Music degree in Australia

Take your talent to the next level. Your musical talent is a starting point, but building a career as a professional musician or songwriter requires so much more.

What it’s like to study music in Australia

Music programs offer you the chance to significantly focus and develop your practical skills and theoretical knowledge beyond the scope of a music degree. Programs such as diploma, bachelor, or master of music offer high-level training in music, music performance, composition, sound technologies, music theory, musicology, arranging music and music analysis.

Many programs traverse a broad range of styles and genres across contemporary, classical, popular and electronic music. You will build on your creative and/or research portfolio as you progress through your degree, which will be an invaluable tool to document your capabilities as you transition into a professional career. In a rapidly changing world, gigs may come and go, but you can ensure your career is a future fit with Australia’s music programs.

Music majors

Being a working musician requires a wide skill set but focusing on specialisation will help you to stand out. The performance major is for singers and instrumentalists who want to bring their talent to the stage and the studio. A songwriting major is for writers who want to build and hone their songwriting craft, whether writing for themselves, for other artists, for the screen and more. Music production is designed specifically for musicians who would consider their main ‘instrument’ is an EDI (Electronic Digital Interface); or for those who might primarily use a laptop or production suite to create their own recordings and music media projects.

Contemporary performance

Develop a broad repertoire for live performance, with plenty of opportunities to perform in live-music venues in our cities. You will grow as a solo performer as you receive instrument lessons, while you also develop your musicianship.

Learn to perform, arrange and even write and rectify music in a variety of genres to increase your flexibility and range. Learn to navigate live sound settings, hone your communication skills with engineers and other collaborators to achieve your vision, and graduate with a set of promotional and business skills that would otherwise take years of trial and error to learn.

Music production

If you're a musician who may not necessarily specialise in a conventional ‘instrument’, or might recognise your main music-making device as a laptop or electronic instrument, then this may be the course you’ve been looking for. While other courses in music technology approach the education from an audio engineering or sound production perspective, the Music Production major aims to grow your musicianship and performance technique alongside other musicians.

As you write, record and produce music you will learn to articulate your artistic choices and work collaboratively with other creatives. Learn to record acoustic and synthesised instruments and play with different techniques and effects to manipulate sound using technology. Become fluent in digital audio workstation (DAW)editing, arranging and mixing. You may receive lessons with a production mentor who will help you develop your creative portfolio to take to the world.

Songwriting

If writing is your passion, this major will develop your songwriting muscle by offering a strong foundation in techniques, rhyme and harmonic analysis, genre studies and more. Learn to express yourself more effectively in words and music while you develop conceptual and technical skills in composition. Gain score-writing and production software experience to bring your song visions to life.

You will gain music business skills that are needed to launch your career: explore music distribution and monetisation channels; learn about copyright in the music business and understand how co-writing and collaboration impacts your opportunities. You will graduate with a portfolio of recordings and a network of contacts and collaborators for your career.