Bachelor of Music

The four-year Bachelor of Music degree allows students to become broadly educated musicians, learning a range of skills in various music and arts-related contexts and professions. This degree facilitates creative interdisciplinary links within music disciplines as well as with other subject areas throughout the University, enabling you to develop as a musician through the acquisition of an integrated body of knowledge, skills and ways of thinking.

Students choose from the following Programs or take a Major in musicology.

Contemporary Music Practice

Study contemporary music with the best in the business. Whether you want to be on stage or behind the scenes producing and writing songs, you will have access to a diverse range of music industry practitioners who will help you produce your own exciting and original music.

Creative Music

The Creative Music program focuses on developing your composition skills, including notation-based composition, to prepare you for music beyond the concert hall. If you are interested in composing collaboratively with performers, and arranging music for film, television and online, this is the new degree for you. Our composition and music technology staff are some of Australia's most gifted and widely recognised composers, working across instrumental and vocal to electronic and electroacoustic music.

Digital Music and Media

The Digital Music and Media program focuses on computer-based and interactive musical creativity. If you love writing music for online games and creating music for new media and technologies, this is the new degree for you.

Improvised Music

Our Improvised Music program focuses on research-based improvisation approaches, including but not limited to the jazz tradition. Learn from staff who are some of the most highly regarded improvised music practitioners in Australia. We also offer performance opportunities with three big bands and eleven small ensembles.

Major in Musicology

Concentrate on the development of your skills in research, thinking and writing about music, and combine your music studies with other interests. Core units of study are also taken in music skills, analysis, history and culture studies and performance, including a final year project, but the course is structured to allow you the flexibility to pursue study in a combination of musical and non-musical disciplines.

Honours Requirements

The Bachelor of Music with Honours comprises a widely recognised and highly regarded study program offering a unique opportunity for students to explore their research potential with an independent project supervised by one or more internationally recognised musicians. Completing a music degree with honours opens the door to many employment and research opportunities. For detailed advice see the Bachelor of Music (Honours).

Core Requirements

To qualify for the award of the Bachelor of Music, a candidate must complete 192 credit points as specified in the Pathway Tables for a program or a major.

Minor Options in the Bachelor of Music

A minor requires the completion of 36 credit points as set out in the Learning and Teaching policy according to one of the following patterns of 6 credit point units:

(a) 2x1000-level units, 2x2000-level units, and 2x3000-level units; or
(b) 2x1000-level units, 3x2000-level units and 1x3000-level unit.

Units of study contributing towards one minor may not contribute toward any other major completed except where otherwise approved by the faculty.

Creative Music Minor

Digital Music and Media Minor

Ethnomusicology Minor

Indigenous Music Minor

Performance and Ensembles Minor

Performance Science Minor