Course summary

ICMP's BA (Hons) Songwriting degree offers a modern, holistic approach to songwriting, helping you to develop your expertise and creative identity as a songwriter, whether you're an artist, writer–producer or topliner. You'll gain the industry knowledge and professional skillsets you need for a successful songwriting career. Songs are the lifeblood of the music industry. To become a success, the modern songwriter needs to be courageous, creative, collaborative and enterprising. We’ll support you to develop each of these attributes, alongside all the academic skills you’d expect of a university music degree. As a specialist music industry education provider, we don’t attempt to ‘teach’ you how to write songs but, instead, guide you through a structured and personalised journey that enables you to develop your own individual writing ability and creative style. Whether you're a writer–performer taking centre stage with your own artist project, a writer–producer behind the scenes in a studio, or a songwriter looking to co-write and pitch on the projects of others, we’ll support your individual journey within a collaborative setting. Each week, you’ll explore the art and craft of contemporary songwriting, and will write at least two songs to brief which cover a range of topics, styles, genres and approaches. You’ll collaborate with other ICMP London students to develop your material and will engage in small group ‘A&R-style’ feedback and critical discussion with your songwriting tutors and talented peers, regularly critiquing each other’s works-in-progress across all three years of the degree. Our core aim is to nurture your creative individuality and independence as a songwriter and empower you with the knowledge, skills and understanding required to establish and maintain a songwriting career, in whatever form you choose. You’ll achieve this with the help of our impressive teaching faculty, made up of highly experienced songwriters and music producers, all of whom have active careers in both the music industry and the higher education sector. Our songwriting course offers many opportunities for collaborative work, both within ICMP and with the wider music and creative industries, providing excellent opportunities for building your showreel and networking within the music business. Throughout all years of the course, you'll be encouraged to build your own path to a career in songwriting, with full control over how you progress your writing and develop your craft. The final year sees a research-based creative project and frequent interaction with established industry professionals, allowing students to leave ICMP ‘career-ready’. By the time you graduate, you’ll have a deep understanding of the discipline; an impressive creative repertoire of more than 100 songs; a grasp of the history and culture of songwriting; solid production and recording skills; and expertise in musicianship, business, entreprise and live performance. You’ll also have gained a working knowledge of the way the music industry operates, thanks to regular songwriting-specific masterclasses and events, and visits from industry specialists. COURSE MODULES Year 1 CREATIVE SONGWRITING: EXPLORING SONGCRAFT CREATIVE SONGWRITING II: ESTABLISHING SONGCRAFT THEORY AND MUSICIANSHIP FOR SONGWRITERS FUNDAMENTALS FOR WRITER–PERFORMERS FUNDAMENTALS FOR WRITER–PRODUCERS MUSIC BUSINESS FOR SONGWRITERS Year 2 APPLIED SONGWRITING: EXTENDING SONGCRAFT APPLIED SONGWRITING II: EMBEDDING SONGCRAFT SONGWRITING AND COMMUNITIES CREATIVE PERFORMANCE PROJECT CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE FOR WRITER–PRODUCERS MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR SONGWRITERS *Year 3 *ADVANCED SONGWRITING: CREATIVE IDENTITY AND REPERTOIRE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE THE ENTERPRISING SONGWRITER THE ENTERPRISING SONGWRITER II