MUS8024 - Making Music

• Offered for Year: 2025/26

• Module Leader(s): Dr Christopher Tarrant

• Owning School: The School of Arts and Cultures
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

• Capacity limit: 100

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

Making Music develops skill in the production and presentation of music, be that in the form of live performances, compositions, or recorded media. The contemporary field of music is complex, but affords a multiplicity of ways to navigate that which the module will encourage and foster.

The module also aims to equip students with the wherewithal to productively plan out their year of study, and to draft a strategy for achieving their final Major Creative Project. They will also make public presentations related to their work, learning how to put their ideas and creative choices across to an audience, as well as producing a portfolio that demonstrates their practice progress through the module.

Outline Of Syllabus

Making Music investigates different contemporary approaches to music making from a primarily practical perspective but bringing in critical and historically-informed material as and where appropriate.

There are weekly workshop sessions for the whole cohort, some of which focus on practical activities, particular technical elements, issues such as creativity, development of an individual creative personality, informed practice in terms of historical knowledge, and creative ways to approach the making of music more generally, be that composing, improvising, performing, or recording. Students will undertake directed projects as part of the module, as well as incorporating insights gained through the module into their own practice and thinking. These projects will eventually be developed and curated into a portfolio of work for assessment in formats appropriate to the particular student. Students will present an account of their progress in a public presentation, alongside a creative practice planning strategy that will help in directing the students development in semesters 2 and 3.

Students on the module also attend the free lunchtime concerts in King's Hall every week to get a broad perspective on professional levels of creativity, technical skill, interpretation, and presentation.

Making music is a practical module. The syllabus may include:

• Different approaches to making music and the critical and historical factors that shaped them;
• Relationships between performing, improvising, composing and recording;
• Technical competencies and musical creativity;
• Understanding of the contemporary creative musical ecosystem;
• Presenting work in public;
• Critically assessing student's own creative progress and skill development.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

 Teaching Rationale And Relationship

• Workshops are staff led and introduce creative techniques, approaches, and contexts [K1, K3, K4].
• Project work guide students in realising ideas, approaches, and techniques introduced in workshops [K1, K3, K4, S1, S2]
• Fieldwork consists of attending weekly free lunchtime concerts in King's Hall, this exposes students to a range of different music and their attendant performance and presentation standards, as well as expanding knowledge of repertoires and ways in which musicians creatively develop their music and curate its public presentation [K1, K3, S2, S3].
• Skills practice is essential in giving students the tools with which to realise their project work, and to afford integration of new and developing skills into their own practice [K2, K4, S1, S2]
• Independent study creates a space for more expansive and speculative integration of personal creative development, and critical self-reflection [K1, K2, S2, S3]
• Assessment preparation is where students, at the end of the module, refine and revise their weekly projects, and then select and curate these into a portfolio of work, and draw out a creative practice planning strategy [K2, K4, S3]

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams:

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/