Course summary

This fun and exciting one-year course lets you build strong foundations in technical keyboard skills, musical literacy and performance creativity quickly, as you strive to become a well-rounded professional portfolio musician. A hands-on and highly personalised course, your focus will be on the keyboards, as you collaborate with your fellow students studying guitar, bass, vocals and drums. In a quick-moving and increasingly digital international music scene, there are more opportunities than ever for audiences and performers to join together in innovative new ways. As well as improving your technical and creative abilities, this highly relevant performance CertHE will see you building your digital expertise and entrepreneurial business skills as you launch yourself as a confident and competent keyboardist and musician. At the centre of your CertHE is proficiency on your principal instrument – keyboards – but you’ll broaden your musical literacy by playing alongside and studying with guitarists, bass players, drummers and vocalists on your course. There are also many opportunities to work and perform with students across all other ICMP programmes. As you explore popular music repertoire, genres and styles, you’ll gain an impressive understanding of technique, theory and technology for live, recorded and livestreamed performance events. You’ll also consider areas such as stylistic techniques, live performance skills, music technology and the music business. On top of lectures and seminars, you’ll regularly take part in skills sessions – both one-on-one with your ICMP keyboard tutor, and during ensemble practice and collaborative workshops with peers. A core focus at ICMP is teamwork and ‘A&R-style’ peer-to-peer feedback, so you’ll often give and receive performance critiques and use these to develop your individual personality as a keyboard player. Across your year with us, you’ll learn in ICMP’s well-equipped industry-standard facilities as you’re guided and supported by our expert tutors – all abundantly qualified professional musicians and educators. They’re ready to provide you with detailed insight into the modern music industry and how it operates. They’ll also organise for you to take part in regular music business events, performances at London venues, masterclasses featuring special guest artists and networking opportunities. At the end of your CertHE studies, you’ll graduate with exceptional technical keyboard skills and substantial live, recorded and remote performance experience, so you’ll be ready to forge a successful career across many areas of the music business. If you’d rather continue with your learning, the course offers a direct path to the second year of the BMus (Hons) Popular Music Performance and BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship undergraduate degrees, where you can further develop your skills for a career as a portfolio musician and professional keyboardist.