The Open University and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance formed an innovative collaborative credit agreement in 2016 in order to offer jointly-presented teaching in music. The result is Creative Music Making, a module worth 60 credits at Level 3. Students registered for an Open University degree may count it towards their BA (Music), BA (Arts & Humanities) or BA (Open) qualification. All students planning to study this module should read the guidance page. Further details and information regarding registration, are available on the Trinity Laban module page.

Creative Music Making was developed and authored jointly by staff of Trinity Laban and OU Music. It is taught through Trinity Laban, so students will register with them and not through the OU. Upon completion of the module, a student’s overall grade is converted into the equivalent grade for an OU Level 3 module, and will count towards the student’s degree classification exactly as would an OU module. To find out more about the module, watch this video in which students and staff share some insights.

Creative Music Making is aimed at all practising musicians, regardless of the genre of music in which they engage, and without requiring a specific level of attainment in order to register. It has been designed to form a coherent degree pathway when combined with other OU music modules. The module covers a range of technical, practical and theoretical topics, and a residential school is included as part of the study programme. You can find out more about the module from a student perspective by watching this interview with Creative Music Making alumnus, Ian Norsworthy.

Photo credit: Tas Kyrprianou.