and Liverpool's two cathedrals). Past students have recently also undertaken placements with the Angelfield Arts Festival, BBC Radio Merseyside, and in music education settings.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
On top of your tuition fees, you need approximately £100 to buy core textbooks.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: