Music: Why Study with Us?

If you’re looking for an undergraduate qualification that will help you develop technical skills to analyse music, critical skills to discuss music in cultural context and reflective skills to grow your own musical practice, or a postgraduate qualification that will develop your research skills and deepen your critical thinking about music, you’ve come to the right place. We provide music education for everyone, whatever your prior experience of music.

Can I study music?

You can sign up for our BA (Honours) Music without any of the prerequisites set out by most other universities, such as A-Level Music or exams in music performance. You will need to have some knowledge of music theory to study some of our modules, but our free online resources Introduction to music theory and From notation to performance: understanding musical scores cover all the essential topics. To study our MA in Music, you’ll need to have gained a bachelor's degree, ideally in a music-related subject, as the course assumes you will have the skills of a music graduate.

Our study environment

Studying at The Open University means you have a lot of flexibility about how and where you study, but our music qualifications go further than that and offer students the chance to take part in a residential school at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, as part of the Creative Music Making module. You’ll receive hands-on teaching from leading professional teachers to help develop your music-making skills, whatever your level of attainment and whatever kind of music you make.

Music and your career

There are a range of music-related careers, such as performing, teaching, and music therapy, but studying music also develops a range of transferable skills that are useful and highly valued in many unrelated careers. These videos, produced by The National Association for Music in Higher Education, explore the skills music graduates feel they have gained.