Duration:
2 years full-time | Top-up available

Location:
Confetti Nottingham Campus, NTU

UCAS course code:
W310

Institution code:
N91

Quick! We have some places remaining for this September. Check out the entry requirements below.

This Music Performance foundation degree allows you to experiment with collaborative projects in performance, and develop exciting material for your own catalogue or for the requirements of industry client briefs. 

Our team includes musicians, songwriters, performers and academics who will encourage your innovative ideas and support you to do your very best work whilst challenging you to develop your professional skills and workflow.

You will cultivate your curiosity in practice, performance and studying music that inspires you and theory – giving your work historical and cultural perspective. This will be grounded in professional practice and accessible, successful tools used by those musicians and songwriters before you.

This course is for you if:

  • you play your instrument on your own and within groups and ensemble situations
  • you enjoy all and any genres of popular music, writing, composing and recording music
  • you are excited by performing to any size or type of audience

Progression route

Top-up your degree to a full BA (Hons) qualification in Music Performance at Confetti in Nottingham or London.

Clearing 2024

  • 48 UCAS points from up to three qualifications; and
  • GCSE – English and Maths Grade C / 4

Spaces are limited, so call NTU’s Clearing hotline on 0115 848 6000 to secure your place.

2025 entry

  • 64 UCAS Tariff points; and
  • GCSE – English and Maths Grade C / 4

To find out what qualifications have tariff points, please use our tariff calculator.

You should also have a related music qualification such as BTEC Music Performance or similar (eg RSL or A Level Music), and you will also need to have a Voice or Instrument Grade 5 (ABRSM, RSL, Trinity or equivalent).

We very much welcome self-taught applicants who do not have the formal entry requirements, but we need to know you’re at the right level to support your ambition. If that’s you, we’ll request a video of you playing 2 songs from start to finish in contrasting styles. This can be performing along to a backing track, or solo. Once we get that, and we make sure this is the perfect fit for you, we’ll send you an offer!

Other qualifications and experience

We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry, or beyond the beginning of a course where applicable, for example, into year 2. Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route.

Meeting our entry requirements

Hundreds of qualifications in the UK have UCAS tariff points attached to specific grades, including A levels, BTECs, T Levels and many more. You can use your grades and points from up to four different qualifications to meet our criteria. Enter your predicted or achieved grades into our tariff calculator to find out how many points your qualifications are worth.

How to apply

This degree is validated by Nottingham Trent University. You can apply through UCAS.

Apply now

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

Fees & funding

DAW Skills (20 Credit Points)

Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) are the digital canvases you will need to navigate to put down, cultivate, and develop musical ideas throughout your career. In this module, you will learn and apply different DAW techniques to create and arrange music through a series of set tasks, thereby developing a skills portfolio that you can apply throughout your course and career. You will build upon these skills to support your song writing module, generate ideas, and understand their role in a wide range of applications.

Performance Skills (40 Credit Points)

This is what it’s all about: the skill and the art of performance! This module will help develop your core instrumental and performance skills, focusing on the deployment of key areas of instrumental/vocal technique, use and application of rhythm, groove, communication and creativity.

You’ll develop as a performer by learning techniques to effectively engage, enthuse and captivate an audience. You will analyse classic and contemporary material and discover the key elements that makes it work so well.

Ultimately, you’ll employ your findings by performing sets of covers and collectively created compositions using the elements explored throughout this module.

Your Industry (20 Credit Points)

Explore contexts of working in the international world of sound and music and how you might establish a career by exploring the flow of money through the industry and relevant current and emerging trends.

You’ll assess your current skill set and discover what you need to do to improve your chances of success on your employable journey. You’ll choose work like briefs lasting at least 80 hours to enable you to experience working opportunities in a field of interest, then reflect on your learning to set you up for the rest of your course in an employable mind set. Your future starts now!

Songwriting (20 Credit Points)

Build your understanding of the theory and context of songwriting. You’ll explore classic songs from the history of popular music and, through deconstructing them, discover the component parts and common techniques used to create great material!

By embracing this process, your aural perception skills, music theory, instrument, and arrangement skills will naturally develop. You will then apply these skills to recreate classic tracks and collaborate with others to write songs based on these techniques and genre-specific elements.

Throughout the module, you will study different approaches to the craft, working both individually and collaboratively on assigned briefs. This will enable you to create a body of work that demonstrates a growing understanding of music genres through your songwriting skills.

 

Popular Music in Context (20 Credit Points)

Explore key events, songs and artists that helped shape the history of popular music as we know it. You’ll gain an understanding of the social and cultural contexts that have guided its development, whilst you are supported in developing your research skills to explore case studies.

Songs and artists you investigate will be analysed, and material rehearsed and performed in your song writing and performance sessions. This means you’re fully immersed in a whole host of material and styles to help you be an informed, well-rounded musician.

Performance Skills 2 (20 Credit Points)

Progressing from Year 1, you will engage in playing more complex material, conducting deeper analysis of the component parts, and exploring the most effective ways of communicating them to your peers and ultimately, an audience! You will perform original material and rework classic songs, adapting them to the sound and style of specified genres.

Technical proficiency on your instrument will be further advanced and developed throughout this process. You will receive guidance in stagecraft and setlist design techniques, aiming to build performer confidence and learn how to professionally entertain and engage a live audience with a powerful performance.

Songwriting 2 (20 Credit Points)

Develop your songwriting skills further by dissecting more complex songs from a wide array of genres to understand what makes them successful. You’ll participate in a series of workshops where you’ll practice various working methodologies to write material, both in solo and collaborative scenarios.

Explore top line, rhythmic, melodic, and lyrical methods, equipping you with the tools you need to hold your own in any songwriting session. Effective communication of ideas is essential for any collaborative process including working with other musicians who bring your ideas to life.

You’ll learn how to communicate arrangements and ideas effectively using rhythmic and harmonic notation, chord symbols, and lyric/chord guides, and apply them to real-world scenarios.

Music for Modern Media (20 Credit Points)

This module focuses on exploring the exciting world of composing for media. Building on your compositional and DAW skills from year one, you will utilise them in a variety of real-world scenarios to create music for media use. These may include jingles, genre-based library music, and music for film and other media.

You will examine and research these areas, gaining insight into how best to apply your current DAW knowledge with other tools and techniques and expand on that skillset by successfully completing example scenarios. Composing for media is a substantial part of today’s industry and an area in which you should be well prepared to engage.

Industry Practice (20 Credit Points)

This is where the reality of being a freelance practitioner really comes into focus. During this module, you will source and manage appropriate self-directed projects of at least 20 hours in an area that aligns to your career aspiration, working individually and collaboratively, applying the research, knowledge, and skills learnt throughout the course in common real-world scenarios.

You will also be given a further 80 hours of relevant industry briefs over the year to complete and reflect on. The aim is to develop your overall professionalism and provide you with the knowledge and resources to begin a career in the creative industries which are increasingly defined by freelance and self-employed models of work.

Projects can cover a wide range of scenarios, and you must be able to adapt quickly, spinning a number of plates at once. You will need to work under pressure to strict deadlines and learn how to manage your time and resources effectively whilst looking after the wellbeing of yourself and your collaborators.

You’ll explore relevant legal frameworks such as copyright and intellectual property and examine how money flows in your particular area of interest so you’re best placed to exploit your talents for financial sustainable gain.

Contextual Studies (20 Credit Points)

Music plays an integral part in everyday life across cultures and societies. It can transcend language and cultural barriers and influence individual and social identity, politics, fashion and technology.
This module offers a deeper understanding of the contexts in which music is created, performed, received and how it has evolved or influenced social change.

You will delve into various musical genres, styles, and traditions across different time periods and cultures. The module aims to enhance critical thinking and analytical skills by examining the social, political, and artistic influences that shape musical practices.

You will also develop your research and communication abilities as you explore and present your findings on significant musical works, composers, and movements. The skills you develop in this module will help you as a working musician: broadening your musical horizons and giving you the skills to argue your ideas, understanding the role of music in the wider world.

Studio Production for Musicians (20 Credit Points)

This module serves as the recording musician’s toolkit. The landscape for a recording musician is no longer limited to the traditional bigger studio ‘Session’ setup. Home studio setups have now become a significant part of the instrument recording business, catering to clients and session briefs that include songwriters, producers, library companies, film/TV soundtracks, content creators, as well as your own projects.

The module covers both larger studio ensemble recording and remote recording. You will learn the fundamental processes of recording and producing your own instrument or voice. This includes how to communicate properly with a client, audio file management, and selecting the appropriate gear and processes that meet the needs of any given recording scenario you may encounter as a jobbing musician.

You will also develop skills in critically comparing recording equipment across different budget points, audio engineering skills, understanding group recording etiquette, maintaining session structure and energy, effectively communicating with producers, and fostering repeat business.

Do It For Real

Industry Week

Studying at Confetti you’ll take part in Industry Week where you’ll be able to meet a range of professionals within your field of interest as well as other areas of the creative industries. 

Past guests include Sister Bliss (Faithless), Chase & Status, Michael Eavis CBE (Glastonbury) and Wolfgan Flur (Kraftwerk).

Student work

Our Talent Development team works closely with course leaders to link students with opportunities across the industry. Music Performance students have previously worked with and visited leading companies, such as:

  • Hockley Hustle
  • Beat the Streets
  • Splendour Festival

Finesse your skills on Logic Pro X in our well-equipped, impressive and cutting edge facilities – unlike any other in the country. Our rehearsal rooms boasting professional level backline, PA and monitoring systems housed in purpose built rooms will inspire you to do your best work.

Our recording studios have unparalleled hardware and software allowing production and recording to flow seamlessly and instinctively. With consoles, monitoring, outboard and microphones that compete with the best studios in the UK your recordings will truly capture your craft and definitive performances.

Our studios also boast an impressive backline and instruments from Steinway, Ampeg, Marshall, Rhodes and Vox to name a few. 

Our venue, Metronome, is renowned for its production values and sound. The flexible nature of the space suits all kinds of performances and hosts events from pretty much every genre imaginable.

Courses

Each case will be considered individually, but upon successful completion you’re automatically entitled to enter into the final year of our BA (Hons) Music Performance at either our Nottingham or London campus to gain a full BA qualification.

What roles do our graduates go on to?

  • Singer
  • Songwriter
  • Band member
  • Session musician
  • Record producer
  • Teacher
  • Music director
  • Composer
  • A&R
  • Journalist
  • Artist Manager

NTU Employability support

Our support doesn’t end when you graduate. As a Confetti and NTU student you will be entitled to dedicated graduate employability support for up to three years after you complete your studies. You’ll have access to exclusive events, initiatives and work experience opportunities to support you in the early stages of your graduate career.

NTU Employability support

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Open Days

Saturday 12 October - Nottingham
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Saturday 19 October - London
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