About Popular Music: Drums in Cork Institute of Technology

Course summary

This is a four-year programme leading to the award of a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Popular Music. Singers and instrumentalists who play guitar, bass, keyboards or drums in a pop style will study together: performance skills, ensemble, theory & harmony, song writing, music technology and music business, law and entrepreneurship. In third and fourth year, students’ electives include Music Therapy, and Music in the Community. Those wishing to specialise in Music Technology have access to some of the most sophisticated electronic and computer equipment available in the country.

• Ensembles – everything from rock, pop, hip hop, blues, soul, metal, jazz, salsa, disco, electronica, funk, ska, reggae, etc.;
• Musicianship and Harmony – play by ear, harmonise, notate your favourite songs and solos;
• Music Technology – live sound and PA, studio engineering, computer-based music applications including ProTools and Logic Studio;
• Song Writing – mentored guidance and practical experience in realising your own composition; Arranging and Musical Direction – coordinate, arrange for, and direct a group of your musical peers.

Additionally, BAPM students will have the opportunity to devise and develop personal live and recorded music projects. Along with their BMus counterparts, BAPM students will be introduced to Community Music and Music Therapy as potential pathways. Students will also have access to specialist modules embracing arts marketing, professional promotion, and business for artist practitioners and career development.

Career

Graduates will be able to compete in the busy world of commercial music in Ireland, for recording contracts, gigs in clubs and concert halls, TV and stage shows, corporate entertainment, and the fertile melting pot that is the Irish singer-songwriter circuit. Synergies with the classical, jazz and traditional musicians on the BMus course will open creative doors and career opportunities such as those fostered in the famous performing arts schools and colleges of the UK and the USA.

There are many employment opportunities for popular music graduates apart from the obvious one of performing. Composition, music for multimedia, song writing, playing in recording sessions, in theatrical productions and TV. Outside of this field is the associated area of promotion, festival and arts administration and the business side of the industry.

However, taking an Honours Degree in Popular Music does not mean that a graduate is restricted to a music driven career for the rest of their life. In addition, a growing number of employers outside the specific music business favour music graduates because of the combination of intellectual training, digital skills, interpersonal sensitivity and greatly enhanced general response rates represented by a musical training.

Academic qualification equivalents

• Class 12 passed students from a recognized board including CBSE, CISCE or a state board
• All India Senior School Certificate or Higher Secondary Certificate/Standard 12 or Indian School Certificate (Year 12) as recognized qualifications

English language requirements (one of the below):

• IELTS 6.5 overall (6.0 for Business programmes)
• IELTS 5.5 in all four components (listening, reading, speaking and writing)
• PTE 60 (63 for integrated programmes)
• PTE 55 in all four components (listening, reading, speaking and writing)