The course delivers a broad-based curriculum during the first year with excellent opportunities for specialisation throughout years two and three. Our vibrant masterclass series is designed to enhance your career planning, involving internationally renowned guest speakers and visiting artists from the creative industries.

You will engage with popular music as an academic discipline, developing a detailed understanding of key popular music concepts, techniques and processes, as well as perfecting your practical ability in performance, composition, arranging, and the creative use of music technology.

In your first year, you focus on instrumental creativity and proficiency through ensemble and one-to-one lessons with leading performance specialists. In addition to examining the concepts of style and genre in English language popular music, you’ll develop fundamental creative skills in arranging, applied composition and music technology.

In year two you’re given the opportunity to specialise within the musical fields of your interests and skill set. In the final year, you consolidate your learning, deepening your individual creativity in a personal body of portfolio work.

In the most recent National Student Survey, 97% of students said the course provided them with opportunities to apply what they have learnt (University of Salford analysis of unpublished NSS 2019 data).