Music

Music is both an art form that spans all human cultures and a rigorous academic discipline that draws on history, theory, analysis, composition, performance, and cultural studies. Studying music at degree level goes well beyond developing performance skills: it involves understanding how music is structured, how it has developed historically across different traditions, what it communicates and how, and how it functions within social and cultural life. Music as a discipline develops analytical listening, critical thinking, and creative practice in ways that are transferable far beyond the concert hall or recording studio.

The Open University's programme is studied part-time and through distance learning, making it accessible to students who are managing other commitments alongside their studies, including those already working as practising musicians or music teachers. You will engage with music history from earlier periods to the present, with music theory and analysis at a range of levels, and with broader questions about music's cultural and social significance. The Open University's approach is intellectually serious and well supported, and you work at a pace that suits your circumstances.

Graduates of music programmes pursue careers in performance, composition, music education, music journalism and criticism, arts administration, music publishing, broadcasting, community music, and the music industry in its commercial and digital forms. Many graduates use the programme to formalise expertise they have been developing in practice, and the credential opens doors to further study, teaching qualifications, or professional recognition. Postgraduate study in music, musicology, performance, composition, or music education is available for those who wish to develop further.