| MU3644 | Aural This module reviews and develops aural perception. You are trained to recognise complex intervals, rhythms, motives, textures and chord progressions in music from a range of styles.
| 10 |
| MU4532 | Composition Level 5 This module explores effective scoring techniques and discusses practical considerations of performance arrangements.
| 20 |
| MU4533 | Music Therapy This module introduces music therapy and what being a music therapist entails. Learn about the realistic aspects of the field through audio-visual resources, guest lectures and field trips.
| 20 |
| MU4534 | Orchestration & Transcription This module covers the understanding of the ranges, transpositions, capabilities and characteristics of orchestral instruments, in a range of examples from the Classical period through to present day.
| 20 |
| MU4535 | Orchestration & Transcription (Chinese Orchestra) This module covers the understanding of ranges, transpositions, capabilities, and characteristics of Chinese orchestral instruments with examples drawn from standard Chinese orchestra repertoires and contemporary works.
| 20 |
| MU4536 | Writing About Music Level 5 These practical sessions focus on the development of different styles of writing and voices; an array of strategies for communicative writing such as descriptive, interpretive, and evaluative will be examined.
| 10 |
| MU4541 | Accompaniment (Piano, Organ, Guitar, Yangqin) Level 5 Develop a range of technical and musical skills for communicating through performance as an accompanist. Skills taught include sight-reading, knowledge of pronunciation, and meaning of texts and improvisation.
| 20 |
| MU4543 | Conducting Level 5 This module offers an introduction to the art of conducting. Beginning with specific technique-based sessions, the module continues into a series of practical classes, extending your technical and intellectual facilities and covering a range of repertoire.
| 20 |
| MU4550 | Interpretation of Song Level 5 This module is designed to enable all singers to enhance their existing artistic and vocal gifts through participation in song classes, whether as performers or as active listeners. The module builds upon earlier provision encountered at Levels 4 and 5.
| 20 |
| MU4551 | Chamber Music Including Duo Performance Level 5 You will get the opportunity to perform with members of an ensemble or a duo to create a unified, well-blended and balanced performance.
| 20 |
| MU4564 | Creative Enterprise Level 5 This module aims to promote strong entrepreneurial skills including setting up and running one’s own teaching studio, networking, marketing, and financial management skills. Additionally, students develop collaborative, communication, and interpersonal skills through group projects.
| 10 |
| MU4566 | Musician in the Digital Age Level 5 This module encourages students to consider the role that technology plays in their practice as musicians. The module explores its creative potential and how it can be harnessed to provide new opportunities for expression, employment and differentiation in a rapidly evolving industry. Through a series of seminars and hands-on practical workshops, students will explore a range of technologies and how they influence musicians in creating, marketing and presenting their work. Students will develop practical digital skills in devising their own technology-based performance project.
| 10 |
| MU4568 | Artist Development: Digital Skills for Musicians Level 5 This module focuses on the development of students’ digital skills for communication and self-promotion. It seeks to foster digital fluency for performing and career development, as well as for students to be versed with wider trends to connect better with the community.
| 20 |
| MU4569 | Improvisation Level 5 This module introduces a range of techniques for creative improvisation. Through playing and music making workshops, students will acquire listening, interacting, reflecting, anticipating, describing and creating skills. These skills will in turn deepen their understanding of the music they are performing, as well as develop their critical ability to listen to the sound that they are producing, thus raising their overall musicianship and proficiency.
| 20 |
| MU4630 | Schenkerian Analysis Learn to build a critical awareness of musical structure using the analytical method developed by Heinrich Schenker. Apart from just thinking harmonically, you are also trained to think contrapuntally, enhancing your understanding of individual compositions.
| 20 |
| MU4631 | Creating Music & Sound Design for Theatre This module provides the tools required for working as a composer/musical director/musician in theatre. It also establishes cooperative understanding in the provision of sound material for theatrical purposes.
| 20 |
| MU4632 | Composition Level 6 This module provides you with an opportunity for self-directed study on a composition of particular interest to you. The production and presentation of a substantial composition will help you foster a professional approach to the creative process.
| 20 |
| MU4633 | Music Therapy Techniques In this experiential module, you will apply what you learned from the prerequisite module (Music Therapy) to better your understanding of music therapy training and practice, as applied to select client populations.
| 20 |
| MU4634 | Orchestration & Arrangement In this module, you’ll recognise, and apply, a fuller range of resources in terms of arranging and instrumental technique to enable the effective and idiomatic transfer of musical material between instrumental media.
| 20 |
| MU4636 | Professional Skills (Instrumental & Vocal Teaching) This module aims to explore various pedagogical strategies and further develop confidence in the student’s teaching experience.
| 20 |
| MU4638 | Research Project Through an independent study on a topic of interest, you are able to benefit from consultations with an assigned supervisor with academic distinction in that discipline. The research process helps build your critical and analytical skills in academic writing, and fosters your understanding of professional scholarly practice.
| 30 |
| MU4641 | Accompaniment (Piano, Organ, Guitar, Yangqin) Level 6 Building upon the previous module in Level 5, you advance your skills in a wider range of situations and repertoire.
| 20 |
| MU4643 | Conducting Level 6 This module expands and refines the technical and intellectual capabilities in the art of conducting. Learn to read, question and prepare scores in greater depth.
| 20 |
| MU4644 | Aural in Professional Contexts This is an advanced module in aural training, where you will be taught practical and written aural skills. Gain an understanding of transcription skills that extend into rhythmic, melodic and harmonic elements, as well as other expressive resources from a range of music styles.
| 10 |
| MU4645 | Contemporary Music This module establishes opportunities to work with student composers. The collaborative conceptualisation of performance projects builds the confidence and skills needed as contemporary musicians and performers.
| 10 |
| MU4648 | Opera, Acting & Movement The combination of separate work in Acting, Movement, Speech, Language and Coaching classes, as well as lessons from individual Principal Study and Repertoire relating to a particular role in an operatic scene, will culminate in a live performance in an Opera Scene.
| 30 |
| MU4650 | Interpretation of Song Level 6 This module is designed to enable all singers to enhance their existing artistic and vocal gifts through regular attendance and participation in Song Classes complemented by language coaching to consolidate and enhance interpretative, vocal and artistic skills. Language Class Coaching continues to provide the linguistic basis for any subsequent performance in a Song Class.
| 20 |
| MU4651 | Chamber Music Including Duo Performance Level 6 (20 credits) You will get the opportunity to perform with members of an ensemble or a duo to create a unified, well-blended and balanced performance.
| 20 |
| MU4652 | Chamber Music Including Duo Performance Level 6 (30 credits) You will get the opportunity to perform with members of an ensemble or a duo to create a unified, well-blended and balanced performance.
| 30 |
| MU4653 | Workshop Leadership Level 6 This module helps you gain an understanding of the workshop process, learn how to generate material, and to develop confidence in both leading a workshop as well as being a supporting musician.
| 20 |
| MU4654 | Ethnomusicology: A Global Perspective Level 6 This module introduces students to the functions and roles of music in diverse cultures around the world, as well as the key issues related to ethnomusicology. In addition, students learn the theories and methods of ethnomusicological fieldwork and apply research methods such as interview techniques, ethnography of musical performance, and data analysis to their research.
| 20 |
| MU4655 | Aesthetics and Criticism Level 6 The course provides an overview of the way the nature and role of the arts, especially music, has been thought and argued about in the Western world, across two millennia. The aesthetics of music is discussed within the context of aesthetics in general. This allows us to see in what respects music is like the other arts, and in what respects it is different.
| 20 |
| MU4663 | Open Project Level 6 (Graduation) This module enables students to explore an area of interest to them with the aim of deepening their understanding of the specialism and critically engaging with perspectives in their chosen field. The Open Project presents an opportunity for students to develop expertise in area that they would have already explored and excelled in during their study at NAFA, with the view of enabling them to articulate original findings, persuasively challenge or engage with a field and demonstrate a level of expertise with their subject area.
| 30 |
| MUTECH | Principal Study Technical Exam Level 6 These test a range of technical skills (scales, arpeggios, studies, sight reading or quick studies, orchestral excerpts) and are short exams which must be passed in order to pass the module overall.
| - |
| MU4563 | Alexander Technique Level 5 This module is offered in conjunction with the RCM international placement. It introduces the historical context of the Technique and the development of F. M. Alexander’s Principles. Students develop an awareness of the personal habits that impede the coordination of their mind and body and learn how to apply the Alexander Technique to personal practice and performance.
| 10 |
| MU4565 | Evaluating Performance Level 5 This module examines the procedures, tools, and skills that underpin performance assessment to provide students with insight into their audiences, their judges, and their own performances. Through interactive sessions featuring experienced practitioners, this module considers topics ranging from how to collaborate on a jury panel to how to critique, design, and implement an assessment rubric, informed by research and practice in education, psychology, and performance science.
| 10 |
| MU4567 | Performance Science and Psychology Level 5 This module is offered in conjunction with the RCM international placement. The lecture series will introduce students to recent advances in the science and psychology of music performance. The module will examine research on the physical and mental processes that underpin effective learning and performing, including a wide range of individual, social and cultural factors that interact with these processes.
| 10 |