Bachelor of Music

A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. This degree is given to students who finish a special set of courses focused on music.

The degree may be awarded for many different areas of music, such as performance, music education, composition, music theory, musicology / music history, music technology, music therapy, sacred music, music business/music industry, entertainment, music production, or jazz studies. This means students can choose to learn about playing instruments, teaching music, writing music, understanding how music works, studying the history of music, using technology in music, helping people with music, or many other exciting topics.

Since the 2010s, some universities have started offering special degrees in music composition that use technology. These programs include regular classes on music theory and history, as well as courses on sound recording and creating music with digital tools. This helps students learn both the classic and modern ways to make and study music.

Overview

In the United States, the Bachelor of Music is a professional degree. Most of the work includes music courses and learning to play an instrument, sing, or conduct. One famous school is the Juilliard School in New York, which is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Juilliard offers degrees in music, dance, and drama. Berklee College of Music also offers many degrees, including a four-year professional degree and online courses.

In Canada, the Bachelor of Music is usually an undergraduate degree and takes three to four and a half years to complete.

In the United Kingdom, the Bachelor of Music is a first degree that lasts three or four years. It covers many areas of music study, such as playing, writing music, and learning about music history. However, at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, it used to be a one-year postgraduate degree for students who already had an honors degree in music from those universities. In Scotland, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland offers a degree in Jazz, and Edinburgh University through its Edinburgh College of Art offers a three-year degree with an optional fourth year for honors.

In Australia, many universities offer Bachelor of Music programs, including the University of Sydney, Monash University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Adelaide, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, and the University of Tasmania. The University of Canberra offers a degree called ‘Bachelor of Creative Industries (Contemporary Music Practice)’.

Abbreviations

When someone earns a Bachelor of Music degree, they can write it in different short ways after their name, like BM, BMus, MusB, or MusBac. Sometimes, they also add a special short name for the school that gave them the degree. For example, someone might write "Susan Bhattara, BMus(Oxon)", where "Oxon" is a short way to say the University of Oxford.

Post-graduation options

After finishing their Bachelor of Music, graduates can look for jobs in performance, teaching, or arts administration. They can also find work in jobs that need any bachelor’s degree, like entry-level roles in banking, insurance, sales, and administration.

If they want to teach in schools, they might study more to get a teaching degree or diploma. Those who are very good at playing an instrument, singing, or other special areas like composing or leading music might apply for a Master of Music if they have high grades. Bachelor of Music graduates can also join many graduate programs that are not about music, like library science, business administration, or public administration, usually needing good grades. Some of these programs might ask for extra courses or tests like the GRE or GMAT. In certain areas, such as composing, music theory, or music history, graduates with very high marks and strong recommendations may go straight into PhD programs.